Free Republic

An appeals court has temporarily paused a federal judge's order requiring U.S. Customs and Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino to appear in court daily and give updates on immigration enforcement activity in Chicago under the Trump administration's "Operation Midway Blitz." The Department of Justice on Wednesday appealed U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis' order, which mandated Bovino check in with her at 6 p.m. daily to ensure compliance with a temporary restraining order that restricted federal agents' use of force in crowd-control tactics.

A federal judge on Tuesday evening said Los Angeles-based US Attorney Bill Essayli has been in the role unlawfully and disqualified him. President Trump chose California Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli to serve as the acting US attorney for the Central District of California earlier this year. Bill Essayli is a staunch Trump supporter who has been aggressively investigating and prosecuting illegal aliens and criminals. US District Judge Michael Seabright, a George W. Bush appointee, said Essayli has been unlawfully serving since July. Judge Seabright did not dismiss Essayli’s indictments because they were signed by other attorneys for the government. The...

A federal judge has indefinitely blocked President Trump’s efforts to lay off thousands of federal employees amid the government shutdown. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, an appointee of former President Clinton, sided with government employee unions that asked her to bar the administration from carrying out the reductions in force (RIFs) as the lawsuit moves forward. More than 4,000 workers were set to be impacted by the job actions.The preliminary injunction extends Illston’s previous order temporarily stopping the administration’s attempted layoffs, which she has said she believes will ultimately be deemed illegal and an overstep of executive authority.The judge said...

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will rehear the Trump administration’s appeal to deploy and federalize the National Guard to Portland, OR. The “majority of nonrecused active judges” voted to rehear the case en banc. En banc requires the approval of a majority of the judges of the 9th Circuit. In this case, the panel will consist of eleven judges. Last week, a three-judge panel froze a lower court order that stopped President Donald Trump from sending the National Guard to Portland. U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut placed two restraining orders on Trump: no federalization of the Oregon National Guard...

President Donald Trump notched a legal victory Friday in his lawsuit against Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register, and the case will now land in Iowa State Court after an appeals court sided with the president and ruled a lower court had overstepped. Trump’s legal team, which has accused the defendants of "brazen election interference" with their final 2024 Iowa presidential poll that showed him trailing Democrat Kamala Harris, originally requested the case be moved to Iowa State Court in May after the defendants "removed" the case to federal court. A federal judge denied the request...

A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked President Trump from deploying Oregon National Guard troops to Portland after a judge issued a Temporary Retraining Order (TRO). The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily reinstated Judge Karin Immergut’s TRO on Friday after it halted an order issued by a three-judge panel from the court earlier in the week. President Trump previously called up hundreds of California National Guard Troops to Portland to circumvent the judge’s order blocking Oregon National Guard Troop deployment. Trump also activated up to 400 Texas National Guard troops for deployment to Oregon, Illinois and other states...

Two national public employee unions sued the Trump administration over its restrictions preventing illegal immigrants from obtaining commercial drivers licenses. The American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees filed a petition for review against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The employee unions challenged a rule implemented by Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy restricting foreign individuals from receiving commercial drivers licenses. Commercial drivers licenses are used for operating large vehicles such as tractor-trailers and buses. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia allow unauthorized immigrants to receive commercial drivers licenses. In California,...

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday night that the Justice Department has opened investigations into Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot over sustained efforts to dox and obstruct federal immigration agents. While speaking with Fox News, host Jesse Watters asked about recent comments from former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who announced a new project aimed at “unmasking” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents nationwide. “We want to create a centralized archive of all the purported criminal actions of ICE and CBP agents,” Lightfoot said of her new website while...

A federal judge in Chicago just made a decision that’s raising eyebrows — and not just among immigration officers.In a move that’s already stirring debate nationwide, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ruled that ICE agents — yes, federal officers — can be arrested if they take migrants into custody at Cook County courthouses without a proper warrant. Let that sink in for a second. (snip) So, who’s actually in charge here — federal law enforcement… or local judges?And if ICE agents can be arrested for doing their jobs, what kind of message does that send to those who aren’t even...

