Free Republic

United States District Court Judge Jennifer Thurston, appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California by former President Joe Biden, is blocking Border Patrol Agents across most of California from arresting suspected illegal aliens unless they have a warrant for their arrest. This week, Thurston issued a preliminary injunction that will prevent Border Patrol agents in California’s eastern district, the largest judicial district in the state, from carrying out arrests of suspected illegal aliens without a warrant and halting such arrests unless agents have a “reasonable suspicion” the suspect is an illegal alien. “Indeed, the evidence...

Huge win for President Trump and America. A federal appeals court on Friday evening lifted a block on two of President Trump’s executive orders aimed at eliminating Marxist Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies. President Trump previously signed two Executive Orders that instructed agencies in the executive branch to end discriminatory DEI policies: One EO directed DEI policies to be eliminated in federal agencies and the other EO targeted recipients of federal grants. Last month, a Biden-appointed federal judge entered a preliminary injunction against Trump’s Executive Orders. On Friday evening, a three-judge panel on the Virginia-based 4th Circuit Court of...

SCRANTON - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Nicholas Dombek, age 54, of Thornhurst, Pennsylvania, Damien Boland, age 48, of Moscow, Pennsylvania, and Joseph Atsus, age 48, of Roaring Brook, Pennsylvania, were convicted on February 7, 2025, for conspiracy to commit theft of major artwork, concealment and disposal of major artwork, and interstate transportation of stolen property, as well as multiple related substantive offense, following a four-week jury trial before United States District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion.According to Acting United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, Dombek, Boland, and Joseph Atsus were part...

President-elect Trump and anchor George Stephanopoulos will sit for depositions next week in Trump’s defamation case against ABC News, a judge ruled Friday. Trump sued the network and the anchor in March after Stephanopoulos repeatedly said on air that a jury found Trump “liable for rape” in a lawsuit brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. The jury had found Trump liable for sexual abuse under New York law, but not rape. Following a discovery hearing on Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid ordered both Trump and Stephanopoulos to sit for depositions next week that could last up to four...

The U.S. government has appealed the nationwide preliminary injunction—and FinCEN has backed off of its position that filings should continue. FinCEN now says that "reporting companies may continue to voluntarily submit beneficial ownership information reports." Earlier this week, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas threw the fate of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) into question, blocking the U.S. Department of Treasury from enforcing the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements across the country. Now, the U.S. government has appealed the nationwide preliminary injunction—and FinCEN has backed off of its position that filings should...

The Western District of Louisiana’s US District Court has ruled in favor of the State of Missouri, allowing additional discovery in the significant Missouri v. Biden lawsuit, which scrutinizes government collaboration in social media censorship. This decision comes after the Supreme Court, in June, overturned a prior injunction, then-named Murthy v. Missouri, which had prohibited entities including the White House, CDC, FBI, CISA, and the Surgeon General’s office from pressing social media platforms to suppress speech protected under the Constitution. [link to Court's Order] [snip] The depth of the Biden Administration’s involvement in these censorial activities likely would have remained...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge ruled Sunday that Iowa can continue challenging the validity of hundreds of ballots from potential noncitizens even though critics said the effort threatens the voting rights of people who’ve recently become U.S. citizens. U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher, an appointee of President Joe Biden, sided with the state in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in the Iowa capital of Des Moines on behalf of the League of Latin American Citizens of Iowa and four recently naturalized citizens. The four were on the state’s list of questionable registrations to...

A federal judge appointed by Barack Obama ruled that Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes must release records pertaining to over 1.2 million “inactive” voters on Arizona’s voter rolls. The decision comes amid concerns that Arizona’s voter rolls may contain numerous inactive or ineligible registrations, that would impact the accuracy of the state’s voter database. Judge Logan served 26 years in the Marine Corps and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal while stationed in Iraq. Barack Obama nominated Judge Logan to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Arizona in 2013. On Saturday, Judge Steven...

On August 30, 2024, Judge Iain D. Johnston of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued an order and opinion showing the ban on carrying concealed weapons on public transportation is unconstitutional. The ban is “as applied”. It is only applicable to the individuals before the court in this case. The Chicago Transit Authority is commonly referred to as the CTA. From the opinion and order: After an exhaustive review of the parties’ filings and the historical record,as required by Supreme Court precedent, the Court finds that Defendants failed to meet their burden to show...

Two recent court decisions could have far-reaching impacts on oil and gas projects. The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and other anti-fossil fuel groups recently sued the National Marine Fisheries Service, claiming the agency’s “biological opinion” failed to properly assess the risks that offshore oil and gas drilling poses to endangered species. Last month, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.

A U.S. District Judge ruled Friday that Illinois’ ban prohibiting concealed carry for self-defense on public transportation violates the Second Amendment. The judge, Ian D. Johnston, issued his opinion in Schoenthal v. Raoul. The plaintiffs in the case, Benjamin Schoenthal, Mark Wroblewski, Joseph Vesel, and Douglas Winston, all claimed the ban violated the Second Amendment. Schoenthal, Wrogblewski, Vesel, and Winston’s case was supported by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition. Judge Johnston noted: In Illinois, openly carrying firearms is unlawful. Under the Firearm Concealed Carry Act, an individual with a concealed-carry license may generally carry a concealed...

