Free Republic

A federal judge temporarily blocked an Arkansas law that requires parental consent for children to create social media accounts. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks of the Western District of Arkansas granted the preliminary injunction in response to a motion by Netchoice, a trade group for technology companies that has members including Facebook parent company Meta; TikTok; and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The law had been set to go into effect Friday. “We’re pleased the court sided with the First Amendment and stopped Arkansas’ unconstitutional law from censoring free speech online and undermining the privacy of Arkansans, their...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — On the morning of December 1 at the Western District of Arkansas Courthouse in Fayetteville, Josh Duggar’s child pornography case began. Judge Timothy L. Brooks filed a 15-page opinion and order Wednesday morning saying Duggar’s prior allegations of child molestation conduct can be introduced as evidence during the trial. Before adjourning for lunch at 12:05 p.m., Judge Brooks offered detailed instructions to the jury, each side provided their opening statements, and the first witness of the trial was called. Duggar and his team entered the courtroom at approximately 8:36 a.m. His lead counsel, Justin K. Gelfand,...

In an effort to dig up evidence that could absolve Josh Duggar, the former TLC star's defense team is seeking more information from the multiple police departments that prosecutors say downloaded child sexual abuse files from his IP address. In a partial victory on Thursday, a federal judge granted the Duggar team's request. Judge Timothy Brooks ruled that prosecutors could likely work with federal agents to obtain the information Duggar's team wanted from the Jonesboro and Ozark police departments in Arkansas. "The defense has persuaded the Court that the auto-generated logs emailed to the three officers could disclose information to...