Free Republic

More than 20,000 immigrant truck drivers will be able to keep their licenses in California, at least temporarily, despite efforts by the Trump administration and the state of California to revoke them, according to a tentative ruling Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court. The decision puts the state of California in a bind. The U.S. Department of Transportation already has repeatedly pushed the California Department of Motor Vehicles to rescind these licenses, which belong to many asylum seekers and other immigrants with temporary legal status, after the federal government found alleged clerical issues regarding the expiration dates on their licenses....

WASHINGTON — President Trump took a victory lap Thursday after a federal judge allowed his administration to carry on with construction of his prized $400 million White House ballroom. US District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, found that construction on the epic project was not a violation of a federal law, as alleged by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “Great news for America, and our wonderful White House! The Judge on the case of what will be the most beautiful Ballroom anywhere in the World, has just thrown out, and completely erased, the effort to stop...

A federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden on Thursday again ruled against the Trump administration’s third-country deportation policy, months after the Supreme Court blocked his earlier decision and rebuked him in a rare follow-up order. The Supreme Court not only stayed Boston-based Judge Brian Murphy's injunction over the same deportation policy in a 6-3 order last June, but the high court followed up with a second 7-2 order a week later admonishing the judge for flouting its decision. Murphy's latest ruling is also likely to land before the justices, setting up a fresh test of the judge's decisions...

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche took to social media Friday to fire a U.S. attorney newly appointed to his post by judges, further engulfing the leadership of one of the most important prosecutor's offices in the country into uncertainty. Hours after the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia unanimously appointed James Hundley, an attorney with 35 years of experience to the role -- which was vacated after the appointment of President Donald Trump's handpicked attorney was deemed unlawful -- Blanche announced his termination with a snarky statement. "Here we go again. EDVA judges do not pick our...

A judge with the San Diego County Superior Court has ruled that Rady Children’s Hospital must continue offering so-called “gender affirming care” to minors, even after the hospital announced it would stop providing such services. Judge Matthew Braner ruled last week that the hospital must continue to offer transgender procedures, including things such as puberty-blockers and other hormone treatments, to patients under 19. The hospital had previously announced in January that it would stop offering the procedures. This prompted the California Attorney General’s Office to sue, arguing that ending these procedures violated state law.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia because a 90-day detention period has expired and the government has no viable plan for deporting him, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. The Salvadoran national’s case has become a focal point in the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to his home country last year. Since his return, he has been fighting a second deportation to a series of African countries proposed by Department of Homeland Security officials. The government “made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of...

The country’s most famous “Maryland Man” is allowed to stay free in Maryland for the foreseeable future, thanks to a federal judge’s ruling. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, appointed in 2016 by then-President Barack Obama, declared Tuesday that the government had presented no viable plan for deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia, according to the Associated Press. Unless a higher court intervenes, the Salvadoran national can’t be held while he faces an indictment charging him with human smuggling.

NEW YORK/ WASHINGTON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge in Pennsylvania ordered the National Park Service on Monday to reinstall a slavery exhibit at a Philadelphia historic site, pending the outcome of litigation after the city sued the government over its removal. The exhibit was dismantled and removed last month in response to President Donald Trump's claims, rejected by civil rights groups, of an "anti-American ideology" at historical and cultural institutions. "The government claims it alone has the power to erase, alter, remove and hide historical accounts on taxpayer and local government-funded monuments within its control," U.S. District...

Are jobs exploding or is the economy in free-fall? Because of radical policies forced on the Census department by the real unelected Kings of America, judges, the bureaucrats in Washington don't know. If we knew how many illegal aliens there were, we could estimate the effect of giving hundreds of billions of dollars of aid. We could tell pro-illegal states to pay for their own voluntarily assumed costs. We could even ask the courts to reassign congressional representation from illegal aliens to U.S. citizens. So the Kings simply demanded ignorance by preventing us from knowing how many illegal aliens there...

BOSTON (AP) — A college student deported to Honduras while traveling for Thanksgiving in November must be returned to the United States within two weeks, a federal judge in Boston ruled Friday. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns issued an order that required the return of 19-year-old Babson College freshman Any Lucia Lopez Belloza by the end of February. ... Asked about the decision, the Department of Homeland Security e-mailed a statement saying Lopez Belloza received “full due process” and a final order of removal. The federal agency said she entered the U.S. in 2014 and that the removal order was...

