Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump appeared in a Florida courtroom on Thursday to appeal his classified documents case, while citing Special Counsel Robert Hur’s decision not to bring charges against sitting President Joe Biden. Hur’s report showed that Joe Biden not only willfully and intentionally mishandled classified documents, stored them in multiple insecure locations, and procured them while Senator and Vice President, but he also misled federal investigators, obstructed justice, and divulged national security secrets. Biden’s leaks of classified information are deemed to be so serious that the Intelligence Community is now performing a “damage assessment” to ascertain the extent they...

Democrats hate the gig economy, since they can’t force independent contractors to join unions (and thus rake off their union dues). So Biden’s NLRB issued a “joint-employer standard” to force companies to treat gig employees and subcontractors as subject to union representation. Well, a federal judge in Texas squashed that rule. Last week, a federal judge in Texas issued a ruling that struck down a new joint-employer standard by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that would have classified numerous companies as “employers” of specific contract and franchise employees, obligating them to negotiate with unions representing those workers. U.S....

Afederal judge on Friday dismissed a challenge from 21 states against a Biden administration program that allows 30,000 asylum-seekers into the U.S. from four countries each month. U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton ruled that Texas and 20 other Republican-led states didn’t have legal standing in the lawsuit because they didn’t demonstrate suffered financial harm from the federal program, the Associated Press reported. The program lets a total of up to 30,000 asylum-seekers enter the U.S. each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. “In reaching this conclusion, the Court does not address the lawfulness of the Program,” Tipton wrote...

Biden, via proclamation, paused obligation of these funds the day he was inaugurated….” Court rules this was illegal, but I think Biden will find a way not to actually build the wall.. The timing of this is worth noting. Last night, in his vitriolic State of the Union address, Joe Biden blamed everyone but himself — but particularly Republicans — for his border crisis. But everyone knows, on day one of his presidency Biden by executive order removed numerous border protetions, including construction of a border wall. ... Sen. Marsha Blackburn... on his first day in office, Biden: — Paused...

A federal appeals court Monday rejected restrictions that Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican lawmakers placed on addressing race-related issues in workplace training — part of a controversial 2022 law that DeSantis dubbed the “Stop WOKE Act. The workplace-training part of the law listed eight race-related concepts and said that a required training program or other activity that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual (an employee) to believe any of the following concepts As an example of the concepts, the law targeted compelling employees to believe that an “individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or...

A federal court dismissed a case Tuesday against Republican Iowa Gov. Kimberly Reynolds’ prohibition of mask mandate in school districts across the state, official documents showed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found “persuasive” the argument that “the general risks associated with COVID-19, even though COVID-19 remains an ever-present concern in society, are not enough to show ‘imminent and substantial’ harm,” court papers showed in part. The court also decided that “because Plaintiffs have only alleged the potential risk of severe illness should they contract COVID-19 at school, the risk of harm is too speculative to satisfy...

A Lubbock, Texas federal judge ruled Tuesday that lawmakers unconstitutionally passed the $1.7 trillion government funding bill in 2022 when they did so under a pandemic-era rule allowing members of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote on the matter by proxy instead of in person. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, requested the courts to block a provision of the funding bill that gave pregnant workers stronger legal protections. U.S. District Judge Wesley Hendrix reviewed the request and gave a "limited" ruling on one of two provisions Paxton sought to have blocked. Hendrix, who was appointed by former...

Yesterday, American attorney Aaron Siri announced that a judge had ordered the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) to release additional text-based information collected by the V-safe online application. The information pertains to 7.8 million records submitted by more than 10 million V-safe users, typically detailing injuries after being injected with a covid “vaccine.”V-safe is a smartphone-based tool that uses text messaging and web surveys to provide personalised health check-ins after receiving a covid injection. The after-vaccination health checker app was developed and implemented to monitor covid-19 “vaccine” safety and as an active surveillance supplement to existing CDC...

On January 10, 2024, U.S. District Judge Austin Huffaker denied Kenneth “Kenny” Smith’s challenge to Alabama’s intended use of nitrogen gas to execute him. Although Mr. Smith plans to appeal, the ruling currently authorizes Alabama to use its new, untested method of nitrogen hypoxia to execute Mr. Smith on January 25. Mr. Smith’s case is unusual in several respects. First, he has already survived one execution attempt, which left him with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a clinical psychologist and trauma expert who examined him. On November 17, 2022, the state tried and failed to execute Mr. Smith using lethal...

