Free Republic

LAREDO, Texas – A Houston-area man and woman are set to appear in Laredo federal court on allegations they attempted to smuggle undocumented aliens inside a stolen trailer. Marc Anthony Bane, 45, Porter, and Tara Renee Dillon, 33, Conroe, are set to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Dos Santos at 3 p.m. today.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has appointed a close ally of anti-Trump Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to the Georgia Court of Appeals. Andrew Pinson, the new judge appointed by Kemp, is likely to hear any cases regarding potential election fraud, and due to his close relationship with Carr, is widely expected to throw them out. Now, Kemp is receiving even more push back from the grassroots, who are “fighting to uncover the lengths the Democrats went to steal the election,” as he appears to posture against a 2022 political cycle where he will be challenged by the pro-Trump wing of...

Injunction lays out the path for getting class-action certification for safe deposit box renters, lawyers say. The feds faced another setback in their quest to keep $85 million in assets seized in a raid without charging hundreds of safe deposit box renters with a crime. U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner issued a preliminary injunction July 16 in a lawsuit by several customers of Los Angeles-based U.S. Private Vaults (USPV), who alleged the FBI denied them due process by providing civil forfeiture notices that lacked "any legal basis" for seizing the contents of each box. The feds indicted USPV for...

One year ago, many reeled at the heartbreaking news of Dr. Mike Adams’ sudden passing. Some knew him as a caring professor. Others, including a law school student, enjoyed his pun-filled wit, featured at Townhall. Later, that student had the privilege of witnessing Dr. Adams’ free speech battle firsthand, representing him for 14 years. Last year, many penned tributes to Dr. Adams (though too many of those tributes seemed to focus more on their authors). But a recent federal court ruling may prove to be the most poignant tribute of all. When he joined the UNC-Wilmington faculty as a liberal...

A federal judge blocked a law in West Virginia this week that banned transgender girls from participating in female teams. The judge ruled on Wednesday that the Mountain State cannot block transgender girls from playing on female sports teams. Gov. Jim Justice signed the bill in law on April 28, which initially banned transgender girls and women from participating in public school sports consistent with their gender identity. The ruling marks the third federal court decision in the past 30 days to block anti-transgender laws from going into effect. "At this point, I have been provided with scant evidence that...

On Wednesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Arkansas’ law protecting children from experimental transgender “treatments” that often carry lifelong effects, including sterilization. In April, the Arkansas House and Senate voted to override Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s H.B. 1570, the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act. Experimental “puberty-blocking” drugs and cross-sex hormones may have long-lasting impacts on fertility, so advocates have branded them “chemical castration.” Yet opponents of the law claim that withdrawing “health care” will harm children. U.S. District Judge Jay Moody granted the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) request for a preliminary injunction, preventing the law from going into effect...

On Friday, a California appeals court struck down part of Senate Bill 219 (enacted in 2017), which required staffers in elder care facilities to use the preferred pronouns of transgender residents or patients. The court ruled that the transgender mandate, codified in Health and Safety Code section 1439.51, violates the free speech rights of elder care staff. The court rejected a challenge to another aspect of the law, however.“Content-based laws are presumptively unconstitutional and are subject to strict scrutiny,” Judge Elena Duarte wrote for herself and two other judges in Taking Offense v. California (2021). “The pronoun provision at issue...

Cruise Hive Cruise NewsPorts Could The Conditional Sailing Order Dispute Between the CDC and Florida Head to the Supreme Court? The ongoing dispute between Florida and the CDC over the Conditional Sailing Order is far from over and could even go to the Supreme Court. By The hold on a ruling that would see the CDC’s Conditional Sail Order reduced to a recommendation has not taken the fight out of Governor DeSantis of Florida. In a reaction this week, DeSantis says he is willing to go to the Supreme Court if necessary. The main issue the Governor sees with the...

A member of the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors has sued over Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin suspending the board, claiming it prevented vital oversight, including over the potential introduction of critical race theory in the university curriculum. The board is one of 42 Defense Department advisory committees that Mr. Austin suspended to consider their “continued utilization,” according to a Pentagon memorandum. The Air Force Academy board or AFABOV remains shut down despite passing Mr. Austin’s April 30 deadline to complete the review. Board member Heidi Stirrup, who was appointed by then-President Trump in December, asked the U.S. District Court...

Indiana University students must comply with the school's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the fall semester after a federal judge refused to block the school's inoculation requirement, one of the first rulings of its kind during the pandemic. U.S. District Court Judge Damon Leichty in South Bend, Indiana, rejected the argument by eight students that the school violated their bodily autonomy and constitutional right to due process. "This university policy isn’t forced vaccination," wrote the judge. "The students have options — taking the vaccine, applying for a religious exemption, applying for a medical exemption, applying for a medical deferral, taking a...

