Free Republic

After Epstein’s mysterious death, hope for justice for his victims is fading away. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra has refused to invalidate a secret agreement that allowed deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein to avoid federal charges, issuing a ruling which indicated that his death effectively rendered the case moot. Epstein’s alleged victims filed a lawsuit with hopes to expose the federal government’s inappropriate behavior in how they handled the Epstein prosecution. Marra’s ruling has effectively thrown out that case, and the federal judge elaborated on his decision a 15-page order released on Monday. “As a result of Mr. Epstein’s death,...

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals – long a liberal bastion that has been aggressively reshaped into a more moderate court by the Trump administration – handed the president a major win late Monday, lifting a nationwide injunction on his asylum policy. Earlier in the day, Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in California had reinstated a nationwide halt on the Trump administration's plan to prevent most migrants from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, if they first crossed through another country on the way. But in an administrative order first obtained by Politico, the 9th Circuit rolled Tigar's ruling...

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts judge is facing a domestic assault charge after authorities say she grabbed her wife by the hair and pulled her head back during an argument. Prosecutors say Superior Court Judge Shannon Frison was released on personal recognizance after a court appearance Monday on a charge of assault and battery on a household or family member. The state court system placed her on administrative leave.

A U.S. judge in California on Monday reinstated a nationwide halt on the Trump administration's plan to prevent most migrants from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar ruled in Oakland that an injunction blocking the administration's policy from taking effect should apply nationwide. Tigar blocked the policy in July after a lawsuit by groups that help asylum seekers. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals limited the impact of Tigar's injunction to states within the area overseen by the appeals court. That meant the policy was blocked in the border states of California and...

Are House Democrats feeling pressure to speed up their attempts to find dirt on Donald Trump? If so, the federal court most certainly is not. Judge Trevor McFadden shot down attempts by the House Ways and Means Committee in its lawsuit over Trump’s tax returns to both get a summary judgment against the president and to expedite the case yesterday: A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday rejected House Democrats’ effort to speed up their lawsuit over their request for President Trump’s federal tax returns. …McFadden gave several reasons for denying the committee’s motion to expedite, as well...

BOSTON — A Massachusetts judge charged with helping an immigrant escape a federal agent waiting to arrest him will be paid while her legal battle plays out, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday. Reversing course in a closely watched case that has showcased official resistance to the Trump administration’s tough immigration policy, the Supreme Judicial Court said Newton District Court Judge Shelley Joseph would resume collecting her annual salary of $181,000.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. ruled Friday against the Trump administration's initial asylum ban, which was announced last November. Judge Randolph Moss vacated the government's policy barring migrants from claiming asylum if they did not enter the country through designated ports of entry. The judge found that it violates the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which oversees the ways federal rules are established. "Fortunately, the Court need not engage in such logical gymnastics because the language of the APA and the controlling D.C. Circuit precedent are unambiguous," he wrote. "The Court, accordingly, concludes that the proper remedy is to set...

Republicans have failed to promote a single conservative fiscal reform to even tweak the growing welfare state, despite their promise to fight for welfare work requirements. But at least Republicans at a state level are promoting conservatism, right? Well, not if the courts are crowned king of the republic. Courts have become the final arbiter of cultural issues and now even border and national security issues. Thus, it was only a matter of time before they ventured into fiscal/economic issues. Recently, several states have been conditioning Medicaid eligibility upon work requirements. Arkansas, Kentucky, and New Hampshire got a waiver from...

The Supreme Court said Friday that the Trump Administration can proceed to reallocate some $2.5 billion that Congress had earmarked for the Pentagon to build a border wall... the good news is that the High Court is finally sending a message about the proliferation of national injunctions by lower court judges.

Chaos erupted inside a Cincinnati courtroom on Monday as a former judge — convicted of using her position to help a family member — was dragged away to jail by a bailiff. Tracie Hunter, once a juvenile court judge, has been fighting her 2014 conviction and sixth-month sentence for improperly passing on information to her brother in a job dispute. And on Monday, after several appeals were exhausted, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker detailed the numerous letters and recommendations he's received, urging him to not put Hunter behind bars. But when Dinkelacker announced that he wasn't moved and...

A former juvenile court judge, a Democrat who took the bench after being declared the winner of a disputed 2010 election, was jailed Monday, and had to be taken out of the courtroom in Cincinnati, according to reports.

