Free Republic

(The Epoch Times)—Restrictions imposed by President Joe Biden’s administration on so-called ghost guns are illegal, a federal appeals court ruled on Nov. 9. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), an Executive Branch agency that promulgated the rule containing the restrictions in 2022 with President Biden’s support, overstepped its authority, according to a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. “The agency rule at issue here flouts clear statutory text and exceeds the legislatively-imposed limits on agency authority in the name of public policy,” U.S. Circuit Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote in the ruling....

The ATF can’t arrest anyone for owning a pistol-brace-equipped gun.That’s the outcome of a ruling handed down by United States District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on Wednesday. He granted a motion to stay enforcement of the agency’s rule banning the possession of effectively all braced guns that weren’t registered earlier this year. He found the ATF exceeded its power when crafting the rule.

A federal court on Monday upheld a new Florida law that prevents biological males from competing in female sports, ruling that the state has a legitimate interest in “protecting and promoting athletic opportunities for girls.” The law was signed in 2021 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the wake of a series of controversies around the country involving transgender-identifying males defeating biological girls in sports. In Connecticut, for example, two high school athletes who are biologically male but who identify as female won a total of 15 state track championships in the female division. It was dubbed the Fairness in...

In 2018, Joseph Srour applied for a license to possess rifles and shotguns at his home in New York City. He was denied. In 2019, he applied for a license to possess handguns in his home. He was denied. The denials involved the application of the issuing authorities’ subjective judgment on Srour’s moral character and the subjective judgment of the issuing authorities’ determination of “good cause.” Joseph Srour appealed the decision. After the Bruen decision by the Supreme Court, he amended his appeal to a direct (facial) challenge of the constitutionality of New York City law. The Case is known...

On the face of it, Friday’s decision by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn an injunction against enforcement of Illinois’ recently enacted ban on “assault weapons” and “large capacity” magazines doesn’t change circumstances on the ground. The three-judge panel that issued today’s decision had previously stayed U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn’s injunction while the state appealed, so the law has been in effect throughout litigation. Still, the 2-1 decision does matter, both because it provides an opportunity for some or all of the plaintiffs to appeal on an emergency basis to the Supreme Court and because it will...

A California federal court judge has ordered a preliminary injunction against enforcement of two California statutes. The statutes ban gun shows at the Orange County Fairgrounds and on any state property in California. Gun shows have been very popular in California for decades.A Crossroads of the West Gun Show scheduled for November of 2020 was canceled due to Covid 19.Crossroads of the West, an enormous gun show, has held them in Orange County for over 30 years. They held a show there as late as November 2021.According to gun show owner Bob Templeton, in the video above, the gun show...

Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday afternoon attended a hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida on whether Judge Cannon will agree to postpone the classified documents trial currently scheduled for May 2024.On Tuesday, Trump and his attorneys visited a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) to view classified material related to Jack Smith’s case ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, according to a leak to ABC News.Judge Aileen Cannon last month paused litigation in Jack Smith’s classified documents case as she decides whether to grant Trump’s motion to extend deadlines related to classified material.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Judge Allen Winsor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida granted a motion to dismiss a case against Florida’s voter registration process on Monday. Several voter rights advocacy groups filed the case against Florida and the 67 county supervisor of election offices. The voter rights advocacy groups, including the NAACP and Vote.org, filed the case in order to challenge Florida’s voter registration signature authentication requirement. The groups sought for Florida’s law to comply with a federal law that prevents any states from using “immaterial errors or omissions to deny the right to vote.”...

Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James Ho doubled down on his refusal to hire clerks from certain elite law schools, saying the cancel culture he's witnessed on campuses is "antithetical to America." In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Ho said his hiring boycott against Yale University and Stanford University has already made waves and garnered support among students who see discourse on their campuses improving. "The real problem with the academy is not disruption but discrimination," he said. "Rampant discrimination against mainstream views held by millions of Americans but disfavored by the cultural elites who control the...

(The Center Square) – A federal judge ruled over the weekend in favor of a Catholic health care clinic that’s challenging Colorado’s ban on “abortion reversal” treatment. U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Domenico on Saturday issued a preliminary injunction in favor of Englewood-based Bella Health and Wellness, which bars the state from enforcing Senate Bill 23-190. The law, passed by Democrats in the last legislative session, makes it “unprofessional conduct for a person … to provide, prescribe, administer, or attempt medication abortion reversal.” Medication abortions terminate a pregnancy with the use of two drugs consecutively: mifepristone, which inhibits the hormone...