Real estate titan Tom Barrack was arrested on Tuesday morning on federal charges tied to illegally lobbying Donald Trump for the United Arab Emirates, according to the Department of Justice. A seven-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Barrack, Matthew Grimes and Rashid Sultan Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi, also known as “Rashid Al Malik” and “Rashid Al‑Malik,” a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, with acting and conspiring to act as agents of that nation between April 2016 and April 2018, according to the Department of Justice. The indictment said the charges are related to advancing...

A Florida man who was seen carrying a large red "Trump 2020" flag on the floor of the U.S. Senate during the Capitol riot received eight months in prison Monday in the first felony sentence from the Jan. 6 attack. Paul Allard Hodgkins, 38, of Tampa, was arrested Feb. 16 after the FBI received a tip identifying him among the hundreds of people seen in photos and videos inside the Capitol. He pleaded guilty in June to a single felony count of obstructing an official proceeding, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. "Although you were only...

Capitol siege defendant Paul Hodgkins was captured on surveillance video inside the U.S. Senate Chamber on Jan. 6, 2021. To the right, Qanon Shaman Jacob Chansley is partially visible in the frame. Captured on surveillance video waving a Donald Trump flag near the dais of the U.S. Senate Chamber on Jan. 6th, Florida man Paul Hodgkins received an 8-month prison term on Monday. Hodgkins is the first person on the U.S. Capitol breach docket to be sentenced for committing a felony, and prosecutors argued a stiff sentence was necessary to keep others from engaging in acts of “domestic terrorism.”

On Friday, a federal judge in Texas blocked an Obama-era program protecting undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children from deportation, halting the program’s ability to accept new applicants and once again throwing the lives of more than 600,000 people into tumult.In his 77-page opinion, district court Judge Andrew Hanen concluded that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, is unlawful because it violates the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs federal rulemaking, by evading the normal “notice and comment” process in adopting new rules.Hanen’s decision doesn’t immediately affect the 616,030 people, often known as DREAMers, who...

A Texas federal judge on Friday ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama-era policy that shields certain illegal immigrants from being deported, is unlawful and blocked new applications from being filed. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen argued that the policy goes against the Constitution because Congress never provided the executive branch authorization to grant deportation reprieves to illegal immigrants in the United States. DACA, which was established in 2012 by President Barack Obama’s administration, has granted an estimated 800,000 individuals protection. After arguing that the Department of Homeland Security violated the Administrative Procedure Act, Hanen ruled...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Texas on Friday declared illegal the federal program that has allowed nearly 800,000 young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children avoid deportation and remain in the country. U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, said the Obama administration failed to follow federal administrative rules in launching the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012. But he put the effect of most of his ruling on hold while the case is appealed.

Three judges have rejected a sneak claim by business groups to double the inflow of foreign visa-worker graduates into the jobs needed by American college graduates. “This is a terrible decision for the [visa worker] community,” lamented a June 9 tweet by Cyrus Mehta, a New York-based immigration lawyer. “The DC Circuit just killed the hopes of not counting dependents against the green card cap,” mourned David Bier, a migration advocate at the business-funded Cato Institute. “What that does is it lowers the supply of [foreign] workers coming in,” Kevin Lynn, founder of U.S. Tech Workers, told Breitbart News July...

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court July 9 dismissed a lawsuit filed against a Chicago Catholic parish and the Chicago Archdiocese by a former parish music director. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 7-3 en banc, or full court, decision, said the plaintiff’s claim against St. Andrew the Apostle Parish fell under the ministerial exemption that protects religious organizations from discrimination lawsuits by parish employees. The former employee, Sandor Demkovich, claimed in his 2016 lawsuit that his parish priest subjected him to a hostile work environment because of his disability, including metabolic syndrome — a group of...

Look, on a subject as serious as this, you probably should follow the conditions of your parole. Then again, I'm not a lawyer, this is America, and adults can make and face the consequences of their decisions. Take Thomas Robertson. He is one of the 500+ Americans who have been arrested and charged for their alleged role in the Capitol Hill riot on January 6. As a former police officer, the man owned firearms. He was told by the judge that he should refrain from buying more and turn over the ones he already possessed. Did he listen? No—he bought...

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that federal laws banning firearms dealers from selling handguns to customers under the age of 21 were unconstitutional. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said in the decision that there was no reason to treat the Second Amendment any differently from other constitutional rights citizens enjoy no later than the age of 18. The court ruled that 18-year-olds possess Second Amendment rights, and the federal government failed “to justify its infringement of those rights under the appropriate level of scrutiny.”