Free Republic

Today in a pre-trial hearing, an Ohio judge casually agreed with a motion filed by a prosecutor asking to ban a defendant from bringing up the United States Constitution or the constitutionality of the law under which he is charged with a crime. Judge Catherine Barber (or Kathryn Barber), a retired judge filling in for the Xenia Municipal Judge Michael Murray stated “there will be no mentioning of the Constitution” and then laughed when the defendant claimed that uttering words on a public sidewalk constitutes free speech. (The audio of the hearing can be found here: http://bambuser.com/v/5372976). This was in...

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen is not amused. The man who served Obama with an injunction preventing his illegal amnesty plans to see that Obama is not amused either. He has ordered that the administration be investigated over misleading him on amnesty and work permits for “Dreamers.” The administration told the judge they wouldn’t issue anymore work permits for new dreamers, when the fact is they have issued over 100,000 of them. The investigation will include a finding of whether the lawyers who handled the case for Obama knew of the illegal maneuver. If so, they will face disbarment or...

Did the Obama Administration Lie To A Federal Judge About Amnesty? RYAN LOVELACE March 5, 2015 The Texas attorney general is going to court to find out. Did the Obama administration lie to a federal judge about the President’s executive actions on immigration? The Texas attorney general’s office is filing a motion for discovery to try and find out. The motion seeks to uncover whether Justice Department lawyers explicitly deceived federal judge Andrew Hanen, who issued the injunction blocking Obama’s amnesty. “In an apparent attempt to quickly execute President Obama’s unlawful, unconstitutional amnesty plan, the Obama Administration appears to have...

A federal judge has ordered the federal government to grant U.S. civil rights to illegals who are caught at the border, and to release all migrants except for those who may endanger Americans. The migrants “may have legitimate claims to asylum … [and] their presence here may become permanent … [so] that they are entitled to the protection of the Due Process Clause, especially when it comes to deprivations of liberty,” said the judge, who was nominated by President Barack Obama. Under current rules, border-crossers who are released are also allowed to compete against Americans for jobs, and to attend...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Monday night that a federal judge has “granted” his request to “halt” President Barack Obama’s “Executive Amnesty Order” across the country. Abbott didn’t immediately offer any other details, but promised for information later. BREAKING: Federal Judge just granted my request to halt Obama's Executive Amnesty Order Nationwide. More later. #txlege #tcot @TexasGOP — Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 17, 2015

The federal judge who oversaw Detroit's historic bankruptcy case ruled on Thursday that the nearly $178 million charged to the city by law firms and consultants for fees and expenses was reasonable. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Steven Rhodes said he based his decision mainly on the complexity of the bankruptcy case filed in July 2013 as well as substantial reductions that the firms agreed to make in their bills. "The city is now on a path to success precisely because of the expertise, skill, commitment, endurance, personal sacrifice, civility and proficiency of all of the professionals in the case, including...

A public defender in Broward County, Florida attempted to excuse and justify a 26-year-old burglary suspect, Stephen Hall Clarke, for running from the scene of a police-related shooting on Monday. As his defense, he said that the suspect was running from racist cops. “Your Honor, in light of what’s happening in this country, with unarmed black men being killed…” public defender Dale Miller began to argue before the judge quickly cut him off. Judge John “Jay” Hurley wouldn’t have any of it, “Don’t hand me that! Don’t hand me that!”

It stands to reason that if abortion is viewed as morally and legally correct, other immoral acts will become socially acceptable as well. Now, according to a judge in Australia, incest is one of those acts. During the trial of a brother charged with raping his younger sister, Judge Garry Neilson said that incest may no longer be morally unacceptable because the only reason it is criminal is due to the potential for abnormalities in any conceived children. Neilson said that thanks to contraception and abortion, there is no longer that risk. The man on trial had raped his sister...

Elionardo Juarez-Escobar, a 42-year-old Honduran landscaper, was driving through a Pittsburgh suburb one evening last April when he saw a police sobriety check ahead. Drunk and without a license, he tried to avoid it. New Sewickley Township police managed to pull him over anyway. When they did, they found empty beer cans in the back seat, a minor named Henry Gomez on the passenger side and an inebriated driver. Escobar failed a field sobriety test, blowing 0.18, more than twice Pennsylvania's legal limit. He was arrested and charged with two counts of driving under the influence, corruption of minors, furnishing...

the top 14 “movers and shakers” in health care in 2014 because his legal analysis led to the upcoming Supreme Court case on Obamacare’s state subsidies that may blow the ACA sky high. Anyway, Jon flags a U.S. District Court opinion out this morning that finds Obama’s immigration executive action exceeds the proper understanding of “prosecutorial discretion”: According to the opinion by Judge Arthur Schwab, the president’s policy goes “beyond prosecutorial discretion” in that it provides a relatively rigid framework for considering applications for deferred action, thus obviating any meaningful case-by-case determination as prosecutorial discretion requires, and provides substantive rights...

