Free Republic

...A federal judge is raising alarms that the Trump administration deported a two-year-old U.S. citizen to Honduras with “no meaningful process,” even as the child’s father was frantically petitioning the courts to keep her in the country.... ...officials said in court that the mother told ICE officials that she wished to take V.M.L. with her to Honduras. The filing included a handwritten note in Spanish they claimed was written by the mother and confirmed her intent. But the judge said he had hoped to verify that information. “The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that...

The Western District of Louisiana’s US District Court has ruled in favor of the State of Missouri, allowing additional discovery in the significant Missouri v. Biden lawsuit, which scrutinizes government collaboration in social media censorship. This decision comes after the Supreme Court, in June, overturned a prior injunction, then-named Murthy v. Missouri, which had prohibited entities including the White House, CDC, FBI, CISA, and the Surgeon General’s office from pressing social media platforms to suppress speech protected under the Constitution. [link to Court's Order] [snip] The depth of the Biden Administration’s involvement in these censorial activities likely would have remained...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge has weakened the Biden administration’s effort to use a historic civil rights law to fight industrial pollution alleged to have taken a heavier toll on minority communities in Louisiana. U.S. District Judge James David Cain of Lake Charles handed down the ruling Thursday, permanently blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from imposing what are known as “disparate impact” requirements on the state.... In its lawsuit, the state argued that the Biden administration’s plans went beyond the scope of Title VI.... The state also said the policy is discriminatory because it would allow regulation of...

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can continue to pursue his censorship lawsuit against the Biden administration. The Supreme Court ruled in June that state and individual plaintiffs who alleged the Biden administration violated their First Amendment rights when it pressured social media companies to suppress speech did not have standing to sue. District Court Judge Terry Doughty found Kennedy meets the standard set by the Supreme Court because there is “ample evidence” to show he has been censored in the past at the direction of government actors and “substantial risk” that the censorship will continue....

Afederal court in Kansas on Tuesday blocked the Biden administration's Title IX regulations from taking effect in four states, becoming the latest court to stop the new controversial rules from taking effect in August. The Department of Education's new rules expanded the definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity and pregnancy, and included a ban on single-sex bathroom and locker rooms. It also required schools to use pronouns based on a student's preferred gender identity. The new rules have now been stopped in 14 states as of Tuesday. [snip] “Gender ideology does not belong in public schools and we...

A federal court lifted the Biden administration’s pause on approvals for new natural gas export terminals on Monday. Judge James Cain Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, who was appointed to his post by former President Donald Trump, ruled to grant an injunction against the administration’s January pause on approvals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals while ongoing litigation plays out. The LNG pause stands as one of President Joe Biden’s most aggressive climate decisions through his first term in office. Cain’s ruling was issued as part of an ongoing lawsuit brought by...

Several Catholic organizations have prevailed, at least temporarily, in their efforts to block the Biden administration from enforcing a rule that would require them to provide their employees with accommodations for elective abortions in violation of their deeply held religious beliefs. In an opinion released Monday, federal Judge David Joseph granted a preliminary injunction preventing the Biden administration from enforcing a rule interpreting the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to require employers to provide their employees with accommodations in order to obtain an abortion against the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Lafayette and Lake Charles...

A federal judge has sided with Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill issuing a preliminary injunction against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) attempt to hijack the protections of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. In May, the Attorneys General filed the complaint against the EEOC and their attempt to impose a national abortion regime. “The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is an important measure to support women in the workplace when they are pregnant and following childbirth. It is a shame that the Biden Administration is shortchanging the needs of working women in its single-minded drive...

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...

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...

A federal judge has made a historic ruling by partially granting an injunction that blocks various Biden administration officials and government agencies like the Justice Department and the FBI from working with big tech firms to censor posts on social media. The injunction came in response to a censorship-by-proxy lawsuit brought by attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, who have accused Biden administration officials and various government agencies of pressuring social media companies to suspend accounts or take down posts. The judge, Terry A. Doughty, wrote in the July 4 judgment (pdf) that various government agencies, including the Cybersecurity and...

