Free Republic

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett may be poised to break ranks again in a case involving funding for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Barrett has drawn sharp criticism from President Donald Trump's supporters in recent months after she sided against the president and the administration in high-profile cases involving Trump's agenda and his sentencing in New York. Chief Justice John Roberts has also been scrutinized over his rulings in significant cases, but Barrett in particular has sparked harsh blowback as staunch Trump supporters have said the president made a mistake by nominating her to the bench during his...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Biden administration regulation on the nearly impossible-to-trace weapons called ghost guns, clearing the way for continued serial numbers, background checks and age verification requirements to buy them in kits online.Seven justices joined the opinion, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, upholding the rule. Two justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, dissented.(snip)Ghost guns are any privately made firearms without the serial numbers that allow police to trace weapons used in crime. The 2022 regulation was focused on kits sold online with everything needed to build a functioning firearm — sometimes in less than...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Biden-era federal regulations on “ghost guns,” mail-order kits that allow people to build untraceable weapons at home – handing gun control groups a rare win at the conservative high court. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion for a 7-2 majority that included both liberal and conservative justices in one of the most closely watched Supreme Court cases of the year. “Perhaps a half hour of work is required before anyone can fire a shot,” Gorsuch wrote. “But even as sold, the kit comes with all necessary components, and its intended function as instrument of...

The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal Monday to the Supreme Court asking it to halt a recent lower court ruling to rehire some federal workers laid off at federal agencies. The administration said that the ruling should be put on hold because the judge didn't have authority to order 16,000 probationary employees be re-hired, according to The Associated Press. The order was from U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco. The agencies at which the layoffs occurred were departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury.

In a rare clash between the executive and judiciary, Chief Justice John Roberts dismissed calls for impeaching federal judges after President Donald Trump urged the removal of a judge who ruled against his deportation policies.Roberts said in a statement, "For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose."

On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) rejected a lawsuit by Republican attorneys general that aimed at blocking left-wing lawsuits targeting energy companies for their alleged role in contributing to “global warming.” As ABC News reports, the lawsuit was filed by attorneys general from 19 different states in response to several Democrat-led lawsuits against oil and gas companies. The Republican lawsuit, led by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, said that the lawsuits by Democratic states were essentially attempting to control national policy; he also warned that such efforts could run the risk of increasing energy prices. States...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court dealt a major setback to the oil industry on Monday, refusing to block lawsuits from California and other blue states that seek billions of dollars in damages for the impact of climate change. Without a comment or dissent, the justices turned down closely watched appeals from Sunoco, Shell and other energy producers. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said he took no part in the decision, presumably because he owns stock in companies affected by the dispute. In Sunoco vs. Honolulu, the energy producers urged the justices to intervene in these state cases and rule that...

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the case of Nicholas Sandmann, a former Kentucky high school student who sued several news outlets for allegedly libelous coverage of his viral encounter with a Native American activist in 2019. Justices decided not to take up Sandmann’s petition against several outlets, including ABC News, The New York Times, Gannett, and others, leaving in place a lower court’s dismissal of the massive libel suit. The former student argued he was defamed by reports about his confrontation with Native American activist Nathan Phillips at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., five years ago....

After years of assembling datapoints around the potential for the Supreme Court to be compromised, it was the discovery of Mary McCord’s husband Sheldon Snook deep in the office of Chief Justice John Roberts that finally sealed the deal for me personally. Yes, the Supreme Court is compromised. Quick Context. Mary McCord was the architect of all Trump targeting efforts. The FISA on Carter Page, the weaponization of the DOJ-NSD, the installation of Michael Atkinson as Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG), the companion to Sally Yates in the Flynn targeting, lead staff for the Schiff/Nadler impeachment effort, later appointment by...

The Supreme Court is giving the Navy a freer hand determining what job assignments it gives to 35 sailors who sued after refusing on religious grounds to comply with an order to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The high court in a brief order Friday sided with the Biden administration and said that while the lawsuit plays out, the Navy may consider the sailors’ vaccination status in making deployment, assignment and other operational decisions. The group that sued includes mostly Navy SEALs. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that there was a “simple overarching reason” that he agreed with the court’s decision. The...

