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On November 15, 2022, the United States Attorney in the Western District of Texas, Ashley C. Hoff, filed a Notice of Appeal to the United States District Court fro the Western District of Texas, Pecos Division in the case of USA v. Perez-Gallan. Previously, on November 10, 2022, Judge David Counts had issued a Memorandum Opinion dismissing the indictment to Litsson Antonio Perez-Gallan as invalid because it was unconstitutional under the United States Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association (NYSR&PA) v. Bruen decision, which restored the Second Amendment as a full-fledged member of the Bill...

Federal District Judge David Counts in the Western District of Texas has ruled the controversial federal law banning gun possession by a person who has been served with a restraining order for domestic violence is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. The statute in question is 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8). This statute makes it a crime to possess a firearm if the person is subject to a court issued restraining order about domestic violence. The maximum term of imprisonment for violation of the statue is up to 10 years in prison. The actual wording of 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(8) is this:(g) It...

(Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas ruled on Friday that President Joe Biden's administration had wrongly interpreted an Obamacare provision as barring health care providers from discriminating against gay and transgender people. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo ruled that a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2020 holding that a law barring workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees did not apply to the healthcare law. Kacsmaryk said Congress, when adopting the law, known as Obamacare, in 2010, during the tenure of former Democratic President Barack Obama, could have included "sexual orientation" or "gender identity" in the...

A federal judge in Texas struck down President Biden's student loan handout in a Thursday night ruling. Biden's plan, which aims to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for Pell Grant recipients in college and up to $10,000 for others who borrowed using federal student loans. "Whether the Program constitutes good public policy is not the role of this Court to determine. Still, no one can plausibly deny that it is either one of the largest delegations of legislative power to the executive branch, or one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the...

A Trump-appointed judge issued a blow Thursday night to a New York State gun law that barred guns in places of worship. The Democrat-led legislature in New York passed a series of laws in September aimed at restricting concealed carry after the Supreme Court overturned a statute requiring individuals to show “proper cause” in order to obtain a concealed carry permit. One such restriction barred firearms in places of worship and “sensitive” areas. Two clerics and several gun rights organizations sued, asking for an injunction until the court could hear the merits of the case. Pastor Jimmie Hardaway of Trinity...

Afederal appeals court in Louisiana has ordered the release of two leaders the election watchdog group True the Vote after they were detained for contempt of court late last month. A panel of three GOP-appointed judges for the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals late Sunday ordered group President Catherine Engelbrecht and one-time board member Gregg Phillips to be released, show court documents obtained Monday by Just the News. A spokesperson for True the Vote told The Epoch Times Engelbrecht and Phillips are expected to be released Monday, "when the paperwork is complete." The two leaders were sent to jail...

A federal judge in Minnesota has rejected Mike Lindell’s challenge to the FBI search and seizure of his phone in a 2020 election-related criminal probe.Judge Eric Tostrud said Lindell, CEO of My Pillow and a prominent backer of former President Donald Trump’s false voter fraud claims, had not shown that the search was unconstitutional, and said he could not have his phone returned or get more access to details from the search.“The Government has demonstrated a compelling interest in preventing the premature disclosure of search-warrant materials during its ongoing federal criminal investigation. Multiple factors here justify keeping the search warrant...

A federal judge rebuked the DOJ this week for targeting conservative nonprofit Eagle Forum of Alabama with a stunning subpoena — punishing the wrongthinker on gender ideology by process and sending a chilling message to other dissenters from regime orthodoxy. The judge’s ruling came in Boe v. Marshall, a case in which the Justice Department intervened this spring, suing Alabama over the constitutionality of its Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act. That law prohibits Alabamans from rendering so-called “gender-affirming care” to minors — which can include giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and even surgically removing their breasts and...

A federal judge has overruled prosecutors and sided with a Jan. 6 defendant by refusing to hand down a prison sentence during sentencing. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden showed compassion for Nicholas Rodean of Frederick, Maryland. McFadden ruled that Rodean, who suffers from Aspergers, will not have to do years in prison and sentenced him to 240 days of home confinement and 5 years of probation. Washington Post reporter Tom Jackman detailed what happened in the court: “Just watched an amazing sentencing of Jan. 6 defendant Nicholas Rodean, who is on the autism spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome. “He smashed...

