Free Republic

The Trump administration violated federal law when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) slashed the workforce for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a court ruled this week. In a 32-page order on cross motions for summary judgment, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, a Bill Clinton appointee, found DHS "unlawfully usurped the authority" of FEMA "to make its own personnel decisions" with reductions in force (RIFs) throughout 2025. The original litigation, however, was much broader in scope. In April 2025, several unions led by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) sued over what they termed "the unconstitutional dismantling of...

A federal appeals court on Thursday compared the Trump administration's sweeping immigration detention policy to some of the darkest chapters in United States history, including the World War II internment of Japanese Americans, as it ruled that longtime undocumented immigrants are entitled to bond hearings while fighting deportation. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rejected the administration's argument that millions of immigrants who entered the country unlawfully could be held in mandatory detention without access to bond hearings. The ruling adds to a growing split among federal appeals courts that could ultimately force...

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....

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...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A federal judge has ordered a temporary restraining order restricting the ability of federal agents at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Portland from using tear gas and other chemical munitions at people unless there is an imminent threat of physical harm, according to court documents filed on Tuesday afternoon.“In a well-functioning constitutional democratic republic, free speech, courageous newsgathering, and nonviolent protest are all permitted, respected, and even celebrated. In an authoritarian regime, that is not the case. Our nation is now at a crossroads,” U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon wrote.Meanwhile, U.S. Sen....

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.

BOSTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's push to terminate the legal status of more than 8,400 family members of U.S. citizens and green card holders who moved to the United States from seven Latin American countries. Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction late on Saturday that prevents the Department of Homeland Security from ending the humanitarian parole granted to thousands of people from Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. They had been allowed to move to the United States under family reunification parole programs that were...

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...

It’s official. Sanctuary cities and states for illegal alien criminals are also sanctuaries for deadly assaults on immigration officers. In California, an Obama judge decided to let off an illegal alien who rammed his car into ICE officers. We now have a second case out of Seattle. A jury on Friday acquitted Victor Vivanco-Reyes, of four felony counts of assaulting federal officers with a deadly weapon, stemming from a June 2025 confrontation on Camano Island in which prosecutors said he rammed a truck and trailer into agents during an arrest attempt, injuring officers and damaging government vehicles. Vivanco-Reyes, a...

A federal judge on Friday issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and blocked ICE from arresting so-called peaceful protestors. US District Judge Katherine Menendez, a Biden appointee, also blocked ICE agents from deploying non-lethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools against protestors. Six individuals sued The DHS, DHS Chief Kristi Noem and other federal agencies to restrict ICE’s tactics. Approximately 3,000 federal agents have descended on Minnesota to arrest criminal illegal aliens. Judge Menendez also ruled that protestors may ‘safely’ follow ICE vehicles. The judge ruled: Covered Federal Agents are hereby enjoined from: a. Retaliating against persons who are engaging in...

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, the Massachusetts-based Obama judge who blocked the Trump administration from cutting federal funds to Planned Parenthood last month, issued a temporary restraining order on Saturday preventing the Department of Homeland Security from revoking the legal status of tens of thousands of foreigners. The Trump administration announced last month that it was terminating all categorical family reunification parole programs and corresponding work authorization for aliens from Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras as well as for their immediate family members, effective Dec. 15. Per the announcement, the "temporary parole period of aliens who...

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must stop requiring that grant applications not include terms related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), including the term “pregnant people,” under a new order from a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez, based in Seattle, said in the Jan. 5 ruling that plaintiffs in the case provided examples of harm related to instructions on grant applications from HHS. He ordered the government to stop enforcing a requirement that applicants certify they would not “operate any programs that advance or promote DEI ... or discriminatory equity ideology in violation of Federal...

Former FBI Director James Comey got another assist from a Clinton-appointed judge Friday as the Justice Department looks to hold him accountable for his role in Russiagate. Last month, U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, a Clinton appointee, ruled that Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was incorrectly appointed and therefore, the charges brought by her office against Comey were “defective.” “All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment … constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside,” the judge wrote. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced at the time that the Justice Department would be appealing the ruling....

The Trump administration must stop deploying the California National Guard in Los Angeles and return control of the troops to the state, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction sought by California officials who opposed President Donald Trump’s extraordinary move to use state Guard troops without the governor’s approval to further his immigration enforcement efforts. But he also put the decision on hold until Monday. California argued that conditions in Los Angeles had changed since Trump first took command of the troops and deployed them in June. The administration initially...

Justice Department lawyers said Tuesday that a recent ruling barring their access to key evidence has effectively crippled their efforts to reindict former FBI director James B. Comey, two weeks after their original case against him was dismissed. The concession came in a court filing urging a federal judge in Washington to lift a temporary order she imposed Saturday restricting the government’s ability to review or use emails and other electronic communications seized as part of an investigation more than five years ago involving Comey confidante Daniel Richman. Richman’s records had played a central role in the Justice Department’s effort...

WASHINGTON (CN) — A federal judge Tuesday night ordered the Trump administration to cease its campaign of arresting immigrants in Washington, D.C. without a warrant or probable cause of a flight risk, warning that the White House’s mistreatment of immigrants could put Americans overseas at risk. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that, while federal agents may have the authority to make warrantless immigration arrests, the way that authority has been used on the immigrant community in Washington was likely unlawful. “Defendants are preliminarily enjoined from enforcing their policy of conducting warrantless civil immigration arrests without probable cause to believe...

Judge James Boasberg took the next step toward ‘contempt prosecution’ after he revived his criminal contempt inquiry against President Trump over Alien Enemies Act deportations. A federal appeals court recently lifted the hold on Boasberg’s contempt inquiry so the judge is going full steam ahead and harassing Trump Administration officials. In March Boasberg granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the Trump administration from deporting thousands of Venezuelan nationals believed to be members of Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang under the Alien Enemies Act. In an unsigned order earlier in April, the US Supreme Court on Monday vacated Judge...

🚨 JUST IN: Eric Swalwell's lawsuit against Trump FHFA Director Bill Pulte has been assigned to Judge James BOASBERG. IMPEACH THIS CORRUPT JUDGE ALREADY!

A 19-year-old college student who was on her way to surprise her family for Thanksgiving break was detained at a Boston airport and later deported despite a federal judge's order blocking her removal, according to her attorney. Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, who entered the U.S. from Honduras when she was 8 years old, was about to board her flight to Texas last Friday to visit her parents and siblings when airport authorities told her to step aside, her attorney Todd Pomerleau told ABC News. Lopez Belloza was detained, informed that she had a removal order and then arrested, her attorney...