Free Republic

Dylann Roof, the white gunman who killed nine black people in the 2015 Charleston church massacre, is one step closer to execution after a federal appeals court in Virginia ruled he’s eligible to receive the death penalty. “His crimes qualify him for the harshest penalty that a just society can impose,” a three-judge panel for the Richmond-based Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals wrote, according to The State newspaper. Roof was convicted in 2017 of slaughtering nine parishioners at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston after planning the attack for months in an effort to start a race war in the...

WASHINGTON — A U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday that the federal law banning handgun sales by licensed dealers to anyone under 21 is unconstitutional.A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, based in Richmond, Virginia, voted 2-1 to declare the law invalid. "Our nation's most cherished constitutional rights vest no later than 18. And the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms is no different," the majority opinion said.The ruling, sure to be appealed, was a victory for a Virginia woman, Natalia Marshall. She wanted to buy a handgun to protect herself from her abusive...

In a major but likely controversial victory for free speech, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned the conviction of a retired Air Force colonel for using a racial epithet at the shoe store on the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia. Jules A. Bartow, who is white, was arrested after a bizarre and disgraceful exchange with an employee, including the use of the “n word” with the African American woman. The highly offensive and repugnant language of Bartow was denounced by the court, but the unanimous panel still reversed T.S. Ellis III, Senior District Judge of...

Note: If you feel that I have shown clear and convincing evidence to you that the fourth circuit is the ones in the wrong and not Brian D. Hill, feel free to sign the petition to have President Donald J. Trump grant Brian a full pardon. Visit justiceforuswgo.nl/pardon or justicefopruswgo.wordpress.com/pardon. Sign the petition and spread it with everyone you know. by Laurie Azgard The fourth circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals have gone and done it this time, they lie again in opinions against the appeals of Brian D. Hill of USWGO alternative news and then toss out each...

On August 26, 2020 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued its decision in the case of Gavin Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board. The decision declared that rights of the plaintiff Gavin Grimm, a female student who considers herself male, were violated because the school board denied Grimm the right to access the boys' restroom and refused to amend school records to call her "male" after a court had ordered the state of Virginia to issue a new birth certificate indicating Grimm as a male. In justifying its opinion, the Court made many findings of fact...

A federal appeals court upheld the convictions of two white supremacists involved in the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. but also determined that parts of a federal anti-riot law was too vague. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Benjamin Drake Daley and Michael Paul Miselis, members of the white supremacist Rise Above Movement, would see their convictions under the Anti-Riot Act stand because the court found the two had admitted to committing violent acts during the now-infamous rally. The two defendants, who traveled from California along with other members of their group, reportedly...

A court has ordered the Trump administration to restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to its “pre-September 5, 2017 status,” effectively allowing younger illegal immigrants to apply for work permits. .....snip..... Judge Paul W. Grimm declared: “The [2017] rescission of the DACA policy is VACATED, and the policy is restored to its pre-September 5, 2017 status.” The Maryland judge was appointed by Obama in 2012.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday revived a lawsuit from the Maryland and Washington, D.C. attorneys general that accuses President Trump of violating the Constitution’s Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses by benefiting from use of the Trump International Hotel by foreign and U.S. officials. The case previously had been ordered dismissed by a Fourth Circuit panel. But the full roster of judges reheard the case and, in a 9-6 decision, determined Trump cannot have the court overrule a lower court’s decision to deny him certification to appeal before trial. “Notably, notwithstanding the President’s vigorous assertion that the court...

A court awarded an atheist group approximately $456,000 after they won a years-long lawsuit against a South Carolina school district for holding graduation ceremonies with prayer and hymns. Last year, the American Humanist Association won a lawsuit against Greenville County School District for their practice of holding graduation ceremonies with sectarian religious elements. The U.S. District Court for South Carolina awarded AHA $446,466 in attorney fees and $9,776 in other expenses on Tuesday, which was below the previous requested amount of $584,026. Greenville County Schools told local media outlet Fox Carolina that they are probably going to appeal both the...

After making a brief comeback on school lunch menus, white bread and other refined grains may be vanishing again when schools reopen after a federal court threw out the Trump administration’s rollback of school nutrition standards. The U.S. district court in Maryland this week said the administration did not give adequate public notice of the change, which had gone into effect for this past school year. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit brought by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Healthy School Food Maryland. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it does not comment on...

