Free Republic

Federal Judge Strikes Down Security Buffer Zone for GOP Convention A federal judge found unconstitutional a heightened-security area proposed to surround the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio on Thursday, saying the 3.5 square mile “event zone” unfairly restricted free speech.

A Florida man has been convicted of attempting to assassinate a federal judge. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Jacksonville reports in a news release that jurors convicted 27-year-old Aaron Richardson of attempted murder and multiple other counts Thursday. His sentencing date has not been scheduled. Richardson, a Jacksonville resident, was arrested in June 2013, several days after authorities say he fired a stolen rifle at Judge Timothy Corrigan’s home, missing the judge by inches. …

The U.S. Senate has confirmed Wilhelmina Wright as Minnesota’s newest federal judge. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken announced Wright’s confirmation Tuesday. President Barack Obama nominated Wright for a U.S. District Court opening in Minnesota last April. Klobuchar and Franken formed a bipartisan advisory committee to help them recommend a candidate. The Minnesota Democrats note that the Senate confirmed only 10 federal district court judges in 2015.

A federal judge in Texas has put President Obama’s deportation amnesty on hold, while another judge in the District of Columbia is poised to rule any day now on whether the House can sue to stop parts of the administration’s Obamacare spending. Meanwhile, no fewer than six federal judges in the District are refereeing Mr. Obama’s broad pledges of transparency and how they stack up against the way his State Department operated under Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary. Indeed, much of Mr. Obama’s agenda — and his legacy — sits in the hands of federal judges across the country, who...

In a letter sent to the U.S. State Department and just filed today with U.S. federal Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, the counsel for Cheryl Mills wrote: “Ms. Mills does not believe that she has paper copies of potential records in her possession. Following our production on August 10, 2015 [of the defense counsel’s version of the electronic records], we have instructed her to delete any and all electronic records in her possession.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Two Tennessee abortion clinics will not have to shut down on July 1 after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order. The Tennessean reports (http://tnne.ws/1REsBmk) U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp issued an order on Friday that blocks the state from enforcing a new law requiring clinics to be licensed as ambulatory surgical treatment centers. The clinics claimed in a hearing there was no way they could obtain the licenses in time to comply with the new law.

Since Obamacare was passed in 2010, dozens of changes have been made to the legislation by executive fiat, not through Congress. One of those changes includes the Obama administration going around Congress to issue payments from the Treasury Department directly to health insurance companies. Another change is President Obama's February 2014 action to delay the Obamacare employer mandate, which requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance under the law. By implementing the delay, the administration effectively altered the law without a vote from Congress. In November 2014, the House of Representatives sued over the changes coming...

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen is not amused. The man who served Obama with an injunction preventing his illegal amnesty plans to see that Obama is not amused either. He has ordered that the administration be investigated over misleading him on amnesty and work permits for “Dreamers.” The administration told the judge they wouldn’t issue anymore work permits for new dreamers, when the fact is they have issued over 100,000 of them. The investigation will include a finding of whether the lawyers who handled the case for Obama knew of the illegal maneuver. If so, they will face disbarment or...

A bummer from D.C., especially coming so soon after a federal judge in Pennsylvania held that the amnesty was unconstitutional. Don’t fret, though. A similar lawsuit, led by incoming Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and joined by 24 different states, has already been filed in Texas with a hearing scheduled early next month. The judge in that case is a Bush appointee who’s been critical of Obama’s DHS on immigration in the past. I like those odds. Worry about losing that one, not this one, as all it’ll take is a circuit split to force this issue before the Supreme...

Even though the citizens of Florida voted in a 2008 referendum to define marriage as between one man and one woman in their state's constitution, yet another federal district judge has ruled that amendment is unconstitutional because it does not let Floridians marry someone of their same gender. U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle came to the same conclusion Thursday as judges from four other districts in Florida previously found. Hinkle ruled that labeling marriage as only "between a man and a woman" was in violation of 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as it does not provide a guarantee...

