Free Republic

Deepest blow yet to Trump’s phaseout ....Judge John D. Bates’s ruling would require a full restart, meaning even illegal immigrant “Dreamers” who’d never been approved before would now be able to apply for DACA.... judge imposed a 90-day delay on his own ruling to give the government a chance to reargue its case, but for now the ruling stands as the most severe blow yet to Mr. Trump’s phaseout. Judge Bates said the government’s reasoning for revoking DACA wasn’t convincing enough, and so it amounted to an “arbitrary and capricious” decision, which makes it illegal under the Administrative Procedures Act....

Seventh Circuit imposes nationwide injunction on effort to withhold grants from 'sanctuary' locales President Donald Trump's efforts to punish so-called sanctuary cities around the country, as well as the state of California, suffered a serious legal blow Thursday when a federal appeals court in Chicago upheld a nationwide injunction against administration rules requiring localities to cooperate with federal immigration authorities in order to win public safety grants. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a nationwide injunction preventing Attorney General Jeff Sessions from imposing the new conditions on grant money as a way to penalize municipalities around...

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” So begins the First Amendment to our Constitution. Those words have been turned into a “law” that allows courts to demand an impenetrable wall of separation between religion and government. A recent case shows how amazingly far they will go to ensure that. In 1925, a group of citizens in Bladensburg, Maryland wanted to honor 49 men from Prince George’s County who had lost their lives during the First World War. The local chapter of the American Legion and families funded a memorial usually...

A federal judge in Washington State has declared that all civic groups nationwide must accept people of the other sex into their single-sex spaces and activities, or else be stigmatized and sued by the federal government. In legal jargon, Judge Marsha Pechman declared in a lawsuit against the Pentagon’s “transgender” policy that the federal government must use its powers to champion people who want to live as members of the sex, either inside the military or outside, just as it must use federal powers to suppress racism: Today, the Court concludes that transgender people constitute a suspect class. Transgender people...

Federal judge upholds Massachusetts assault weapons ban © Getty Images A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on Friday challenging Massachusetts's ban on assault weapons. U.S. District Judge William Young said in his ruling that the firearms and large magazines banned by the state in 1998 are “not within the scope of the personal right to ‘bear Arms’ under the Second Amendment.” The features of a military-style rifle are "designed and intended to be particularly suitable for combat rather than sporting applications," Young wrote. Massachusetts was within its rights since the ban passed directly through elected representatives, Young decided. “Other states...

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Seattle opened the door Thursday for thousands of immigrants to apply for asylum, finding that the Department of Homeland Security has routinely failed to notify them of a deadline for filing their applications. U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez issued the ruling in a class-action lawsuit brought by immigrant rights groups on behalf of those who fear persecution if returned to their home country.{snip} Government lawyers argued that they do publish some materials that inform asylum seekers of the deadline and that federal law does not require that officials directly notify asylum seekers of...

President Donald Trump’s administration must defend a lawsuit targeting his plan to end a program offering protection from deportation for hundreds of thousands of children of undocumented immigrants. U.S District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn, New York, narrowed but didn’t dismiss the suit on Thursday, finding that there was a “plausible inference” that it was illegally aimed at Mexicans. He previously blocked the U.S. government from ending the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and from halting the renewal process, but hadn’t decided whether to allow the case to proceed.

CHEYENNE — U.S. government officials who engage in regional planning for an area of Wyoming and Montana that supplies 40 percent of the nation’s coal must consider reducing coal mining as a way to fight climate change, a judge has ruled. Friday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Great Falls, Montana, applies to the Powder River Basin, where house-sized dump trucks haul loads mined around the clock from open-pit coal mines. Some of the mines measure more than a mile wide. Morris rejected U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials’ argument that climate change could be addressed when they...