Free Republic

The Senate passed a resolution Tuesday aimed at ending President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Brazil, with five Republicans joining Democrats in a rare bipartisan rebuke of the president over trade policy. Sens. Rand Paul, Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell sided with Democrats in the 52 to 48 vote. McConnell has long been critical of Trump’s trade policy, and said in a statement ahead of the vote, “Tariffs make both building and buying in America more expensive. The economic harms of trade wars are not the exception to history, but the rule.” The...

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 bipartisan group of more than 130 retired judges filed a brief Friday urging a federal court to drop charges against Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan, saying her arrest undermines "centuries of precedent on judicial immunity." Dugan, a Milwaukee County circuit court judge, was arrested April 25 by FBI agents on federal allegations she prevented the arrest of a man by immigration authorities during a federal law enforcement operation at her courthouse. The man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, was arrested and detained at an immigration detention center. In an amicus brief filed Friday, the group of judges argue that Dugan shouldn't be prosecuted...

On Monday a DC Appeals Court blocked President Donald Trump from removing radical Democratic members from two federal labor boards. In a 7-4 vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated a March 28 ruling by a three-judge panel of the same court, according to Reuters. The latest rulings again reinstates Cathy Harris from the Merit Systems Protection Board and Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board.

More than 500 law firms moved to file an amicus brief on Friday in support of Perkins Coie's lawsuit against the Trump administration's executive order that targeted the firm over its representation of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. "The Executive Order at issue in this case, and the others like it, take direct aim at several of the Nation's leading law firms and seek to cow every other firm, large and small, into submission," the amicus brief says. "The looming threat posed by the Executive Order at issue in this case and the others like it is not lost on anyone...

High-ranking alumni of some of the most powerful congressional offices in the country have lobbied on behalf of companies controlled or greatly influenced by the Chinese military, disclosures show. Former congressional staffers with ties to powerful members of Congress, like Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican House Whip Steve Scalise, have worked to influence policy on behalf of Pentagon-designated “Chinese military companies” like DJI, BGI and Huawei. Chinese military companies are those the Department of Defense (DOD) has determined are “directly or indirectly owned, controlled or beneficially owned by” the Chinese military, as well as those that contribute...

Points In an open letter released by National Security Leaders for America, 741 bipartisan former national security officials endorsed Harris for president, calling Trump “impulsive and ill-informed.” The statement was signed by former secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, as well as Republican secretaries of Defense Chuck Hagel and William Cohen. The letter criticized the former president’s foreign affairs track record and alleged involvement in the Jan. 6th Capitol riot. Sunday’s endorsement comes as the Harris campaign is in the midst of an effort to rally Republicans who may be losing interest in Trump.

Nineteen retired generals, admirals, and former top civilian defense officials have filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, opposing former President Donald Trump’s plea for immunity from prosecution, claiming that granting such a request would pose a significant threat to national security. The Supreme Court is set to deliberate on Trump’s presidential immunity argument on April 25, as reported by The Gateway Pundit. The Supreme Court will deliberate on whether a president can be shielded from legal consequences for actions taken while in office. The decision, which may not arrive until late June, according to analysts, has significant repercussions...