Dr. Anthony Fauci and other White House officials must testify under oath in a lawsuit alleging the Biden administration colluded with Facebook and Twitter to suppress free speech regarding coronavirus, a federal court ordered on Friday. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry sued the Biden administration in May 2022, arguing that the White House – and especially Fauci as Chief Medical Advisor to the President – were essentially making Facebook and Twitter arms of the Biden administration, suppressing content that criticized lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and related stories. The case argued that under Norwood...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — For the second time in about a month, a lawsuit challenging Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” legislation restricting teaching on gender identity and sexual orientation in schools has been dismissed by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger in Orlando on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by LGBTQ students, parents and their families — as well as several civil rights groups — and refused their request for a preliminary injunction to stop the law from being implemented. The judge gave the plaintiffs until Nov. 3 to file an amended lawsuit if they desired. The lawsuit...

The Empire State's latest gun-control law was dealt another setback in federal court today. Judge John Sinatra of the Western District of New York, a Trump appointee, found the state's total ban on licensed gun-carry inside places of worship is unconstitutional. He issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the provision to go into effect immediately and remain in effect until he decides on a request for a preliminary injunction. Judge Sinatra said the state's gun ban in churches violates the Second Amendment rights of New Yorkers...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday invalidated a ruling by a lower court on a Pennsylvania case that involved the counting of undated mail-in ballots, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.The Supreme Court ruled on a decision that the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made in May in a case involving the 2021 election of Judge Zachary Cohen, ordering the state to count 257 mail-in ballots that lacked a necessary date on the return envelope.The lower court ruled that the date requirement was "immaterial" and said there was no reason to exclude the ballots that had previously been set aside due...

A federal appeals court on Wednesday said the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy violates U.S. immigration law, dealing a blow to an Obama-era program that provides deportation protection and work permits to nearly 600,000 immigrant "Dreamers" who lack legal status. A three-judge panel for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded the Obama administration did not have the legal authority to create DACA in 2012, affirming a July 2021 ruling from a federal judge in Texas who barred the Biden administration from enrolling new immigrants in the decade-old program. Despite its conclusion, the appeals court did not order...

A federal appellate judge confirmed that he will no longer consider graduates of Yale Law School for clerkships, citing the school's alleged penchant for "cancellation of views." Judge James C. Ho of the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeal spoke to the Kentucky Chapters Conference of the Federalist Society last week and openly criticized the so-called intolerant practices trumpeted by Yale Law and its graduates. "Yale not only tolerates the cancellation of views — it actively practices it," said Ho, a University of Chicago School of Law graduate who was nominated to his federal judiciary post by then-President Donald...

A sharply divided 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel has ruled that a Texas judge may start the day with prayer, overturning a decision from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

A federal law prohibiting people under felony indictment from buying firearms is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Texas has concluded, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly expanded gun rights.

Two different federal courts, in two different Circuit Courts of appeal, have refused to grant preliminary injunctions against the implementation of the ATF “Final Rule.” The Final Rule completely changes the definition of a firearm in Federal law. On August 23, in the United States Court for the Eastern District of North Dakota, in the Eighth Circuit, Judge Peter D. Welte refused to grant a preliminary injunction against the massive changes to federal law proposed in the “Final Rule” put forward by the Biden Administration, through the ATF.On August 24, 2022, the District Court for the Galveston Division of the...

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, ordered the government to quickly produce documents after it was sued by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri over alleged collusion with Big Tech firms such as Facebook. The initial tranche of discovery, released on Aug. 31, revealed that more than 50 government officials across a dozen agencies were involved in applying pressure to social media companies to censor users.... . .. But some of the officials refused to provide any answers or answer all questions posed by the plaintiffs. Among them: Fauci, who serves as director of the National Institute...

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the city of Louisville, Kentucky, cannot ban a Christian photographer from limiting her wedding photography business to opposite-sex couples. In the lawsuit which Petapixel has previously reported on, photographer Chelsey Nelson challenged a Louisville law that required her to take photographs and blog online for same-sex weddings.Louisville’s 20-year-old “Fairness Ordinance” prevents discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. However, the lawsuit, filed on behalf of wedding photographer Chelsey Nelson by the conservative advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, alleges that the city’s law infringes on Nelson’s freedom of religion and speech. Beaton ruled that the...