Free Republic

A scathing discrimination complaint is pitting three appointees of Gov. Deval Patrick against his own administration, accusing it of paying a black male administrative judge more than three women who hold the same job, including former Democratic state Sen. Cheryl Jacques. The three Patrick-appointed administrative judges at the Department of Industrial Accidents say officials led by state labor boss Joanne Goldstein lavished a six-figure starting salary and prime downtown parking space on Judge Michael Williams, who, according to the complaint, has less experience. “Would you want to bite the hand that feeds you? None of us want to do that....

An Obama appointee to the federal bench ruled Friday that the right to same-sex marriage is “deeply rooted in the nation’s history and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty,” and as such is a fundamental right. Judge Robert J. Shelby was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Central Division of Utah in 2012 by President Obama, then confirmed by a Senate voice vote on Sept. 21, 2012, with neither debate nor objection, according to CNS News. A federal district court is a court of original jurisdiction, but if its opinions are left unchallenged, they become the law...

Just hours earlier, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby issued a 53-page ruling saying Utah's law passed by voters in 2004 violates gay and lesbian couples' rights to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment. Shelby said the state failed to show that allowing same-sex marriages would affect opposite-sex marriages in any way. "In the absence of such evidence, the State's unsupported fears and speculations are insufficient to justify the State's refusal to dignify the family relationships of its gay and lesbian citizens," Shelby wrote.

A county clerk's office in Utah is issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, just hours after a federal judge struck down Utah's ban on gay marriages. Salt Lake County Deputy Clerk Dahnelle Burton-Lee says the district attorney authorized her office to begin issuing the marriage licenses Friday. She couldn't immediately say how many licenses have been issued so far. U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby ruled that a law passed by voters in 2004 violates gay and lesbian couples' rights to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment. Shelby said the state failed to show that allowing same-sex...

A federal judge said Monday that he believes the government’s once-secret collection of domestic phone records is unconstitutional, setting up likely appeals and further challenges to the data mining revealed by classified leaker Edward Snowden. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of metadata — phone records of the time and numbers called without any disclosure of content — apparently violates privacy rights.

I’ve always been a pretty big fan of the Ten Commandments. My favorites is the one that says “Thou shalt not judge.”Oh, that one isn’t in there, you say?Sorry, it’s easy to forget nowadays, especially in this country where many Christians carry on as though the entire Bible could be summed up by the phrase, “it’s all good, bro.” In actual fact, there are a lot of urgent truths and important moral lessons in the Bible. Interestingly, almost all of them have fallen out of favor in modern American society. Here are just a few verses that aren’t particularly trendy...

SAN DIEGO -- After two decades of legal and political wrangling, a federal judge Thursday ordered the cross atop Mt. Soledad removed within 90 days as a violation of the separation of church and state. But U.S. District Judge Larry Burns stayed the removal order so that those defending the cross have time to appeal. Built in 1954, the 43-foot cross is one of the most visible landmarks in San Diego. Starting in the early 1990s, plaques honoring military veterans have been placed on walls surrounding the base of the cross.

The U.S. Senate today approved to a prominent federal court pro-abortion Cornelia Pillard, a law professor President Barack Obama selected for an appointment to the most important appeals court in the nation. Obama’s pick for the D.C. Circuit Court, who is one of the most pro-abortion ever nominated, previously was a filibuster victim, but that changed when Senate Democrats unilaterally changed the filibuster rules to prevent pro-life Republicans from blocking such judges. Pillard was confirmed 51-44 to the DC Circuit Court after Senate Republicans had previously defeated her nomination before Reid deployed the Nuclear Option was employed. All of the...

A Texas jury was recently lambasted in open court for committing jury nullification by visiting judge Jerry Ray because they acquitted a defendant in a driving while intoxicated (DWI) case. Judge Ray went so far as to equate the jury’s verdict with the acquittal of O.J. Simpson. Unfortunately, like many judges, Judge Ray did not understand what jury nullification is, what juries do, or his own obligations as a judge. Jury nullification occurs when a criminal jury votes not guilty, in spite of proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt, because they believe the law is either unjust or is being...

