Free Republic

Jimmie Gardner, a youth motivational speaker and the brother-in-law of twice-failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, has been arrested on charges of human trafficking. Gardner, 57, was taken into custody by Tampa Police after a 16-year-old victim reported that she had been coerced into sexual acts and physically assaulted by Gardner at the Renaissance Hotel at International Plaza. The Tampa Police Department detailed the arrest in a recent press release, stating that the incident occurred in the early hours of November 17, 2023. According to the victim’s account, Gardner invited her to his hotel room and offered her money for...

en. John Kennedy (R-LA) once again turned law professor when he quizzed President Biden’s nominee for a district judgeship in Oklahoma about her knowledge of basic legal terms. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the senator asked Sara E. Hill to explain the difference between a “stay” order and an “injunction.” "A stay order would prohibit, um, sorry. An injunction would restrain the parties from taking action. A stay order … I'm not sure I can, actually can, can give you that," she answered. According to the Legal Information Institute, "An injunction is a court order requiring a person to...

The judge says that Bruen supports the plaintiffs' argument that the carry ban is unconstitutional. The judge says he will issue a written order granting the temporary restraining order against the New Mexico governor's carry ban either today or tomorrow, but it is effective AS OF 2:55PM TODAY. A hearing on the motions for preliminary injunction will be held on October 3rd.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Florida lawyer who claimed Trump should be banned from the 2024 ballot for inciting an insurrection. The legal theory is based on Section 3 of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment which states public officials who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the US may be disqualified from public office. Trump has not been charged with engaging in insurrection or rebellion against the United States. Judge Robin Rosenberg a US District Judge for the Southern District of Florida ruled the attorney, Lawrence Caplan, lacked standing to bring the lawsuit....

'This is an important victory protecting the people of Texas from destructive federal overreach,' Texas attorney general says A federal judge blocked the Biden administration from implementing environmental regulations redefining how water sources are protected, but which opponents have argued were an example of overreach. In his decision published late Sunday, Judge Jeffrey Brown ruled that the so-called Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in late December "poses irreparable harm" to residents of Texas and Idaho, the two states that challenged the regulations in the lawsuit filed on Jan. 18. Brown declined...

In a scathing opinion on Wednesday that questions the credibility of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. District Court Judge T. Kent Wetherell II for the Northern District of Florida has ordered a stop to the Biden administration’s “Parole Plus Alternatives to Detention” (“Parole+ATD”) policy that has been illegally releasing hundreds of thousands of aliens into the U.S., concluding that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs rulemaking by federal agencies. In Florida v. U.S., the state of Florida is claiming that the DHS is violating the mandatory detention required in federal immigration law by releasing aliens “en masse...

A federal judge has denied that natural immunity from prior Covid-19 infection is a legally justifiable reason to be exempted from vaccine mandates. The judge’s ruling on a plaintiff’s case against Michigan State University comes as even mainstream media outlets admit that natural immunity is not only at least equivalent, but is actually superior to vaccinated immunity.The court’s ruling was reported by the Epoch Times on Sunday:An employee at the school, Jeanna Norris, filed a lawsuit against the mandate and asked a judge to intervene on the basis that she had already contracted COVID-19 and recovered. She presented two antibody...

A federal court on Friday ruled that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) overstepped its authority by halting evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.The Cincinnati-based U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously agreed (pdf) with a lower court ruling that said the CDC engaged in federal overreach with the eviction moratorium, which the agency has consistently extended for months. Several weeks ago, the CDC announced it would allow the policy, which was passed into law by Congress, to expire at the end of July.“It is not our job as judges to make legislative rules that favor one side...

Federal judge Analisa Torres, an Obama appointee, dismissed a shooting case against a reputed gang banger because the grand jury that indicted him was drawn from a grand jury pool in White Plains with an “underrepresentation of Black and Latinx individuals.”It looks to me that Judge Torres is using an invented term, Latinx” to invoke an invented right. Via the New York Post:“The Government has failed to meet its burden by coming forward with evidence rebutting the presumption that such underrepresentation was the result of purposeful discrimination,” she wrote Monday.“Therefore, Defendant has established a violation of his Fifth Amendment right...

In a victory for oil-producing states and the American consumer, a federal judge issued an injunction barring the president and Department of the Interior officials from implementing a “pause” that stopped new federal lease sales and the issuance of new leases previously won in competitive bidding.Twelve states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia) joined Louisiana, led by Attorney General Jeff Landry, in bringing suit in the Western District of Louisiana.In a press release, AG Landry comments:“This is a victory not only for the rule of law, but also for the thousands of...

