Free Republic

MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered a temporary halt to construction at an immigration detention center — built in the middle of the Florida Everglades and dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” — as attorneys argue whether it violates environmental laws. The facility can continue to operate and hold detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but workers will be barred from adding any new filling, paving or infrastructure for the next 14 days. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued the ruling during a hearing and said she will issue a written order later Thursday. Environmental groups and the Miccosukee...

Rebukes by the Supreme Court and DC appellate court are not stopping Boasberg's quest to punish the Trump administration for alleged contempt. Now he's the target of complaints of misconduct. Jeb Boasberg is not giving up. Undeterred by recent smackdowns by the Supreme Court and the D.C. appellate court, Boasberg, the Obama-appointed chief judge of the D.C. district court, is preparing to mete out some sort of punishment against the Trump administration for allegedly defying one of his court orders back in March. During a hearing last week in the ACLU’s lawsuit related to the Alien Enemies Act, President Trump’s...

A federal judge out of San Francisco, California, is blocking President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from ending a temporary quasi-amnesty program for tens of thousands of migrants in the United States. As Breitbart News reported, in June and early July, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status for tens of thousands of migrants in the United States from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal. Though meant to be temporary, since the Clinton administration, TPS has been transformed into a de facto amnesty program as nearly every president has routinely extended it and designated new countries...

A federal judge on Monday expanded a preliminary injunction and blocked Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Provision barring funding for Planned Parenthood nationwide. Earlier this month Judge Talwani, an Obama appointee, issued a TRO and temporarily blocked the reconciliation bill’s provision barring funding for Planned Parenthood. Last Monday, the judge granted a preliminary injunction in part extending a block on barring funding for Planned Parenthood. Today, Judge Talwani expanded her injunction nationwide. The judge’s ruling comes after the US Supreme Court largely restricted lower courts from issuing nationwide injunctions. CNN reported: A federal judge in Boston has widened her block on...

A federal judge has dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Illinois and Chicago over sanctuary policies that the government has said interfere with federal immigration enforcement. In a ruling released Friday, U.S. District Judge Lindsay Jenkins said the government lacked standing to override local laws that limit cooperation and information-sharing between law enforcement. Jenkins said the government doesn’t have the legal authority “to commandeer states under the guise of intergovernmental immunity.” The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A federal judge on Friday blocked President Trump’s birthright citizenship order in a third ruling since the Supreme Court restricted nationwide injunctions. US District Judge Leo Sorokin, an Obama appointee, blocked President Trump’s executive order nationwide. Sorokin’s ruling comes after another district court and a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Trump’s birthright citizenship order. The US Supreme Court recently restricted lower courts from issuing nationwide injunctions. The AP reported:

Washington — A federal judge on Wednesday barred federal immigration authorities from immediately taking Kilmar Abrego Garcia into custody once he is released from criminal confinement in Tennessee and ordered the Trump administration to provide him 72 hours' notice if it plans to initiate proceedings to remove him to a country that is not his place of origin. The order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis was issued as a federal judge in Tennessee, who is presiding over Abrego Garcia's criminal case, ruled that the Salvadoran national should be released from the custody of federal law enforcement under conditions that...

A federal judge has written a tentative decision that sides with the anti-American ACLU’s plaintiffs and will block Trump’s Department of Homeland Security agents from raiding Home Depots, car washes and other places in the Los Angeles area (7 counties in the Central District of California) unless they have reasonable suspicion that there is a violation of immigration laws. According to Fox News, US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden appointee, has written a tentative decision and it is still subject to change. The judge wrote her tentative ruling as leftists attack ICE agents during an immigration raid at...

A federal judge in New Hampshire granted class-action status to a lawsuit seeking to protect babies who would be denied birthright citizenship by the Trump administration and granted a temporary block of the order restricting birthright citizenship from going into effect throughout the country. The suit was brought on behalf of a pregnant immigrant, immigrant parents and their infants and had sought class action status for all babies around the country who would be affected by Trump’s executive order and their parents. Cody Wofsy, the lead attorney on the case with the American Civil Liberties Union, argued for class-action status...

Contrary to widespread perception, magistrate judges wield extraordinary power despite having no constitutional standing under Article III... As the legal wrangling continues over a magistrate judge’s decision to release accused human trafficker Kilmar Abrego Garcia from federal custody, it’s worth taking a closer look not just at the role of Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in this case, but at the broader system of magistrate judges across the country. Contrary to widespread perception, reinforced by misleading media coverage, these judges wield extraordinary power despite having no constitutional standing under Article III. Garcia is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who was...

