Free Republic

The State Department failed to launch the program on time, jeopardizing a pathway to permanent U.S. residency for up to 55,000 people. ========================================================================= SAN DIEGO (CN) — A federal judge in San Diego ordered the U.S. Department of State on Wednesday to reopen the diversity visa lottery for 2027, also known as the Green Card Lottery. U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta’s preliminary injunction will allow for up to 55,000 people from around the world to apply for permanent residence in the United States. The Trump administration, which has opposed the program, did not open the program’s registration period on time...

The Trump administration pushed for an unusually aggressive search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s house in recent days in an immigration fraud probe that targets the congresswoman, possible false statements made on government documents, and a potential conspiracy, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation. Prosecutors, however, first had to contend with a federal magistrate judge, in a prolonged back-and-forth that hasn’t previously been reported. Judge Matthew Sharbaugh of the DC District Court ultimately limited how the Justice Department could access Omar’s documents in Monday’s search, before he would approve the warrant, because of her role as a member of...

Ex-prosecutor Jack Smith's team got permission to monitor the phone of Donald Trump's top aide from two federal judges openly critical of the president and did not reveal in their written request to those judges it would be secretly tracking contacts with criminal defense lawyers, according to freshly unsealed court records. Pause Unmute Current Time 0:12 / Duration 0:50 Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen By Steven Richards and John Solomon Published: October 12, 2026 6:03am Updated: October 12, 2026 7:46am Article Dig Deeper Ex-prosecutor Jack Smith's team got permission to monitor the phone of Donald Trump's top aide from two federal judges openly...

A Biden-appointed judge has ruled that the Trump Administration must cease the production and airing of government-funded advertisements ahead of the midterms. In other words, Trump can no longer promote the United States of America or his administration in government-funded ads. The Department of Homeland Security told the court last night that there were “no plans” to air additional ads, while asking the judge to reject the request by progressive groups for an emergency order to block the ads. Still, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon ordered the Trump Administration to stop using DHS funds to create or disseminate the ads...

A federal judge on Sunday ordered the Trump administration to stop airing ads funded by the U.S. government that portray President Donald Trump in a favorable light, effective immediately. The lawsuit was brought by watchdog group Common Cause; an individual named Robert Hunter, who is a Democratic candidate for a seat in the Alabama state House; and a labor union in New York and its political action committee. The suit was one of several similar complaints — including one by the Democratic National Committee — that were filed in an effort to get the ads off the air.

A Biden-appointed federal judge has once again stepped in to shield dirty voter rolls from federal scrutiny, striking down the Justice Department’s nationwide effort to collect registration records and identify suspected non-U.S. citizens on the rolls. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, ruled that the Department of Justice overstepped its bounds by demanding unredacted voter registration lists and cross-referencing them using federal databases. According to the 78-page ruling, the DOJ began requesting complete, unredacted statewide voter registration lists (including names, dates of birth, addresses, and driver’s license or partial Social Security numbers) from 49...

A federal judge has struck down the Trump administration's plan to check state voter rolls against federal immigration databases, a blow to the administration's election-related efforts in the run-up to the midterms.In a 78-page ruling, D.C.-based U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan wrote Friday that the Justice Department "cannot run roughshod over longstanding laws that were carefully crafted to protect the rights of the American people."

Over the course of an hour-plus hearing Thursday, US District Judge Timothy Kelly signaled skepticism about the Trump administration’s arguments for allowing President Donald Trump to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. Kelly, who was appointed to the bench in Trump’s first term, did not announce his decision on the media outlet’s request for a long-term order that would maintain their access to the White House while their legal challenge plays out. But the judge repeatedly told Justice Department attorney defending the ban Thursday that he was bound by DC Circuit precedent – including the precedent...

Biden commie Judge David Leibowitz from Florida ruled in favor of a Jamaican national because it was federal prosecutors who brought the case under a federal statute against non-citizens voting. Leibowitz claims only states can decide whether noncitizens can vote. WTH? The dirty communists are out of control in America today! They know they need the illegal votes or Democrats CAN'T WIN! 🚨 BREAKING: One Biden Judge just found the federal law that makes it illegal for NONCITIZENS TO VOTE as UNCONSTITUTIONAL SUPREME COURT, NOW! U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz in Florida ruled in favor of a JAMAICAN national because...

I’ve already written volumes about the lawfare abuses of the Administrative Procedures Act, which was meant by FDR to restrain the massive bureaucracy he had brought into being, and which in the Trump era was reinvented as a blank check for any leftist group looking for a leftist judge to block anything and everything that the Trump administration might be doing. And so any federal judge could ‘arbitrarily and capriciously’ decide that an administration action that he or she doesn’t likely is ‘arbitrary and capricious’ and block it because it doesn’t have a reason that the judge likes. This effectively...

