Free Republic

In Denton v. City of El Paso, Texas, (5th Cir., July 6, 2021), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case to a Texas federal district court ordering it to grant a preliminary injunction barring El Paso from prohibiting religious proselytizing at the weekly outdoor El Paso Art and Farmers Market. The city's rules bar fundraising, political campaigning and religious proselytizing from the market. The court held that these exclusions are content-based, and concluded: It is unclear whether the City has asserted a compelling government interest. We need not decide this issue ......

When will the Republicans wake up and see that the Democrat Party is not working for the US’s best interest? They work for POWER and will do anything to get it and keep it. We saw in nearly every big state lawsuit after the election that Obama judges were being assigned to the cases. They had multiple documents ready before they even heard the cases which ruled against President Trump and the American people every time. In February 2017 we reported on Obama and Carter judges making insane rulings against President Trump. We saw Obama judges obstructing justice with unconstitutional...

A federal judge denied the CDC's request to keep COVID-19 restrictions on cruises in place in Florida past July 18, writing that the agency "can show no factor that outweighs the need to conclude an unwarranted and unprecedented exercise of governmental power." U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday originally ruled against the CDC last month, granting a preliminary injunction that will turn the Conditional Sailing Order (CSO) into nonbinding guidelines on July 18. The CDC appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and requested a stay on Tuesday, but Merryday dismissed that motion on Wednesday....

A 63-year-old Garfield man will spend two years in federal prison after constructing a working red, white and blue cannon in his garage. Kent W. Kimberling has been in custody of the Spokane County Jail since January 2020. In August 2019, investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms discovered the unregistered destructive device in the home he shares with his mother....Investigators went to Kimberling’s home to conduct a welfare check. They found the cannon, which was later tested by federal agents and found to be operational. It fired a soda can, “leaving a large hole in the center...

In an ironic twist of events, the Pound Cake speech in which Bill Cosby famously (or, perhaps, infamously) criticized the black family and black neighborhood for what he deemed unsavory behavior was used to open the comedian to public scrutiny surrounding sexual assault allegations against him.

A judge has ruled that dozens more documents about Ghislaine Maxwell's personal affairs should be made public, including some that could reveal more about her finances and her relationship to the Clintons. Judge Loretta Preska said that unsealing the documents would not impact Maxwell's right to a fair trial in November as her lawyers have claimed. Among the documents which will be made public in two weeks' time will be Maxwell's efforts to quash requests from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who sued Maxwell for defamation, to obtain her financial records.

A federal judge in Florida on Friday ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) coronavirus-era sailing orders were an overreach of power, issuing a preliminary injunction temporarily barring the CDC from enforcing the guidelines. Judge Steven Merryday for the Middle District of Florida in his ruling sided with the Sunshine State in its argument that the “CDC’s conditional sailing order and the implementing orders exceed the authority delegated to CDC.” As a result, Merryday approved Florida’s motion for a preliminary injunction suspending the mandatory guidelines for cruise ships, writing that the CDC is “preliminary enjoined from enforcing...

Florida wins its lawsuit against the CDC to overrule the Conditional Sailing Order to allow cruises to resume. The federal Judge has finally decided in the lawsuit filed by the State of Florida against the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to lift the Conditional Sailing Order (CSO). This news comes after Florida and the CDC failed to work out their differences under mediation, and cruises out of Florida have remained on hold for 15 months. However, the CDC has been working to resume cruises safely with the cruise lines more recently. Florida Overrules CDC, Cruises Can Resume...

A federal judge ruled in favor of Florida in a lawsuit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying the agency overstepped its authority. Judge Steven Merryday said the CDC is "preliminarily enjoined" from enforcing its conditional sail order -- a set of guidelines for cruise companies wishing to resume sailing in the U.S., including test cruises and vaccine requirements -- beginning July 18. "This order finds that Florida is highly likely to prevail on the merits of the claim that CDC's conditional sailing order and the implementing orders exceed the authority delegated to CDC," the ruling said. Merryday...

Judge Carol Bagley Amon’s opinion exposed the deceit of abortion apologists and the symbiotic relationship between them and the New York attorney general’s office.On Friday, in a rare move, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals pulled a 100-plus page opinion it had issued in March against a group of pro-life protestors. The short three-sentence order in People of the State of New York v. Griepp—in which the court, without elaboration, granted rehearing of the case, vacated its previous opinion, and reinstated the district court’s decision—tells none of the bigger story of this continuing saga: a story of complicity between the...

