Free Republic

Washington — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man who was deported back to his home country and then returned to the U.S. for federal prosecution, is set to remain in jail for several more days as lawyers debate whether the Justice Department can stop him from being deported if he is released from federal custody pending his trial on human smuggling charges, according to The Associated Press. Lawyers for Abrego Garcia and federal prosecutors met in court in Nashville on Wednesday for a hearing to discuss the conditions of his release after U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes on Sunday denied...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the entire federal district court of Maryland on Tuesday. The lawsuit challenges a standing order issued by the court to automatically block the deportation of any illegal migrant who files a petition for writ of habeas corpus. It names all 15 judges, as well as the court clerk, as defendants. “Defendants’ automatic injunction issues whether or not the alien needs or seeks emergency relief, whether or not the court has jurisdiction over the alien’s claims, and no matter how frivolous the alien’s claims may be,” the lawsuit states. “And it does so in the...

BREAKING: A Federal Magistrate judge just DENIED a motion to keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia in custody for human trafficking charges, pending trial.

Louisiana's law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in all public school classrooms was ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court Friday, according to the ACLU, a plaintiff in the case. Why it matters: The decision brings clarity to state schools after a confusing year in which state leaders and the courts have issued conflicting guidance on whether educators must abide by the law while the lawsuit was being resolved. The latest: A panel of three judges in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, widely considered one of the nation's most conservative, called the law "plainly unconstitutional."...

For the first time in recent history, a federal judge on Tuesday found Florida’s attorney general in contempt of court for referring to the court’s order blocking a new state immigration law as illegitimate and unlawful. While U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’ ruling is extraordinary, she spared James Uthmeier from paying hefty fines or spending time in jail. Instead, Williams ordered the state’s chief legal officer to submit biweekly reports to ensure police don’t arrest anyone under an immigration law she blocked in April. “Litigants cannot change the plain meaning of words as it suits them, especially when conveying a...

Obama-appointed Judge Kathleen M. Williams of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida holds Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in contempt of court over enforcing Florida's anti-illegal immigration laws, cooperating with the Trump admin Uthmeier had said that a prior order from the judge did not apply to law enforcement on halting immigration actions because they were not party to the case.

A federal appeals court is allowing the Trump White House to ban the Associated Press from the Oval Office and other restricted spaces for now in a ruling that blocked a lower court's ruling that claimed the ban was unconstitutional. In a 2-1 order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted in part a stay of the lower court's April 8 ruling that declared the content-based ban unconstitutional. Both of the judges who ruled in the administration's favor were nominated by President Trump in his first term.

Former DC Metropolitan Police Department Lieutenant Shane Lamond has been sentenced to 18 months in prison by crooked activist Judge Amy Berman Jackson for speaking to Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio in an attempt to prevent clashes between his group and Antifa militants. Lamond was arrested for telling Tarrio that the DC Police had a warrant out for his arrest for vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner. Before his arrest, Lamond had been with the department for 22 years and served as supervisor of the Intelligence Branch for his last four years. Judge Berman-Jackson convicted Lamond in December 2024 for...

Another day, another black-robed tyrant subverting President Trump’s constitutional authority and the rule of law. As CNN reported, a U.S. District Court Judge in Boston on Thursday stepped in and blocked the Trump Administration from preventing foreign nationals from entering Harvard University to study. On Thursday, President Trump issued a proclamation suspending the visas of new students seeking to study at Harvard University for an initial six months, but allows extensions beyond that time. The order also instructs the State Department to consider revoking the academic visas of current Harvard students. Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee, issued a two-page ‘temporary’...

Activist judges like Judge Boasberg are are issuing blatantly unlawful nationwide injunctions. It’s not judicial review, it’s judicial sabotage.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration must give more than 100 migrants sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador a chance to challenge their deportations. U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg said that people who were sent to the prison in March under an 18th-century wartime law haven’t been able to formally contest the removals or allegations that they are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. He ordered the administration to work toward giving them a way to file those challenges. The judge wrote that “significant evidence” has surfaced...

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...

A federal court has determined that President Donald Trump does not have the authority to unilaterally impose tariffs, dealing a sweeping blow to the president's main weapon in his ongoing global trade war. A panel of judges on the U.S. Court of International Trade found the tariffs were unlawful and permanently vacated them.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit that accuses billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency of illegally accessing government data systems, canceling government contracts and firing federal employees.U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled Tuesday that 14 states can proceed with their claims against Musk and DOGE. The states, through their attorneys general, sued in February over the defendants’ alleged constitutional violations.The states had asked Chutkan to temporarily block DOGE from accessing any data systems or terminating any federal employees. But the judge denied that request on Feb. 18. She found that...

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...

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...

Did Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor forget that it’s generally frowned upon for judges to display their political partisanship? It’s a question worth asking given that the Obama appointee appeared to do just that in her recent public remarks. On Thursday night, Sotomayor attended an event hosted by the notoriously left-wing American Bar Association (ABA), in which she seemingly made an indirect reference to President Trump and conservatives’ criticisms of the ongoing judicial coup among lower court judges who are stymieing the administration’s agenda via overreaching injunctions. As The Federalist’s Joy Pullmann previously reported, the ABA routinely “advocates for and...

In her recent address to the American Bar Association, Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke not as a neutral jurist interpreting the Constitution, but as a partisan urging mobilization against the sitting administration. Her remarks, delivered with careful modulation, carried all the marks of political rhetoric under the guise of moral urgency: "This is our time to stand up and be heard." To the untrained ear, these words may sound like little more than civic encouragement. But context clarifies tone, and tone unmasks motive. Coming from a sitting Supreme Court Justice, in a polarized environment, during open legal battles between the ABA...