A federal judge on Friday temporarily halted deportations of eight immigrants to war-torn South Sudan the day after the Supreme Court greenlighted their removal, saying new claims by the immigrants’ lawyers deserved a hearing. District Judge Randolph Moss proceeded with the extraordinary Fourth of July hearing on Friday afternoon, directing the Trump administration to discuss whether a prior Supreme Court ruling that immigrants slated for removal under an 18th century wartime act invoked by President Donald Trump deserve due process might also apply to those due to be removed to South Sudan. The administration has been trying to deport the...

A federal judge in New York has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to strip immigration protections from Haitians fleeing instability in their country. The ruling Friday from U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan preserves, for now, the Biden administration’s 2024 extension of the protections, known as “temporary protected status,” for up to 500,000 Haitians living in the United States. Cogan’s 23-page decision is the latest legal development in the administration’s efforts to roll back TPS designations and other immigration programs that allow immigrants from countries facing humanitarian crises to live and work here legally. In a separate case, the Supreme Court...

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with plans to overhaul the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by reorganizing several of its agencies and substantially cutting their workforce. U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose in Providence, Rhode Island, issued an injunction at the behest of a group of Democratic-led states who challenged a plan HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr announced in March to consolidate agencies and fire 10,000 of the department’s employees. The layoffs, in addition to earlier buyout offers and firings of probationary employees, reduced the number of full-time HHS employees to...

Today, the Department of Justice announced the filing of a complaint against the U.S. District Court of Maryland for implementing a “Standing Order” that automatic injunctions be issued for federal immigration enforcement actions. This order requires the court clerk to automatically enter an injunction against removing or challenging the legal status of any alien detained in Maryland who files a habeas petition. In doing so, the District Court defies procedural and substantive requirements for issuing preliminary injunctions, flouts congressional intent, and violates Supreme Court precedent.“President Trump’s executive authority has been undermined since the first hours of his presidency by an...

Everything Democrats warned about before Trump returned to office is exactly what they’re either now celebrating or dismissing. President Donald Trump’s second term has been plagued by leftist-led lawfare — with unelected, inferior court judges usurping executive authority in an effort to obstruct or dictate presidential actions. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer admitted in a March interview with Kristen Welker that lawfare is part of Democrats’ success strategy. “Now we have to fight that back in every single way. And we actually have had over 100 cases in the courts where we’ve had a very good record of success. So...

The Supreme Court ruled that Trump's deportations to third-world countries can continue without limited notice, blocking an injunction by a little judge who sought to wrest immigration policy away from the executive. The high court slapped down Judge Brian Murphy’s order, but like James Boasberg, another disgrace to the bench, he’s ignoring the ruling.

A federal judge blocked deportations for eight migrants Monday night, appearing to sidestep a Supreme Court order issued just hours before. The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration earlier on Monday to move forward with quickly deporting illegal migrants to countries not specified in their removal orders. The ruling pausing an injunction issued by Judge Brian Murphy, a Biden appointee, which required the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to give migrants notice and allow them to raise concerns about potential threats of torture before deporting them to a “third country.” However, Murphy issued an order Monday night blocking immediate removal...

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday further blocked the Trump administration's attempt to revoke Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students while giving those students additional legal protections. U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs issued the preliminary injunction after having granted a temporary restraining order against the federal government this month. The injunction holds that the administration is blocked from yanking Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which was based on a May 22 revocation notice the Department of Homeland Security sent to Harvard administrators. In her decision, Burroughs directed the government to “immediately” prepare guidance to alert...

US District Judge Brian Murphy on Monday evening defied the US Supreme Court and said his order barring deportation of illegal aliens to South Sudan remains in effect. In a 6-3 decision, the US Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump Administration to resume deporting illegal aliens to ‘third-party’ countries. The Supreme Court granted the Trump Administration’s emergency application and paused Judge Brian Murphy’s order blocking the third-country removals.

Rhode Island’s Democratic-controlled state House on Friday approved legislation that would ban the sale and manufacturing of many semiautomatic rifles commonly referred to as assault weapons. The proposal now heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. Dan McKee, who said in a post on the social platform X on Friday evening that he plans to sign the bill into law. If that happens, Rhode Island will join 10 states that have some sort of prohibition on high-powered firearms that were once banned nationwide and are now largely the weapon of choice among those responsible for most of the country’s devastating...