Free Republic

Lesbian judge denied Communion tried to get priest removed as chaplain from Catholic lawyer’s group EAST GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, November 27, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — LifeSite has learned that the lesbian judge currently orchestrating a coup against the Catholic priest who runs the parish she attends has previously attempted to not only smear him as a bigot but has tried to get him removed as chaplain of the Catholic Lawyers Association of Western Michigan.  Judge Sara Smolenski is the chief judge of the Kent County District Court in Western Michigan. Earlier this week, Smolenski appeared on local NBC affiliate WOOD-TV 8...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Next week's trial in San Francisco of a lawsuit challenging the initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California won't be televised live, but it will be videotaped for delayed Internet release on YouTube, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco ordered the video coverage, the first ever for a federal trial in California, over the objections of Proposition 8's sponsors. Their lawyer argued that allowing the proceedings to be viewed outside the courthouse would violate their right to a fair trial by intimidating their witnesses. "The knowledge that you're testifying...

On Monday, Jan. 11, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker will put the people of California on trial for voting against gay marriage. The case will be a show trial in a kangaroo court. I don't say that lightly of any federal judge, but Judge Walker's extraordinary bias has already been flagrantly on display. Take the trial itself. The constitutionality of Proposition 8 is not really a matter for a trial of fact. It's a question of law. But Judge Walker ordered one anyway. Why? Ordinarily a trial judge's rulings of fact cannot be questioned by higher courts. So the more...

Over at NRO, Ed Whelan has been following some bizarre manuevering by the federal district court judge in the Northern District of California who apparently is trying to have a televised “show trial” regarding Proposition 8. Without getting into the merits of Proposition 8 or the legal challenges to it, I agree with Whelan that it seems highly unusual for a judge to authorize televised proceedings for this particular case as part of some new “pilot” project to see how televised proceedings work. Surely if there were going to be a test run of a new idea, it should be...