Free Republic

A federal judge on Friday ruled that a Cincinnati, Ohio-area healthcare provider could require its employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their job, in what appears to be the first ruling of its kind for a private employer in the United States. The employees of St. Elizabeth Healthcare failed to establish that their individual liberties were being violated by the vaccine requirement of the hospital operator, which has the right to set employment terms, said U.S. District Judge David Bunning in Covington, Kentucky. St. Elizabeth employees must get vaccinated by Oct. 1. The widespread availability of vaccines in...

A federal appeals court has slammed the brakes on the city’s mandate that all teachers and other school workers be vaccinated by Monday - but a reprieve for the holdouts may be short-lived. On Friday evening, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted a temporary injunction against the mandate, and sent the case to a three-judge panel for an “expedited review.” A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. “We’re confident our vaccine mandate will continue to be upheld once all the facts have been presented, because that is the level of protection our students and staff deserve,” said...

New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for teachers and other Department of Education staffers is on pause after a federal judge late Friday granted a request to temporarily block it. Plaintiffs, a group of teachers, asked for a temporary injunction pending review by a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. U.S. Appeals Court Judge Joseph Bianco, a George W. Bush nominee, in a one-page order granted the request. The panel will now decide whether to impose an injunction pending appeal or allow the mandate to take effect. Rachel Maniscalco and three other New York...

"NEW YORK — New York City schools have been temporarily blocked from enforcing a vaccine mandate for its teachers and other workers by a federal appeals judge just days before it was to take effect. The worker mandate for the the nation’s largest school system was set to go into effect Monday. But late Friday, a judge for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary injunction and referred the case to a three-judge panel an an expedited basis."

A federal judge tore into a low-level defendant in the Capitol Riot Friday, moments after the man entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge stemming from the Jan. 6 unrest. “You’ve disgraced this country in the eyes of the world and my inclination would be to lock you up, but since the government isn’t asking me to do that ... I won’t,” U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton shouted at Fort Pierce, Fla., resident Anthony Mariotto during a video hearing. “I find it outrageous that American citizens would do what you did, so you better walk the straight and...

A three-judge panel on Wednesday halted a Texas judge’s order that blocked President Joe Biden’s so-called “sanctuary country” orders that have forced the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release criminal illegal aliens back into the United States. On Wednesday, two judges appointed by former President Barack Obama and a judge appointed by former President George W. Bush put the brakes on Judge Drew Tipton’s order last month that struck down Biden’s orders that prevent ICE from arresting and detaining most criminal illegal aliens. Judge Gregg Costa writes that the panel’s “main concern” with Tipton’s injunction “is that we believe...

A three-judge panel on Wednesday halted a Texas judge’s order that blocked President Joe Biden’s so-called “sanctuary country” orders that have forced the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release criminal illegal aliens back into the United States. ..... Snip..... With the court’s decision, DHS no longer has to abide by Tipton’s reporting requirements. The decision also means DHS can continue imposing its “sanctuary country” orders as the case makes its way through the courts. In February, the orders instructed ICE agents not to arrest and deport illegal aliens who had not been identified as terrorists, gang members, or were...

DETROIT (AP) — A Catholic school in Lansing has lost an appeal over a Michigan policy that required masks on young kids earlier in the pandemic. Although the statewide mandate ended, some counties are stepping in and requiring masks in schools when the 2021-22 year starts. Resurrection School and some parents sued in 2020, saying a state mask order violated the free exercise of religion, among other objections. A judge, however, refused to intervene and issue an injunction. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision Monday.

In a win for the Biden administration, a federal judge blocked an executive order by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) that would have banned the U.S. government from transporting migrants in the Lone Star State. Abbott issued the order under the banner of fighting the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone, a George W. Bush appointee, determined that the governor’s order violated the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and said Abbott’s rationale did not withstand basic scrutiny. “Indeed, recent data shows that ‘migrants generally test positive at similar or lower rates than Americans living in the counties where they...

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - A federal judge has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to test detainees for COVID-19 before they are transferred to the immigrant detention center in Tacoma. The ruling grants a temporary restraining order requested by lawyers representing vulnerable detainees in a class-action suit. . . . . .The number of COVID-19 cases at the facility has climbed to more than 240 since June. ICE has flown over 1,000 detainees to Washington state since April.