A federal judge in South Dakota is on the warpath against the US Marshals service that provides courtroom security, accusing them of ‘kidnapping’ and criminal contempt after they refused to disclose Covid-19 vaccination status. On Monday, US District Judge Charles Kornmann fulminated for nearly an hour at the courthouse in Aberdeen, as Justice Department lawyers and two of the Marshals he wants criminally prosecuted took notes. “This was such an outrageous thing to do,” the judge reportedly said, according to the Washington Post, referring to the incident last month when a female deputy refused to tell him if she was...

A federal judge in Massachusetts is going to make Twitter explain whether or not it is a “state actor” or a truly private company, and the effects could be significant in reigning in Big Tech’s oppression of conservative views. Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, the man who invented email, ran for US Senate in Massachusetts as a Republican and made allegations of voter fraud on Twitter. These tweets were then deleted by the far-left tech giant. Later it was discovered that they were deleted at the direction of government employees of the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office. Discovering this, Dr. Ayyadurai filed...

A federal judge in Massachusetts is set to force Twitter to explain whether or not it is a “state actor” or a truly private company, according to reports. The effects could be far-reaching in ending Big Tech’s censorship of conservatives.

A federal judge Wednesday vacated a nationwide freeze on evictions that was handed down by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help some renters remain in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The moratorium had been implemented as millions of people lost work due to lockdowns caused by the pandemic. The move, which was first implemented in the March 2020 CARES Act, was seen as a temporary fix for renters who were at risk of going homeless. U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled on the side of the plaintiffs, saying that the CDC exceeded its authority...

A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a nationwide moratorium on evictions that was ordered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention amid the pandemic — a policy that was designed to keep Americans in their homes as the coronavirus ravaged the US economy. In an opinion filed in US District Court in Washington, DC, Judge Dabney Friedrich wrote that the agency did not have broad authority to keep landlords who sued the US Department of Health and Human Services from forcing out tenants who cannot afford their rent.

Quraishi was appointed in 2019 to be a magistrate judge in the District of New Jersey by the judges he now seeks to join on the bench. A magistrate judge is not technically considered a member of the federal bench the same way a district court or circuit judge is because the position is not outlined in the Constitution's Article III and magistrate judges are not appointed by the president. Magistrate judges are assigned by statute to oversee some matters and may also be delegated tasks by bona fide district judges. Quraishi, who is of Pakistani descent, got his law...

A federal appeals court judge in his dissenting opinion in a defamation case on Friday accused The New York Times and The Washington Post of being “Democratic Party broadsheets.” Washington, D.C. Circuit Senior Judge Laurence Silberman, who was appointed by former President Reagan, argued in his opinion that the news industry at large is dominated with a “bias against the Republican Party” that he wrote was “rather shocking.” While the case did not specifically relate to either paper, the judge used his opinion to argue that the Times and Post served largely as mouthpieces for the Democratic Party, adding “the...

A federal judge on Thursday agreed with Ghislaine Maxwell’s request to keep certain details in the criminal case against her secret — finding that information would be too “sensational and impure” to reveal to the public. US District Judge Alison J. Nathan issued a ruling on redactions that Maxwell had asked for regarding transcripts the government filed under seal last month. “Those portions of the transcript, which were redacted in the civil matter, concern privacy interests and their disclosure would merely serve to cater to a ‘craving for that which is sensational and impure,’” Nathan wrote in the order. The...

A federal judge in Texas on Thursday ruled unconstitutional a national moratorium the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has instituted for most residential evictions to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. Siding with a group of landlords and property owners challenging the evictions freeze, U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker in Tyler, Texas, ruled the CDC exceeded its authority under the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution. “The court concludes that the federal government’s Article I power to regulate interstate commerce and enact laws necessary and proper to that end does not include the power...

A U.S. federal judge on Thursday rejected Parler’s demand that Amazon.com Inc restore web hosting services for the social media platform, which Amazon had cut off following the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle said Parler was unlikely to prove Amazon breached its contract or violated antitrust law by suspending service on Jan. 10, and that it was “not a close call.” She also forcefully rejected the suggestion that the public interest would be served by a preliminary injunction requiring Amazon Web Services to “host the kind of abusive, violent content at...