Free Republic

Former New York GOP Rep. George Santos was sentenced to 87 months in federal court Friday in connection with his wire fraud and identity theft case. The 36-year-old former representative served in Congress for close to a year before being ousted in 2023 by his House colleagues. Santos had not yet been convicted of a crime at that point, but had been indicted on 23 counts related to wire fraud, identity theft, falsification of records, credit card fraud and other charges. Santos sobbed as he received his sentence, according to the Associated Press. U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert asked...

Two Democrat-appointed federal judges have extended temporary blocks on the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport criminal illegal aliens. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein has extended an April 9 order for another two weeks that bars the Trump administration from deporting illegal aliens being held in Southern District of New York without first providing them with an opportunity for a hearing. During a hearing Tuesday, Hellerstein, a President Bill Clinton appointee, criticized the Trump administration for its approach to deportations. “This is not the Inquisition, it’s not medieval times,” Hellerstein said. Until the New York court...

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.

The Justice Department states that the judge who ruled Kilmar Abrego Garcia had to come back to the U.S. overstepped authority. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to block a lower court order to return a Maryland resident, who is also a Salvadoran national, mistakenly deported last month to El Salvador. The Justice Department is arguing before the high court that the judge who ruled the deportee, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, must be returned overstepped his authority. The administration also argued since Garcia was no longer in U.S. custody there was no way to get him back, according...

EUGENE, Ore. — Conservation groups across Oregon have won a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management’s logging plans. On Monday, a federal judge ruled that the BLM had illegally authorized the logging of old-growth forest lands within protected areas called late successional reserves.... ...The court pointed out that logging in these reserves would increase fire hazards and harm nearby habitats.... ...The Cascadia Wildlands Group, alongside other conservation groups,....

Yet another crazy far left “judge” tried again to stop DOGE over USAID. Got overturned by Court of Appeals, Bottom line from Court of Appeals: DOGE does not run USAID, Department of State does through Secretary of State Marco Rubio. DOGE investigates and makes recommendations as advisors to Department of State for them to get rid of corrupt USAID employees etc.

Afederal judge excoriated officials who were unable to account for $2.4 billion in taxpayer funds meant to go toward solving homelessness in Los Angeles.U.S. District Court Judge David Carter threatened to appoint a court-ordered receiver if officials didn't improve their efforts to account for the money spent, according to an LAist report. (snip) The judge gave them until May to fulfill their responsibilities or have a receiver take over the spending. While he acknowledged that they had inherited a "mess" from former officials, Carter demanded that they take accountibility.“I am your worst nightmare,” Carter told them. “I can make your...

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Labor from implementing parts of President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at curbing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts among federal contractors and grant recipients. Judge Matthew Kennelly of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois halted the Labor Department from requiring federal contractors or grant recipients from certifying that they don't operate any programs in violation of Trump's anti-DEI executive orders. [snip] The organization argued that the president’s executive orders on DEI are so broad and vague that the organization had no way to ensure compliance, and...

(The Center Square) – Eight years after the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and accompanying protests at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, the long-awaited trial between Energy Transfer and Greenpeace is winding down. Closing arguments in the trial are set to begin Monday, followed by jury deliberations and a verdict. The lawsuit hinges on Greenpeace’s involvement in protests that occurred in the fall of 2016, as well as its communication with banks that were financing the pipeline’s construction. Energy Transfer has tried to prove that the environmental activist group funded and incited violence, trespassing and other unlawful acts,...

MANDAN, N.D. (AP) — Closing arguments are scheduled to begin on Monday in a pipeline company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace, a case the environmental advocacy group said could have consequences for free speech and protest rights and threaten the organization’s future. The jury will deliberate after the closing arguments and jury instructions. Nine jurors and two alternates have heard the case. Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Dakota Access alleged defamation, trespass, nuisance and other offenses by Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, its American branch Greenpeace USA, and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. The pipeline company is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars...

