Free Republic

In the current debate over judicial nominations, some commentators claim Republicans such as myself are misrepresenting history by suggesting the current filibuster tactics of the Democrats are unprecedented. These commentators cite the 1968 nomination of Abe Fortas to be chief justice of the United States as an example of how Republicans once attempted to block a judicial nomination on the Senate floor. I welcome the opportunity to respond to this claim, because the more Americans learn about the history of judicial nominations, the more they will realize how terribly off-track our confirmation process has become. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson...

NEW: Leonard Leo is STILL sneaking Never Trumpers into the judiciary. Just last week, 4 nominees for the 8th Circuit Eastern District of Missouri had their judiciary committee hearing, and it’s SO bad. Every single one of the nominees agreed with Sen. Durbin that President Trump must follow the orders of radical judges who issue nationwide orders halting deportations of criminal aliens to places like El Salvador and Venezuela. Even worse, one nominee, Maria Lanahan, is married to Michael Lanahan, who worked for the Club for Growth—an organization that spent millions of dollars AGAINST Trump in the 2024 GOP primaries....

Not a week seems to go by without a rogue lower court judge issuing yet another overreaching edict designed to subvert the will of the American people. While these “judges” certainly deserve criticism for rubber-stamping leftists’ lawfare, there’s one individual who deserves primary blame for this concentrated effort to cripple Trump’s presidency via a judicial coup: Chief Justice John Roberts. Over the past five months, rogue lower courts have issued nearly 200 overreaching injunctions and temporary restraining orders attempting to prevent Trump from fulfilling his Article II obligation to execute the nation’s laws. And yet, despite this egregious usurpation of...

The Supreme Court handed down three blockbuster rulings Thursday focused on hot-button cultural issues, and all three of them went in the conservative direction. That’s not exactly a surprise—the court has a conservative majority, after all. The first real surprise was that the rulings were unanimous. The second real surprise? Each of the court’s three liberal justices wrote one of the opinions. Justice Elena Kagan, a Barack Obama appointee, wrote the opinion in Smith & Wesson v. Mexico, upholding the rights of U.S. gun manufacturers from Mexico’s attempt to sue them, blaming them for abetting cartel violence. ... Justice Sonia...

The Supreme Court unanimously decided on Thursday to limit environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects in a case that will have sweeping impacts on President Donald Trump’s energy agenda. In a move that will restrict power of federal judges, Thursday’s decision reduces the scope of reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to focus solely on immediate impacts. Under NEPA, federal agencies are required to study any potentially significant environmental consequences of federal permits for infrastructure projects. “NEPA does not allow courts, ‘under the guise of judicial review’ of agency compliance with NEPA, to delay or block agency projects...

Migrants deported to South Sudan by Donald Trump include murderers and sexual abusers, the Daily Mail can reveal. The latest deportations come as a federal judge ruled U.S. officials must retain custody and control of the migrants in case he orders in the future that their removals were unlawful. U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts issued the ruling late Tuesday after an emergency hearing. Attorneys for the immigrants said the Trump administration appeared to start deporting people from Burma and Vietnam to South Sudan despite a court order restricting removals to third-party countries. The Daily Mail can now...

During Supreme Court oral arguments in the Trump v. CASA, Washington, and New Jersey cases, Justice Clarence Thomas delivered a surgical takedown of the legal rationale for nationwide injunctions, using just one line.The case centers around whether lower courts can issue sweeping injunctions that block federal policies nationwide, even when only a handful of plaintiffs are before the court. Representing the United States, Solicitor General John Sauer argued that such broad orders violate established legal norms and Supreme Court precedent.“We believe that the best reading of that is what you said in Trump against Hawaii, which is that Wirtz in...

Retired Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, the ascetic bachelor and New Hampshire Republican who became a darling of liberals during his nearly 20 years on the bench, has died. He was 85. Souter died Thursday at his home in New Hampshire, the Supreme Court said in a statement Friday. He retired from the court in June 2009, giving President Barack Obama his first Supreme Court vacancy to fill. Obama chose Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina justice. Souter was appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1990. He was a reliably liberal vote on abortion, church-state relations, freedom...

Chief Justice John Roberts stressed the importance of judicial independence during public remarks Wednesday, noting that the judiciary’s role as a co-equal branch of government is central to the nation’s political system. “The judiciary is a coequal branch of government, separate from the others with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law, and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the president,” Roberts said at an event in his native Buffalo, New York. The judiciary’s role, Roberts added, is to “decide cases but, in the course of that, check the excesses of Congress or the executive.” That...

In a reprehensible slap in the face to the oppressed people of Venezuela, far-left members of the Democratic Party are urging President Obama to resist bipartisan efforts to level sanctions against the authoritarian government of Nicholas Maduro. Based on comments by the Administration, apparently their sympathy for the Marxist regime is shared by the White House in a startling reversal of national doctrine of supporting freedom and liberty that has endured since the US was founded in 1776. John Conyers, Democratic Congressman from Michigan, penned a letter to Obama signed by he and 13 of his colleagues urging them to...