Ooooh, this is turning out to be such a good show. Before I get into the latest, let’s recap quickly, shall we? The Missouri v Biden lawsuit sprang from underhanded censorship dealings the Biden administration began with the social media companies almost the second they ascended to the throne. Literally 3 days after Biden took office, the government’s censorship operation was flying. The White House immediately launched a pressure campaign on social media platforms to suppress supposed “COVID misinformation.” The Surgeon General launched his signature “disinformation” initiative at a Virality Project event at the Stanford Internet Observatory. And, Biden himself...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A lawsuit that Louisiana and other Republican-leaning states filed challenging figures the Biden administration uses to calculate damages from greenhouse gasses was dismissed Wednesday by a federal appeals court. The unanimous decision by three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans was the latest defeat for states challenging the Biden “cost of carbon” policy. It leaves the administration to continue using a damage cost estimate of about $51 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions as it develops environmental regulations. That estimate is under review by the administration and could increase. The...

A federal judge ruled against the Biden administration’s efforts to dismiss a case involving online censorship Monday, saying that the states of Missouri and Louisiana had “plausibly alleged” First Amendment violations. United States District Judge Terry A. Doughty of the Western District of Louisiana denied the Biden administration’s motion to dismiss a suit brought on May 5 by Republican Attorneys General Erik Schmitt of Missouri and Jeff Landry of Louisiana. Schmitt and Landry said the Biden administration colluded with social media companies to censor debate on multiple issues, including the 2020 presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic.

I reported earlier on some of the bombshells that the Missouri AG Andrew Bailey announced they’d discovered in the lawsuit against the Biden administration. The lawsuit, filed by the Missouri and Lousiana Attorneys General alleged the Biden administration had been colluding with Big Tech and social media to “suppress disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content” on their platforms with “dis-information,” “mis-information” and “mal-information” labels.The Biden administration’s effort to squash speech extended to some pretty well-known names, including Tucker Carlson, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, and Tomi Lahren. But it was clear that members of the Executive Office of the President were regularly...

A federal judge on Monday ruled in favor of deposing an FBI agent accused of "colluding" with social media companies to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story. Judge Terry A. Doughty of the Western District of Louisiana ruled that FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Elvis Chan must be deposed under oath for his alleged involvement in coordinating with Meta to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story prior to the 2020 election. "Chan had authority over cybersecurity issues for the FBI in the San Francisco, California region which includes the headquarters of major social-media platforms and played a critical role...

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...

A federal court has granted the request of two attorneys general for discovery and documents from top Biden officials and social media honchos so they can to get to the bottom of their collusion efforts to suppress and censor free speech. In May, Attorneys General Eric Schmidt of Missouri and Jeff Landry of Louisiana filed suit against eight high-ranking Biden Administration officials, including Joe Biden, Jen Psaki, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, for allegedly colluding with social media giants to suppress freedom of speech under the pretense of combatting “misinformation.” 🚨BREAKING: Missouri and Louisiana just filed suit against Joe Biden, Jen...

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from ending the Title 42 public health order on May 23 -- stopping the administration from a move that had seen significant Republican and Democratic opposition amid fears it would exacerbate the border crisis. Judge Robert Summerhays, in the Western District of Louisiana, granted a preliminary injunction on the Biden administration’s plan to end the order on May 23. It was in response to a lawsuit by two dozen Republican states, led by Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri.

In the U.S. so far, efforts to enact legislation in Congress to “save the planet” by restricting fossil fuels and transforming our energy economy have gone almost entirely nowhere. President Obama’s big idea of “cap and trade” legislation died early in his first term and was never resurrected. President Biden’s “Green New Deal” has so far suffered a similar fate. If the Republicans retake even one house of Congress later this year, prospects for legislation on this subject may be dead for many years, if not for good. Surely, you might think, without any legislative support from the Congress, the...