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A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump from implementing an executive order that requires voters to show documentation proving their U.S. citizenship to cast a ballot in federal elections. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Bill Clinton appointee, granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from going forward with the proof-of-citizenship requirements as a lawsuit plays out, the Associated Press reported. The lawsuit, filed by the Democratic National Committee and leftist voting rights groups, claims that Trump’s order is “an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans.”

A federal judge said Wednesday that she may immediately block the Treasury Department from directly sharing the personal financial data of millions of Americans with Elon Musk's DOGE. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who sits in Washington, DC., made the announcement after an hourlong court hearing, during which a government lawyer said only two Musk allies — both of them now Treasury employees — have any access to the data. That contention was met with skepticism from one of the lawyers seeking to ensure the data's privacy. "We remain concerned that the records — the personal information of our association's...

A Washington, D.C., judge has refused to allow pro-life activists to show photos of aborted, preemie-sized babies as evidence in court, as well as a video wherein a D.C. abortionist allegedly describes how he would allow babies to die if they survived his abortions. Her refusal pertains to the case of Lauren Handy and four other pro-life activists, who were convicted by a D.C. jury last month of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act when they sought to prevent the abortions of unborn babies by blocking women from a D.C. abortion clinic, the Washington Surgi-Clinic, in...

Verdicts were handed down today in the federal trial of five pro-life activists – Lauren Handy, Will Goodman, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, and Herb Geraghty – who were charged with conspiracy against rights and FACE Act violations. The jury found all of the defendants guilty of both charges. Read all the details here. The defendants were indicted for their participation in an October 2020 rescue action at the D.C.-based Washington Surgi-Clinic (WSC), the abortion facility run by Cesare Santangelo. Santangelo was featured in Live Action’s InHuman investigation stating that if a child was born alive at his facility during an...

A married couple from Largo who admitted entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot was sentenced to jail time Friday. Marilyn Fassell, 59, a nursing assistant who gained notoriety through a selfie she took while smoking a cigarette inside the building, was sentenced to 30 days and three years probation. Her husband Thomas Fassell, 68, a retired postal worker and Air Force veteran, was sentenced to seven days and two years probation. “There are lawful means available in a democracy to challenge actions you disagree with which don’t include a violent insurrection,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly...

A federal judge on Wednesday affirmed her injunction preventing President Trump’s transgender military policy from taking effect remains in place days after the Pentagon released a memo to implement the policy. In a three-page order, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that “defendants were incorrect in claiming that there was no longer an impediment to the military’s implementation of the [transgender policy] in this case.” Asked whether the order will affect plans to implement the policy April 12, a Pentagon spokeswoman said the department is “consulting with the Department of Justice on...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a legal victory for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, a federal appeals court on Friday threw out a lower court ruling that blocked a policy barring certain transgender people from serving in the U.S. armed forces, which the government said is important for military readiness The victory is limited. Although the appeals court sided with the administration, other federal courts issued injunctions against the policy, which applied nationwide. The administration already has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue. The high court is due to consider whether to hear three separate government appeals...

The federal government is asking a judge to put on hold a requirement that it begin allowing transgender people to enlist in the military on Jan. 1. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in October barred President Donald Trump's administration from proceeding with plans to exclude transgender people from military service. Part of her ruling required the government to allow transgender individuals to enlist beginning Jan. 1, 2018.

A privacy group has filed an emergency request trying to block the Trump election integrity commission’s demand for states to turn over voter data, saying the information, if made public, would be a severe invasion of Americans’ rights. The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed its lawsuit Monday afternoon in federal district court in D.C., and Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has set a speedy schedule, with the administration’s reply due by Wednesday afternoon. The lawsuit is the latest resistance to the voter commission, run by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Mr. Kobach’s letter last week requesting...

WASHINGTON (AP)— A federal judge has ordered the release of a Kuwaiti man held at Guantanamo Bay and rebuked the U.S. government for relying on scant evidence, uncredible witnesses and coerced confessions to hold him for more than seven years. In an opinion declassified Friday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said government attorneys presented a “surprisingly bare” record during four days of classified hearings last month to oppose Fouad Al Rabiah’s request for release from the U.S. naval detention facility in Cuba. She said the aviation engineer is being held almost exclusively on confessions obtained through abusive techniques and that...

