Free Republic

A federal appeals court on Friday lifted an injunction from crooked Obama Judge Amy Berman Jackson that had blocked the Trump Administration from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The DC Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 ruling allowed the Trump Administration to move forward and dismantle the CFPB. The three-judge panel included: Majority: Katsas (Trump), Rao (Trump), and dissent: Pillard (Obama). Politico reported: A federal appeals court panel has cleared the way for the Trump administration to largely dismantle the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, lifting a lower-court judge’s injunction that had preserved the agency’s...

A Multnomah County judge ruled on Thursday that the Portland Police Bureau does not have to enforce the city's noise ordinances on protesters involved in the 24-hour Antifa occupation outside the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in South Portland. Judge Ellen Rosenbaum's ruling stems from a writ of mandamus, filed on July 8 by a black disabled woman living in low-income housing across the street from the ICE office, which asked the Court to compel the city to enforce its noise ordinances on protesters who have been using bullhorns and a makeshift long-range acoustic devices (LRAD) to harass...

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore a portion of the 800 federal science research grants that it suspended at UCLA last month, delivering a major setback to efforts to force the university into a $1 billion settlement. California district court judge Rita F. Lin ruled Tuesday that the suspensions violated her June preliminary injunction in which she ordered the National Science Foundation to restore 114 grants it had terminated at the University of California and blocked the agency from cancelling other grants at the UC system. ”NSF’s actions violate the Preliminary Injunction,” Lin wrote. Her June order...

An Illinois judge denied Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to enforce arrest warrants against derelict state House Democrats. The Democrats fled to Illinois last week to block the Republicans from voting on a new congressional redistricting map. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatened the derelict Democrats with arrest and removal from office if they didn’t return to the Capitol. Judge Scott Larson said Paxton failed to “present a legal basis for the court to obtain subject matter jurisdiction over this cause of action…” The Hill reported: An Illinois judge on Wednesday declined Texas Attorney...

A U.S. district court decided on Wednesday to strike down a 2017 federal regulation that exempted religious employers from the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for employer-sponsored health insurance to cover the cost of contraception. If the ruling holds, religious non-profit organizations such as the Little Sisters of the Poor may now be required to file for an accommodation process with the government that still maintains employees’ access to contraception without the religious organization having to pay. For-profit employers would have access to no religious exemption from the mandate whatsoeve

A federal appeals court panel cleared the way on Wednesday for the Trump administration to continue refusing to spend billions of dollars in foreign aid, finding that aid organizations that had sued to recover the money lacked the legal right to bring the challenge.The decision, which centered on President Trump’s authority to withhold funding already appropriated by Congress, handed the White House a significant legal victory. Since taking office, Mr. Trump and his advisers have consistently claimed expansive authority to freeze federal dollars allocated for projects they have endeavored to snuff out — an action known as impoundment that legal...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A federal appeals court on Wednesday lifted an injunction that required the U.S. State Department to continue making foreign aid payments, handing a victory to U.S. President Donald Trump.

An LGBT advocacy group that filed an unsuccessful legal challenge to end religious exemptions to federal Title IX discrimination law for Christian colleges that receive federal funding is closing down. The board of directors for the Religious Exemption Accountability Project emailed an update to supporters on Sunday to announce that they are closing the organization's operations, citing "a serious internal issue" that affected its "financial and operational stability." "While we cannot share all details publicly, we are deeply grateful to the founders, students, alumni, volunteers, donors, and community who believed in this work from day one," stated REAP. "Founded as...

Obama-appointed Judge James Boasberg ordered the release of documents related to Jack Smith’s classified documents case and President Trump’s attorney-client privilege dispute. Jack Smith used a DC grand jury – and a radical Marxist Obama-appointed DC judge (Beryl Howell) in the classified docs case before quietly roving down to Florida to file the charges. Judge Beryl Howell ruled against Trump at every turn! In fact, Judge Howell previously ordered Trump’s lawyer Evan Corcoran to testify before a grand jury in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into classified documents stored at Mar-a-Lago. Judge Howell flipped Trump’s own lawyer Eric Corcoran into...

United States District Judge Nancy E. Brasel sentenced Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, age 36, to 28 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his role in a $300 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally program to feed hungry kids during the COVID-19 pandemic. Farah helped orchestrate the largest known COVID-19 fraud scheme called Feeding Our Future in Minnesota. Farah and his co-defendants stole more than $47 million by claiming to serve 18 million meals to kids at more than 30 food distribution sites. Farah was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $47,920,514. He's...

