Free Republic

A federal judge has paused an attempt by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) to imprison Christian pro-life activists for up to ten years. Judge Matthew Leitman, an Obama appointee, paused the DOJ’s FACE Act and felony conspiracy case against seven pro-life activists who are awaiting sentencing over a peaceful protest at a Michigan abortion clinic, citing the results of the 2024 election and the potential for the next presidential administration to handle such cases differently. “As further discussed on the record, the Court will conduct another status conference during the week of March 24, 2025, to receive a...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) vented his displeasure Monday after two Democratic-appointed federal judges reversed their decisions to retire in what appear to be efforts to stop President-elect Trump from nominating their successors. McConnell called the unusual decisions to forgo retirement following Trump’s sweeping victory last month a “partisan” gambit that would undermine the integrity of federal courts. “They rolled the dice that a Democrat could replace them and now that he won’t, they’re changing their plans to keep a Republican from doing it,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “It’s a brazen admission. And the incoming administration would...

The Bureau of Land Management has made it official Tuesday — coal leasing will end in the Powder River Basin by 2041. The move follows a court order in a federal lawsuit, Western Organization of Resource Councils et al. v. BLM. The judge on the case directed the BLM to redo its environmental analysis, and include both no-leasing and a limited coal leasing alternatives. As a result of that analysis, the BLM said it has determined that “additional leasing of BLM-administered coal is not necessary, based on the current analysis in the Final Supplemental EIS. The analysis indicates that operating...

A federal appeals court determined that the White House does not have the authority to issue binding environmental regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), upending several decades of the practice. NEPA is a federal law that requires federal agencies to conduct a review of environmental impacts before making any decisions and then issue a “detailed statement” of the environmental review. In a divided decision Tuesday, the D.C. District Court of Appeals ruled that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), established to instruct agencies on NEPA compliance, does not have the power to issue regulations on other...

A federal judge appointed by Barack Obama ruled that Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes must release records pertaining to over 1.2 million “inactive” voters on Arizona’s voter rolls. The decision comes amid concerns that Arizona’s voter rolls may contain numerous inactive or ineligible registrations, that would impact the accuracy of the state’s voter database. Judge Logan served 26 years in the Marine Corps and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal while stationed in Iraq. Barack Obama nominated Judge Logan to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Arizona in 2013. On Saturday, Judge Steven...

Key Points A federal judge unsealed more than 1,800 pages of documents filed by special counsel Jack Smith in the criminal election interference case against former President Donald Trump. The records were made public after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a request by Trump’s lawyers to keep them sealed until after the Nov. 5 presidential election. Trump is charged with illegally conspiring to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. ~~~~~~ A federal judge on Friday ordered the release of more than 1,800 pages of documents filed by special counsel Jack Smith in the criminal...

ATLANTA -- A federal judge said Thursday that she won't order the presidential battleground state of Georgia to reopen voter registration for November’s elections despite recent disruptions to registration caused by Hurricane Helene. U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross rejected arguments that the state should reopen registration through next Monday. The registration deadline was last Monday and she said in her ruling from the bench Thursday afternoon that there would be no extension. A lawsuit filed by the Georgia conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda and the New Georgia Project had argued that damage and disruptions...

A notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has been filed in the Gun-Free School Zone case in Billings, Montana.The notice was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Montana, Billings Division, on August 6, 2024. The case was settled with a plea agreement on August 2, 2024. Judge Susan P. Waters did not impose a fine or prison time, but Gabriel was sentenced to three years probation. The probation includes paying $75 per month for the costs of administering it.During the court hearings, Gabriel Metcalf preserved the right to appeal through his...

"about 30 trucks with armed terrorists in them, with cameras and Hamas and Palestinian flags" That's some of the testimony from Israeli military reservist Amit Yerushalmi... A massive Ukrainian drone attack on Toropets, Russia early Wednesday... The Russian military in Syria says a US drone came dangerously close to one of its warplanes over Homs... North Korea firing multiple short-range missiles on Wednesday morning... For a third night in a row an overflow at a reception center for migrants seeking asylum in the Netherlands... A US Appeals Court upholding the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell in connection her activities linked to...

Two recent court decisions could have far-reaching impacts on oil and gas projects. The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and other anti-fossil fuel groups recently sued the National Marine Fisheries Service, claiming the agency’s “biological opinion” failed to properly assess the risks that offshore oil and gas drilling poses to endangered species. Last month, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.