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell has ruled that Planned Parenthood affiliates in California, Iowa, and New York do not have to comply with recent executive orders requiring them to affirm biological sex and discontinue the promotion of radical gender ideology and promiscuity in order to receive federal funding Key Takeaways: * Despite multiple Trump executive orders specifying otherwise, a district judge has ruled that certain Planned Parenthood affiliates in three states do not have to rid their sex ed curricula of radical gender ideology. * The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program has been shown in the past to have failed to...

A judge in August ruled that Habba was serving without legal authority. The Trump administration’s efforts to keep Alina Habba as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey faced a key test today, as the Third Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments about whether or not to overrule a district judge’s August ruling disqualifying Habba from her role. The Third Circuit’s three-judge panel – consisting of Senior Judges D. Brooks Smith and D. Michael Fisher, both George W. Bush appointees, and Judge L. Felipe Restrepo, an Obama appointee – did not say when a ruling should be...

A federal appeals court ruled on Oct. 20 that President Donald Trump may deploy National Guard troops to deal with violence directed against federal immigration facilities in Portland while the case works its way through the lower courts.

President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court, for the first time, to clear the way for him to use National Guard troops to support the president’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation drive.Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed an emergency appeal with the high court Friday, seeking to lift lower-court rulings that are currently preventing Trump from deploying National Guard troops he pressed into federal service to aid Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel in Illinois.Sauer argued that a temporary restraining order issued by a federal district judge in Illinois “improperly impinges on the President’s authority and needlessly endangers federal personnel...

Key Points A federal judge blocked the Trump administration, for now, from firing federal workers during the ongoing government shutdown. The order came five days after the administration issued reduction-in-force notifications to more than 4,000 federal workers.

It’s a small, but mighty sign: “Everyone is welcome here, except I.CE.” Katherine Duncan, owner of Katherine Anne Confections, fastened it proudly on her shop’s front door. “It was a no-brainer for me,” Duncan said on a recent Wednesday afternoon, hours after she put the sign up at the storefront on 3653 W. Irving Park Road. “I feel so helpless. With my business and my kids, I can’t escort students to and from school or other things like that. So it was like, well — what can we do?” In recent weeks, Chicago has seen an increase in Immigration and...

Since immigration-enforcement agents began their descent on Chicago, acting with seemingly unprecedented speed and ferocity, Evelyn Vargas and her colleagues at Organized Communities Against Deportation have been in a frenzy. They help run an emergency hotline that refers people who have been detained to immigration lawyers and directs their families to support services such as food pantries, emergency housing, and mental-health care. (On a single day last week, it took 800 calls.) And they oversee a team of 35 “rapid responders” who have been sprinting across the city to film arrests, aiming for at least two to arrive on the...

A federal appeals court has ruled that US President Donald Trump's administration cannot deploy the National Guard in Illinois. The Chicago-based US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit also ruled that the force could remain under federal control for now. The decision partially upheld a lower court ruling that blocked the deployment of troops in the Chicago area, which said it was "likely to lead to civil unrest" and "only add fuel to the fire". Trump has previously sent the National Guard to other Democratic-led cities, such as Los Angeles, Washington DC and Portland, Oregon. He has argued troops...

In issuing her decision, U.S. District Judge April Perry said, “I simply cannot credit [the Trump administration’s] declarations to the extent they contradict state and local law enforcement. … DHS’ perception of events are unreliable.”

federal appeals court on Wednesday lifted a judge’s order blocking President Trump from federalizing Oregon National Guard Troops. On Saturday, Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, blocked President Trump’s National Guard deployment to Portland. Judge Immergut issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and blasted President Trump’s decision to deploy troops. The TRO will expire on October 18. The judge warned that Trump’s justification to deploy troops to Portland may send the country into a constitutional crisis. On Sunday, President Trump called up hundreds of California National Guard Troops to Portland to circumvent the judge’s order blocking Oregon National Guard Troop...

A U.S. District Court on Saturday issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) to halt the Trump administration from deploying 200 National Guardsmen to Portland, Oregon, amid violent anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests. The lawsuit, brought by the State of Oregon and City of Portland, argued the deployment was unlawful, exceeding the president’s statutory and constitutional authority. Judge Karin Immergut, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019, granted the TRO blocking the federal action.