Free Republic

The person suspected of shooting the husband and son of US District Court of New Jersey Esther Salas on Sunday at her North Brunswick home has died of what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to two law enforcement sources. Daniel Anderl, a 20-year-old student at Catholic University, was killed in the shooting, and Mark Anderl, the judge's husband and a defense attorney, was injured, according to Chief Judge Freda Wolfson. Salas was unharmed, Wolfson said. Mark Anderl is in stable condition and "seems to be OK," said Carlos Salas, the judge's brother. Both the US Marshals...

U.S. District Judge John McConnell is an unabashed liberal, big donor to the Democratic Party, and a longtime friend of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a far-left Democrat from the judge’s home state of Rhode Island. McConnell owes his job to Whitehouse, who asked President Barack Obama to nominate him to become a federal judge. A recent CQ Roll Call investigation showed that McConnell gave about $500,000 to Democratic political committees before becoming a judge – more than any other judge nominated by Presidents Obama or Trump. Why should you care? Because McConnell sits on the Committee on Codes of Conduct of...

A federal judge Friday suggested that former national security advisor Michael Flynn may need to testify under oath in order to withdraw his guilty plea for lying to investigators in the Russia probe. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington wrote in a brief order that Flynn’s legal team should file paperwork on whether he should hold a hearing on to set aside his guilty plea. Such a hearing would include “testimony from Mr. Flynn and other witnesses under oath, subject to cross-examination, to show any ‘fair and just reason’ for this court to grant his motion to withdraw. The...

President Donald J. Trump Is Appointing a Historic Number of Federal Judges to Uphold Our Constitution as Written It is up to us to reclaim our heritage of equal and impartial justice. It is up to us to re-dedicate ourselves to the traditions and wisdom of our Founders. President Donald J. Trump HISTORIC RESTORATION OF THE JUDICIARY: President Trump is transforming our judiciary – appointing a historic number of Federal judges who will interpret the Constitution as written. Working with the Senate, President Trump has now had 158 judicial nominees confirmed to the Federal bench – a historic transformation of...

A federal judge on September 4th ruled unconstitutional the government’s list of “known or suspected terrorists” – formally known as the Terrorist Screening Database. The ruling for plaintiffs, who may or may not even be on the ‘terrorist watchlist,’ was delivered by Judge Anthony Trenga of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and is a blow to federal government efforts to combat terrorism. .... The lawsuit had been brought by 23 Muslims who were American citizens and who also claimed they'd been included on the watchlist. Their complaints involved being secretly flagged and placed on the...

Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from imposing restrictions on individuals seeking asylum in the United States, just hours after a judge in Washington had decided to let the rule stand while lawsuits play out in court. The rule, published in the Federal Register last week, required people seeking asylum to apply first in one of the countries they cross on their way to the U.S. -- with certain exceptions. It targeted tens of thousands of Central Americans who have crossed Mexico each month trying to enter the U.S. The rule was met quickly with a legal challenge from advocacy groups,...

NEW YORK Privacy rights versus press freedoms took center stage Wednesday at an explosive federal appeals court hearing in New York, where lawyers argued to unseal confidential court files that could reveal evidence of an underage sex trafficking operation allegedly run by New York multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein and his partner, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reserved judgment in the case, but the panel suggested it was leaning toward the release to the public of vast portions of the court record. The file on the case, which was settled in 2017, contains more...

A federal court of appeals in New York on Monday moved a step closer to unsealing documents that could reveal new evidence in the case of Jeffrey Epstein, who’s been accused of being part of an international sex trafficking operation. A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals gave the parties until March 29 to argue their case that the documents detailing the alleged international sex trafficking operation should remain sealed. The evidence will be made public unless the lawyers make a convincing argument, the panel said, according to the Miami Herald. An unusual coalition of media organizations, a...

A federal court of appeals in New York on Monday took the first step in unsealing documents that could reveal evidence of an international sex trafficking operation allegedly run by multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein and his former partner, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. The three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit gave the parties until March 19 to establish good cause as to why they should remain sealed and, failing to do so, the summary judgment and supporting documents will be made public. The court reserved a ruling on the balance of the documents in the civil...

A New York federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered the unsealing of up to 2,000 pages of judicial documents that are expected to show evidence relating to whether New York financier Jeffrey Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, were recruiting underage girls and young women as part of an international sex trafficking operation. The decision comes two days after the Miami Herald urged the court to issue a ruling in the civil case in the wake of last week’s Justice Department announcement in the federal criminal case that it would not void Epstein’s controversial 2008 non-prosecution agreement. Using others as...

