Free Republic

For the first time in recent history, a federal judge on Tuesday found Florida’s attorney general in contempt of court for referring to the court’s order blocking a new state immigration law as illegitimate and unlawful. While U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’ ruling is extraordinary, she spared James Uthmeier from paying hefty fines or spending time in jail. Instead, Williams ordered the state’s chief legal officer to submit biweekly reports to ensure police don’t arrest anyone under an immigration law she blocked in April. “Litigants cannot change the plain meaning of words as it suits them, especially when conveying a...

Obama-appointed Judge Kathleen M. Williams of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida holds Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in contempt of court over enforcing Florida's anti-illegal immigration laws, cooperating with the Trump admin Uthmeier had said that a prior order from the judge did not apply to law enforcement on halting immigration actions because they were not party to the case.

A federal judge in Maryland on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump lacked the authority to fire three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and ordered their reinstatement — teeing up another high-stakes court clash centered on Trump's ability as commander-in-chief to remove or otherwise control the members of independent agencies. U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox, a Biden appointee, sided with the three ousted members of the board — Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr. — in ruling that their firings were unlawful and ordered all three members to be reinstated to their posts. In...

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that the Trump administration cannot deport Mahmoud Khalil, the radical, pro-Hamas activist who was a graduate student at Columbia University. Random activist judges have overstepped their authority to rule against the Trump administration so many times in the last few months that it’s nearly impossible to keep up with all the rulings. Who appointed these judges to run the country? No one, and the American people are already sick and tired of this. FOX News reports: Federal judge sides with anti-Israel ringleader Mahmoud Khalil, halts Trump administration’s deportation bid A federal judge sided...

A federal judge on Wednesday barred the Trump administration from continuing to detain Mahmoud Khalil under a rarely cited law invoked by the secretary of state — and suggested that Mr. Khalil could be released as early as Friday. However, the judge, Michael E. Farbiarz, paused his own order to give the administration a chance to appeal, saying it would not go into effect until 9:30 a.m. on Friday. And he left a pathway for the government to continue to detain Mr. Khalil for other reasons, though he suggested he would be skeptical were authorities to do so. ***Though Judge...

A federal appeals court is allowing the Trump White House to ban the Associated Press from the Oval Office and other restricted spaces for now in a ruling that blocked a lower court's ruling that claimed the ban was unconstitutional. In a 2-1 order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted in part a stay of the lower court's April 8 ruling that declared the content-based ban unconstitutional. Both of the judges who ruled in the administration's favor were nominated by President Trump in his first term.

Former DC Metropolitan Police Department Lieutenant Shane Lamond has been sentenced to 18 months in prison by crooked activist Judge Amy Berman Jackson for speaking to Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio in an attempt to prevent clashes between his group and Antifa militants. Lamond was arrested for telling Tarrio that the DC Police had a warrant out for his arrest for vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner. Before his arrest, Lamond had been with the department for 22 years and served as supervisor of the Intelligence Branch for his last four years. Judge Berman-Jackson convicted Lamond in December 2024 for...

Another day, another black-robed tyrant subverting President Trump’s constitutional authority and the rule of law. As CNN reported, a U.S. District Court Judge in Boston on Thursday stepped in and blocked the Trump Administration from preventing foreign nationals from entering Harvard University to study. On Thursday, President Trump issued a proclamation suspending the visas of new students seeking to study at Harvard University for an initial six months, but allows extensions beyond that time. The order also instructs the State Department to consider revoking the academic visas of current Harvard students. Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee, issued a two-page ‘temporary’...

BOSTON – A federal judge in Boston on Thursday temporarily blocked US President Donald Trump from barring US entry of foreign nationals seeking to study or participate in exchange programs at Harvard University. Under a two-page temporary restraining order granted to Harvard, US District Judge Allison Burroughs enjoined Trump’s proclamation from taking effect pending further litigation of the matter amid an escalating dispute between the Ivy League school and Republican president. The judge ruled that Trump’s directive prohibiting foreign nationals from entering the United States to study at Harvard for the next six months would cause “immediate and irreparable injury”...

Activist judges like Judge Boasberg are are issuing blatantly unlawful nationwide injunctions. It’s not judicial review, it’s judicial sabotage.

Nope, not satire. Just your tax dollars at work. The federal Bureau of Prisons must continue providing hormone therapy and social accommodations to hundreds of transgender inmates following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that led to a disruption in medical treatment, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said a federal law prohibits prison officials from arbitrarily depriving inmates of medications and other lifestyle accommodations that its own medical staff has deemed to be appropriate. Ready for the twist? He was a Reagan appointee, in fact! The woke rot goes deep, friends.

