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PONTIAC, Mich. (CN) - After her decision to jail three children for being rude to their father ignited a media frenzy, a Michigan judge presiding over a bitter custody battle switched their punishment to summer camp Friday. Insisting that she had the best interests of the Tsimhoni children, ages 14, 10 and 9, at heart, Judge Lisa Gorcyca said at a hearing Friday that her earlier order sentencing them to juvenile detention did not endanger them, the Detroit Free Press reported. Gorcyca reportedly said the children were not housed with criminal offenders and that every alternative avenue presented to the...

It's a judge's duty to preside at the marriages of any couple that comes to him—heterosexual or homosexual—and if he is unwilling to do so, he "needs to step down.” That is the view of the  executive director of the LGBT rights group Equality Toledo,  Nick Komives, reacting to news of a Toledo, Ohio, judge who excused himself from the civil marriage ceremony of two lesbians.  “They didn’t deserve to be humiliated; they didn’t deserve to be inconvenienced,” Komives told the Toledo Blade. “That’s just wrong, and we won’t tolerate it. It is his duty to perform this ceremony, and...

Federal District Judge Andrew Hanen has entered a preliminary injunction preventing the implementation of President Obama’s post-election amnesty order. Since entry of the injunction, Judge Hanen has been apprised of certain misrepresentations regarding the status of Obama’s order. The parties are in the process of working out an agreement to resolve discovery issues and report to the court regarding those misrepresentations. In an order entered yesterday (posted online here), Judge Hanen pursues a related issue:

A federal judge in Virginia has ordered the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to cancel six of the Washington Redskins’ registered trademarks because their depiction of an Indian brave is considered offensive to Native Americans. “The evidence before the Court supports the legal conclusion that between 1967 [when the first Redskins’ trademark was registered] and 1990, the Redskins Marks consisted of matter that ‘may disparage’ a substantial composite of Native Americans,” U.S. District Judge Gerald Lee wrote in his July 8 ruling in Pro-Football Inc. v. Blackhorse. In his 70-page decision, Lee rejected the Redskins’ argument that the trademark...

Three Bloomfield Hills kids who refused an order by a judge to go to lunch with their father have been ordered to a juvenile detention facility. "I felt like I was watching them be executed," said Maya Tsimhoni. The Tsimhoni family was in Oakland County's family court for a hearing on supervised parenting time when Judge Lisa Gorcyca took matters into her own hands. Read the court transcript as the judge as she sent the three kids to Children's Village June 24 court transcripts showed how upset the judge was. She ordered the Tsimhoni kids ages 14,10 and 9 to...

A northwest Ohio municipal judge assigned to a courtroom where civil marriages are performed refused to marry two women less than two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, the judge’s office confirmed on Wednesday. Toledo Municipal Judge Allen McConnell was on a three-week rotation assigned to perform civil ceremonies on Monday when Carolyn Wilson and her partner asked to be married. McConnell acknowledged the decision in a Wednesday statement. “On Monday, July 6, I declined to marry a non-traditional couple during my duties assignment," he said. "The declination was based upon my personal and Christian beliefs established...

A Kansas judge has temporarily halted a newly-passed state law that bans dismemberment abortions that tear babies limb from limb. Planned Parenthood, which does abortions in Overland Park, and Trust Women, which operates a Wichita-based abortion clinic were behind the lawsuit. The latest abortion figures in Kansas showed abortions going down but the number of dismemberment abortions, or D&E abortions, rising from 584 in 2013 to 637 in 2014. They constituted 8.8% of the total 7,263 Kansas abortions reported. Here’s more on the ruling: The decision from Shawnee County District Court Judge Larry Hendricks came in a lawsuit filed from...

Earlier today, former AIG head Hank Greenberg's long-running legal battle of the US government came to a dramatic end when in a 75-page ruling, U.S. Court of Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler found that Greenberg was indeed correct in claiming the government overstepped its legal boundaries in its "unduly harsh treatment of AIG in comparison to other institutions" which was "misguided and had no legitimate purpose." But because “the question is not whether this treatment was inequitable or unfair, but whether the government’s actions created a legal right of recovery for AIG’s shareholders" Wheeler found that Greenberg was not owed any...

GOP-led House sued the Obama administration, citing changes to the Affordable Care Act made without permission from Congress  Republicans' case also complains that the administration is spending money on the program that Congress never appropriatedFederal judge blasted the Justice Department attorney before her on Thursday who claimed Congress hadn't been harmed by those choices'You don't really believe that, do you?' she asked?  'I have a very hard time taking that statement seriously'Judge demanded to know how changing the Obamacare law without Congress isn't 'an insult to the Constitution, as the House believes' Obama administration attorneys urged a federal judge Thursday...

On Monday, a federal judge struck down DC’s concealed carry law, calling the requirement for applicants to show “a good reason to fear injury to his or her person, which shall at a minimum require a showing of a special need for self protection distinguishable from the general community” as unconstitutional. Applicants had to document threats to their personal safety as well. Judge Frederick Scullin, who also struck down DC’s ban on carrying firearms outside of one’s home last summer, issued a preliminary injunction after two Florida residents sued over the DC’s onerous statute.

A federal judge has rejected the State Department’s plan to release most of Hillary Clinton’s emails as secretary of state in one large batch, insisting that the agency parcel out releases of the records over time.

The State Department has about three weeks to propose a date by which it will release tens of thousands of work-related emails former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent or received on her personal account, a federal judge said in an order issued Tuesday. Clinton´s former agency has pledged to use Freedom of Information Act procedures to process for release about 55,000 pages of emails the former secretary turned over in December after a State Department official asked four former secretaries to return copies of any official records they had. Clinton has since declared her candidacy for the Democratic presidential...

The 3-year-old was watching “SpongeBob SquarePants” when two thugs broke into their house and robbed them at gunpoint. When the case went to trial the two black assailants were found guilty. As part of the sentencing, Jordan and Tommy Gray wrote in a victim impact statement that their daughter is still in “constant fear” of black men.” Tommy Gray implored prison time for the attackers. Since the crime, Tommy Gray said the attack has left deep psychological wounds on their young daughter. Whenever we are running errands, if we come across a black male, she holds me tight and begs...

A California judge has reduced a child rapist's mandatory 25-year sentence down to only 10 - saying anything longer would be 'cruel and unusual punishment'. Superior Court Judge M. Marc Kelly told an Orange County jury that 20-year-old Kevin Jonas Rojano-Nieto 'did not intend to harm' the three-year-old girl he raped at his family home in June. The judge said that he was sure that although Rojano-Nieto sodomized the girl and covered her mouth so she couldn't scream out, 'there was no violence or callous disregard for the victim's well-being'.

Full Title: Judge dismisses libel suit by conservative video maker relating to telephone charade at Mary Landrieu's officeWASHINGTON -- A New Jersey federal judge has dismissed a libel case filed by a conservative video maker James O'Keefe, who disputed a news account of his misdemeanor conviction for trying to gain access to then Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office in 2010. New Jersey Federal Judge Claire Cecchi ruled last week that the coverage by Main Justice, which covers the Department of Justice, and the online publication's founder, Mary Jacoby, was protected under the First Amendment because "as a whole," it...

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