U.S. Supreme Court denies Trump's request to block the release of White House records from Jan. 6 "select committee" by an 8-1 vote.

SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN OSHA VACCINE MANDATEBREAKING: The Supreme Court BLOCKS the federal government's COVID-19 vaccine-or-test requirement for large workplaces. The court ALLOWS a vaccine mandate for workers at federally funded health care facilities to take effect nationwide.— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) January 13, 2022

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court turned down emergency requests by New York healthcare workers for a religious exemption from state requirements to vaccinate against Covid-19. A federal appeals court in New York previously denied the workers’ requests. The court denied the requests in brief written orders. As is typical for such emergency actions, the majority didn’t explain its thinking. Three conservative justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch—said they would have allowed the exemptions. In October, the court denied a similar application from Maine healthcare workers seeking exemption from their state’s vaccination requirements, which lower courts had rejected. The same three conservatives...

By Andrew Chung (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected challenges brought by a group of Christian doctors and nurses and an organization that promotes vaccine skepticism to New York's refusal to allow religious exemptions to the state's mandate that healthcare workers be vaccinated against COVID-19. Acting in two cases, the justices denied emergency requests for an injunction requiring the state to permit religious exemptions while litigation over the mandate's legality continues in lower courts. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they would have granted the injunction. The Supreme Court previously rejected other challenges...

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear an emergency appeal of a vaccine requirement imposed on Maine health care workers, the latest defeat for opponents of vaccine mandates. It was the first time the Supreme Court weighed in on a statewide vaccine mandate. It previously rejected challenges of vaccine requirements for New York City teachers and Indiana University staff and students. Justice Stephen Breyer rejected the emergency appeal but left the door open to try again as the clock ticks on Maine’s mandate. The state will begin enforcing it Oct. 29. The Maine vaccine requirement that was put in...

BOSTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court decided Monday against hearing an appeal of a decision that found Gov. Charlie Baker did not overstep his authority with sweeping orders to close businesses and limit gatherings to control the coronavirus early in the pandemic. The nation’s highest court announced without comment Monday that it would not consider the appeal. The lawsuit argued that Baker had no authority to issue public health-related orders under the state’s Civil Defense Act, which it said was designed to protect the state from foreign invasions, insurrections, and catastrophic events like hurricanes and fires. The Massachusetts Supreme...

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from a group of New York City public school teachers to block the city's coronavirus vaccine mandate.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that they did not hear President Donald Trump’s 2020 election case because it did not meet “normal criteria.” Anchor Chris Wallace said, “One of your arguments against seeing the court’s political is the fact that it refused to even hear the appeals from the Trump campaign about the 2020 election. Didn’t even hear it them.” ......SNIP...... Wallace asked, “Why was that?” Breyer said, “Why was it? Because they didn’t bring a case, I guess, that met the normal criteria for being heard. When we decide to...

As you may know, during the current pandemic, since the enactment of the so-called “CARES Act” in March 2020, there has been in effect, in various forms, a federal “moratorium” on evictions of rental tenants from their apartments. Thus some landlords have now gone well over a year without getting paid what they are owed, and with no access to any legal remedy. The most recent version of the “moratorium” expired on July 31 (Saturday). This version had been promulgated by the CDC on its own authority, without specific authorization from Congress. On Sunday (August 1) the Democratic Congressional leadership...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday issued a new moratorium on evictions that would last until October 3, ending some of the political pressure being placed on President Joe Biden. The new moratorium could help keep millions in their homes as the coronavirus’ delta variant has spread and states have been slow to release federal rental aid. It would temporarily halt evictions in counties with “substantial and high levels” of virus transmissions and would cover areas where 90 percent of the U.S. population lives. The announcement was something of a reversal for the Biden administration after saying...