A judge in California on Monday blocked the Trump administration from using the wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants in the Los Angeles area, ruling that the government hasn't promised adequate due process. The ruling by U.S. District Judge John Holcomb — who was nominated by President Trump in 2019 — is the latest to limit the administration's controversial practice of rapidly deporting people accused of being members of the gang Tren de Aragua under the 1798 law, which allows removals during an "invasion" or "predatory incursion" of the United States. Courts in three other states have also...

A Supreme Court more interested in playing politics than faithfully upholding the Constitution is one that will lose Americans’ trust. If there was any doubt left that a majority of Supreme Court justices are more interested in playing politics than upholding Americans’ constitutional rights, it was all flushed down the drain following the Monday release of the high court’s weekly order list. A week after refusing to defend the free speech rights of a Massachusetts minor, the nation’s highest court declined to take up two pertinent cases involving the Second Amendment. As The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd reported, one involved a...

June 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a challenge to the legality of state restrictions on assault-style rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines, passing up for now cases that offered the justices a chance to further expand gun rights. The justices turned away two appeals after lower courts upheld a ban in Maryland on powerful semi-automatic rifles such as AR-15s and one in Rhode Island restricting the possession of ammunition feeding devices holding more than 10 rounds. The lower courts rejected arguments that the measures violate the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to "keep and...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit that accuses billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency of illegally accessing government data systems, canceling government contracts and firing federal employees.U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled Tuesday that 14 states can proceed with their claims against Musk and DOGE. The states, through their attorneys general, sued in February over the defendants’ alleged constitutional violations.The states had asked Chutkan to temporarily block DOGE from accessing any data systems or terminating any federal employees. But the judge denied that request on Feb. 18. She found that...

Grants Pass, Oregon has been known as a beautiful, predominantly conservative small city in Southern Oregon. A place that has welcomed retirees escaping California’s ongoing meltdown, and really a place for people of all ages who appreciate the natural beauty of the region and proximity to the Rogue River, which runs through town. The charms of the area were on full display at this year’s Boatnik celebration, an annual Memorial Day weekend event organized by The Active Club, a local nonprofit organization that contributes to the youth of Southern Oregon. Sponsors include the City of Grants Pass, Josephine County, and...

Judge denies qualified immunity to four University of Central Florida administrators including president, tasks jury with considering punitive damages. Two have moved on to Texas Tech, Yale. The University of Central Florida's outrage at a faculty member's assertion "Black privilege is real" could end up putting its top administrators at the mercy of a jury, sending a warning to campus bureaucrats nationwide not to overreact to minority views.U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza denied qualified immunity to President Alexander Cartwright, Provost Michael Johnson, former College of Sciences Dean Tosha Dupras and former Office of Institutional Equity Director Nancy Myers in a...

A Michigan judge struck down several abortion-related laws last week, including a 24-hour waiting period, mandatory informed consent requirements, and a law prohibiting non-physicians from committing abortions. Judge Sima Patel ruled that all three laws are now unconstitutional given the state’s adoption of an amendment that declared abortion to be a constitutional “right.” Following the amendment’s passage, Northland Family Planning Centers and a group called Medical Students for Choice filed a lawsuit calling for the overturning of the laws. In 2024, Patel placed a preliminary injunction on each of the laws. At that time, she said a 24-hour waiting period...

Did Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor forget that it’s generally frowned upon for judges to display their political partisanship? It’s a question worth asking given that the Obama appointee appeared to do just that in her recent public remarks. On Thursday night, Sotomayor attended an event hosted by the notoriously left-wing American Bar Association (ABA), in which she seemingly made an indirect reference to President Trump and conservatives’ criticisms of the ongoing judicial coup among lower court judges who are stymieing the administration’s agenda via overreaching injunctions. As The Federalist’s Joy Pullmann previously reported, the ABA routinely “advocates for and...

In her recent address to the American Bar Association, Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke not as a neutral jurist interpreting the Constitution, but as a partisan urging mobilization against the sitting administration. Her remarks, delivered with careful modulation, carried all the marks of political rhetoric under the guise of moral urgency: "This is our time to stand up and be heard." To the untrained ear, these words may sound like little more than civic encouragement. But context clarifies tone, and tone unmasks motive. Coming from a sitting Supreme Court Justice, in a polarized environment, during open legal battles between the ABA...