WASHINGTON: A US judge on Wednesday ordered the release of a Kuwaiti held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly eight years, directing "all necessary and appropriate" steps be taken to repatriate him, his lawyer said. Khaled Al-Mutairi, 34, was sent to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after being arrested in Pakistan in 2001. He was picked up after traveling to Afghanistan with a charitable organization to build mosques and provide funds for schools and orphanages. US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly "ordered that the government is directed to take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate the release...

Please CLICK, DIGG, and pass on this Examiner.com news column: http://tinyurl.com/crellv SNIP Don't get me wrong. US District Court for DC Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly might have gotten the law exactly right when she temporarily reversed the administrative repeal of the National Park gun ban on the grounds that the Department of the Interior "abdicated their Congressionally-mandated obligation to evaluate all reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts, whether authorized by the Final Rule or not" [under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) at 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.]. But does this opinion pass the giggle test? . . .

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683 Court Suspends Carry in National Parks Thursday, March 19, 2009 Today, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. granted anti-gun plaintiffs a preliminary injunction against implementation of the new rule allowing concealed carry in national parks and national wildlife refuges. Until further notice, individuals cannot legally carry loaded, concealed firearms for personal protection in national parks and wildlife refuges. The court did grant NRA's motion to intervene in the cases. Under federal law, NRA is entitled to an immediate appeal, and NRA will exercise that right. "Just as we did not give...

A federal judge today blocked a last-minute rule enacted by President Bush allowing visitors to national parks to carry concealed weapons. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by gun-control advocates and environmental groups. The Justice Department had sought to block the injunction against the controversial rule.

WASHINGTON, Mar 19, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A federal judge in Washington Thursday blocked enforcement of a Bush administration rule allowing people to carry loaded concealed weapons in national parks. The rule, filed toward the end of former President George W. Bush's second term, reversed a 25-year-old U.S. Department of the Interior policy requiring that guns be kept unloaded, dismantled or locked up in national parks, except in areas designated for hunting and target practice.

Judge rules for White House in e-mail controversy By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago A federal judge ruled Monday that a White House office that has records about millions of possibly missing e-mails does not have to make them public. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly says the Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, enabling the White House to maintain the secrecy of a lengthy internal paper trail about its problem-plagued e-mail system. The decision came in a lawsuit filed against the administration by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a...

The Federal Election Commission decided Monday that the nation's new campaign finance law will not apply to most political activity on the Internet. In a 6-0 vote, the commission decided to regulate only paid political ads placed on another person's Web site. The decision means that bloggers and online publications will not be covered by provisions of the new election law. Internet bloggers and individuals will therefore be able to use the Internet to attack or support federal candidates without running afoul of campaign spending and contribution limits. "It's a win, win, win," Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub said, adding that...

We'd like to thank the Washington Post for publishing a story yesterday that so quickly proved our editorial point of the same day about the folly of putting judges in control of national security decisions. That's what we call service. The front-page story reported that on rare occasion the Bush Administration has used information from the NSA's warrantless foreign-linked wiretaps to seek domestic wiretapping authority from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. This was said to have upset chief FISA judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, and the tenor of the story is that this is one more example of how the warrantless wiretaps...

Twice in the past four years, a top Justice Department lawyer warned the presiding judge of a secret surveillance court that information overheard in President Bush's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to obtain wiretap warrants in the court, according to two sources with knowledge of those events. The revelations infuriated U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly -- who, like her predecessor, Royce C. Lamberth, had expressed serious doubts about whether the warrantless monitoring of phone calls and e-mails ordered by Bush was legal. Both judges had insisted that no information obtained this way be used to gain warrants from...

January 05, 2006, 3:59 p.m. Now Judges Are Leaking FISA judges discuss NSA surveillance with the Washington Post. On Thursday morning, the Washington Post published an article ("Surveillance Court Is Seeking Answers — Judges Were Unaware of Eavesdropping") that is jaw-dropping in the matter-of-factness with which reports on an outrageous impropriety by at least two FISA court judges. The backdrop is that of the eleven judges who sit on the special court created by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, only one, Chief Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, was briefed by administration officials about the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program prior to its...