Free Republic

A U.S. District Court judge granted a preliminary injunction Thursday that halts the Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act of 2024. NetChoice, a trade organization representing apps like Facebook and Instagram, is challenging the law in a case in the U.S. Northern District of Georgia. It would have required submitting proof of age before accessing social media sites. Judge Amy Totenberg said in the 50-page ruling that the law is constitutionally infirm. "The State seeks to erect barriers to speech that cannot withstand the rigorous scrutiny that the Constitution requires, and the inapt tailoring of the law – which...

A federal district court issued a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s attempt to block further disbursement of $5 billion set aside by Congress in 2021 for taxpayer-funded electric vehicle charging stations. The majority of the plaintiffs — 16 states plus the District of Columbia — had still not completed a single charger funded by the program over the past four years. The order excluded National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure charger funding for Minnesota, Vermont and the District of Columbia from the order, finding they had not submitted required documentation. The ruling says that because the funding is allocated according to...

“Our democracy cannot very well function if individual judges issue extraordinary relief to every plaintiff who clamors to object to executive action,” U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil said in her ruling on Monday. “It is not the role of a district court judge to direct the policies of the Executive Branch first and ask questions later.” Those are the words many observers of the ongoing judicial coup have wanted to hear from a federal judge since the first wave of injunctions from tyrannical district court judges started coming down early in the Trump administration’s tenure, blocking the president elected...

Judge’s are supposed to recuse themselves from any decisions that could even remotely look like there’s a conflict of interest. But these judges aren’t ruling on cases, they are left-wing activists who are also protecting their families’ livelihoods. The conflict of interest is glaring. ... James Boasberg’s daughter works for nonprofit whose founder said judge ‘rightly’ blocked deportations of alleged Venezuelan gangbangers — and opposes Laken Riley Act... The daughter of DC District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg is employed by a nonprofit that received millions in government funding, opposes the Laken Riley Act — and whose founder argued that...

A federal judge, citing a risk of “irreparable harm,” has temporarily restricted Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing a critical Treasury Department payment system.. US District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered the destruction of any downloaded information from the payment system by anyone given access to it since January 20,

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.