Free Republic

Fake heiress Anna Sorokin says her around-the-clock home confinement and ban from social media are “more restrictive” than being behind bars, new court papers show. Sorokin — who rose to infamy under the alter ego Anna Delvey — has been forced to stay in an apartment 24 hours a day for more than a year as she fights deportation and her 2019 conviction for scamming $200,000 from banks and businesses. Now the fraudster is asking a Manhattan federal judge to step in and change the conditions of her house arrest — which ban her from leaving home for any reason...

Steve Bannon faced two misdemeanor charges that could mean 30 days to a year in prison each Former Trump White House official Steve Bannon was found guilty of contempt of Congress after he ignored a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee.

The U.S. is facing a serious constitutional crisis over the handling of the cases of defendants in the Jan. 6 so-called "insurrection" in Washington, D.C. to protest the presidential election modus operandi and the results. Those being held for many months without a trial are being denied their habeas corpus rights under the U.S. Constitution and even dating back to English law hundreds of years before our Constitution was implemented. Not only are they being incarcerated without having had a trial, but there is some evidence that they are being mistreated or are being held 23 hours a day in...

As the Senate launches its second impeachment trial of Donald Trump next week, its members must confront the deep unfairness of the proceedings. The Senate rashly claimed jurisdiction over a former president, fumbled on the selection of a presiding judge, and ignored the constitutional — not political — standards that should prevail. Further, it has given Trump’s depleted legal team little time or means to present a full defense — the only guarantee that the American people will accept the verdict as fair. Trump’s lawyers will have to accept these unfair conditions, though might conceivably be able to appeal directly...

The Scottish government was forced to drop plans to axe jury trials today as its coronavirus bill jumped its first parliamentary hurdle. The SNP administration confirmed it had dropped the measure after an outcry from opposition parties and senior lawyers following the publication of the Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill on Tuesday. The bill originally proposed trials going ahead without juries to “ensure that criminal justice systems can continue to operate during the coronavirus restrictions”. But the move was branded “draconian” by the Scottish Criminal Bar Association and The Law Society of Scotland insisted there was not “sufficient justification” for ending the...

This is a long report so to save bandwidth you can read the report here. AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION TASK FORCE ON TREATMENT OF ENEMY COMBATANTS PRELIMINARY REPORT I do not agree with all of the Tasks Forces finding though. I support Military Tribunals for terrorist both foreign and domestic providing we comply with the rule of law and the US Constitution. In the case of Padella and to some degree Handi we are not. I note and support the findings on US Citizens. It is this simple. If you do not like the law, change it, not subvert it. For...

No. 497-02 IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 2, 2002 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DOD RESPONDS TO ABA ENEMY COMBATANT REPORT Department of Defense General Counsel William J. Haynes II last week asserted the president's authority to detain enemy combatants in reponse to an American Bar Association report critical of the policy. In a letter to ABA President Alfred P. Carlton regarding conclusions in the recently released "Preliminary Report of the ABA Task Force on Treatment of Enemy Combatants," Haynes said, "Mr. Hirshon was kind enough to send me the August 8, 2002 Preliminary Report ('Report') of the ABA Task Force on Treatment of Enemy Combatants...

The Constitution grants Congress plenary authority over immigration policy, but liberal judges have increasingly usurped the law. On Monday the Supreme Court will consider if immigrants whom Congress has deemed deportable can seek sanctuary in the courts. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) establishes rules and procedures by which immigrants may be removed from the country. To prevent federal courts from getting clogged, Congress created special immigration courts with multiple levels of administrative appeal and limited federal judicial review of cases. In Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam, a Sri Lankan man caught after crossing the Mexican border illegally is...

Over the last few months, Virginia Democrats have worked to pass extreme gun control measures in the state. In fact, a Democratic congressmen went as far as to say that the National Guard my have to be used in order to enforce a door-to-door gun grab. “And ultimately, I’m not the governor, but the governor may have to nationalize the National Guard to enforce the law,” Rep. Donald McEachin said, according to Newsweek. “That’s his call, because I don’t know how serious these counties are and how severe the violations of law will be. But that’s obviously an option he...

An Antifa activist compared the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Gestapo and called for the slaughter of “the fascistic Border Patrol dogs and their bosses.” In an article published on Thursday on the far-left website Incendiary News, Antifa activist Ulrike Salazar compared ICE officers to “shadowy Gestapo agents” who “take away young boys and girls, tear apart families, throw away undesirables into dark and cramped dungeons.” The comments come as the agency continues to receive criticism in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. The policy resulted in thousands of families being forcibly separated at the...

