Free Republic

Administration has 14 days to appeal ruling ... The Biden administration was dealt a major blow in its efforts to control the ongoing border crisis on Tuesday when a federal judge blocked a rule introduced in May that makes migrants ineligible for asylum if they have entered illegally and failed to take advantage of expanded lawful pathways set up by the federal government. Judge Jon Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California blocked the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule in response to a lawsuit from a coalition of left-wing immigration groups, which claimed the rule...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who previously said that Democratic politicians should "lean into" COVID-19 policies such as vaccine mandates and issued the nation's first such mandate for schoolchildren, is trying to get the federal courts to halt a vaccine mandate for prison guards. Two weeks ago, a federal judge ruled that the COVID-19 vaccine must be mandated for California's prison guards on Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment) grounds given the risk unvaccinated guards pose to incarcerated individuals. Only 42% of prison guards are fully vaccinated. The state's prison guard union — a group that donated $1.75 million to Newsom...

The White House Coronavirus Task Force wants a crackdown in Nebraska in the name of preventing the spread of COVID-19. A task force report obtained by ABC News calls for increased testing and says: "Effective practices to decrease transmission in public spaces include requiring masks, limiting restaurant indoor capacity to less than 25% and closing bars until cases... Police in Toronto laying nine charges against a restuarant that opened for a second day in defiance of Ontario's coronavirus crackdown. Some 100 people gathered outside protesting in support of the restaurant... An Orthodox Jewish synagogue in New York City fined 15-thousand...

But the three judges invited inmates’ attorneys to file a new motion with either or both of two individual judges who oversee major class action lawsuits over inmate medical and mental health care. Both judges are members of the three-judge panel, which also includes a federal appellate judge. The judges virtually laid out a pathway for the inmates’ attorneys to seek help from the individual judges, and perhaps come back to the special panel after they lay the proper groundwork. The third judge, U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller of Sacramento, agreed on legal grounds but said she thought the special...

The Supreme Court has handed President Trump a victory, albeit a temporary one, by allowing the administration to enforce the “remain in Mexico” policy.Via The Hill:The justices will allow the “Remain in Mexico” policy to continue while the administration appeals a lower court ruling which deemed the program illegal and ordered a suspension that was scheduled to take effect tomorrow.Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only justice to publicly dissent from the decision to allow the policy to continue.Known officially as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), the policy aims to curb entry into the U.S. by asylum-seekers, many of whom are Central...

The Supreme Court issued an Order this morning, at the URL above, staying enforcement of a trial court order that had barred the Trump Administration from enforcing its policy requiring those applying for asylum having come from Mexico to remain in Mexico until the application is ruled on. The policy is being challenged in court,and the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to review the trial court order barring enforcement. The Supreme Court says today that Trump can continue to enforce the policy while the legal challenge continues. One is tempted to read the tea leaves and see this...

A federal appeals court has temporarily lifted a nationwide injunction against President Donald Trump’s effort to deny asylum to immigrants who enter the U.S. after passing through another country. Acting at the request of the Trump administration, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an administrative stay Tuesday night that put on hold the injunction issued Monday by San Francisco-based U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar. The temporary hold implemented while the appeals court considers a longer stay essentially restores the legal situation that existed prior to this week, with Trump’s policy blocked only in the Ninth Circuit, which includes...

No court can ever force the president to allow any alien to enter the country. No such lawsuit could ever have legitimate standing, and no such decision could have any constitutional moorings. If we don’t understand that, we are no longer a sovereign Republic. Monday night, Jon Tigar, an Obama-appointed judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, a forum chosen by the ACLU, penned what is essentially an op-ed expressing his desire that Trump’s order on asylum be temporarily enjoined. His desire is just as binding as my desire to place an injunction on...

Fox News host Mark Levin defended President Trump on Wednesday after Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked the president's criticism of a federal judge. The conservative host argued in a Facebook post defending Trump that "there are ... too many progressive judges and justices who legislate from the bench." "Indeed, when it came to Obamacare, Roberts himself led the court’s leftists in rewriting the Constitution and imposing that damnable law on all of us," he wrote. "It appears John Roberts doesn’t live in the real world." Levin weighed in after Roberts offered a rare statement rebuking Trump's criticism of a federal...

A federal judge in San Francisco on Monday barred the Trump administration from refusing asylum to immigrants who cross the southern border illegally, likely prompting a legal challenge from the White House. Trump issued a proclamation on Nov. 9 that said anyone who crossed the southern border would be ineligible for asylum. U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar, who was nominated by President Obama in 2012 to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, issued a temporary restraining order after hearing arguments in San Francisco.