Afederal judge has declared that a law banning Americans from possessing guns in postal offices is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Florida ruled Friday that a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 2022 made the postal office gun ban illegal. As part of the decision, she dismissed part of an indictment charging postal worker Emmanuel Ayala with illegally possessing a gun in a federal building. She said the criminal charge violated Ayala’s 2nd Amendment rights. [link to judge's opinion included in article]

President Joe Biden’s climate change-obsessed Department of Energy (DOE) was wrong when it reversed Trump-era rules making dishwashers and laundry machines more efficient for Americans, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday. A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the agency acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner when it repealed laundry machine and dishwasher rules designed to cut down on wash times. The order, penned by Judge Andrew Oldham, also notes that “it is unclear that the DOE has any statutory authority to regulate water use in dishwashers and clothes washers.”

(RNS) — A federal judge in Illinois ruled that a state school district is not responsible for the actions of a teacher who allegedly proselytized students in a public school classroom, leading a Muslim student to convert to Christianity. Judge Iain D. Johnston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, ruled that officials of Community Unit School District 300 were not responsible for the teacher’s actions, as he was disciplined and later resigned after being confronted by those public school officials. The ruling is the latest twist in a long-running legal dispute over religion...

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled against Nirvana and revived a child pornography lawsuit filed by the man who appeared as a nude baby on the cover of the band’s 1991 album Nevermind.Spencer Elden, now in his 30s, claimed the photo – one of the most iconic album covers in rock history – violated federal child pornography laws by displaying a sexualized image of a minor. But a lower ruled last year that he had waited far too long to bring his lawsuit. In a decision overturning that ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled...

Less than a week after a Del Rio-based federal judge ruled against Texas in the ongoing fight over the state’s razor wire, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals paused that decision while it reviews the case. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday temporarily halted a lower court order that gave Border Patrol agents legal cover to continue cutting concertina wire that Texas has installed on the banks of the Rio Grande. U.S. District Judge Alia Moses of Del Rio on Wednesday ruled against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, which wanted the judge to order Border Patrol...

It isn't often a Federal Judge calls politicians morons, but that's the message here: A federal judge permanently blocked an Illinois law on Dec. 14 that he previously called “stupid” that targets maternal health care centers and sidewalk counselors for expressing their pro-life message. And in news for taxpayers: The defendant, Mr. Raoul, was sued in his official capacity. [...] The judge dismissed the lawsuit “with prejudice,” meaning the case cannot be litigated again. The court “shall retain jurisdiction over this action to enforce the final judgment,” the order states. The order also states that NILFA “may file a motion...

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — A federal judge on Monday issued a temporary restraining order barring removal of a memorial to Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. A group called Defend Arlington, affiliated with a group called Save Southern Heritage Florida, filed a lawsuit Sunday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, seeking the restraining order. A hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday. Work to remove the memorial had begun Monday before the restraining order was issued, but the memorial remains in place on cemetery grounds. A cemetery spokesperson said Monday that Arlington is complying with the restraining order, but referred all...

A Trump-appointed federal judge has temporarily halted removal proceedings for the Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery that began Monday, the Associated Press reported. Defend Arlington filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Sunday for a temporary restraining order, the AP reported. Work had already begun to remove the bronze elements of the memorial in accordance with recommendations in the Congressionally-mandated Naming Commission’s final report to scrub Department of Defense (DOD) assets of any symbolism that could be seen to honor the Confederacy. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, according to the AP. The memorial has...

On Friday, Judge Thomas S. Kleeh issued a decision striking down the federal prohibition against 18 to 20-year-olds purchasing handguns. The plaintiffs in the case are Steven Robert Brown, Benjamin Weekley, the Second Amendment Foundation, and the West Virginia Citizens Defense League. Judge Kleeh, a Donald Trump appointee, is Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. Kleeh put the case in context: This case requires the Court to assess the protected right of the people under the Second Amendment to the Constitution to keep and bear arms. U.S. Const. amend. II. Plaintiffs...

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a gun rights group, saying Maryland's preliminary handgun-licensure requirement is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled in favor of Maryland Shall Issue, which challenged the law, The Daily Record reported. The decision is a victory for gun rights advocates in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen.

Good news for Elon Musk. A judge appointed by former President Donald Trump will oversee the high-profile lawsuit filed by Musk against the far-left organization Media Matters. As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Elon Musk’s X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Media Matters on Monday, accusing the “radical anti-free speech organization” of publishing a report that falsely claimed that X was allowing ads to run next to pro-Nazi content. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division, alleges that Media Matters’ report was “malicious” and...