Many suffered collateral damage in the Deep State’s scheme to take down Donald Trump, but few will find justice. On Thursday, federal Judge Leonie Brinkema tossed Svetlana Lokhova’s defamation lawsuit against Stefan Halper and a slew of legacy media outlets. Brinkema’s 41-page opinion detailing why the Russian-born U.K. citizen had no recourse for the damage inflicted on her by the SpyGate plotters and their partners in the press exposed the sad reality of this wide-ranging scandal: many suffered collateral damage in the Deep State’s scheme to take down Trump, but few will find justice.Lokhova, an historian and former Ph.D. student...

A federal judge in Maryland has blocked the Trump administration's executive order allowing state and local governments to turn away refugees from resettling in their communities. In September, President Trump announced that groups that help refugees find places to live must first get written consent from local and state jurisdictions before resettling them. Immigration advocates challenged the executive order in federal court, calling it cruel and shortsighted. U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte said the executive order "does not appear to serve the overall public interest." In his 31-page opinion issued Wednesday, he wrote that the order gives states and local...

A federal judge has rejected President Trump’s push to dismiss a lawsuit against him for allegedly violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution. U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte in Maryland shut down the Justice Department’s arguments to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the attorney generals in D.C and Maryland, according to court documents. Trump is accused of violating the clause, which prevents elected officials from receiving gifts or benefits from foreign governments without Congress’s approval. --This breaking news report will be updated.

Last year, a court ruled that 11 VA House districts were unconstitutional, finding that lawmakers improperly prioritized race to draw African-American voters into majority-minority districts. The court gave the General Assembly a chance to redraw the map last fall, but it became clear the Republican House and Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam could not agree on a plan. A federal court ruled last year that Dr. Bernard Grofman could re-draw the Virginia legislative districts however he liked. Grofman is a professor at the University of California-Irvine, whose degrees in Mathematics (1966) and his MA (1968) and PhD (1972) in Political Science...

A second appeals court has lifted an injunction blocking the Trump administration from implementing its immigration rule relating to “public charges,” mirroring an order in the Ninth Circuit Court several days before. “Public charge” refers to an individual who is likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, by receiving assistance such as food stamps or Medicaid. The cases stem from a new rule the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) adopted in August that expanded the definition of “public charges” in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The rule provides clarification about what factors would be considered when...

The Trump administration is heading to court this week in two lawsuits charging that the president is violating the Constitution by profiting off of his hotels and other businesses while in office. The cases revolve around the Constitution’s once-obscure emoluments clauses, which critics say President Trump has flouted, giving foreign diplomats an opening to curry favor with him by patronizing his businesses. On Monday, a panel of judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments over whether members of Congress can sue the president for alleged emoluments violations, and on Thursday, the full 4th Circuit Court...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take the case of a public school teacher who required her students to recite the Islamic "conversion prayer" or receive a failing grade. The Thomas More Law Center is defending Caleigh Wood, a Christian student in 11th grade at La Plata High School in La Plata, Maryland. Wood refused to deny her faith "by making a written profession of the Muslim conversion prayer known as the shahada – 'There is no god by allah and Muhammad is the messenger of allah,'" Thomas More said. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled...

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that apprehended migrants do not have the right to be held in the same state as their children while in detention, thrusting the issue of migrant family separations back into the spotlight. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit affirmed a district court’s ruling that migrants do not have a “due process right to family unity.”

The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Allison Jones Rushing, 37, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, making her the youngest federal judge in the country. The Senate voted 53-44 to put Rushing into the lifetime court seat. Every Republican present voted for her. Every Democrat present opposed her.

President Trump’s revised executive order, commonly referred to as the travel ban, will be reviewed by a federal appeals court on Monday afternoon. The case, International Refugee Assistance v Trump, is centered on a battle between presidential authority and the rights of foreigners to travel to the United States. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia will decide if the travel order violates the First or Fourteenth amendments to the Constitution or the anti-discrimination section of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Constitution does not usually apply to non-U.S. citizens on foreign soil. But a professor of immigration law...