Free Republic

The list is growing of judges who moonlight as the President of the United States. These ‘judges’ have reversed executive orders, prevented the firing of federal employees, even ordered deported gang members returned to the United States. No one should be surprised at this judicial insurgency. For decades Democrats have “judge shopped” to get their case before a “friendly” judge. The openly corrupt part of this tactic is having ‘friendly’ not impartial judges. But the crazy stuff eventually got overturned and the system worked. So how did we get to this place where the system no longer works?Well for anyone...

Smartmatic, the electronic tabulator company suing Fox News for alleged defamation following the 2020 election, failed in a February court hearing to disclose a meeting with Democrat megadonor Reid Hoffman, newly unsealed court documents allege. Following the 2020 election, both Fox News and Newsmax “hosted commentators who aired concerns that tabulators were not secure, were vulnerable to voter fraud, and had possibly changed Trump votes to Biden votes,” as described in these pages by Logan Washburn. Smartmatic sued, arguing the comments amounted to defamation. Fox previously settled a suit with Dominion Voting over similar allegations while Newsmax recently settled with...

A Michigan Court of Claims judge has struck down several pro-life laws designed to protect unborn babies and ensure women’s safety, ruling them unconstitutional under the state’s 2022 pro-abortion amendment. The decision, handed down Tuesday by Judge Sima Patel, eliminates a 24-hour waiting period, informed consent requirements, and restrictions on non-physicians performing abortions, prompting outcry from pro-life advocates who argue these measures safeguard both mothers and their unborn children. The overturned laws, which included a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before an abortion, were intended to give women time to reflect on their decision and receive critical information about fetal development...

It’s debatable whether the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost, (Leo XIV), as the first American pope has displaced Donald Trump as the most important American. MAGA supporters probably don’t think so. Certainly, Donald Trump isn’t likely to agree either. However, there is one thing leftist pot-stirrers such as David French at the New York Times and MAGAmericans might both agree on -- that White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller, is quickly becoming an important voice of the Trump Administration, a MAGA hero, and a Mainstream Media nemesis. But it’s not what Miller has just done in his White...

A magistrate judge warned US Attorney Alina Habba and ICE against ‘out-of-court’ statements about the case against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka during a hearing on Friday. Public statements made by Alina Habba and ICE spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin following Ras Baraka’s arrest are at issue. The Mayor of Newark was arrested for criminal trespass on Friday after storming the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility. ..... Snip..... On Friday, Alina Habba said Mayor Baraka was taken into custody after he ignored multiple warnings from DHS agents. “The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations...

The Trump administration scored a major victory on Monday after a federal judge ruled that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can share its database with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to help locate and identify alleged illegal migrants. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich sided with the Trump administration in a lawsuit brought by the immigrant-rights group Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, by declining to issue an injunction to block the two government agencies from partnering on illegal immigration. Friedrich ruled that the partnership, which allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to submit names of illegal migrants to the IRS,...

A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Tuesday became the first to say President Trump can invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport Tren de Aragua gang members. US District Judge Stephanie Haines, a Trump appointee, said President Trump’s description of the Venezuelan gang’s “incursion” into the US meets the threshold to invoke the Alien Enemies Act. “Having done its job, the Court now leaves it to the Political Branches of the government, and ultimately to the people who elect those individuals, to decide whether the laws and those executing them continue to reflect their will,” the judge wrote. The judge...

The woke, activist judiciary is getting more bad news from the right as legislators wake up to the judiciary’s attempt to usurp its authority and the authority of the executive, as shown by the late-April spat between US District Judge Jennifer Thurston and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) after Thurston demanded law enforcement act contrary to current law. As background, the issue revolved around Judge Thurston’s order in which she banned United States Customs and Border Patrol agents from arresting suspected illegal aliens without a warrant. That ruling is contrary to federal law regarding when Border Patrol agents can arrest illegal...

A school board in Colorado cannot remove sexually explicit, profane, and “transgender” books from school libraries because the school board is conservative, according to a federal judge touted as the first openly lesbian judge west of the Mississippi. The ACLU’s Colorado chapter filed a suit on behalf of two minors, the NAACP Wyoming State Area Conference, and the Authors Guild, claiming that the school district engaged in viewpoint discrimination when removing the books. The judge granted a preliminary injunction in March, forcing the Elizabeth School District (in Elizabeth, a suburb southeast of Denver) to restore the books. Judge Charlotte Sweeney...

On Tuesday, May 13, the U.S. Court of International Trade will hear oral arguments in the case of V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump. This case challenges the legality of certain tariffs imposed on imported goods, raising important questions about the scope of executive authority and the impact of trade policy on American businesses. During the hearing, Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Counsel and Director of Litigation at Liberty Justice Center, will argue that the tariffs exceed the President’s statutory authority and violate constitutional protections for businesses engaged in international trade. WHO: Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Counsel and Director of Litigation for the Liberty...