Did you hear that Joe Biden’s Department of Justice wanted the Supreme Court to rule that police could search Americans’ homes for firearms — and confiscate them — without a warrant?In the case of Caniglia vs. Strom, this issue was in play. Had SCOTUS ruled that police could do that, your Second Amendment rights would have been in grave jeopardy.In March, Biden’s DoJ filed a brief with the Supreme Court in this case. It said:In its first amicus brief before the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice argued the actions taken by law enforcement to confiscate the petitioner’s firearms without...

A federal court ruled on Monday to protect a Christian student organization that had its official student club status revoked by a Michigan university for requiring its leaders to adhere to its statement of faith. University officials will be held liable for discriminating against the club. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a student ministry that provides community, Bible studies and important discussions on campus, has been a part of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan for over 75 years. Though the club is open to all students, the university deemed InterVarsity’s leadership policies “discriminatory” for requiring that the group’s leaders agree with...

Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. government on Friday plans to execute a man convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter nearly two decades ago. Alfred Bourgeois, 55, is set to receive lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. He's awaiting a Supreme Court decision on his request for a stay. His attorneys said Bourgeois' execution would be unconstitutional because he is intellectually disabled and can't understand his punishment. They submitted evidence of IQ test scores of 70 and 75, as well as assessments by experts. The Eighth Amendment bans executing people with such impairments as cruel and...

A federal appeals court gave the state of Tennessee great news late Friday when it issued a ruling that the Volunteer State can ban abortions done specifically because a baby has Down syndrome. Earlier this year, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a broad pro-life law to protect unborn babies from abortions once their heartbeats are detectable. Though the legislation is described as a heartbeat bill, it includes many different measures to protect unborn babies. The law passed the state legislature in June, and pro-life lawmakers said they wrote the bill to withstand a legal challenge. The heartbeat portion of the...

Please note 2 of the links in the body of this text no longer work. There should still be enough information for you to do additional research to verify or contradict. Following is the original text from my blog post of December, 2, 2012: In the Presidential election of 2012, I experienced the longest lines at early voting that I have ever seen. I read articles from different parts of the country reporting the same phenomenon. On election day there were excessive lines with many polling places required to stay open hours longer than normal to accommodate all of the...

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...

Devon Archer was convicted of defrauding the Oglala Sioux Indian tribe out of bond-sale proceeds. Hunter Biden was not implicated in the scheme, which defrauded the Oglala Sioux Indian tribe out of the proceeds of bond sales. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File/AP Photo A federal appeals court reinstated the fraud conviction of Hunter Biden’s former business partner on Wednesday, reversing a lower court judge who had granted his request for a retrial. Hunter Biden was not implicated in the scheme, which defrauded the Oglala Sioux Indian tribe out of the proceeds of bond sales. But the scheme was committed under...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked a decision to extend the deadline for counting absentee ballots in battleground Wisconsin, in a win for Republicans who have fought attempts to expand voting across the country. If the ruling stands, absentee ballots will have to be delivered to Wisconsin election clerks by 8 p.m. on Election Day if they are to be counted. Results of the presidential race in the pivotal swing state would be known within hours of polls closing. Democrats almost certainly will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday approved the unsealing of documents from a civil lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell — the alleged madam of deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein — as the British socialite faces charges for enticing minors to engage in illegal sexual activities. Reuters reports: Over Maxwell’s objections, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan said the presumption the public has a right to access large portions of the more than 80 documents at issue outweighed Maxwell’s arguments for keeping them under wraps, including that they could prove embarrassing. […] Preska also said personal identifying information contained in the...

A federal judge has ordered the attorneys of Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre to destroy documents related to Ghislaine Maxwell, an Epstein confidant who has been frequently named as his former collaborator in child sex trafficking. Senior U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska made the determination in lawsuits Giuffre and her attorneys, Cooper and Kirk, have filed against Maxwell and former Epstein attorney Alan Dershowitz. Preska rejected Dershowitz’s attempt to change a protective order to receive documents for his defense in the defamation case while ordering Giuffre’s attorneys to destroy documents from a previously-settled case involving Maxwell. Preska wrote in her...