Free Republic

The United States Supreme Court on Friday night temporarily blocked a lower court order that found Texas’ 2026 congressional redistricting map was likely unconstitutional because it was likely racially gerrymandered. The order was signed by Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees emergency appeals from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and will remain in place for at least a few days while the court considers whether to allow the new map to be used in the midterms. The late night order comes hours after Texas filed its emergency appeal, asking it to take up its redistricting case. A panel of federal...

WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge issued an unusual dissenting opinion on Wednesday lambasting an earlier ruling that blocked Texas Republicans from using a new congressional map, saying he had been cut out of the decision-making process by two other judges on a three-judge panel.U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith said in his dissent that he was outraged by Tuesday's decision, which was a major blow for Republicans, in Texas and nationally, who redrew the state's electoral districts at the behest of President Donald Trump.Smith, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, was one of three federal judges who...

Allegedly murdered Jerry Smith after the pair had sex A Virginia Tech football player begins his trial today for the alleged murder of a homosexual, cross-dressing man named Jerry Smith. Montgomery County prosecutors accused Isimemen Etute (pictured) of murdering Smith, a 40-year-old homosexual man who allegedly presented himself as a woman during a Tinder date with Etute. He pleaded not guilty on May 19 to the charge. His trial is expected to take two days, according to the Virginia judiciary database. The county declined to provide a police report because the case is ongoing. Virginia Tech did not respond to...

<p>A federal appeals court has declined, for now, to allow the Biden administration to require COVID-19 vaccinations for federal employees.</p><p>The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled 2-1 Wednesday to maintain a block on the mandate that a Texas-based federal judge had issued on Jan. 21. The administration had asked the New Orleans court for an injunction allowing the federal worker mandate to move forward pending appeal.</p>

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has rejected a request from a Louisiana pastor who’d sought emergency relief from criminal charges he faces for the apparent crime of holding large church services in contravention of the state’s coronavirus rules. ... As the months passed, Spell wound up accruing three additional charges, making for a total of nine. Now fast-forward to last week, when he filed a motion with Justice Alito requesting an injunction against the charges he faces. ... For reasons that remain unclear, Alito outright rejected the request — meaning it won’t receive a full hearing in the Supreme Court...

Most lawyers trying a case abide by the maxim: Don’t piss off the judge. President Obama disregarded that when he lectured the Supreme Court not to overturn the health care law. Indirectly the President was challenging the entire judiciary and it struck a raw nerve with Judge Jerry Smith, of the 5th Circuit Appeals Court. Judge Smith had, less than two years earlier rejected, in a 2 to 1 decision, the Interior Department request to stay a lower court order lifting the offshore drilling moratorium (Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar) – thus requiring the moratorium lifted. In one of...

... a federal appeals court apparently is calling the president's bluff -- ordering the Justice Department to answer by Thursday whether the Obama Administration believes that the courts have the right to strike down a federal law ...