A federal judge Tuesday blocked Texas from allowing state troopers to stop vehicles carrying migrants on the grounds that they may spread COVID-19 as worries and new cases are rising along the U.S.-Mexico border. The temporary order by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of El Paso is at least a short-term victory for the Biden administration, which had warned that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's plan would create more problems amid high levels of summer border crossings in Texas —- particularly in the Rio Grande Valley, which one U.S. official called the “epicenter of the current surge.” In a sign of...

oodwyn is ordered to wear a mask during "home visits" by pre-trial services/court Goodwyn says "I'm not gonna do that" Judge responds, "Then I'm going to issue a warrant for your arrest!" Yes.. this is really happening

AColorado web designer is appealing a ruling made Monday by the 10th Circuit Court that rejected her challenge of Colorado's anti-discrimination law and requires her to create wedding websites for same-sex couples despite it violating her religious beliefs. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled 2 – 1 the state can force Lorie Smith of studio 303 Creative to design and publish websites promoting messages that go against her personal religious beliefs. The law at issue also prevents Smith from explaining on her company's website what sites she can create that are consistent with her beliefs. By...

In Denton v. City of El Paso, Texas, (5th Cir., July 6, 2021), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case to a Texas federal district court ordering it to grant a preliminary injunction barring El Paso from prohibiting religious proselytizing at the weekly outdoor El Paso Art and Farmers Market. The city's rules bar fundraising, political campaigning and religious proselytizing from the market. The court held that these exclusions are content-based, and concluded: It is unclear whether the City has asserted a compelling government interest. We need not decide this issue ......

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Air Force is mostly responsible for a former serviceman killing more than two dozen people at a Texas church in 2017 because it failed to submit his criminal history into a database, which should have prevented him from purchasing firearms. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio wrote in a ruling signed Wednesday that the Air Force was “60% responsible” for the deaths and injuries at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. The attack remains the worst mass shooting in Texas history. Devin Kelley had served nearly five years in the...

A pair of Brooklyn-based far-left attorneys who firebombed the NYPD during last year’s deadly Black Lives Matter riots can still practice law in the State of New York, while former New York City Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani cannot, with his law license suspended for the crime of questioning the 2020 Presidential Election. Colinford Mattis, who works as a corporate lawyer, and his co-conspirator Urooj Rahman, a so-called human rights attorney, both face federal charges related to the firebombing of an NYPD police cruiser and could face sentences of at least 45 years in prison. Despite the extremely violent...

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Tuesday removed a hurdle to the construction of a natural-gas pipeline through Pennsylvania and New Jersey, ruling the pipeline developer could invoke the power of the federal government to take state property needed for the project. The court, in a 5-4 opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, rejected New Jersey’s challenge to the actions of the PennEast Pipeline Co., a joint venture of several energy companies that aims to build a 116-mile interstate pipeline. Joining the chief justice were two fellow conservatives, Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh, and two liberals, Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia...

When Seattle’s City Council voted unanimously to cut millions of dollars from its police budget amid the uproar over the murder of George Floyd, it ran into an unlikely roadblock: the federal government. U.S. District Judge James Robart ruled that the city couldn’t defund its own police department without his permission.The judge was acting under the mandate granted him by a 2012 consent decree put in place after John T. Williams, a native American woodcarver, was shot four times by a Seattle police officer in 2010. The killing was ruled unjustified. The consent decree — a sort of civil plea...

A federal judge in Maryland this week followed through on a previous warning to sanction a lawyer best known for representing Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) in a series of failed defamation lawsuits against media companies, saying the lawyer’s latest case against CNN was “frivolous” in nature. U.S. District Judge Richard Bennet, an appointee of George W. Bush, ruled that attorney Steve Biss had “unreasonably and vexatiously” attempted to continue litigating a lawsuit against the news network after the case had already been dismissed with prejudice for failing to state a claim in March. Despite that ruling, Biss filed an amended...

The Biden Administration took control of a Texas rancher’s border land on Wednesday. The action followed a victory by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas against the family which has owned the land since 1760.