The New Jersey judge who refused to try a 16-year-old boy who was accused of rape as an adult — because he comes from a “good family” — has decided to step down, according to officials. The state Supreme Court granted Judge James Troiano’s request to resign on Wednesday and terminated his services effective immediately. The longtime family court judge reportedly retired in 2012, but was still hearing cases on a part-time basis in Monmouth County Superior Court. **SNIP** “This young man comes from a good family who put him into an excellent school where he was doing extremely well,”...

Former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Elsa Alcala, a longtime Republican, typically avoids politics on social media but broke that practice on Monday to denounce President Donald Trump, “for my own conscience,” she wrote on Facebook. Trump “is the worst president in the history of this country,” said her Facebook post. The president has an ideology of racism, the judge wrote, adding she couldn’t say anything positive that would absolve Trump of his “rotten core.” “I have been thinking about this for years and I hoped things would get better but they never did,” Alcala told Texas Lawyer. “I...

U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam on Friday night delivered a massive blow to President Donald Trump's plan to reallocate funds from the Defense Department to construct the highly-anticipated wall along America's southern border. Judge Gilliam, an Obama appointee, turned his previous temporary injunction into a permanent injunction, which barred the Trump administration from building the wall in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. President Trump declared a national emergency this year and redirected $6 billion from the Defense Department's various projects to build the border wall. Friday's ruling specifically blocks the administration from using $2.5 billion in military funds...

by Brian Hayes According to a ruling by Obama-appointed federal Judge Beth Bloom, it is not a crime for an illegal alien to use fake federal documents to obtain a state license. Rubman Ardon Chinchilla is a roofer who lives in Broward County, Florida and has been illegally living in the US for decades. Chinchilla got busted using fake immigration documents in order to obtain a Florida driver’s license and was indicted on two counts of violating federal law. Chinchilla was one of 20 illegal aliens who was arrested for using an “Order of Supervision,” — this is a specific...

A Massachusetts judge accused of helping an illegal immigrant evade ICE has had $127,000 in legal fees paid by taxpayers, . In addition, a court officer who was indicted along with the judge has benefitted from $2,500 in legal fees paid by the public, . Newton District Court Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph, ... Prosecutors claimed in court documents in April that Joseph, along with Court Officer Wesley MacGregor, 56, helped Jose Medina-Perez, a twice-deported illegal immigrant with a fugitive warrant for drunken driving in Pennsylvania, sneak out a back door – eluding agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement...

Mr. Bogren, a Kalamazoo-based lawyer, was nominated for the Western District of Michigan judgeship in March by the Trump administration. But Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Thom Tillis of North Carolina all voiced objections to Mr. Bogren’s nomination . . . Republicans objected to Mr. Bogren’s recent writings in a case in which he was defending East Lansing, Mich. The city barred a Catholic couple from participating in the farmers market over their opposition to hosting same-sex marriages on their farm, and the couple sued. In defending the city, Mr. Bogren compared the couple’s...

Cook County judge made unwanted sexual advances toward a court reporter, made inappropriate sexual comments about a prosecutor and tried to kiss a police officer — a pattern of harassing behavior toward women, a state board that oversees judges said in a complaint Thursday. The Judicial Inquiry Board charged that Judge Mauricio Araujo’s alleged conduct spanned from spring 2012 through fall 2018 and was directed “toward women with whom he has interacted in professional settings and in his official judicial capacity.” The board alleged that Araujo asked the court reporter “how much money” she wanted to have sex with him;...

Clinton-Appointed Judge Reverses Course, Covers For Deep State – Will Keep Flynn-Kislyak Transcripts Hidden From Public. ( Full title). Judge Emmet Sullivan, a Clinton-appointee, reversed course on Tuesday and allowed the Justice Department to keep the transcripts of the calls between General Mike Flynn and former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak hidden from the public. Judge Sullivan last month ordered the transcripts of the recorded calls between Flynn and Kislyak to be released by last Friday, but federal prosecutors defied the judge’s orders. ... these are the very transcripts that were already selectively leaked to David Ignatius of the Washington Post...

A federal court permitted a lawsuit to proceed against an Illinois school district that allows high school boys to use girls’ locker rooms, restrooms and showers in order to accommodate transgender students. But girls who don’t want to be seen naked by boys got bad news, College Fix reports. The judge ruled that they have no right to “visual bodily privacy” if the government says so. Dozens of families sued the Chicago-area Township High School District 211 three years ago due to its policy letting students as young as 14 choose to use the locker rooms of the opposite sex....