A biological male trans activist once highlighted by PBS as a “trans woman of color” has pleaded guilty to stealing over $100,000 in federal COVID-19 relief funds through fraudulent business loan applications. Brandon Jarrow, also known as Brandi Jarrow, admitted to submitting false information in applications for two separate pandemic relief programs. He pleaded guilty on May 8 before US District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo in New Orleans, according to the Department of Justice for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Jarrow, 33, submitted a fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) application in June 2020, which resulted in a $95,000 disbursement...

Judges in several states say they have faced threats and intimidation tactics associated with pizza deliveries. Federal judges say unsolicited pizza deliveries to jurists’ homes that began in February may number in the hundreds across at least seven states, prompting increased security concerns and a demand from a Senate leader for a Justice Department investigation. Many of the deliveries have gone to judges presiding over lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s policies. The U.S. Marshals Service has been tracking the deliveries, and judges have been sharing details about their experiences in hopes of finding out more about what they call an...

Did Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor forget that it’s generally frowned upon for judges to display their political partisanship? It’s a question worth asking given that the Obama appointee appeared to do just that in her recent public remarks. On Thursday night, Sotomayor attended an event hosted by the notoriously left-wing American Bar Association (ABA), in which she seemingly made an indirect reference to President Trump and conservatives’ criticisms of the ongoing judicial coup among lower court judges who are stymieing the administration’s agenda via overreaching injunctions. As The Federalist’s Joy Pullmann previously reported, the ABA routinely “advocates for and...

In her recent address to the American Bar Association, Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke not as a neutral jurist interpreting the Constitution, but as a partisan urging mobilization against the sitting administration. Her remarks, delivered with careful modulation, carried all the marks of political rhetoric under the guise of moral urgency: "This is our time to stand up and be heard." To the untrained ear, these words may sound like little more than civic encouragement. But context clarifies tone, and tone unmasks motive. Coming from a sitting Supreme Court Justice, in a polarized environment, during open legal battles between the ABA...

The Trump administration’s global tariffs face their first major legal test this week when a little-known Manhattan court considers one of the president’s most sweeping assertions of executive power. A three-judge panel at the Court of International Trade will hear arguments Tuesday on whether to halt the levies, which have unleashed a trade war with the world and threaten to upend the global economy. The federal court, which has nationwide jurisdiction over tariff and trade disputes, operates for the most part in obscurity, rarely garnering a mention in major publications and staying off the radar of most attorneys. “Most lawyers...

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt mass layoffs of federal workers for at least two weeks in a temporary restraining order issued Friday.A coalition of local governments, nonprofit organizations and labor unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, filed a lawsuit last month challenging an executive order issued Feb. 11 that instructed federal agency heads to prepare large-scale reductions in workforce.The AFGE-led coalition had argued that the president does not have the power to make that order. Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of...

A federal judge in San Francisco has temporarily blocked the Trump administration's sweeping overhaul of the federal government. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee, came after a hearing Friday in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions, nonprofits and local governments. The plaintiffs argue in their complaint that President Trump's efforts to "radically restructure and dismantle the federal government" without any authorization from Congress violate the Constitution. Illston agreed with the plaintiffs, asserting in the hearing that Supreme Court precedent makes clear that while the president does have the authority to seek changes...

A federal judge in Vermont on Friday released a Turkish Tufts University student detained in a Louisiana immigration center more than six weeks after she was arrested while walking along a street in a Boston suburb, allowing her to return to her studies. U.S. District Judge William Sessions in Burlington released Rumeysa Ozturk pending a final decision on her claim that she’s been illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote last year that criticized the school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza. Details of her release and travel plans were not immediately available, and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement...

A federal judge on Friday issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) blocking the Trump Administration’s effort to overhaul and reorganize 20 agencies in the Executive Branch. In February, President Trump implemented an executive order to completely overhaul the Executive Branch through the work of DOGE. US District Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee, said in order for President Trump to make such large-scale overhauls, he needs approval from Congress. “It is the prerogative of presidents to pursue new policy priorities and to imprint their stamp on the federal government. But to make large-scale overhauls of federal agencies, any president must...

HUGE development in Alien Enemies Act case that SCOTUS entered a stay for an entire class that had not been certified. District judge now denies class certification This decision is first case where court denied class certification. Additionally, now that the court has denied class certification, it changes status quo of case before SCOTUS. The district court's order further illustrates problem with what SCOTUS did: SCOTUS an order barring an removal under AEA for plaintiffs that didn't exist because a class had not been certified (or not certified)...there was NO decision. Under normal circumstances, plaintiffs' attorneys would file a motion...