Free Republic

NEW YORK -- Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced to 28 months in prison in federal court in Manhattan Monday. She was convicted of providing support to terrorists by helping a jailed Egyptian sheik communicate with his followers on the outside. Before sentencing, her lawyer told the judge that any prison sentence for Stewart would be a death sentence because of her serious health problems. Stewart pleaded with the judge to allow her to live out the rest of her life "productively, lovingly, righteously.'' Assistant US Attorney Andrew Dember rejected defense suggestions that Stewart's conduct was judged differently after9-11. "This case...

A marathon deportation case against two Palestinian immigrants, pursued by the administrations of four U.S. Presidents over 20 years, has been dismissed. The ruling closes a Byzantine legal saga that wound its way through federal appellate courts, the U.S. Supreme Court and federal immigration boards, breaking new legal ground along the way. It ended at the Department of Homeland Security, where the dismissal order was entered Tuesday. One of the defendants, Khader Musa Hamide, said in an interview that he will never get over the experience of being under suspicion for 20 years but now "I can breathe better." A...

LOS ANGELES A federal judge ruled Friday that a Palestinian man whom the government had denied citizenship based on alleged ties with a terrorist group should become a citizen, the man's lawyers said. U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that Aiad Barakat, one of the so-called "L.A. eight," will be naturalized, said Ahilan Arulanantham, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who litigated the case. Barakat's citizenship application had been denied last year by immigration officials, and his lawyers appealed in federal court. "The judge listened and found him to be credible," said Arulanantham. "It was very fact intensive testimony that...

A Louisiana immigration judge ruled Friday that activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported. Khalil, who as a Columbia University graduate student led pro-Palestinian protests there last year, was detained last month after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had determined that Khalil's activism was antisemitic and that allowing him to remain in the country would undermine a U.S. foreign policy goal of combatting antisemitism around the world. During a hearing at the remote Louisiana detention center where Khalil is being held, Judge Jamee Comans said she had no authority to question Rubio's determination. After the ruling, Khalil told the...

JENA, La. (AP) — Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil can be kicked out of the U.S. as a national security risk, an immigration judge in Louisiana found Friday during a hearing over the legality of deporting the activist who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The government’s contention that Khalil’s presence in the United States posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” was enough to satisfy requirements for his deportation, Immigration Judge Jamee E. Comans said at the conclusion of a hearing in Jena. Comans said the government had “established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable.” Lawyers for Khalil...

Trump's administration argued that Khalil's First Amendment claims are a "red herring " and that there's "an independent basis to justify removal sufficient to foreclose Khalil’s constitutional claim here." The Trump administration filed new allegations against Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student detained due to his pro-Palestinian activism on campus, while trying to dismiss his First Amendment violation claims as a "red herring." In a filing Sunday, the Justice Department said Khalil, who is a green-card holder, withheld information about his membership in certain organizations and failed to disclose his employment at the Syria Office in the British Embassy...

Meg Whitman’s Nightmare, Marc Van der Hout, a UN Narc Turns out Van der Hout’s the brains behind the Nicandra “Nicky” Diaz Santillan Dream Team. He he was part of yet another Dream Team pairing with David Cole as co-counsel of the “LA 8″ that resulted in the release of illegal Arab nationals. Van der Hout and Cole bought enough time in the courts for their defendants to become permanent residents of these United States.

Republican Meg Whitman’s former maid said Tuesday she’s not a Democratic pawn in California’s race for governor, but her attorney refused again to provide key details about her claims that Whitman employed her for nearly a decade despite knowing she was in the U.S. illegally. Nicky Diaz Santillan, a Mexican who Whitman says used a fraudulently obtained Social Security card and California driver’s license, dismissed claims by the GOP nominee that she was part of a Democratic smear intended to damage Whitman’s standing with voters, particularly Latinos. “I make my own decisions and I am not anyone’s puppet,” Diaz Santillan...