Court of Appeals Judge Nora Longoria was allegedly begged for leniency during her DUI arrest in July. Last month, the District Attorney’s office said it lacked enough evidence to prosecute and another judge threw out the case. The DA said it never got the dashcam video, which showed Longoria stumble through her failed sobriety test. Could this be the evidence they never got? A month after a Texas court threw out a DUI case against a judge because it lacked strong evidence, police released dashcam video of her arrest that showed her stumble through a sobriety test.The new video, recorded...

Friend of Hillary??? McAllen police have released dashcam video from 13th Court Justice of Appeals Nora Longoria’s traffic stop that led to her DWI arrest. The dash cam video shows Longoria performing a field sobriety test. The footage shows she struggled to walk a straight line, and even stumbled several times during the test. According to a police report, she allegedly told him "Please let me go home. I live a couple of miles away” and "You are going to ruin my life. The case went to court November 20th, but the charges were dropped. DA Rene Guerra told Action...

An openly lesbian federal judge whose appointment was opposed by dozens of U.S. senators has ruled against a Christian former Navy chaplain who alleged his superiors engineered his dismissal from the service because he was not “ecumenical.” The decision by Elaine Kaplan of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims rejected the allegations of former chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, who recently was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives. He had routinely prayed “in Jesus name” as part of his work as a chaplain. The judge, who formerly worked for the National Treasury Employees Union, was opposed by 35 GOP senators when...

Judge Jeanine expertly displayed all the arrogance, hypocrisy and opportunism of Obama’s lawless executive action on immigration this week. It’s definitely worth a listen:

The Coalition for Children & Family and Hakshava are applying for a monthly permit to protest against Philip Marcus in Har Nof, Jerusalem. Organizers say Marcus is scheduled to speak at a parental rights conference being held tomorrow evening at the Israeli Bar on Daniel Frish #10 in Tel Aviv. “He has become a public figure against father's rights,” says “E”. “It is important that the public also hear the other side of the argument.” “E” refers to an article Marcus wrote in the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Fathers-protest-is-misguided-344043). Philip Marcus first made headlines when a divorced father threw a shoe at...

A federal judge Friday refused a government request to close her courtroom for a hearing next week for a Bolingbrook teen charged with attempting to go abroad to join the extremist group Islamic State.. Prosecutors had asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox to restrict access of the public and the news media during the Monday detention hearing for Mohammed Hamzah Khan because of "privacy concerns" involving two minors connected to Khan's case but not charged with any wrongdoing. In her four-page ruling, Cox said prosecutors had not met their burden to show that closing the proceedings would outweigh the "value...

ABCNews: Judge Rejects Attempt to Isolate Nurse October 31, 2014 5:52PM ET "A Maine judge gave nurse Kaci Hickox the OK to go wherever she pleases, handing state officials a defeat Friday in the nation's biggest court case yet over how to balance personal liberty, public safety and fear of Ebola."

A federal judge on Thursday blocked Texas from enforcing voter ID requirements just weeks ahead of the November elections, knocking down a law that the U.S. Justice Department condemned in court as the state’s latest means of suppressing minority turnout. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Corpus Christi is a defeat for Republican-backed photo ID measures that have swept across the U.S. in recent years and mostly been upheld in court. However, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday night blocked Wisconsin from implementing a law requiring voters to present photo IDs.

When government employees buy the California legislature with huge campaign contributions, one of the benefits they expect in return is absolute protection of the lush pensions they are promised, even when their employer goes into bankruptcy. Thus, California law insists that Calpers, the state-backed agency used to provide many government employees with their pensions, is granted very special powers, including the right to seize assets and liquidate them to provide for full payment of pensions, even when other creditors are paid a penny on the dollar.But yesterday, a federal bankruptcy judge in California issued a preliminary ruling indicating that once...

Correction: This post initially stated that Judge Tonya Parker was “no longer” marrying straight couples. Judge Parker has never performed such marriage ceremonies. This version has been corrected. Catholic priests have refused to marry same-sex couples for years. Judge Tonya Parker (Dallas County) Now, a Texas judge has an answer to that, saying she will not marry straight couples until gay marriage is legal in the state. Judge Tonya Parker of Dallas County told the Dallas Voice that she respectfully tells couples why she can’t conduct their marriage ceremony: “I'm sorry. I don't perform marriage ceremonies because we are in...