A three-judge panel in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has delivered a critical decision affirming Fourth Amendment protections and the right to keep and bear arms.On November 12, 2018, Basel Soukaneh’s life was significantly disrupted. Soukaneh was looking for a house he was considering purchasing, but the GPS on his phone, held in a holder on the dash of his car, had frozen. He was unfamiliar with the area. Soukaneh pulled over to correct the problem, left the engine running, and had the interior lights on. A Waterbury police officer quickly knocked on his window and demanded...

That conduct, as alleged by Plaintiff-Appellee Basel Soukaneh, is that in the course of a routine traffic stop, Andrzejewski unlawfully and violently handcuffed and detained Soukaneh in the back of a police vehicle for over half an hour and conducted a warrantless search of Soukaneh’s vehicle after Soukaneh presented a facially valid firearms permit and disclosed that he possessed a firearm pursuant to the permit. On appeal, Andrzejewski argues we should reverse the district court’s denial of qualified immunity because the presence of the lawfully owned firearm in the vehicle gave him the requisite probable cause to detain Soukaneh, search...

An appeals court on Friday overturned the conviction and life sentence of a man found guilty of killing a U.S. Border Patrol agent whose death exposed the botched federal gun operation known as “Fast and Furious” has been overturned, a U.S. appeals court said Friday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the convictions of Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, saying his constitutional due process rights had been violated, and sent the case back to the U.S. District Court in Arizona for further proceedings. Osorio-Arellanes was sentenced in 2020 in the Dec. 14, 2010, fatal shooting of Agent Brian Terry while he...

Google has violated US antitrust law with its search business, a federal judge ruled Monday, handing the tech giant a staggering court defeat with the potential to reshape how millions of Americans get information online and to upend decades of dominance. “After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” US District Judge Amit Mehta Mehta wrote in Monday’s opinion. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.” The decision by the US District Court for the...

New York CNN — Google has violated US antitrust law with its search business, a federal judge ruled Monday, handing the tech giant a staggering court defeat with the potential to reshape how millions of Americans get information online and to upend decades of dominance. The decision by the US District Court for the District of Columbia is a stunning rebuke of Google’s oldest and most important business. The company has spent tens of billions of dollars on exclusive contracts to secure a dominant position as the world’s default search provider on smartphones and web browsers.

After nearly eight months in limbo, former President Donald J. Trump’s federal election interference case sprang back to life on Saturday as the judge overseeing it scheduled a hearing in Washington for Aug. 16 to discuss next steps.At the hearing, the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, will discuss with Mr. Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, how each side would like to proceed with a complicated fact-finding mission the Supreme Court ordered last month. The order was part of its landmark ruling granting Mr. Trump broad immunity against criminal prosecution for acts arising from...

Here’s a scoop from Long Island: A federal judge has ruled that a woman can sue an ice cream company after she found that her pistachio ice cream had no pistachios in it. Jenna Marie Duncan of Farmingdale said that when she ordered ice cream from the Cold Stone Creamery in Levittown, her taste buds were tricked. Now, a lawsuit she filed could bring a delicious payout for ice cream lovers nationwide. Duncan went home, looked up the ingredients and found that she was right, according to her civil suit: The ice cream's bright green color and pistachio flavor were...

"Companies were seized, assets were frozen and lives were upended" as a result of misconduct by prosecutors for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a federal judge said while dismissing a civil fraud case against Utah cryptocurrency brokers and awarding the brokers $1.8 million in attorney fees. U.S. Chief District Judge Robert Shelby upbraided the commission, saying it recklessly used "layers of false statements" in a "gross abuse of power," saying their misrepresentations were "deeply troubling" and undermined the integrity of the judicial process, before dismissing its case May 28 and ordering payment of fees that will ultimately be financed...

<p>The former top prosecutor in Baltimore, convicted of fraud for lying about financial hardship during the pandemic in order to buy a beach house with money from the federal government, will serve no prison time.</p><p>Marilyn Mosby, 44, was sentenced to 12 months of house arrest, 100 hours of community service and three years of supervised release Thursday, Erek Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland announced.</p>

Convicted fraudster and former Baltimore District Attorney Marilyn Mosby will avoid jail time for perjury and mortgage fraud after facing up to 40 years in prison. U.S. District Court Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby said the fact that Mosby is a mother of two daughters helped motivate her decision to sentence the former prosecutor to 12 months of home detention, three years of supervised release, and 100 hours of community service in lieu of prison, WBAL TV reported. Though Mosby has maintained her innocence, she was found guilty of taking advantage of the CARES Act — the first coronavirus relief bill...