Free Republic

A $20 million federal lawsuit filed on behalf of four people arrested during protests following the death of Michael Brown accuses the city of Ferguson and its attorneys of constitutional violations and malicious prosecution. […] The plaintiffs were acquitted of wrongdoing earlier this year. The lawsuit claims the St. Louis suburb spent more than $120,000 in prosecuting cases against protesters who took to the streets in 2014 following Brown’s death. …

Scared man who sued over 'haunted house' loses in court People who go to "haunted house" attractions to be scared shouldn't be surprised when they're scared, a state court of appeals has ruled. A state appeals court has given precedent-setting status to a ruling that gave the scary mansions the same legal status as ski lodges, bumper cars and other commercial recreational facilities: They're not responsible for injuries caused by an "inherent risk" of the activity. In this case, the court said, that risk was the terror Scott Griffin experienced after leaving what he thought was the exit gate of...

~snip~ Maddow opened her show with heart-rending footage of the Aurora trial. She highlighted the testimony of Brenton Lowak, whose friend Jessica Ghawi -- a 24-year-old aspiring sports reporter -- died in the shooting. ~snip~ The parents unsuccessfully sued the retailers who made the firearm that killed their daughter. Colorado state law requires that plaintiffs who sue the manufacturers of gun products pay the companies' legal fees if they lose. “That’s not a typo,” Maddow said, adding, “The mother and father of the victim who died in the Aurora mass shooting have just been ordered to pay a quarter-million dollars...

Jakob Rumble was in severe pain when he came to the emergency room of Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina with his mother. What happened next provoked a federal lawsuit by the West St. Paul resident and a decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson that is being hailed by national transgender and gay rights organizations. Nelson ruled this week that Rumble, who identifies himself as a transgender man, has built a “plausible” case that he was a victim of discrimination and mistreatment by an emergency room doctor on the basis of gender identity. She denied a motion by the...

A McDonald's customer is suing the fast food restaurant for $1.5million because he was given only one napkin with his meal. Webster Lucas claims he is now unable to work because of the 'undue mental anguish' and 'emotional distress' caused by the incident. He launched the lawsuit following a row with the store manager at the outlet in Pacoima, California, on January 29. Tempers seem to have flared after Mr Lucas complained that he had received just a single paper towel with his Quarter Pounder Deluxe. Mr Lucas, who is African-American, says the he was racially abused by the manager...

A person in Oregon named Valeria Jones is suing catering company Bon Appétit Management for $518,682 because coworkers used female names in reference to Jones despite the fact that Jones had continually expressed the desire to be addressed only with gender neutral pronouns. Some of the terms the coworkers called Jones included, for example, “little lady,” “lady” and “miss,” reports The Oregonian. The coworkers said Jones looked like a woman—possibly some unidentified female celebrity Jones’s lawsuit, filed this week in Multnomah County Circuit Court by Portland attorney Donel Courtney, doesn’t identify the pronoun Jones prefers. The Oregonian suggests that people...

A national coalition led by the Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. is seeking to have Georgia's "Stand Your Ground" statute ruled unconstitutional, arguing in a federal lawsuit filed late Monday that the law discriminates against minorities. The 2006 law, which allows citizens to use deadly force in self-defense if they feel threatened, harms black people because they are often perceived by society as more dangerous than other racial groups, Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition said in the suit filed in Atlanta. "All Georgians, and particularly those of color, will be compelled to at all times prove that they are not taking part...

A woman from Clovis, Calif. is suing McDonald’s for negligence after hot coffee she bought at the fast food restaurant spilled on her lap and burned her. The attorney for 74-year-old Joan Fino says settlement talks between his client and McDonald’s ended Thursday without an agreement. … Fino says coffee spilled on her lap at the drive-up window and gave her second degree burns in her groin area. …

A Rhode Island man has filed a federal lawsuit against Pope Francis and others, claiming the frequent bell-ringing of the Catholic church across the street has disrupted his life so much, it helped precipitate the demise of his marriage. John Devaney, 64, of Narragansett, R.I., lives directly across from the picturesque St. Thomas More Catholic Church. “The bells have been going off 700 times a week, very loud volume, and it’s been going on for too long,” he told the Providence Journal in a videotaped interview. “I’m not getting any response back from the people that control the bell-ringing.” “First...

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) is suing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and six other lawmakers, charging that they mishandled the Ethics investigation that led to his public censure in late 2010. In a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Washington D.C., Rangel claims the Ethics Committee that investigated his alleged wrongdoing are guilty of "numerous flagrant, knowing and intentional violations" of his due process rights. House members who approved his censure were "knowingly deceived" by the committee leaders – including then-Chairman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and ranking member Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) – into thinking that the probe "had been conducted in...

