Free Republic

"Judge says Greenpeace must pay $345 million in pipeline lawsuit, cutting jury amount nearly in half"

A federal judge on Tuesday evening said Los Angeles-based US Attorney Bill Essayli has been in the role unlawfully and disqualified him. President Trump chose California Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli to serve as the acting US attorney for the Central District of California earlier this year. Bill Essayli is a staunch Trump supporter who has been aggressively investigating and prosecuting illegal aliens and criminals. US District Judge Michael Seabright, a George W. Bush appointee, said Essayli has been unlawfully serving since July. Judge Seabright did not dismiss Essayli’s indictments because they were signed by other attorneys for the government. The...

A federal judge has indefinitely blocked President Trump’s efforts to lay off thousands of federal employees amid the government shutdown. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, an appointee of former President Clinton, sided with government employee unions that asked her to bar the administration from carrying out the reductions in force (RIFs) as the lawsuit moves forward. More than 4,000 workers were set to be impacted by the job actions.The preliminary injunction extends Illston’s previous order temporarily stopping the administration’s attempted layoffs, which she has said she believes will ultimately be deemed illegal and an overstep of executive authority.The judge said...

A federal judge in Eugene Monday night granted a preliminary injunction barring the federal government from halting grant funding for sex education programs that include references to gender identities. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken found the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lacked any grounds to restrict such grant funding and said its new restrictions amounted to sex discrimination. The grants were authorized by Congress to support sex education programs intended to help reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections and adolescent sexual risk behavior based on “medical and social science,” Aiken wrote. Congress also stated the programs must...

While President Trump is working overtime to keep America safe and undo the disaster Joe Biden left behind when he opened our borders. Biden flung open the floodgates and let millions of illegals pour into this country, many with serious criminal records. We’ve all seen the headlines: violent crimes, repeat offenders, and senseless tragedies that could have been prevented. One of the biggest obstacles President Trump is facing is the Democrats. Activist immigration judges, to be exact. These activist judges are working just as hard to keep illegals in the country as Trump’s administration has been working to get them...

Ethics experts and Democrats say they are eager to know whether private donors behind the planned $300 million ballroom are poised to receive any benefits in return.President Donald Trump’s swift demolition of the White House’s East Wing this week stunned conservationists and many Americans. But ethics experts and Democrats say they are turning to a question related to the next phase of the project: whether the donors behind the planned $300 million ballroom that will replace the demolished annex will receive any benefits in return.Tech companies and defense contractors such as Google, Lockheed Martin and Microsoft, as well as wealthy...

A federal judge in Chicago just made a decision that’s raising eyebrows — and not just among immigration officers.In a move that’s already stirring debate nationwide, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ruled that ICE agents — yes, federal officers — can be arrested if they take migrants into custody at Cook County courthouses without a proper warrant. Let that sink in for a second. (snip) So, who’s actually in charge here — federal law enforcement… or local judges?And if ICE agents can be arrested for doing their jobs, what kind of message does that send to those who aren’t even...

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell has ruled that Planned Parenthood affiliates in California, Iowa, and New York do not have to comply with recent executive orders requiring them to affirm biological sex and discontinue the promotion of radical gender ideology and promiscuity in order to receive federal funding Key Takeaways: * Despite multiple Trump executive orders specifying otherwise, a district judge has ruled that certain Planned Parenthood affiliates in three states do not have to rid their sex ed curricula of radical gender ideology. * The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program has been shown in the past to have failed to...

⛔️CORRUPTION WATCH:Judge Ted Chuang, an Obama-appointed anti-Trump judge, has been assigned the case against John Bolton. He already ruled against @elonmusk and DOGE, and against President Trump when he righteously implemented the travel ban. I filed Articles of Impeachment on this judicial hack MONTHS ago. This is not good.pic.twitter.com/Kt3VgnsAar— Rep. Andy Ogles (@RepOgles) October 20, 2025

Dua Lipa scored a legal victory in a copyright lawsuit over her 2020 smash “Levitating” after a judge dismissed the case. Lipa was initially hit with a pair of “Levitating” copyright lawsuits in March 2022, one from Florida reggae group named Artikal Sound System that was dismissed in June 2023, and another from L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer. Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissed the latter earlier today in New York court, explaining that the commonalities between songs were not protectable under copyright law. In their initial suit, Brown and Linzer accused Lipa of copying both their 1979 song “Wiggle...

