Free Republic

A school board in Colorado cannot remove sexually explicit, profane, and “transgender” books from school libraries because the school board is conservative, according to a federal judge touted as the first openly lesbian judge west of the Mississippi. The ACLU’s Colorado chapter filed a suit on behalf of two minors, the NAACP Wyoming State Area Conference, and the Authors Guild, claiming that the school district engaged in viewpoint discrimination when removing the books. The judge granted a preliminary injunction in March, forcing the Elizabeth School District (in Elizabeth, a suburb southeast of Denver) to restore the books. Judge Charlotte Sweeney...

Between 2022 and 2024, the U.S. saw a record 43 percent rise in “sheltered homelessness”—staying in some sort of emergency shelter, as opposed to living on the street. That is shocking enough on its own, but according to a new study, a contemporaneous spike in asylum seekers accounted for a stunning 60% of that increase. “Asylum seekers”—as referenced in the study—are all recent immigrants seeking residence in the U.S., regardless of their legal status. Unsheltered homelessness has been on the rise since 2015, but sheltered homelessness had declined by 12% from 2007 to 2022 before its sudden 43% spike between...

The attorney general is asking an appellate court to lift the block on a new state immigration law. The law makes it a misdemeanor for adults who came to the U.S. illegally by eluding or avoiding examination or inspection by immigration officers to enter Florida. The governor and Uthmeier contend that the judge in the case has gone beyond her boundaries in calling on Florida law enforcement agencies to stop making immigration arrests. “She’s trying to exercise authority that she does not possess. Fine,” DeSantis said. “There’s parties to the case and she’s rendered a decision even though it’s a...

In a scathing rebuke, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee, issued a blistering court order chastising the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for attempting to engage in an ex parte communication — a serious breach of judicial ethics — in a high-profile case involving illegal aliens detained at the Bluebonnet Detention Center.Ex parte communications are interactions where one party or their representative communicates directly with a judge or decision-maker about a pending case without notifying the other parties.

Four American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) affiliates filed a lawsuit on April 18 asking a federal court to reinstate the legal status of international students who have had their visas revoked. Multiple ACLU affiliates and the law firm Shaheen & Gordon filed a federal class action lawsuit representing more than 100 foreign students in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico who they say had their F-1 student immigration status “unlawfully and abruptly terminated with no specified reason as to why.”The students include several at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design, who had their student...

Newsdump Alert: The US Supreme Court deciding early this morning to prevent a deportation flight from Texas to El Salvador. The American Civil Liberties Union has sought emergency action... China remains a powerful economic engine its Gross Domestic Product grew 5.4 percent in the first quarter... "Now something happened this week that I think merits our discussion and that is that President Trump came out with a statement on Easter... Back to the early pre-commercial and pre-praise and worship days of Christian Music it's the 1970's sound... "When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four...

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing President Trump’s administration in federal court for targeting international students who had their legal status revoked. “The consequences of Defendants’ unilateral and unlawful termination are dire. The termination puts students out of lawful student status. Plaintiffs and the class face immigration detention and deportation. Plaintiffs and the class face severe financial and academic hardship. Further, Plaintiffs and the class are not able to obtain their degrees and work pursuant to the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program after graduation,” ACLU’s lawyers wrote in the class action lawsuit filed in New Hampshire. “Indeed, Defendants’...

This week, District of Columbia Judge Ibn al-Murderu ordered the restoration of the USAID funds designated for Hamas that he says "Secretary of State Marco Rubio has illegally canceled. The desire for government efficiency does not override the commitments made by the prior Biden Administration." ACLU spokesperson Bertram Petty praised the ruling, calling it "both correct and humane. Israel has cut off the humanitarian aid to Gaza that Hamas had been pilfering to supplement the contractual payments USAID had been making to the organization. This has made it impossible for Hamas to meet its payroll obligations to its fighters. These...

The Supreme Court on Saturday blocked, for now, the deportations of any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th-century wartime law. In a brief order, the court directed the Trump administration not to remove Venezuelans held in the Bluebonnet Detention Center “until further order of this court.” Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. The high court acted in an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union contending that immigration authorities appeared to be moving to restart removals under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The Supreme Court had said earlier in April that deportations could proceed only...

In a Friday night hearing, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said he was “sympathetic” to activists’ concerns over the Trump administration’s deportation of illegal aliens under the Alien Enemies Act, but he doesn't “think I have the power” to stop them.It was surely frustrating to the activist judge who always seemed to rule harshly against J6ers but has come across as extremely sympathetic to the non-citizen criminals that Trump was trying to send out of our country. A recent Supreme Court ruling tied his hands, however:US District Judge James Boasberg denied an emergency request from lawyers for alleged Venezuelan gang...