A federal magistrate judge ruled Tuesday that U.S. Marshals will not be able to able to carry out her earlier order to seize a million barrels of Kurdish crude oil unless the tanker carrying the cargo comes closer to the Texas shore. The Wall Street Journal reported that federal magistrate judge Nancy Johnson said that the United Kalavrvta tanker was not within the boundaries of the state or the court's authority. She also said that the matter of who owned the oil should be decided in Iraq, not the United States. "Seems to me this is not a matter for...

The Redskins. Just the mere mention of the name is enough to bother some people. Well, one federal judge ruling on a case about the team had forbade any references to the name in court or in court documents, and aside from a footnote, “Redskins” is never mentioned once in his ruling. U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte wrote in that footnote, “Pro Football’s team is popularly known as the Washington ‘Redskins,’ but the Court will refrain from using the team name unless reference is made to a direct quote where the name appears.” And so, when he referenced the team...

<p>A federal judge in Orange County ruled Wednesday that California’s death penalty violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.</p> <p>U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, ruled on a petition by death row inmate Ernest Dewayne Jones, who was sentenced to die nearly two decades ago.</p>

A second federal judge has now ordered the IRS to explain under oath how the agency lost emails from former division director Lois Lerner, the woman at the heart of the Tea Party targeting scandal. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton told Obama administration lawyers on Friday he wants to see an affidavit explaining what happened with Lerner's hard drive. The IRS claims her computer suffered a crash in 2011 that wiped her email records at the time clean. But at a hearing examining a lawsuit against the IRS by conservative group True the Vote, Walton said he wants to...

One of President Obama’s most controversial judicial nominees will finally get a hearing Tuesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee considers Michael Boggs for a lifetime appointment to Georgia’s federal bench.

A federal judge said Friday that she finds “disconcerting” the Obama administration’s position that courts have no role in a lawsuit over the 2011 drone-strike killings of three U.S. citizens in Yemen, including an al-Qaida cleric. U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary M. Collyer made the comment at a hearing on a government motion to dismiss the case. The suit was filed by relatives of the three men killed in the drone strikes, charging that the attacks violated the Constitution. It names as defendants then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, then-CIA Director David Petraeus and two commanders in the military’s Special Operations forces,...

A Us judge has ruled that the Palestinian Authority has the right to cover up a memo linking it to a suicide bombing that killed two teen American citizens in Israel, The Post has learned. The document — accidentally handed over to lawyers suing the authority for $300 million on behalf of the teens’ parents — reveals a “close relationship” between the bomber and a captain in the Palestinian Authority security forces who planned the terror attack, court papers say. The two-page memo, written in April 2012 by Maj. Ziad Abu Hamid of the authority’s General Intelligence Service, also details...

"One of the forces behind the Roe v. Wade opinion could be confirmed as a federal judge as early as tomorrow, after the U.S. Senate voted to advance his nomination for a vote Monday evening. The Senate adjourned just past seven o’clock Monday evening, shortly after Hurwitz cleared a cloture vote, which ended debate on his nomination. That vote means the Senate will take up a vote to name him to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday morning. He is strongly favored to win confirmation from the Democrat-controlled Senate sometime this week. Eight Republicans voted with the Democrats...

The self-incriminating clause of the Fifth Amendment is always a great help for defendants who want to keep their encrypted hard drives from being decrypted when prosecution asks for it, until now. A Colorado federal judge has ruled that decrypting a computer hard drive does not violate the defendant’s rights. The ruling came in a case against Ramona Fricosu, who is charged with mortgage fraud. She had argued that decrypting the data on her hard drive would require her to testify against herself, which is prohibited by the US Bill of Rights. But Judge Robert Blackburn decided differently. According to...

When a Democratic president nominates a federal judge from a state with two Democratic senators — and the Senate itself is controlled by Democrats — a speedy confirmation hearing typically follows. But in an unusual case of intraparty defiance, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey is holding up President Obama’s nomination of a judge to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the only time a Democrat has tried to block one of Mr. Obama’s judicial nominees. Mr. Menendez would not comment. But the nominee, Patty Shwartz, has been in a relationship for more than two decades...