Free Republic

A federal judge on Friday struck down key portions of President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at tightening citizenship verification for voter registration and absentee ballot applications, ruling the White House overstepped its constitutional authority. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said the Constitution gives states and Congress, not the president, the power to set rules for federal elections. Kollar-Kotelly blocked provisions in the executive order that would have required documentary proof of American citizenship on federal voter registration and absentee ballot forms. "The Constitution does not allow the President to impose unilateral changes to federal election procedures," Kollar-Kotelly wrote, permanently...

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, a Bill Clinton appointee, on Saturday ordered that five-year-old Liam Conejos Ramos and his father, an illegal from Ecuador, be released from a detention center in Texas after the two were taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis ---SNIP--- The truth, of course, was far different than what was being reported. It turned out that Conejo Arias had abandoned his son after agents approached a vehicle the two were in; the father took off on foot, apparently without regard for the safety and well-being of Liam. ICE agents kept Liam...

"In a stunning 5-4 ruling, the U.S Supreme Court has granted President Donald Trump broad wartime authority under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act" - breaking news dropping like thunder. This means Tren de Aragua thugs get shipped straight to El Salvador's monster prison - no more games, real enforcement hitting violent gangs hard and making streets safer for American families.

A federal judge on Saturday denied a state government request to block the Trump administration's deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In a ruling, District Court Judge Katherine Menendez said the immigration enforcement operation "has had, and will likely continue to have, profound and even heartbreaking, consequences on the State of Minnesota". But, she said, state officials had not proved that the Trump administration's surge of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis was unlawful. The ruling comes as thousands nationwide have taken to the streets to protest the fatal shootings of two US...

FOX 2 - A sitting judge and Detroit area attorney were among four suspects charged in an embezzling scheme victimizing incapacitated individuals' estates. Dig deeper: The US Attorney's Office said Nancy Williams, 59, Avery Bradley, 72, Judge Andrea Bradley-Baskin, 46, and Dwight Rashad, 69, were charged via indictment with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The indictment also charges Bradley with one count of wire fraud, Bradley, Bradley-Baskin, and Rashad with several counts of money laundering, and Bradley-Baskin with a single count of making a false statement to federal law enforcement agent. Bradley-Baskin is a district judge on Michigan’s 36th District...

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors can’t seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a federal judge ruled Friday, foiling the Trump administration’s bid to see him executed for what it called a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.” Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed a federal murder charge that had enabled prosecutors to seek capital punishment, finding it technically flawed. She wrote that she did so to “foreclose the death penalty as an available punishment to be considered by the jury” as it weighs whether to convict Mangione. Garnett also dismissed a gun...

A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem acted unlawfully when she ended legal protections allowing hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans to live and work in the United States. The decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that found she exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status (TPS) for Venezuelans under the Biden-era Venezuela TPS designations, according to The Associated Press. All three judges on the panel were nominated by Democratic presidents. The ruling comes as the Trump administration...

BREAKING: Bexar County, TX Judge Rosie Speedlin-Gonzalez ARRESTED for allegedly unlawfully having an attorney HANDCUFFED and locking him in a jury box Rosie was celebrated as the first openly gay judge to be elected in Bexar County

A New York federal judge on Friday dismissed murder and weapons charges against alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione, a major blow to prosecutors that means Mangione no longer faces a possible death penalty if convicted. Mangione, 27, previously pleaded not guilty to murder, weapons and stalking charges for allegedly gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in Midtown Manhattan in 2024. Public officials condemned the shocking killing, but Mangione became a folk hero of sorts to some Americans who decry steep healthcare costs and insurance practices. U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett in Manhattan said she dismissed the murder and...

Luigi Mangione won’t face the death penalty for allegedly executing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, a judge ruled Friday — dealing an embarrassing blow to the Justice Department. The 27-year-old still faces the possibility of life in prison without parole if convicted of executing health care honcho Brian Thompson in a December 2024 targeted hit on a Manhattan sidewalk. But Manhattan federal Judge Margaret Garnett threw out the charges against Mangione that could have led to a rare death penalty trial in New York. The jurist found that the death penalty-eligible parts of the case, brought by the US Attorney’s Office for the...

