Free Republic

A federal judge has affirmed a Colorado law that effectively bans business owners from freely expressing in public their religious beliefs about marriage and homosexuality. Colorado was the loser in a similar dispute, the Masterpiece Cakeshop case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the state show "hostility" to the Christian beliefs of Jack Phillips in its handling of his refusal to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. Since then, openly homosexual Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has pursued a gay-rights agenda that includes allowing people to indicate their sex on driver's licenses according to their "gender identity" and banning...

FULL TITLE: Press Release: The National Association of Pro-life Nurses On Federal Judge Blocking North Dakota Law Informing Women of Abortion Pill Rescue Reversal The National Association of Pro-life Nurses (NAPN) joins the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Heartbeat International and the Alliance Defending Freedom in responding to the September 13, 2019 decision by a federal judge granting the American Medical Association’s (AMA) motion for a temporary injunction blocking the new North Dakota law requiring doctors to inform women seeking medical pill abortions about abortion reversal if they change their minds. Already, 8 other states have passed abortion...

A federal judge ordered a temporary injunction Thursday against California’s first-in-the-nation law requiring candidates to disclose their tax returns for a spot on the presidential primary ballot, an early victory for President Trump but a decision that will undoubtedly be appealed by state officials. U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. said he would issue a final ruling in the coming days but took the unusual step of issuing the tentative order from the bench. He said there would be “irreparable harm without temporary relief” for Trump and other candidates from the law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in July. Morrison...

(Reuters) - A federal judge in Florida said on Monday that a group of women who claimed that Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused them are not entitled to money damages over a lenient 2008 plea agreement for the late financier.U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra in West Palm Beach said the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act did not entitle the women to damages from the United States.Marra also refused to rescind provisions of Epstein’s plea agreement that barred his prosecution and the prosecution of his alleged accomplices.

After Epstein’s mysterious death, hope for justice for his victims is fading away. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra has refused to invalidate a secret agreement that allowed deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein to avoid federal charges, issuing a ruling which indicated that his death effectively rendered the case moot. Epstein’s alleged victims filed a lawsuit with hopes to expose the federal government’s inappropriate behavior in how they handled the Epstein prosecution. Marra’s ruling has effectively thrown out that case, and the federal judge elaborated on his decision a 15-page order released on Monday. “As a result of Mr. Epstein’s death,...

A federal judge ruled that the inclusion in the list infringes upon the right to due process. Jerusalem Postb American Politicsb Omar, Tlaib welcome decision ruling US terror watchlist unconstitutional A federal judge ruled that the inclusion in the list infringes upon the right to due process. By JERUSALEM POST STAFF / September 6, 2019 10:08 x 1 minute read. ï‚š ï‚™ U.S. Rep Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and U.S. Rep Ilhan Omar (D-MN) U.S. Rep Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and U.S. Rep Ilhan Omar (D-MN). (photo credit: REUTERS/ERIN SCOTT) US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has expressed her appreciation after a US federal...

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Monday pressed Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers on why the public shouldn’t be allowed to see redacted portions of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, suggesting that he may be willing to consider releasing at least some of the restricted document. Judge Reggie Walton, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, posed the questions during a hearing on a pair of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits seeking the redacted portions of the report. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and BuzzFeed News reporter Jason Leopold filed the lawsuits earlier this year....

A group of Seattle-area baristas who argued in court that they should not be restricted from serving drinks in bikinis and other revealing clothing may have to cover up ⁠— at least for now. CNN reported Saturday that a federal appeals court ruled that women at an Everett, Wash., drive-thru coffee stand may have to cover up. The ruling, made by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, vacated U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman's 2017 decision that placed an injunction on a city ordinance requiring "quick-service facility" workers to wear, at minimum, shorts and a...

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld an injunction barring the Trump administration from repurposing approximately $2.5 billion in Pentagon money to the Department of Homeland Security to build a border wall with Mexico, prompting the White House to promise an immediate appeal. A divided three-judge panel on the appellate court agreed with a lower court ruling that prevented the government from tapping Defense Department counterdrug money to build high-priority sections of wall in Arizona and New Mexico. In February, Trump ended a 35-day government shutdown after Congress gave him far less than he wanted. He then declared...

he Supreme Court won’t let the Trump administration begin enforcing a ban on asylum for any immigrants who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border. New Justice Brett Kavanaugh and three other conservative justices sided with the administration. The court’s order Friday leaves in place lower court rulings that blocked President Donald Trump’s proclamation in November automatically denying asylum to people who enter the country from Mexico without going through official border crossings. Trump said he was acting in response to caravans of migrants making their way to the border. The administration had also complained that the nationwide order preventing the policy...

A three-judge federal appeals court panel has ruled in favor of the Trump administration in its effort to deport about 100 Iraqi immigrants convicted of crimes years ago. The panel from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled 2-1 Thursday that the lower court that ordered the government to free the Iraqis did not have the jurisdiction to make that decision. The ruling said deportation orders are up to the attorney general and immigration judges. The dissenting judge wrote that the lower court did have the proper jurisdiction. She said the Iraqis showed evidence they would be...

Judge John Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia made the remarks Thursday at a townhall-style event on judicial independence in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center. Though he did not name Trump specifically, his comments left little mystery as to whom he was referring. “There are a lot of pressures,” Bates said. “The pressures are fairly severe in some quarters. And there’s a risk of eating away at the rule of law, eating away at judicial independence, and that’s not easily recovered if it is impacted.” “‘Once the independence of judges is destroyed, the Constitution...

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a temporary restraining order against a Trump administration policy that denies asylum to illegal aliens. The 2-1 decision is the latest setback the 9th Circuit has rendered to President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. “Just as we may not, as we are often reminded, ‘legislate from the bench,’ neither may the executive legislate from the oval office,” Judge Jay Bybee wrote for the majority. Former President George W. Bush appointed Bybee to the bench, and the judge has a conservative reputation.

SAN FRANCISCO — A divided U.S. appeals court late Friday refused to immediately allow the Trump administration to enforce a ban on asylum for any immigrants who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border. The ban is inconsistent with an existing U.S. law and an attempted end-run around Congress, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 decision. "Just as we may not, as we are often reminded, 'legislate from the bench,' neither may the Executive legislate from the Oval Office," 9th Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, a nominee of Republican President George W. Bush, wrote for...

WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts is pushing back against President Donald Trump's description of a judge who ruled against Trump's new migrant asylum policy as an "Obama judge." It's the first time that the leader of the federal judiciary has offered even a hint of criticism of Trump, who has previously blasted federal judges who ruled against him. Roberts said Wednesday the U.S. doesn't have "Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges." He commented in a statement released by the Supreme Court after a query by The Associated Press.