Stephen Miller’s America First Legal (AFL) has filed a bombshell lawsuit against Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., in his capacity as Presiding Officer of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and Robert J. Conrad, Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The lawsuit accuses the powerful duo of running what AFL describes as an “unconstitutional shadow agency” and violating federal transparency laws. The lawsuit, filed on April 22, slams the Judicial Conference of the United States and its administrative arm—both overseen by Chief Justice Roberts—as rogue “executive agencies” that have collaborated with far-left lawmakers to wage...

Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has repeatedly been assigned cases to do with President Donald Trump's second term, as Townhall has been covering. Congress has taken notice, and the House last month passed a bill to rein in rogue judges like Boasberg and others. Questions still remain, though, and on Monday, Townhall obtained a letter from Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Chip Roy (R-TX) regarding such concerns. The letter was sent to Angela D. Caesar, the Clerk of the Court for the U.S. District Court for...

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Sunday on MSNBC’s “Inside” that the Trump administration “relishes the opportunity to try to intimidate and shock people.” Host Jen Psaki said, “The judge, the arresting, the arrest of the judge in Wisconsin, again not isolated, felt jarring. I don’t know that we should be jarred by too many things these days. Do you think, I mean, you’ve you’ve done the studying of Donald Trump for a long time, is that to scare people, to deter judges from doing what their job is? What do you think the motivation is behind that?” Schiff said, “I...

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) said that while she can’t say whether or not Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was interfering in an arrest, Dugan’s arrest was “continuing the assault on our judiciary” and she looks forward to her “being exonerated.” Moore began by saying, “I can tell you that Judge Dugan is an outstanding jurist. And I, too, look forward to her defending herself vigorously and being exonerated. The jurisprudence and the guidance that all of us have subscribed to, and I certainly was helpful in crafting our legislation that indicated that...

BOSTON — Massachusetts’s governor wants a judge he nominated pulled off the bench amid a federal investigation into whether she helped a man in the country illegally evade immigration officials. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday that District Court Judge Shelley Joseph shouldn’t hear criminal cases until the investigation is resolved.

A judge who allegedly helped an illegal alien evade capture has herself been arrested by federal authorities, just one week after another judge received a lifetime ban from the bench for harboring an MS-13 gang member in his own home. Judge Hannah Dugan was cuffed by FBI agents on Friday after helping the individual “evade arrest,” according to a statement by Director Kash Patel. She is charged with knowingly misdirecting federal officers away from the illegal immigrant as he hid in the courthouse. “The FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction — after evidence...

Charlie Kirk@charliekirk11Wild! Attorney General Pam Bondi explains what really happened with Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan that led to her arrest by FBI:"The Judge learns that ICE was outside to get the guy, because he had been deported in 2013, came back into our country, charged with committing these crimes, victim is in court.Judge finds out. She goes out into the hallway. Screams at the immigration officer. She's furious. Visibly shaken. Upset. Sends them off to talk to the chief judge."She comes back into the courtroom. You're not going to believe this. Takes the defendant and the defense attorney back in...

BREAKING: DEMOCRAT NEW MEXICO JUDGE RESIGNS AFTER HOMELAND SECURITY ARRESTS TREN DE ARAGUA DESIGNATED TERRORIST LIVING AT JUDGE'S HOME! The Longtime Doña Ana County Judge Joel Cano, A Democrat Has Abruptly Resigned After Federal Agents Arrested Alleged Violent Venezuelan Tren De Aragua Gang Member & Illegal Alien, Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, At A Guest House At The Judge's Residence. The Venezuelan National Was Arrested While In Possession Of Multiple Firearms, Including Ones Linked To Disturbing Alleged Crimes. Federal Court Filings Show Ortega-Lopez Was Living In The “Casita” Behind Judge Cano’s Residence In Las Cruces After Allegedly Meeting Nancy Cano While Doing Handyman...

At this point, the left isn’t even trying to hide their lawfare. Judge James Boasberg—the Deep State loyalist and rent-a-gavel—has now been handed his fourth Trump-related case. ... And we’re supposed to believe that this is just a coincidence? No. The left’s shameless weaponization of the judiciary has moved from subtle plots and plans to straight-up Soviet Union-type chess moves. Judge Boasberg is no longer pretending to be impartial—he’s the go-to hitman for the Deep State regime, and he’s happily rubber-stamping whatever political prosecution the DC Swamp throws his way. And these power players couldn’t care less that the American...

A new lawsuit targeting President Donald Trump's administration over leaked Pentagon plans in a Signal chat has been assigned to Judge James Boasberg, the same judge who ordered a halt to the administration's deportation efforts. The government watchdog group American Oversight filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, alleging that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and others violated federal records laws by discussing Houthi attack plans in a Signal groupchat. The contest has now been randomly assigned to Boasberg, who serves on the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., condemned "rogue judges" like Boasberg in a statement to Fox...