The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal for lack of standing of an action, brought before the 2022 general election by former Republican nominees for Governor and Secretary of State of Arizona, alleging that Arizona’s use of electronic tabulation systems violated the federal Constitution. The gravamen of Plaintiffs’ operative complaint is that notwithstanding safeguards, electronic tabulation systems are particularly susceptible to hacking by non-governmental actors who intend to influence election results. On appeal, Plaintiffs conceded that their arguments were limited to potential future hacking, and not based on any past harm. The panel held that because Plaintiffs are no longer...

A federal judge in Georgia has declined to block several provisions of a sweeping election law while multiple legal challenges play out.Several left-wing advocacy and civil rights groups, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ, sued in 2021 after Republican state lawmakers passed the measure amid claims about election fraud in the state in 2020. Those lawsuits claim that black voters are now denied equal access to voting, which violates the Voting Rights Act.“Plaintiffs have not shown, at least at this stage of the proceedings, that any of the provisions have a disparate impact on black voters,” U.S....

A federal court struck down a lawsuit backed by the Biden administration which claimed Georgia's new election integrity laws are discriminatory towards black voters. Judge J.P. Boulee issued the ruling for the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on Wednesday. According to The Federalist, Judge Boulee said that the Biden administration and other Democratic groups "failed to show a substantial likelihood of success on the merits as to their claims that the provisions intentionally discriminate against black voters in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, Fifteenth Amendment and Section 2 of the [Voting Rights Act]." In other words,...

A federal judge in Tulsa ruled Thursday that the Oklahoma Legislature was justified in banning gender-affirming medical care for minors, saying there was no fundamental right to the treatment and that a new state law did not discriminate against transgender adolescents. U.S. District Judge John F. Heil III said the law, enacted in May, is “rationally related to legitimate state interests because it regulates parental decision-making as to the Treatment Protocols based on the legislature’s interests in protecting children, public health, and integrity of the medical profession. “This (is) an area in which medical and policy debate is unfolding, and...

A full federal appeals court declined to take up Democrat groups’ challenge of Florida’s 2021 election integrity law on Thursday, marking a major win for Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-controlled state legislature. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Thursday’s decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals “let stand an April ruling by a three-judge panel of the [court] that sided with the state on major issues in the case.” The 11th Circuit’s April decision effectively overturned a prior ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker — an Obama appointee — who baselessly claimed the law in question discriminated...

In a significant ruling late Thursday, Judge James Cain of the Western District of Louisiana sided with American energy advocates, striking down the Biden administration’s eleventh-hour restrictions on a pending offshore oil and gas lease sale. The injunction, favoring the plaintiffs – the State of Louisiana, the American Petroleum Institute (API), and energy giants Chevron and Shell – puts a halt on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) restrictive measures concerning Lease Sale 261. This crucial sale, encompassing vast expanses in the Gulf of Mexico, was scheduled for the following week. The ruling by Judge Cain reiterates the federal...

The suit claims that the images of the sandwich on the store's menus are misleading and amount to a breach of contract. AFlorida judge this week rejected a bid from Burger King to dismiss a class action lawsuit against the fast food chain that has alleged the franchise repeatedly exaggerated the size and beef content of its signature Whoppers. The suit claims that the images of the sandwich on the store's menus are misleading and amount to a breach of contract. It also claims that deceptive advertising, which allegedly began in 2017, has made the Whoppers appear "approximately 35% larger...

A federal judge compared Waylon Bailey’s Facebook jest to "falsely shouting fire in a theatre."Back in March 2020, a dozen or so sheriff's deputies wearing bullet-proof vests descended upon Waylon Bailey's home in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, with their guns drawn, ordered him onto his knees with his hands on his head, and arrested him for a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The SWAT-style raid was provoked by a Facebook post in which Bailey had made a zombie-themed joke about COVID-19. Although a federal appeals court recently ruled that Bailey could pursue civil rights claims based on...

ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — A federal judge has blocked a new Illinois law that allows the state to penalize anti-abortion pregnancy centers if they use deception to interfere with patients seeking the procedure. U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston said Thursday the new law “is painfully and blatantly a violation of the First Amendment.” The law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week bans anti-abortion pregnancy centers, often referred to as “crisis pregnancy centers,” from using “misinformation, deceptive practices, or misrepresentation” to interfere with access to abortion services or emergency contraception. Violators faced fines of up to $50,000. The bill was...

On Friday night, a judge dismissed former President Donald Trump's lawsuit against CNN in which the current 2024 front-runner for the Republican nomination claimed CNN’s coverage of his election lies equated him to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Judge Raag Singhal, a Trump-appointed judge, ruled that CNN referring to Trump’s claims about the election being stolen as “The Big Lie” did not meet the criteria for defamation despite Trump’s belief to the contrary. "There is no question that the statements made by CNN meet the publication requirement for defamation under Florida law," Singhal wrote. "The next question is whether the...