Free Republic

In a major but likely controversial victory for free speech, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned the conviction of a retired Air Force colonel for using a racial epithet at the shoe store on the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia. Jules A. Bartow, who is white, was arrested after a bizarre and disgraceful exchange with an employee, including the use of the “n word” with the African American woman. The highly offensive and repugnant language of Bartow was denounced by the court, but the unanimous panel still reversed T.S. Ellis III, Senior District Judge of...

Last month, the city and county of Los Angeles filed an appeal of a sweeping injunction from U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ordering urgent action to get people off skid row. In their appeal to the 9th Circuit, the city and county asked for the deadlines to be suspended while their appeal is heard. The appellate court didn’t grant that request outright. Instead, the panel of judges paused the order until June 15 and asked for more information on how granting the stay pending appeal sought by the city and county might affect the case before Carter.

A stay would freeze the order from U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, including the requirement that the city put $1 billion in escrow to pay for the clearance, until the appeal was decided. At the heart of Carter’s injunction is the argument that a long history of state-sponsored racism in Los Angeles has driven Black people into homelessness. [T]here are several questions that an appellate court panel will likely ask, including whether government has committed a constitutional violation by failing to help homeless people get off the streets. Additionally, it will look to see if the fixes Carter is...

The case shows the judiciary is just as fractured as the rest of America, and leftist judges are defiantly ignoring Supreme Court and circuit precedent.On Friday, in a procedural oddity, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals voted to hear the initial appeal in Bristol v. Slatery as a full court, rather than allowing the case to proceed as normal before a three-judge panel. The case involved abortion, and the takeaways are two-fold: The judiciary is just as fractured as the rest of America, and leftist judges are defiantly ignoring Supreme Court and circuit precedent.To understand the significance of the Sixth...

Over a conservative judge’s angry dissent, a federal appeals court refused Thursday to let a group of Republican-led states try to revive a Trump administration rule that denied legal status and work permits to noncitizens who accept public benefits, such as food stamps and Medicaid.

A former University of Virginia medical student can proceed with a lawsuit against the school over his expulsion — which stemmed from questions he asked about the nuance of microaggressions during a panel discussion that led him to being branded a threat, a federal judge has ruled.

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied review in Elim Romanian Church v. Pritzker, (Docket No. 20-569, certiorari denied, 3/29/2021). (Order List). In the case, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a church's challenge to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker's COVID-19 orders which restrict-- or in their latest form urge restriction-- on the size of worship services. (See prior posting.)

A federal court in the District of Massachusetts entered an order today authorizing the IRS to serve a John Doe summons on Circle Internet Financial Inc., or its predecessors, subsidiaries, divisions, and affiliates, including Poloniex LLC (collectively “Circle”), seeking information about U.S. taxpayers who conducted at least the equivalent of $20,000 in transactions in cryptocurrency during the years 2016 to 2020. The IRS is seeking the records of Americans who engaged in business with or through Circle, a digital currency exchanger headquartered in Boston.“Those who transact with cryptocurrency must meet their tax obligations like any other taxpayer,” said Acting Assistant...

A federal judge has ruled that Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies acted properly when they seized drugs and other evidence from the West Hollywood home of Democratic donor Ed Buck after a man was found dead there in 2017. Buck... asked U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder to bar prosecutors from using as evidence syringes, drug paraphernalia and nearly two grams of methamphetamine deputies discovered in what Buck called an illegal search of his apartment. Snyder denied the request. In a ruling Wednesday, she wrote that Buck effectively invited law enforcement into his home when he called 911 to report...