Did you know Judge Boasberg protected Ray Epps? He gave Ray probation while locking everyone else up. That is why it is important for Americans to once and for all know if Ray Epps was a federal asset on Jan 6th. (Hint: he was) It would unravel the entire operation. ... It's pathetic that Republicans have not dragged Boasberg through the impeachment process yet. ... rinos and dems are on the same team ... Raskin, Epps, Norm Eisen and his filmmaker Nick Quested all need to be investigated for J6. ... Don’t forget Jamie Raskin…he and Ray Epps I believe...

Federal agents detained day laborers outside of a Home Depot in Van Nuys during two raids Friday morning, raising questions over whether their actions may violate a court order that bans agents from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate immigration arrests.The operations took place around 7:35 a.m. and then again at 11:50 a.m. outside the Home Depot on Roscoe Boulevard, according to Maegan Ortiz, executive director of Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California, which runs a resource center for day laborers directly next to the store. The Department of Homeland Security, which includes Customs and Border Protection...

Professor says he had immunity after contracting the virus so ‘it made no sense to force him to get a vaccine’ Nearly five years since the COVID-19 virus took the world by storm, those claiming injury from government vaccine mandates continue to come forward with new cases for litigation. Such is the position of Professor Russell Stewart (pictured), who lost his job after his opposition to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s vaccine mandates. Now, the professor is suing the Democrat governor and leaders of Lake Superior College, a public community college in Duluth. On Tuesday, his lawyers at the New Civil...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 Friday that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg cannot move forward with possible contempt proceedings against the Trump administration. The case involves the administration’s alleged violation of an emergency court order blocking the administration from using a 1798 law to summarily deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador — the latest in an evolving, high-stakes court clash that has played out for months in various courts. Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, two Trump appointees on the majority-Democrat bench, sided with the Trump administration Friday in blocking Boasberg’s contempt...

A federal judge abused his authority in pursuing contempt proceedings against Trump administration officials for removing alleged Venezuelan gang members from the United States in violation of a court order, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was split 2-1, with two Trump appointees in the majority and an Obama appointee dissenting. The decision overturns Washington-based Chief Judge James Boasberg's finding of probable cause that officials could be held in criminal contempt.

MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered a temporary halt to construction at an immigration detention center — built in the middle of the Florida Everglades and dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” — as attorneys argue whether it violates environmental laws. The facility can continue to operate and hold detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but workers will be barred from adding any new filling, paving or infrastructure for the next 14 days. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued the ruling during a hearing and said she will issue a written order later Thursday. Environmental groups and the Miccosukee...

Known for the eponymous reptiles that inhabit the nearby swamps, the migrant detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" faces the possibility of being shut down over concerns about some of the area's lesser-known inhabitants -- the Everglades' bats, panthers, and storks.A federal judge on Wednesday is set to hold an evidentiary hearing over whether to block operations at the controversial facility because construction of the site allegedly bypassed federally required environmental impact studies.The hearing -- at which federal, state, and tribal officials are expected to testify -- comes amid heightened scrutiny of the facility, which was once touted as a "one-stop...

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday ruled Texas can enforce a law requiring ID numbers for mail-in ballots. A three-judge panel unanimously overturned a lower court’s block on the state’s mail-in ballot requirements. The three judges included: Judge James Ho (Trump), Judge Don Willett (Trump), and Judge Patrick Higginbotham (Reagan). “We have no difficulty concluding that this ID number requirement fully complies with a provision of federal law known by the parties as the materiality provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” the judges ruled. “The ID number requirement is obviously designed to confirm that each mail-in ballot...

With the second Trump term, reestablishing the rule of law is underway, but its universal realization is uncertain. Federal anti-discrimination law is clear enough, but hasn’t been enforced, or has been bizarrely interpreted to not only allow men pretending to be women to participate in women’s sports, but to suggest that was the intention of those writing such laws. Other laws have been warped not only to allow the surgical mutilation of gender confused children, but to force taxpayers to pay for the procedures and to entirely abrogate parent’s rights to direct the upbringing of their children. Kamala Harris ran...

Truly glorious irony. The state attorney general has asked a federal judge in Mississippi to explain errors in a recent ruling, which some lawyers speculated were made by artificial intelligence. U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate issued a temporary restraining order on July 20 that paused the enforcement of a state law that prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools. But the order was riddled with mistakes — naming plaintiffs who weren’t parties to the suit, quoting state law incorrectly and referring to cases that don’t appear to exist.