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid showed up for a phone interview on The Diane Rehm Show on NPR to discuss shredding the filibuster for presidential appointees. A very polite Rehm asked if this might make partisanship worse. “I'm sorry to smile, as you can't see on radio, but more dysfunction? I mean, gee whiz,” Reid replied. But underneath the Nevada-nice routine came an attack out of nowhere on black libertarian judge Janice Rogers Brown as one of the “extreme right wing people” the Senate confirmed in the Bush years. **SNIP** Later, Reid added that “we put on that...

LAS VEGAS — A judge in Las Vegas has rejected O.J. Simpson's bid for a new trial. The decision Tuesday means the former football star must remain in a Nevada state prison where he is serving nine to 33 years for armed robbery and kidnapping in a bungled attempt to retrieve personal items from two sports memorabilia dealers in 2007. Simpson was sentenced to prison in 2008. He'll be 70 years old before he is eligible for parole.

Now this is my kind of American. In a packed courtroom, 52-year-old Ernie Tertelgte told the judge “I am a living man protected by natural law and I have the right to forage for food when I am hungry… You are trying to create a fictitious, fraudulent action.” Charged with fishing without a license and resisting the arrest for fishing without a license, Mr. Tertegte says he’s being wrongly prosecuted for trying to feed himself. Tertelgte, 52 years old, was arrested on Monday and is accused of fishing without a license and then resisting arrest.

A federal judge Tuesday gave the go-ahead to a lawsuit challenging Obamacare insurance subsidies — but refused to immediately block them while the case proceeds. The latest legal challenge focuses on whether the controversial 2010 law allows for subsidies in all states — or only in states that have set up exchanges. Only 16 states and the District of Columbia chose to set up online marketplaces where people without private health insurance can shop for it. The federal government is running the exchanges in the remaining states. Subsidies, in the form of tax credits, are available to people with annual...

FULL TITLE: Judge's decision to allow Lisa Mehos' abortion to be used as evidence in New York custody case causes stir A holy war broke out in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday over a judge’s decision to allow testimony about a woman’s abortion to be used against her in an ugly custody case. Lisa Mehos’ lawyer, Emily Jane Goodman, told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lori Sattler her decision to allow the evidence about her client’s procedure — which happened after her split from banking big Manuel John Mehos — was “scandalous and outrageous.” “This might go over well in Texas...

Judge Jeanine delivered another fantastic monologue, blasting the administration for denying death benefits to military families. But not only that, she went after Congress as well over this entire debacle and said that every one of them needs to be thrown out for letting it come to this. Watch:

District Justice Kelly S. Ballentine removed from the bench and arrested for 9 felonies.

On Jan. 16, Jagjeet Singh, 49, a long-haul truck driver from California on his way to pick up chickens for delivery in Texas, was pulled over for driving with a flat tire in Pike County, Miss. Officers at a weigh station operated by the Department of Transportation demanded that Singh turn over his "kirpan," a 3-inch ceremonial blade carried by all Sikh men and frequently sewed into the waistband of their trousers, according to the ACLU. "Contending, wrongly, that his kirpan was illegal, the DOT officer demanded that Mr. Singh turn it over. Mr. Singh tried to explain that he...

Senator Marco Rubio withdrew his support for Judge William Thomas’ nomination Tuesday to the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida despite having backed the nomination more than 10 months ago, according to the New York Times. For confirmation to move forward, a nominee must have support from both United States senators in their home state. Senator Rubio said he was concerned about two decisions in cases made by Judge Thomas. If Thomas had been confirmed to the court, he would have been the first openly gay black judge on the federal bench. Rubio said he was concerned...

A Superior Court judge in Bristol “expressed his contempt for the right to keep and bear arms’ in a closed door meeting in his chambers, the state gun rights group Connecticut Carry reported last Thursday in a media advisory. Judge Robert C. Brunetti “exposed his bigotry for fundamental civil rights in front of at least three defense attorneys,” the group explained. “No one in this country should have guns,” the judge reportedly stated, adding “I never return guns.”

On a glorious springtime visit to San Francisco — where the “if it feels good do it” culture is reflected in the bumper sticker “Your body may be a temple, but mine’s an amusement park” — I was struck by the tattooing trend, as if body art is the modern version of big shoulder pads or miniskirts, not a sign of rebellion. Personally, I prefer art on a canvas, not a human chest, though in healthy societies, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Then I encountered a scantily clad, tattoo-festooned woman on whose neck and jaw was emblazoned