Here’s a scoop from Long Island: A federal judge has ruled that a woman can sue an ice cream company after she found that her pistachio ice cream had no pistachios in it. Jenna Marie Duncan of Farmingdale said that when she ordered ice cream from the Cold Stone Creamery in Levittown, her taste buds were tricked. Now, a lawsuit she filed could bring a delicious payout for ice cream lovers nationwide. Duncan went home, looked up the ingredients and found that she was right, according to her civil suit: The ice cream's bright green color and pistachio flavor were...

Alexander Smirnov, the former FBI informant indicted for lying about President Joe Biden’s family and their alleged dealings in Ukraine, has been re-arrested in Nevada. Though prosecutors fought to keep him behind bars, Smirnov was released by Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts in Nevada on Tuesday with several conditions, including GPS monitoring and the surrender of his two passports. Prosecutors asked the Nevada judge to delay his release, but the judge declined and Smirnov was allowed to walk out. Now, Smirnov’s defense lawyers say their client was re-arrested Thursday on a new warrant for the exact same charges – this time...

Feb 21 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday blocked California's attorney general from enforcing a new law that allows residents, the state and local governments to sue members of the firearms industry that manufacture or sell "abnormally dangerous" guns. U.S. District Judge Andrew Schopler in San Diego sided with, opens new tab a firearms industry trade association in finding that part of a gun control measure signed into law by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in 2022 was likely unconstitutional. It is the first ruling in a case challenging the constitutionality of California's Firearm Industry Responsibility Act. The law was...

Remember Seth Rich, the DNC staffer who perished under highly questionable circumstances several years ago, whom many have speculated may have been the Wikileaks source for the DNC email hack of 2016? Hillary Clinton and the DNC sure would prefer that we don’t.Via Newsweek, Nov. 29, 2023 (emphasis added):A judge has ordered the FBI to turn over the laptop of murdered Democrat staffer Seth Rich.Texas Judge Amos L. Mazzant ordered "a timeline for the disclosure of information on Seth Rich's personal laptop, Seth Rich's work laptop, the DVD and tape drive within 14 days following issuance of this Memorandum of...

(RNS) — A federal judge in Illinois ruled that a state school district is not responsible for the actions of a teacher who allegedly proselytized students in a public school classroom, leading a Muslim student to convert to Christianity. Judge Iain D. Johnston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, ruled that officials of Community Unit School District 300 were not responsible for the teacher’s actions, as he was disciplined and later resigned after being confronted by those public school officials. The ruling is the latest twist in a long-running legal dispute over religion...

It isn't often a Federal Judge calls politicians morons, but that's the message here: A federal judge permanently blocked an Illinois law on Dec. 14 that he previously called “stupid” that targets maternal health care centers and sidewalk counselors for expressing their pro-life message. And in news for taxpayers: The defendant, Mr. Raoul, was sued in his official capacity. [...] The judge dismissed the lawsuit “with prejudice,” meaning the case cannot be litigated again. The court “shall retain jurisdiction over this action to enforce the final judgment,” the order states. The order also states that NILFA “may file a motion...

A federal judge has ordered the government and law enforcement to disclose to the court information about suspected DNC leaker Seth Rich’s murder. The release is to include Rich’s laptops, DVD, and the tape drive associated with the case. Te𝕏asLindsay™ @TexasLindsay_ Breaking: FBI ordered to turn over evidence regarding former DNC employee Seth Rich who was allegedly linked to leaking disparaging DNC emails to WikiLeaks prior to his untimely and controversial demise. Before this order, information that has been provided about the case through Freedom of Information Act requests has been heavily redacted and offered little with which independent investigators...

CV NEWS FEED // A federal judge Wednesday dismissed a challenge to Indiana’s pro-life law which was filed by The Satanic Temple (TST). As reported by WISH-TV, TST “sued to force the state to allow it to provide mail-order drugs for its members in Indiana to have an abortion.” The satanist group “claimed Indiana’s new abortion law, passed in 2022, violated the state’s religious freedom law as well as the Fifth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.” TST is based in Massachusetts and operates a virtual “health clinic” that prescribes abortion-inducing drugs. The organization has named its “telehealth”...

As noted in Politico describing President Trump’s court appearance yesterday, “Minutes before Trump entered the pin-drop silent room, several federal judges — who have been processing the carnage of Jan. 6, 2021 for more than two years — filed into the public gallery, turning themselves into spectators in a building they typically rule. Chief Judge James Boasberg, who presided over several of the secret grand jury battles that preceded the charges against Trump, was among those marking the moment.”[…] “Boasberg’s presence in the courtroom was a statement in itself. Alongside him was Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who has in her...