ANAHEIM (CBSLA.com) — An African American family sued Disneyland after the actor who portrayed the White Rabbit character from “Alice in Wonderland” allegedly refused to hug or touch their children because of their skin color. Jason and Annelia Black of San Diego County said the person in the rabbit costume also acted impatiently as their young kids posed for a picture at the Anaheim theme park. The Blacks, however, said it was a different scene when a Caucasian family arrived.

Lawyers for a Massachusetts pastor have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against him by a foreign homosexual advocacy group accusing him of “crimes against humanity.” During a 90-minute hearing on Monday in U.S. District Court, Judge Michael Ponsor said the lawsuit filed by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) against Springfield-based minister Scott Lively poses a test of free-speech protection and the rights of sexual minorities to equal protection under the law. Ponsor heard arguments from lawyers representing both Lively and SMUG. SMUG, represented in court by the George Soros-funded “Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR),” accused Lively of...

Scott Lively and the pro-family law firm Liberty Counsel filed a 109-page response to the bizarre and frightening international "human rights" lawsuit filed against him last March, as well as a motion to dismiss the case. On March 14, 2012, a Soros-funded New York-based far-left advocacy organization called the "Center for Constitutional Rights" (CCR) filed a 47-page lawsuit in Federal District Court in Springfield, Massachusetts against Pastor Scott Lively. Lively is accused of inciting murder, torture, and other civil rights violations in Uganda. They claim that Lively's meetings and conversations with church leaders and public officials on pro-family issues in...

Prison Inmate Sues Hospital Over Circumcision As A Newborn SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (April 17, 2012)--South Dakota prison inmate Dean Cochrun is suing the hospital where he was circumcised as a newborn, claiming the procedure has robbed him of his sexual prowess. The suit asks for $1,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. Cochrun is acting as his own lawyer. The lawsuit also requests that his circumcision be reversed.

I just turned Neal Boortz off, he came on ridiculing today's legal eligibility proceedings in Georgia. This isn't the first time he has pi$$ed me off but he showed his a$$ big time today.

There's nothing quite like a politician scorned. When voters in Ohio's 1st Congressional District threw Democrat Steve Driehaus out of office after only one term, he did not bow out gracefully. No, he decided to get even. So he did what anyone does in today's culture: he sued somebody. Charging that its activities contributed to his defeat and thus to his "loss of livelihood," Driehaus is suing the Susan B. Anthony List, a group that supports pro-life candidates for Congress and which has been one of the leading and most effective organizations involved in the fight to cut off federal...

Farah, the CEO of WorldNetDaily.com, and Corsi, author of “Where’s the Birth Certificate? The Case That Barack Obama Is Not Eligible to Be President,” have filed suit against Hearst, Esquire magazine and writer Mark Warren over a satirical article that they say defamed them and damaged their business interests. They’re seeking compensatory damages of $100 million and punitive damages of $20 million, plus legal costs. [Update: As a commenter points out, that's only for one of the five counts; the full amount sought totals more than $285 million.]

A Michigan inmate is suing Gov. Rick Snyder and the state over his prison's ban on pornographic materials, claiming he is being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, the Detroit News reported. In a handwritten lawsuit filed June 10 in US District Court in Detroit, Kyle Richards said the porn ban has "been used as a method of 'psychological warfare' against prisoners, in order to both destroy the morale of inmates and break the spirit of individuals." The Macomb County jail where Richards is imprisoned does not allow inmates to possess porn, the newspaper reported. However, instead of suing the...

JUNEAU, Alaska – An activist is suing Sarah Palin for at least $100,000, claiming she undertook a campaign to "punish, embarrass, discredit and silence" him while she was Alaska's governor. The lawsuit was filed in state court by Chip Thoma and first reported by TMZ.com. Palin's attorney, John Tiemessen, called the complaint frivolous and said it was filed "merely for the purpose of harassment." "The governor's actions and statements regarding this matter are a matter of public record and governed by the long standing doctrine of executive immunity from tort claims," he said in an email late Friday. "Like all...

A federal appellate court has ordered an army specialist and her attorney to show cause why they should not be sanctioned for bringing a frivolous suit accusing former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers of orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. In Gallop v. Cheney, 10-1241, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit yesterday affirmed the dismissal of the case by Southern District Judge Denny Chin, and gave April Gallop and her attorney, William W. Veale, 30 days to...