A federal judge in Oregon dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit seeking Oregon’s unredacted voter rolls on Monday in another setback to wide-ranging efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to get detailed voter data from states. In a hearing, U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai said he would dismiss the suit and issue a final written opinion in the coming days. The updated docket for the case showed that Oregon’s move to dismiss the case was granted. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield welcomed the move. “The court dismissed this case because the federal government never met the legal standard to get these...

NEW: Fox News has learned that Patrick J. Schiltz, the Minnesota federal judge who is threatening to hold ICE Director Todd Lyons in contempt of court & is ordering him to appear in court on Friday, appears in a 2019 list of donors & volunteers for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, an organization that provides free legal advice and representation for illegal immigrants. Judge Schiltz was appointed by President Bush in 2006.

A state court on Tuesday blocked Virginia Democrats’ redistricting effort, delivering a setback to the party’s plans to redraw congressional lines ahead of November’s midterm elections. Tazewell County Circuit Judge Jack Hurley Jr. ruled that Democrats in the General Assembly failed to follow the correct procedures when they launched a last-minute effort to change the state’s constitution and pave the way for a mid-decade redraw. Democratic legislative leaders said they intended to immediately appeal the ruling. If the ruling is upheld, however, it delivers a major blow to the party’s hopes of picking up as many as four additional seats...

Minnesota’s chief federal judge is ordering the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to appear personally in a Minneapolis courtroom on Friday, with the judge saying that ICE has failed to comply with dozens of court orders.

Perhaps the most successful front of the resistance against ICE in Minnesota has been inside federal courthouses in the state. As quickly as ICE agents can take illegal aliens off the streets in Minnesota, lawyers run to federal court and win their immediate release. Some 430 habeas petitions have been filed in just the past three weeks, completely overwhelming the system. From Politico, Minnesota judge summons ICE leader to court, threatens contempt sanctions. And not just any judge, The chief judge, a George W. Bush appointee, said the administration had repeatedly violated or slow-walked court orders in Minnesota. The judge...

There are multiple lawsuits ongoing involving the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota (Operation Metro Surge), but the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals just pressed pause on one of them, issuing a stay pending appeal in the case titled Tincher v. Noem.As Bob Hoge reported, U.S. District Court Judge Kate Menendez issued a preliminary injunction on January 16th, which: ordered agents not to retaliate against people “engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity,” or to use pepper spray or other “crowd dispersal tools” in retaliation for protected speech. The judge also said agents could not stop or detain protesters...

Federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis on Saturday morning, less than three weeks after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good and amid an ongoing surge in immigration enforcement action across the city. U.S. District Court Judge Eric Tostrud granted a temporary restraining order against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Saturday, barring the department from altering or destroying evidence connected to Pretti's killing. Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an ICU nurse who worked at the Minneapolis VA hospital, was identified as the man killed by a Border Patrol agent. The Department of Homeland Security said the agent...

A federal appellate court on Friday declined to order a lower court judge to sign arrest warrants against five people, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon, in connection with an anti-ICE protest inside a church in St. Paul, Minnesota. *** [T]he Justice Department asked the appellate court to compel the U.S. District Court in Minnesota to sign five arrest warrants over civil rights charges alleging the defendants were unlawfully interfering with the churchgoers' constitutionally-protected freedom to practice religion. *** Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz for the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota said that Micko only found probable cause...

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A battle is underway about the release of a convicted murderer with ties to the MS-13 gang who previously entered the United States illegally. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Boulware II ordered the release of Harvey Laureano Rosales, 54, by Jan. 22. In his Jan. 21 order, Boulware said the federal government violated Rosales’ due process rights in multiple ways, and noted he acknowledges Rosales’ criminal history, “while also acknowledging that he has served a lengthy sentence and been paroled for these crimes.” ... Rosales is a citizen and national of El Salvador who entered the...

As President Donald Trump aims to build a ballroom at the White House, federal Judge Richard Leon on Thursday reportedly asked Justice Department lawyers to point to what authority allows the president to engage in a construction project at the White House. "Where do you see the authority for the president to tear down the East Wing and build something in its place?" the judge asked, according to The Washington Post. While the outlet reported that Leon said he could issue a decision next month, NBC News reported that the judge promised that he would issue a decision in February....