Free Republic

During Trump’s first term, the Democrats had two major arrows in their quiver: The Russia Hoax and lawfare. When they weren’t falsely accusing him of being a Russian asset, they were using the courts to prevent him from acting. By doing so, they managed to hamstring almost all of his domestic actions. This time around, while the Russia Hoax is gone, we’re seeing lawfare on steroids, so much so that we can reasonably say that we’re living in a “kritarchy” (i.e., rule by judges). This is not what our Constitution intended. In just the last 24 hours, judges have held...

Here we go again—another judge sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, derailing President Donald Trump’s efforts to make our elections secure. A federal judge in Washington, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly — a Bill Clinton appointee — just slammed the brakes on Trump’s executive order that would’ve required proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. Trump signed the order in March, pointing out that the U.S. “fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections” compared to countries like India or Brazil, which tie voter ID to biometric databases. He’s not wrong. There's no denying that our elections are a mess, with...

Donald Trump’s administration must facilitate the return of a second man wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador, a federal judge has ruled, deepening a standoff between the courts and White House over the president’s radical immigration policies. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher said Wednesday the 20-year-old Venezuelan, along with multiple other migrants, was protected by a 2024 class action settlement prohibiting the deportation of migrants who arrived as unaccompanied minors until their asylum claims are fully adjudicated. His case comes amid a mounting political row over the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran returned to his native...

A federal judge in California on Thursday barred the Trump administration from denying or conditioning the use of federal funds to “sanctuary” jurisdictions, saying that portions of President Donald Trump's executive orders were unconstitutional. But Orrick, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, said this was essentially what government lawyers argued during Trump’s first term when the Republican issued a similar order. “Their well-founded fear of enforcement is even stronger than it was in 2017,” Orrick wrote, citing the executive orders as well as directives from Bondi, other federal agencies and Justice Department lawsuits filed against Chicago and New York....

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.”

There are more than enough activist judges willing to undertake the job of stopping every move Trump makes to fulfill his campaign promises to the voters. “Color revolutions are a political term used to describe turbulent political events: mass street protests and riots in order to achieve a revolutionary change of government. Some revolutionary upheavals are successful and some remain only attempts,” Eurasia Review writes. The Democrats sought and failed to take President Trump out via their many absurd legal challenges (aka lawfare). The two assassination attempts on his life failed. Now that he has been re-elected, they are using...

On Wednesday, Judge Beryl Howell excoriated DOJ lawyers and signaled that she may permanently block President Trump from taking action against Perkins Coie. Last month, President Trump stripped security clearances of the employees at DNC law firm Perkins Coie. Recall that Hillary Clinton and the DNC paid law firm Perkins Coie more than $1 million to hire oppo research firm Fusion GPS to peddle the bogus ‘Trump-Russia’ dossier during the 2016 election. Former British spy Christopher Steele compiled over a dozen memos alleging the Russians had blackmail on Trump and that his associates were conspiring with the Kremlin to win...

The Trump DOJ responded to a federal judge’s order demanding more details on its decision to deport MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador’s CECOT prison. On Tuesday evening Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee, erupted on the Trump Administration after a conference to address the government’s dispute over discovery in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case.

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump Administration to rehire Voice of America (VOA) and other affiliate news services staff. President Trump placed employees and contractors for government-funded Voice of America on leave last month. US District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, said Voice of America is funded by Congress and Trump’s cuts to the agency are “a direct affront to the power of the legislative branch.”

A federal judge in New York on Tuesday extended his block on removal of Tren de Aragua gang members facing deportation under the Alien Enemies Act. US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a 91-year-old Clinton appointee, blasted DOJ lawyers during a hearing on Tuesday and accused them throwing people out of the US “because of their tattoos.” Earlier this month Hellerstein blocked the removal of two alleged Tren de Aragua gang members in New York.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Denver, Colorado, blocked another round of potential deportations under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA). US District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, a Biden appointee, granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the removal of aliens from the district of Colorado. The anti-American ACLU and the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network said during a hearing on Monday that two Venezuelan illegals were facing deportation to El Salvador’s CECOT prison under the Alien Enemies Act. ..... Snip..... The judge also said the Alien Enemies Act doesn’t apply to this case because the United States is not at war...

