Free Republic

Known for the eponymous reptiles that inhabit the nearby swamps, the migrant detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" faces the possibility of being shut down over concerns about some of the area's lesser-known inhabitants -- the Everglades' bats, panthers, and storks.A federal judge on Wednesday is set to hold an evidentiary hearing over whether to block operations at the controversial facility because construction of the site allegedly bypassed federally required environmental impact studies.The hearing -- at which federal, state, and tribal officials are expected to testify -- comes amid heightened scrutiny of the facility, which was once touted as a "one-stop...

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:

A federal appeals court has ruled that New Jersey’s ban on private immigration detention contracts is unconstitutional, dealing a blow to state leaders and advocates who have long fought to curb U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's footprint in the Garden State. In the 2-1 decision, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals found that New Jersey’s 2021 law blocking ICE from contracting with private companies unlawfully interfered with federal immigration enforcement, in violation of the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause.

former President Barack Obama judge has reportedly been assigned to President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in the Southern District of Florida was nominated by Obama in February 2014, and became the first openly gay Black federal judge. Gayles was also assigned a Trump $500 million lawsuit against embattled former attorney Michael Cohen in 2023, but Trump was forced to temporarily pause that case due to court-date conflicts in the Democrat prosecutor-led cases he faced before the 2024 presidential election. Gayles has filed dissent against voter...

A Massachusetts district judge extended a temporary restraining order Friday blocking the enforcement of a new provision that would cut Medicaid funding to certain Planned Parenthood health centers. Obama-appointed federal Judge Indira Talwani ruled that a provision of the Reconciliation Act, which would prevent Medicaid reimbursements to organizations providing abortions and meeting certain financial criteria, including receiving over $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in 2023, could not be enforced. The ruling specifically impacts the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates, including the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. “Defendants, their agents, employees, appointees, successors,...

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday denied Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s request for relief from an Obama-appointed judge’s order blocking enforcement of the state’s anti-illegal immigration laws. Last month, a federal judge held Florida’s Attorney General in contempt of court for enforcing the state’s immigration laws. Uthmeier previously told the corrupt Obama judge that he will not order state authorities to halt enforcement of immigration law. US District Judge Kathleen Williams, an Obama appointee, issued an injunction claiming Florida’s (state) law violates the Supremacy Clause in the Constitution in response to a lawsuit filed by the anti-American ACLU.

On July 1, 2025, in the Southern District of California, Federal District Judge, the Hon. Cathy Ann Bencivengo ruled that the State of California must modify their law to allow non-residents to apply for concealed carry permits. The logic is clear. At the time of the founding, there was no requirement banning non-residents from carrying weapons for self-defense. Judge Bencivido stated: The sole issue in this case is whether the Constitution requires California to allow nonresidents to apply for a concealed carry weapons (CCW) license. Plaintiffs, who are not California residents, complain that they are prohibited from carrying a firearm...

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 U.S. District Court judge granted a preliminary injunction Thursday that halts the Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act of 2024. NetChoice, a trade organization representing apps like Facebook and Instagram, is challenging the law in a case in the U.S. Northern District of Georgia. It would have required submitting proof of age before accessing social media sites. Judge Amy Totenberg said in the 50-page ruling that the law is constitutionally infirm. "The State seeks to erect barriers to speech that cannot withstand the rigorous scrutiny that the Constitution requires, and the inapt tailoring of the law – which...

That didn’t take long. As The New York Times reported, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to release pro-Hamas student activist Mahmoud Khalil on bail. At this time, he is the only ‘major’ anti-Israel agitator demonstrator in America remaining in confinement. ..... Snip..... Mahmoud wants you to know that he is the real victim here. This toxic man is back out in the streets calling for a global intifada. This is pure insanity.

It’s been an interesting week for the Ninth-Circus. First they slapped down a former Supreme Court Justice’s brother’s attempt to take control of the California National Guard away from the President of the United states. Today, in another 3-0 panel opinion, the court has ruled that limiting Californians to purchasing only one gun a month is a violation of their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.The case, Nguyen v.Bonta, was brought by the Firearms Policy Coalition, the Second Amendment Foundation and others. In the court’s opinion: Affirming the district court’s summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs, the panel...