A federal judge on Thursday ordered federal agencies to reinstate tens of thousands of probationary employees who were fired amid President Donald Trump’s turbulent effort to drastically shrink the federal bureaucracy. U.S. District Judge William Alsup described the mass firings as a “sham” strategy by the government’s central human resources office to sidestep legal requirements for reducing the federal workforce. Alsup, a San Francisco-based appointee of President Bill Clinton, ordered the Departments of Defense, Treasury, Energy, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs to “immediately” offer all fired probationary employees their jobs back. The Office of Personnel Management, the judge said, had made...

March 13 (Reuters) - A California federal judge on Thursday ordered six U.S. agencies to reinstate thousands of recently-hired employees who were fired as part of President Donald Trump's purge of the federal workforce. The ruling made by U.S. District Judge William Alsup during a hearing in San Francisco applies to the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of Interior and the Treasury Department.

The Trump administration could be sanctioned by a federal judge later this week after lawyers with the Department of Justice advised a federal judge Tuesday evening that they will not make a top administration official available for sworn testimony. U.S. District Judge Charles Alsup had sought to have the acting head of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Charles Ezell, testify on Thursday about the mass firing of probationary employees. But the DOJ said Tuesday that they would not make Ezell available for testimony. By making Ezell unavailable, DOJ attorneys also withdrew his sworn affidavit, a move that Judge Charles...

A federal district judge in Indiana has once again ordered the state Department of Correction (IDOC) to arrange a sex reassignment surgery for a transgender inmate convicted of reckless homicide of a baby, marking the latest development in the ongoing legal saga challenging an Indiana law banning the procedure. The case, now in its second year, involves inmate Autumn Cordellioné's request for sex reassignment surgery. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) first filed the lawsuit against the Indiana Department of Corrections in 2023 on behalf of Cordellioné, challenging an Indiana law that prohibits the Department of Corrections from using taxpayer...

A federal district judge has failed to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a fired worker who obtained a job at a religious school by promising to adhere to its biblical standards, even as he was already started on a campaign to embrace transgenderism. The judge, Norman Moon, allowed the lawsuit by Jonathan Zinski against Liberty University to move forward by claiming that the school cannot "erect a shield against antidiscrimination laws by asserting that mere acceptance of a member from a particular group would impair its image." Further, he said having the Christian school employ Zinski does not significantly burden...

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order pardoning the 23 pro-life Americans Joe Biden imprisoned for protesting abortion. “This is a great honor to sign this,” Trump said, condemning Biden’s lawfare, especially targeted at “elderly people.” Trump granted pardons for 23 pro-life advocates who faced weaponized prosecutions brought against them by the Biden Department of Justice under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Earlier this month, Thomas More Society attorneys submitted to the Trump administration formal requests for presidential pardons on behalf of 21 of those pro-life advocates who have been unjustly prosecuted, convicted, and in...

Hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order pardoning all 23 pro-life prisoners that Joe Biden unjustly imprisoned for protesting abortion, pro-life advocate Bevelen Williams has been released. The plight of Bevelyn Williams and 22 other pro-life Americans who are hoping and praying for pardons from President Donald Trump is finally over. Video Player VIDEO ON LINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 00:00 02:17 Williams, who was found guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for blocking access to an abortion clinic in 2020, is in the process of appealing appealing her sentence of 41 months in prison. Williams...

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...

A federal judge has ordered New York City to draft plans to hand over management of its Rikers Island jail complex to a third-party receiver after holding the city's Department of Corrections (DOC) in civil contempt for failing to meet more than a dozen requirements to improve conditions in its violence-wracked jails. In an opinion and order issued Tuesday, Chief U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York Laura Taylor Swain wrote that she was "inclined to impose a receivership" after finding that violence and death inside Rikers has not improved since New York City agreed to a...

A federal judge denied a request to dismiss a gun charge against an illegal immigrant in Ohio who had been in the US for more than 15 years, rejecting the man’s argument that he has a right to bear arms. Carlos Serrano-Restrepo was charged earlier this year and was subsequently indicted for possession of a firearm by an alien unlawfully in the US, according to WSYX. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began investigating and watching Serrano-Restrepo after he purchased at least 22 firearms, and claimed to be a US citizen on the firearms forms. Agents conducted a...