At 1:00am on Saturday, the Supreme Court of the USA issued an injunction [SEE HERE] blocking President Trump from deporting illegal aliens identified under the Alien Enemies Act. It was/is a bizarre order considering the lower court had not even ruled on the matter; worse yet, the Supreme Court created an imaginary “class” of aliens. Any illegal alien who happens to also be a gang member, or illegal alien who would ‘smartly’ now claim to be a gang member, is ultimately the beneficiary of a Supreme Court order blocking their removal or deportation. That’s how judicially insane this injunction is.As...

(Reuters) -A U.S. judge barred the Trump administration from rapidly deporting hundreds if not thousands of migrants to countries other than their own without giving them a chance to show they fear being persecuted, tortured or killed there. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy's preliminary injunction on Friday was the latest setback to an immigration crackdown launched by President Donald Trump when he took office on January 20.

The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to weigh in on one of the most significant legal power plays in recent memory: whether individual federal trial judges can continue issuing nationwide injunctions that derail national policy. The high court’s move could mark a turning point in the Trump administration’s effort to rein in what it sees as activist judges stifling the will of the elected government. John Yoo, a law professor at UC Berkeley and former Justice Department official, broke down the issue during an appearance on Fox News, where he explained the gravity of the situation and why the Supreme...

The ACLU, despite SCOTUS determining DC was the improper jurisdiction, just filed ANOTHER motion seeking a new temp restraining order on behalf of the illegals. The ACLU argued Boasberg still has jurisdiction in the matter. Here is what the ACLU is seeking--and Boasberg just set a briefing schedule on the latest proposed TRO with a hearing set for Monday. "To provide notice to each class member that they have been designated as an 'alien enemy' under the Alien Enemies Act at least 30 days prior to any attempt to remove that class member from the United States under the AEA....

A federal judge ruled against the Trump administration in the case that alleged fraud in a Biden-era clean energy program, unfreezing roughly $20 billion in funding meant to support projects like new solar energy arrays and efficiency upgrades for small businesses. Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday ruled in favor of the eight nonprofits that sued Citibank and the Trump administration, finding that the Environmental Protection Agency unlawfully terminated the program. Chutkan ordered the congressionally appropriated funds to be unfrozen at 2 p.m. Thursday and distributed to the nonprofits they were originally intended for. The Trump administration said it will appeal....

(Reuters) -A U.S. judge blocked President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday from freezing billions of dollars in grants Congress authorized under climate investment and infrastructure laws of his Democratic predecessor, former President Joe Biden. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Providence, Rhode Island, issued an injunction at the behest of environmental groups who argued the Trump administration was unlawfully freezing already-awarded funding for projects to combat climate change, reduce pollution and modernize U.S. infrastructure. The group that led the lawsuit, Democracy Forward, said in a statement that Trump's action was an abuse of executive power. The funding had been authorized...

A federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to return an alleged MS-13 gang member wrongly deported to El Salvador last month ruled that she would not hold any government officials in contempt for violating her order — for now — but warned against further “gamesmanship.” US District Judge Paula Xinis said that the federal government failed to provide evidence detailing their efforts to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States by April 7 after he was shipped off to El Salvador’s hellhole lockup CECOT. “There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding,” she said at a...

A federal judge Wednesday found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for willfully disobeying his order to immediately halt deportations under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act and turn around any airborne planes. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s order gives the administration a final opportunity to come into compliance but says he otherwise will take steps to identify the specific people who flouted his March 15 ruling, which was later lifted by the Supreme Court, and refer them for prosecution.

The judge presiding over the case of a man who was mistakenly deported by the U.S. government to a prison in El Salvador suggested Tuesday that she was weighing contempt proceedings against the Trump administration. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered administration officials to turn over evidence of their efforts to secure the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S. since she first ordered his return, saying the government had shown her "nothing" to date.