A U.S. federal judge has inflicted another blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to end a multiple Biden-era parole program for hundreds of thousands of migrants*** U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani of Massachusetts on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to resume processing applications from those migrants who are seeking work permits or renewing their status. Talwani, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, rejected the Trump administration's claim that suspending the parole programs was within its broad discretion to direct immigration policy. Federal law still requires agencies under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to follow a lengthy process for...

A federal judge in Boston on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction to block the Trump administration’s directive to strip Harvard University of its ability to admit international students. Judge Allison Burroughs issued the ruling from the bench after an emergency hearing on the administration’s move, which upended the lives of the 27 percent of Harvard’s student body that is made up of foreign students. “I want to maintain the status quo,” Burroughs said from the bench, according to CNN. Harvard quickly sued the administration last week after the directive was given by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which also...

The judge said a customs officer had acted improperly in stripping Kseniia Petrova, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, of her visa after she failed to declare research samples she was carrying into the country.A federal judge on Wednesday said she would grant bail to Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist employed by Harvard University, in an immigration case stemming from Ms. Petrova’s failure to declare scientific samples she was carrying into the country.“There does not seem to be either a factual or legal basis for the immigration officer’s actions” in stripping Ms. Petrova of her visa on Feb. 16, Christina...

Judge denies qualified immunity to four University of Central Florida administrators including president, tasks jury with considering punitive damages. Two have moved on to Texas Tech, Yale. The University of Central Florida's outrage at a faculty member's assertion "Black privilege is real" could end up putting its top administrators at the mercy of a jury, sending a warning to campus bureaucrats nationwide not to overreact to minority views.U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza denied qualified immunity to President Alexander Cartwright, Provost Michael Johnson, former College of Sciences Dean Tosha Dupras and former Office of Institutional Equity Director Nancy Myers in a...

On Friday US District Judge Beryl Howell disregarded the Supreme Court’s ruling on Trump’s authority to fire labor board members in her decision to deny a stay of her finding that Trump’s ousting of US Institute for Peace officials (USIP) was unlawful. The US Supreme Court on Thursday allowed President Trump to fire labor board members in a 6-3 decision. “Because the Constitution vests the executive power in the President, see Art. II, §1, cl. 1, he may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf, subject to narrow exceptions recognized by our precedents, see Seila...

In a motion filed in federal court in Los Angeles, the Trump DOJ is moving to dissolve the ‘Flores Consent Decree.’ Attorney General Pam Bondi maintains the decree is incentivizing illegal immigration at the southern border. The Flores decree has governed the detention and release of migrant children since 1997. The motion, filed by the DOJ and jointed by HHS and the Department of Homeland Security, asks a federal court in southern California to dissolve the decree. However, the motion to terminate the Flores decree will be heard at a July 18 hearing before US District Judge Dolly Gee in...

US District Court Judge Edward Chen, an Obama appointee, said to hell with the Supreme Court and still ordered the Trump DOJ to turn over documents related to its decision to revoke protected status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants. Judge Chen said the Supreme Court’s ruling today is not a factor and insisted on a deadline tonight for the Trump DOJ to turn over the documents. The US Supreme Court on Monday lifted a lower court’s block on President Trump’s order to revoke ‘protected status’ for hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the US. The high court...

Administration officials and members of billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service — aided by local and federal law enforcement agencies — seized the institute’s privately owned headquarters in March and summarily removed its leaders.“The President’s efforts here to take over an organization outside of those bounds, contrary to statute established by Congress and by acts of force and threat using local and federal law enforcement officers, represented a gross usurpation of power and a way of conducting government affairs that unnecessarily traumatized the committed leadership and employees of USIP, who deserved better,” Howell wrote in her 102-page opinion.The judge said...

A biological male trans activist once highlighted by PBS as a “trans woman of color” has pleaded guilty to stealing over $100,000 in federal COVID-19 relief funds through fraudulent business loan applications. Brandon Jarrow, also known as Brandi Jarrow, admitted to submitting false information in applications for two separate pandemic relief programs. He pleaded guilty on May 8 before US District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo in New Orleans, according to the Department of Justice for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Jarrow, 33, submitted a fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) application in June 2020, which resulted in a $95,000 disbursement...