🚨 BREAKING — TRUMP VICTORY: A US Appeals court has just VACATED an activist judge’s injunction which HALTED President Trump’s executive order gutting DEI in the federal government President Trump is now free to fire ANY AND ALL DEI hires which plague the executive branch. FINALLY!

***U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled the government must pay to fly back or accept at a port of entry any of the men who are now in countries other than Venezuela. Upon arrival in the U.S., they will be detained as they fight accusations they are Tren de Aragua gang members. The judge previously ruled the government violated the due process rights of the 137 Venezuelan men, and they were entitled to a hearing. But Boasberg had left the door open for a legal process that didn’t entail their physical return. “Apparently not interested in participating in this process,...

A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon from downgrading the military retirement rank and pay of Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, finding that the government had "trampled on Senator Kelly's First Amendment freedoms."A retired Navy captain, Kelly drew the Trump administration's ire after he and five other Democratic lawmakers posted a video urging members of the military to "refuse illegal orders."U.S. District Judge Richard Leon's order prohibits the Defense Department and the Trump administration from taking any adverse action against Kelly to reduce his retirement rank and pay."This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have...

JUST IN: Judge BOASBERG has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Venezuelan men illegally deported under the Alien Enemies Act and who are currently in countries other than Venezuela. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436/gov.uscourts.dcd.278436.247.0_4.pdf

BREAKING: Judge blocks Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth's attempt to discipline/demote Sen. Mark Kelly over his comments re Trump-ordered boat strikes. Judge Richard Leon (GWBush) says admin is trying to strip 1st Amendment rights of military retirees. Doc: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2026cv0081-37

A former Army Colonel from Florida was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday for trying to woo a woman he met online by sending her secret classified battle plans. Retired combat vet Kevin Charles Luke, 62, was working as a high-level civilian contractor with “top secret” clearance at US military headquarters in Tampa in October 2024, when he texted a photo of plans for a Middle East attack to his new fling, according to court documents. “Sent to my boss earlier,” he wrote in the text, which included a photo of an email on his work computer at Central...

An Arizona judge on Friday struck down three of the state's pro-life laws, claiming that they violate the state constitution. Arizona voters approved an amendment enshrining a "right" to abortion in the state's constitution in 2024, and since then, pro-abortion organizations and lawmakers have worked diligently to overturn the state's pro-life protections. Key Takeaways: * Judge Gregory Como overturned state laws prohibiting the use of telemedicine for abortion pill distribution, a 24-hour waiting period with a mandatory ultrasound, and a ban on discriminatory abortions. * Como cited Prop 139, the state's pro-abortion constitutional amendment, as his reason for overturning the...

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration's attempt to force Michigan to hand over its full, unredacted voter registration rolls. The judge ruled that federal law does not require the state to disclose voters' private information. U.S. District Judge Hala Jarbou of the Western District of Michigan dismissed a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice after Michigan refused to provide a complete voter list containing personally identifiable details. Jarbou, who was appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, granted the state's request to toss out the case. The dispute began last year as the Justice Department...

The state can require federal agents to display identification, the judge said. The Trump administration had asked the court to block both laws, which were designed to help identify federal agents. A federal judge on Monday said that California could not prohibit federal law enforcement agents from wearing face masks unless it amended the law to also apply to state agents. But the judge did allow the state to require federal agents to display identification. Judge Christina A. Snyder of the Federal District Court in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction against the mask ban, ruling that California’s new law...

Patricia Martin, a lawyer turned judge who spent 24 years on the bench, rising to become the top judge in Cook County's Juvenile Court, seemed to have the credentials to be trusted handling the finances of Oscar Lawton Wilkerson as he reached his mid-90s. She had been related to the former Tuskegee Airman and agreed to help. Instead of helping Wilkerson, court records show Martin instead helped herself to his cash, moving money from his accounts and buying bitcoin. Eric Puryear has known Wilkerson his entire life, as his grandfather was Wilkerson's best friend. They trusted Martin to manage the...