Free Republic

A federal judge blocked a Trump administration rule just days before it was due to go into effect and make it harder for low-income migrants to obtain green cards, dealing a serious blow to the president’s immigration agenda. New York federal Judge George Daniels on Friday issued a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule, which takes into account a foreign national’s use of government benefits when they apply to live in the U.S. on a more permanent standing. Daniels — who was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President...

In an unusual move, Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Thursday ordered the White House to preserve records of President Trump’s dealings with foreign leaders.  Jackson, an Obama appointee, issued the order on Thursday and demanded the White House not destroy records of “meetings, phone calls, and other communications with foreign leaders.”Jackson’s order is in response to a lawsuit brought by radical left-wing watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.  The order by Jackson appears to cover President Trump directly, although it doesn’t mention Trump by name, it covers all “defendants,” and President Trump is one of the two defendants...

Freedom From Religion Foundation Files Complaint Against Judge Tammy Kemp For Giving Amber Guyger A Bible The organization says it protects the Constitutional principals of the separation of church and state. The Dallas County DA defended the judge's actions.

September 26, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge has rejected D. James Kennedy Ministries’ (DJKM) lawsuit against the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), ruling that labeling the Christian organization a “hate group” falls within the protections of the First Amendment. Formerly known as Coral Ridge Ministries, DJKM filed a lawsuit against SPLC in 2017 for “trafficking in false or misleading descriptions of the services offered under the Ministry's trademarked name.” The suit also named Amazon and the charity monitor Guidestar, because they relied on SPLC’s “hate” designation in their own classification of the ministry. Guidestar eventually relented, but the...

LOS ANGELES - A U.S. judge on Friday blocked new Trump administration rules that would enable the government to keep immigrant children in detention facilities with their parents indefinitely. U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles said the rules conflict with a 1997 settlement agreement that requires the government to release immigrant children caught on the border as quickly as possible to relatives in the U.S. and says they can only be held in facilities licensed by a state. Gee said the Flores agreement — named for a teenage plaintiff — will remain in place and govern the...

A New York judge on Friday ordered President Donald Trump to provide video testimony as part of an upcoming lawsuit brought by protesters who say they were assaulted by Trump's security guards during a 2015 protest outside of Trump Tower. Judge Doris M. Gonzalez wrote in her ruling that Trump's testimony is "indispensable" to the trial and so he must provide video testimony before the trial is set to begin Thursday. The Washington Post first reported the judge's ruling. The trial centers around a protest in September 2015 in front of Trump Tower in New York City where two protesters...

A federal judge ordered a temporary injunction Thursday against California’s first-in-the-nation law requiring candidates to disclose their tax returns for a spot on the presidential primary ballot, an early victory for President Trump but a decision that will undoubtedly be appealed by state officials. U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. said he would issue a final ruling in the coming days but took the unusual step of issuing the tentative order from the bench. He said there would be “irreparable harm without temporary relief” for Trump and other candidates from the law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in July. Morrison...

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...