National Guard troops are typically under the control of state governors, but federal law empowers the president to call them into federal service if there is a danger of foreign invasion or “rebellion against the authority of the government.”Trump has pointed to immigration-related protests in Chicago and other cities to justify his attempts to use the guard. But the 7th Circuit judges rejected that rationale.A protest does not transform into a “rebellion” just because protesters are well-organized, advocate to overhaul the structure of government or use civil disobedience, Judges Ilana Rovner, David Hamilton and Amy St. Eve wrote. Nor do...

CHICAGO (AP) — Federal immigration officers in the Chicago area will be required to wear body cameras, a judge said Thursday after seeing tear gas and other aggressive steps used against protesters. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said she was a “little startled” after seeing TV images of clashes between agents and the public during President Donald Trump’s administration’s immigration crackdown. “I live in Chicago if folks haven’t noticed,” she said. “And I’m not blind, right?” Community efforts to oppose U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have ramped up in the nation’s third-largest city, where neighborhood groups have assembled to monitor...

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argues that being black is like having a handicap or disability. They don't have equal access to the voting system. They're disabled."

Key Points A federal judge blocked the Trump administration, for now, from firing federal workers during the ongoing government shutdown. The order came five days after the administration issued reduction-in-force notifications to more than 4,000 federal workers.

U.S. District Court Judge LaShonda Hunt, a Biden-appointed federal judge in Illinois, has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE to dismantle a security fence protecting the federal immigration processing facility in Broadview, Illinois, a facility that has been the site of violent protests and anti-ICE riots since the launch of President Trump’s Operation Midway Blitz earlier this fall.

In issuing her decision, U.S. District Judge April Perry said, “I simply cannot credit [the Trump administration’s] declarations to the extent they contradict state and local law enforcement. … DHS’ perception of events are unreliable.”

Lawyers have a notoriously bad (and often well-earned) reputation. But one thing you have to hand them is this: If there's a loophole, they'll find it. Such appears to be the case with those advising the Trump administration as it navigates the bevy of lawsuits filed in an effort to #ResistWeMuch its efforts to enforce immigration law and restore law and order to a number of blue cities and states. As Jennifer Oliver O'Connell reported, on Saturday, an Oregon district court judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the administration's deployment of 200 National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon. n...

A federal judge in Oregon has granted a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard into Portland after the president announced he would send in troops to protect what he calls a “war-ravaged” city. The ruling by the Trump-nominated judge marks the latest setback to White House efforts to crack down on Democratic-led cities it claims are stricken by crime and disorder, often in part by citing the need to protect ICE facilities from riotous protesters. The temporary restraining order expires in 14 days on October 18, US District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump nominee,...

The Supreme Court justice's wife and mother sat in the courtroom as Sophie Roske apologized to the family.WASHINGTON — A woman who pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh three years ago was sentenced Friday to more than eight years in prison.Sophie Roske, now 29, was arrested near Kavanaugh’s home in June 2022 and told officials at the time that she intended to kill the associate justice, then herself.She appeared in court on Friday for her sentencing in a yellow jail jumpsuit. Members of Kavanaugh’s family as well as Roske’s were at the sentencing.U.S. District Judge...

The U.S. government has asked the Oregon federal judge presiding over National Guard case to recuse himself. Following President Donald Trump’s announcement that he will deploy the National Guard to Portland, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Trump administration. The federal judge presiding over the case is Michael Simon, who is married to Oregon Representative Suzanne Bonamici. Bonamici is one of the members of Congress representing the City of Portland. On Saturday, Bonamici was one of the Oregon leaders who spoke out against the deployment of federal troops to Portland. The Department...