Russia's top investigative body on Wednesday declared Mikhail Khodorkovsky as arrested in absentia, two years after the Kremlin critic and former oil tycoon was pardoned after serving 10 years in prison. Investigators earlier this month accused the former billionaire of involvement in the 1998 murder of a Siberian mayor. On Tuesday, Russian officials searched the residences of several employees of his Open Russia foundation in connection with a probe into a privatization deal. ...

Eight hundred years ago, one of the world's most important documents was born. Issued by King John of England in 1215, the Magna Carta ("Great Charter") acknowledged the rights of citizens and set restrictions on the power of the king. The Magna Carta has influenced the structures of modern democracies, including the writ of habeas corpus of the U.S. Constitution... According to Treharne, her research suggests the Salisbury Magna Carta was not just received and preserved at Salisbury, but that the Salisbury Magna Carta was written at Salisbury by one of the cathedral's own scribes. She recently co-published her findings...

An attorney for two men arrested in the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout between rival bikers says his clients are being held illegally and is seeking to replace all McLennan County judges connected to the case. Austin attorney Adam Reposa alleges in motions filed Tuesday that the charging documents filed against his clients, and the 168 others jailed in the chaotic melee, are legally insufficient. He also claims that the $1 million bonds are unreasonably oppressive and that the judge who set them and the judges who, so far, have not reduced them have shown bias and should be recused....

Well, what fun is that? Many were hoping to munch popcorn and see Rick Perry’s attorneys spend the next few months ripping Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg to shreds over her blatantly political effort to get the Texas governor indicted for cutting off her funding. Accusing Perry of being drunk with power is rather amusing, under the circumstances, but apparently Perry has better things to do with his time: The writ claims the charges of abuse of power and coercion filed against Perry are unconstitutional and that Perry was simply exercising his constitutional veto powers when he vetoed funding...

Tbilisi City Court accepted prosecution’s motion and ordered pre-trial detention of former President Mikheil Saakashvili in absentia. Preliminary court hearing – the stage when a presiding judge, among other issues, decides on the admissibility of evidence submitted by the parties – has been set for September 22. Prosecutor’s office has charged Saakashvili with exceeding official powers in connection to break up of the anti-government protest rallies on November 7, 2007, and raid on and “seizure” of Imedi TV station. “Ahead of the August war [six-year] anniversary Putin could not have imagined more desirable present than Georgian authorities ordering my arrest,”...

District of Columbia prosecutors say a German man charged with killing his elderly wife is forfeiting his right to be present for his own trial by engaging in lengthy hunger strikes, and a judge would be authorized to proceed without him. Albrecht Muth is awaiting trial in the August 2011 strangulation and beating death of his 91-year-old wife Viola Drath, a fellow German expatriate and journalist, inside the couple’s Georgetown row home. His periodic bouts of starvation, and resulting physical weakness and hospital stays, have delayed court proceedings and exasperated the judge and lawyers on both sides. …

Should chimpanzees have legal rights? The ‘animal personhood’ movement believes dolphins, great apes, and elephants deserve to be able to sue — and now it has a plaintiff. Somewhere in America—its lawyers won’t say where—a chimpanzee is about to have its day in court. In the next few months, an animal advocacy group called the Nonhuman Rights Project plans to file a case on behalf of its first animal client. It has already chosen the plaintiff, a captive chimp, on whose behalf it plans to file a writ of habeas corpus and ask a state court judge to grant the...

More than three years after he died in prison, whistle-blowing Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was found guilty of tax evasion by a Moscow court Wednesday. The posthumous trial of Magnitsky was a macabre chapter in a case that ignited a high-emotion dispute between Russia and Washington that has included U.S. sanctions against Russians deemed to be human rights violators, a ban on the adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens and calls for the closure of Russian non-governmental organizations receiving American funding. Magnitsky was a lawyer for U.S.-born British investor William Browder when he alleged in 2008 that organized criminals...

Preamble: John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, to the archbishop, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciaries, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, servants, and to all his bailiffs and liege subjects, greetings. Know that, having regard to God and for the salvation of our soul, and those of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honor of God and the advancement of his holy Church and for the rectifying of our realm, we have granted as underwritten by advice of our venerable fathers, Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, primate...

A 13th-century copy of the Magna Carta, a milestone of English freedom, will be offered for sale in New York in December, Sotheby's auction house said Tuesday. The vellum manuscript owned by the Perot Foundation is estimated to sell for $20 million to $30 million, Sotheby's said. The document was on display at the National Archives in Washington for more than 20 years until last Thursday. King John was forced by barons to agree to the charter in 1215. It guaranteed that freemen would not be imprisoned or deprived of property without due process, including a right to a speedy...