A federal judge threw out drug evidence after ruling a sheriff’s deputy violated the Fourth Amendment by pulling a month of a driver’s location history from Flock’s camera network without a warrant. U.S. District Judge Sara E. Hill granted Melisa Kyle’s motion to suppress and ruled the warrantless search of automated license plate reader data unconstitutional, according to the ruling. The drug prosecution against Kyle sits in the Northern District of Oklahoma. Tulsa County Deputy Freddie Alaniz began trailing Kyle’s Mazda SUV for no reason beyond its California plate, according to the ruling. He queried the Flock system for her...

A US judge dismissed a federal case on Thursday that accused a Jamaican national of illegally voting, finding the law criminalizing noncitizen voting was unconstitutional and delivering a blow to the Trump administration’s campaign against alleged election fraud. The ruling by Miami-based US District Judge David Leibowitz applies only to the case of Florida resident Chelsea Cox, who was charged in October 2025 with illegally voting in the 2020 election. It is not binding for judges in other cases. It marks a setback for President Donald Trump’s administration on noncitizen voting, a cornerstone of its push to highlight alleged election...

A federal judge in Manhattan has largely blocked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from making arrests at immigration courthouses in New York City and across the country, ruling the Trump administration policy authorizing the arrests was invalid. The decision indefinitely extends a temporary judicial stay issued in May that mostly paused ICE arrests at the city’s immigration courthouses. It also follows a similar ruling by a federal district court in California that largely banned such arrests across the country. District Judge P. Kevin Castel said federal officials were “arbitrary and capricious” in widely permitting ICE arrests at immigration courthouses...

A federal judge blocked the Education Department on Thursday from releasing a list of foreign donors to Harvard, Columbia and other top US universities — ruling that the disclosure of the confidential information could “constitute irreparable harm.” DC US District Judge Tanya Chutkan slapped the temporary restraining order on the Trump administration as it was seeking to publish a list of all foreign donors who have given up to $5.2 billion to the universities since 2020. So-called non-natural person entities accounted for the vast majority of the $5.2 billion, officials noted, rather than individual donors. “This would be a foreign...

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone’s ruling means federal contractors can’t continue construction in the national park or surrounding areas until a lawsuit opposing the work is resolved.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has formally filed a misconduct complaint against the Minnesota federal judges who admitted to the New York Times that they are using their power as judges to obstruct the Trump administration’s agenda. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter told followers on X that the DOJ is targeting the judges for engaging in an “unethical partisan press tour on immigration cases.” “Judges who covet publicity undermine public confidence in the rule of law,” McCotter added. Attorney General Todd Blanche blasted the clearly biased judges, saying that the U.S. government has a right, “just like every litigant...

A US judge dismissed ​a federal case on Thursday that accused a Jamaican national of illegally voting, finding the law criminalizing noncitizen voting was unconstitutional and delivering a blow to ‌the Trump administration's campaign against alleged election fraud. The ruling by Miami-based US District Judge David Leibowitz applies only to the case of Florida resident Chelsea Cox, who was charged in October 2025 with illegally voting in the 2020 election. It is not binding for judges in other cases. It marks a setback for President Donald Trump's administration on noncitizen voting, a cornerstone of its push to highlight alleged election...

Lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump’s move to cancel $810 million in congressionally approved spending are piling up in courtrooms throughout the country as states and groups that receive federal dollars fight to keep the cash flowing. In the final hours before the fiscal year ended late Wednesday, a half-dozen states went to federal court to challenge Trump’s latest use of a controversial “pocket rescission.” A group that helps students from migrant families go to college also filed suit, trying to preserve about $25 million in education funding Trump is seeking to claw back. At least one federal judge so far...

Louis Geri will be spending the next five years and ten months in federal prison for threatening to detonate more than 100 improvised explosive devices on the steps of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, DC. Is that enough time behind bars? Probably not. You see, this wasn’t just a normal bomb threat. On Monday, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro revealed that the threat coincided with the annual Red Mass — a service often attended by Supreme Court justices and other senior government officials. Despite Geri’s high-profile targets, violent threats, and outrageous demands, Judge Randolph Moss granted a shorter sentence in response...

An Iowa judge on Wednesday threw out President Trump’s lawsuit over the Des Moines Register’s final 2024 poll and declared that even a wildly off election-eve survey is the kind of “erroneous statement” the First Amendment must protect. RedState readers will surely remember the poll in question. The Register published a wild outlier three days before the presidential election, suggesting Kamala Harris held a lead over her Republican opponent in Iowa. The Hawkeye State was not considered competitive. And it wasn't. Trump went on to win the state by 13 points. It was a 16-point miss that Trump described as...