D.C. Circuit Judge Laurence Silberman penned a scathing dissent Friday on a defamation case The Reagan-appointed judge slammed the 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan landmark decision requiring plaintiffs to prove 'actual malice' by defendantsSilberman claimed the ruling has only increased the power of the press, which is almost completely controlled by the Democratic Party 'Two of the three most influential papers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, are virtually Democratic Party broadsheets,' he wroteHe named Fox News, The New York Post, and The Wall Street Journal as the 'few notable exceptions to Democratic Party ideological control'

Washington D.C., Feb 3, 2021 / 01:00 pm MT (CNA).- A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed an Indiana county to display a nativity scene at its courthouse. A three-judge panel of the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that a nativity display in front of the Jackson County courthouse is constitutional. The ACLU of Indiana had sued the county in 2018 over the display, on behalf of county resident Rebecca Woodring. She said the display “conveys the county’s endorsement of a religious message.” In their majority opinion on Tuesday, Judges Diane Wood and Amy St. Eve said that...

Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. government on Friday plans to execute a man convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter nearly two decades ago. Alfred Bourgeois, 55, is set to receive lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. He's awaiting a Supreme Court decision on his request for a stay. His attorneys said Bourgeois' execution would be unconstitutional because he is intellectually disabled and can't understand his punishment. They submitted evidence of IQ test scores of 70 and 75, as well as assessments by experts. The Eighth Amendment bans executing people with such impairments as cruel and...

The government is exceeding its authority for trying to ban illegal immigrant child abusers, drunk drivers, and a series of other violent criminals from getting asylum in the United States, according to open borders groups challenging a Trump administration rule scheduled to take effect this month. A Clinton-appointed federal judge agrees with the leftist nonprofits and has blocked implementation of the policy issued jointly by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) to ban foreigners with serious criminal histories from being rewarded with asylum and all the taxpayer-funded perks that come with it. This includes disqualifying...

President Trump on Wednesday pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, bringing to an end a tumultuous four-year criminal case that felled the three-star general before prosecutors admitted they had wrongly pursued his case...

A federal appeals court gave the state of Tennessee great news late Friday when it issued a ruling that the Volunteer State can ban abortions done specifically because a baby has Down syndrome. Earlier this year, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a broad pro-life law to protect unborn babies from abortions once their heartbeats are detectable. Though the legislation is described as a heartbeat bill, it includes many different measures to protect unborn babies. The law passed the state legislature in June, and pro-life lawmakers said they wrote the bill to withstand a legal challenge. The heartbeat portion of the...

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals granted a motion to stay regarding a lower court decision allowing Jackson County to include the Nativity scene in its annual holiday display this year in front of the courthouse while the judges decide on the case. Liberty Counsel represents Jackson County, Indiana against the ACLU. Liberty Counsel recently presented oral argument before the three-judge panel defending the Nativity scene display at the Jackson County Courthouse. The holiday display which includes the Nativity has been ongoing for many years. After the 2019 display, the lower federal court ruled against the display. In addition to...

A federal judge ruled on Saturday that acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf was unlawfully appointed, thus invalidating his suspension of the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. NBC News reported that Judge Nicholas Garafus ruled that “Wolf was not lawfully serving as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security under the HSA [Homeland Security Act] when he issued the Wolf Memorandum" suspending the Obama-era program. ... The Government Accountability Office found in August that McAleenan had not been designated in the order of succession to replace former Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen and therefore could not legally...

In Agudath Israel of America v. Cuomo, (2d Cir., Nov. 9, 2020), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision refused to grant an injunction pending appeal to a group of Jewish synagogues and to the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn in a case challenging New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's restrictions on spots in which clusters of COVD-19 cases have broken out. (See prior posting.) The majority said in part: The Court fully understands the impact the executive order has had on houses of worship throughout the affected zones. Nevertheless, the Appellants cannot clear the high bar necessary...

On a sunny Friday afternoon in July 2014, James King, a 21-year-old college student, was walking to a summer job in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when he was accosted by two unshaven men wearing jeans and baseball caps who asked his name and grabbed his wallet. When King tried to flee, the men tackled him, choked him unconscious, and punched him in the face over and over again. The men, it turned out, were cops, and for six years King has been trying to hold them accountable for their actions that day. Next Monday the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether...

Emmet Sullivan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ordered postal supervisors to implement "extraordinary measures" to improve lagging mail delivery times in 22 postal districts in more than a dozen states.