Free Republic

On January 10, 2024, U.S. District Judge Austin Huffaker denied Kenneth “Kenny” Smith’s challenge to Alabama’s intended use of nitrogen gas to execute him. Although Mr. Smith plans to appeal, the ruling currently authorizes Alabama to use its new, untested method of nitrogen hypoxia to execute Mr. Smith on January 25. Mr. Smith’s case is unusual in several respects. First, he has already survived one execution attempt, which left him with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a clinical psychologist and trauma expert who examined him. On November 17, 2022, the state tried and failed to execute Mr. Smith using lethal...

Liberal advocacy groups that publish widely cited lists of purported "hate groups," tarring a diverse spectrum of conservative organizations, are facing defamation claims alleging they knowingly spread falsehoods about those organizations' beliefs and activities. A federal judge recently refused to dismiss litigation against the 52-year-old Southern Poverty Law Center for designating the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, which promotes "legal, sustainable and reduced immigration," as an "anti-immigrant hate group." The designation came seven years after SPLC told The Associated Press the label would be too strong for what it called a "nativist" group that works "through the political process." That has...

A federal appeals court on Thursday halted Judge Aileen Cannon’s special master review in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents case. In September, Judge Cannon appointed a special master to review the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago. Biden’s corrupt Justice Department argued that a special master didn’t have a right to filter out the seized documents. The court blasted Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, and said she erred in appointing Raymond Dearie as a special master to review documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. “The law is clear,” the judges wrote. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to...

A Montgomery federal judge on Friday lifted the injunction preventing Alabama’s 2019 abortion ban from going into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, meaning abortions are now illegal in Alabama except in cases where the life of the mother is in danger. U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson’s order in Montgomery federal court said that the legal underpinning for the injunction “no longer exists” after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, the defendant in the legal challenge to the Alabama law, was granted his...

In Eknes-Tucker v. Marshall, (MD AL, May 13, 2022), an Alabama federal district court issued an injunction pending trial of the portion of the Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act that restricts transgender minors from being treated with puberty blockers and hormone therapies. The court said in part: Parent Plaintiffs have a fundamental right to direct the medical care of their children. This right includes the more specific right to treat their children with transitioning medications subject to medically accepted standards. The Act infringes on that right and, as such, is subject to strict scrutiny. At this stage of...

"Jason Todd walked into Friends Steakhouse in Clanton where his band was playing the final set one summer night three years ago. Tonya Anderson, his wife, stood outside in the parking lot, drunk, demanding to drive herself home. Todd told her she could not drive, and he would take her shortly after he paid his tab. “I’m not mad at you” he repeated. Belligerent, she threatened to leave. “Fine, walk home,” said Todd, believing she would not. Anderson began walking, as spelled out in court records and police reports, and did not make it far before being struck and killed...

A federal judge in Montgomery heard arguments this morning over whether bylaws the Alabama Democratic Party adopted in 2019 violate an agreement that settled a lawsuit over Black representation in the party’s leadership 30 years ago. The hearing was part of the latest chapter in a struggle for control of the party that surfaced in 2018. U.S. District Judge Austin Huffaker Jr. heard arguments from a lawyer representing former Democratic Party officials Randy Kelley and Janet May. They claim the party’s October 2019 bylaws violate a 1991 consent decree, as well as the Voting Rights Act and the 14th and...

On Easter Sunday, a federal judge ruled that Alabama cannot stop abortion facilities from killing unborn babies in elective abortions during the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled that abortion facilities should be the ones to decide if an abortion is essential, and the state cannot close them – even during a national health crisis, the AP reports. Thompson issued a preliminary injunction, which expands his earlier ruling blocking the state from enforcing health care restrictions on abortion facilities. His initial ruling expired Monday. Similar to most states, Alabama is restricting all non-essential medical care during the pandemic....