I suppose this was inevitable. As construction is slated to being on several sections of border wall, both new and existing structures requiring upgrades, a judge has issued a preliminary injunction to prevent certain DoD funds from being used for this purpose. The ACLU brought the suit (how this is a civil liberties case remains a mystery) and once again they found a judge in northern California to deliver the ruling. And just to complete the hat trick, yes… the judge is once again an Obama appointee. (CNN) A federal judge on Friday night blocked President Donald Trump from...

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday confirmed Wendy Vitter’s appointment to the federal bench as Republicans overcame strong opposition from Democrats who criticized the nominee’s stand against abortion. Maine Sen. Susan Collins was the only Republican to join Democrats and independents in opposing Vitter’s nomination, in the 52-to-45 vote. Vitter has been waiting for confirmation since President Donald Trump nominated her for a U.S. District Court seat in New Orleans nearly 18 months ago. The nomination expired in the last session of the Senate with no action. A former prosecutor, Vitter has served more recently as general counsel for the...

Before Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton to win the presidency, the head of the Executive Branch was allowed to make and implement his own policy initiatives. That’s changed now, however. Now, every policy decision POTUS Trump makes that the Left doesn’t like is not permissible and as such must be challenged in court. And wouldn’t you just know that Leftists manage every time to pick just the right federal judge and the right federal court with which to file their cases to ensure they win a victory. It’s happened again, this time regarding a policy change directed by the president...

President Donald Trump is not the only person in America to criticize the federal judiciary in recent years for its stunning overreach into areas of government our founders specifically tried to wall off. Earlier this month, in fact, former federal prosecutor and GOP lawmaker Bob Barr noted that when it comes to the issue of immigration, especially, activist federal judges have routinely flouted established law and constitutional presidential authority to rule against the country and on behalf of people who have no legal right to be here. He noted: If you were to guess the most critical problem faced by...

A federal judge in Alaska has ruled an executive order by President Donald Trump allowing offshore oil drilling of tens of millions of acres in the Arctic Ocean is "unlawful and invalid." The ruling on Friday from US District Court Judge Sharon Gleason means a drilling ban for much of the Arctic Ocean off of Alaska will go back into effect. On April 28, 2017, Trump issued an executive order reversing three memoranda and one executive order in 2015 and 2016 by then President Barack Obama withdrawing about 125 million acres of the Arctic Ocean from oil leasing. The Obama...

A federal judge ruled on Friday the US government can include citizenship question on the US Census. It makes complete sense so Democrats are against it. It also affects how much federal funding the sanctuary communities will receive from American taxpayers. So, of course, Democrats are against this. Outline reported: A federal judge ruled late Friday she is unconvinced of an immediate need to block a citizenship question from the 2020 census over privacy concerns. US District Judge Dabney Friedrich declined to issue a preliminary injunction requested by a privacy and civil liberties nonprofit group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center....

SHREVEPORT -- More than a year after four monuments to the Confederate era were removed from the New Orleans landscape, a federal judge has cleared the way for removal of another Louisiana Confederate memorial. Wednesday's ruling in the northwest Louisiana city of Shreveport says the Caddo Parish Commission has the authority to remove a monument outside the parish courthouse. U.S. District Judge Robert James dismissed a lawsuit by a chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Four natural gas pipeline companies that were ordered to repair some erosion along pipeline canals in Plaquemines Parish by a federal judge in August 2017 and May of this year have appealed their case to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The notice of appeal does not contain an explanation of why the rulings by U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo were being challenged."We are appealing because while the court awarded only $1,100 in money damages and ordered less than a third of the specific relief requested by the plaintiffs, important issues were wrongly decided and should be reversed...

A Trump-appointed federal judge said Friday that he will not recuse himself from a lawsuit related to the Steele dossier. Trevor McFadden, a judge in Washington, D.C., issued the ruling in response to a recusal request submitted last month by Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned the dossier. Fusion sought McFadden’s recusal as part of an attempt to avoid complying with a subpoena issued by a Russian businessman who is suing BuzzFeed News for publishing the unverified dossier. The businessman, Aleksej Gubarev, seeks depositions and documents from Fusion GPS as part of the lawsuit. Fusion has argued that...

A federal judge in New York ruled Tuesday that the government must fully restart the Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty and accept brand new applicants as well as renewals, throwing a potential wrench in the ongoing debate over the fate of “Dreamers” on Capitol Hill. Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis said the administration does have the power to revoke DACA, but it must give a sound reason for doing so — and the Homeland Security Department’s September 2017 rationale fell far short of what is required in that regard. He becomes the second judge to rule President Trump’s aides bungled the phaseout...