The ACLU, despite SCOTUS determining DC was the improper jurisdiction, just filed ANOTHER motion seeking a new temp restraining order on behalf of the illegals. The ACLU argued Boasberg still has jurisdiction in the matter. Here is what the ACLU is seeking--and Boasberg just set a briefing schedule on the latest proposed TRO with a hearing set for Monday. "To provide notice to each class member that they have been designated as an 'alien enemy' under the Alien Enemies Act at least 30 days prior to any attempt to remove that class member from the United States under the AEA....

This "one weird trick" allowed a bunch of D.C. judges to seize power over the country.. The Supreme Court’s ruling in J.G.G. v. Donald J. Trump was not an unqualified triumph for the Trump administration’s deportations of foreign gang members, but it was a definite rebuke not just to Judge Boasberg, but to the entire D.C. Circuit Court shadow government. The ACLU filed J.G.G. v. Trump in defense of five Venezuelan inmates in New York and Texas. All of the men claimed that they were not gang members and there was no indication that any of them were being deported,...

LOS ANGELES A federal judge ruled Friday that a Palestinian man whom the government had denied citizenship based on alleged ties with a terrorist group should become a citizen, the man's lawyers said. U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that Aiad Barakat, one of the so-called "L.A. eight," will be naturalized, said Ahilan Arulanantham, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who litigated the case. Barakat's citizenship application had been denied last year by immigration officials, and his lawyers appealed in federal court. "The judge listened and found him to be credible," said Arulanantham. "It was very fact intensive testimony that...

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a suit on behalf of two Venezuelan migrants who expect to be deported under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) and face possible removal to a Salvadoran prison. The suit is the first in the wake of a Supreme Court decision lifting a temporary restraining order from a lower court that had blocked the Trump administration from using the law to deport people. President Trump signed a proclamation on March 14 igniting the wartime powers that have only been used three other times in U.S. history. It’s the first time the law has been...

Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 @julie_kelly2 NEW: Jeb Boasberg cancelled today's scheduled hearing on preliminary injunction for the illegal Venezuelans covered by Alien Enemies Act but stunningly (or not) asks ACLU to file another motion next week explaining why DC is proper place to continue the lawsuit even after SCOTUS clearly said it is not. As I said--this ain't over. 8:59 AM · Apr 8, 2025

Andry Hernandez Romero, a gay makeup artist who came to the United States last year in search of asylum, is one of 238 Venezuelan migrants who were flown from the U.S. to a maximum security prison in El Salvador three weeks ago. President Trump, who campaigned on eradicating the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua, brokered a deal with El Salvador's president that allows the U.S. to send deportees to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. The Trump administration used the Alien Enemies Act, a law not invoked since World War II, to send many of the Venezuelans there,...

Several European countries have updated their travel advisories for transgender travelers seeking to enter the U.S. amid President Donald Trump’s “two-sexes” executive order and the administration’s immigration crackdown. Finland, Denmark, the U.K. and Germany are all urging cautionary planning for transgender people when traveling to the U.S. “When applying for an ESTA or visa to the United States, there are two gender designations to choose from: male or female,” the Danish travel advisory said on its website. The Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) is the system that screens passengers before they travel to the U.S. under the Visa Waiver...

Judge James Boasberg on Tuesday morning responded to the Trump DOJ’s move to exercise the State Secrets Privilege and gave lawyers for the deported criminal aliens until March 31 to file a response. On Monday evening, the Trump DOJ said it is exercising the State Secrets Privilege and informed Judge James Boasberg it will no longer provide him with any information related to deportation flights. The DOJ on Monday evening straight up told Boasberg you will get no more information related to the deportation flights and that’s the end of the story. The details about the deportation flights are none...

For Democrats, social justice is big business. Witness Southwest Key Programs: As part of the migrant money machine, it pulled in around a brain-busting $3 billion in taxpayer funds between fiscal 2021 and 2024. The group is the largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant kids — and clearly rotten to the core. The Biden Justice Department sued it in July, over accusations of “severe” and “pervasive” rape and abuse of the kids in the group’s care between 2015 and 2023 — and a congressional probe found evidence suggesting SKP even turned kids over to traffickers. But that didn’t stop the...

The Trump administration says it ignored a Saturday court order to turn around two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members because the flights were over international waters and therefore the ruling didn't apply, two senior officials tell Axios. Why it matters: The administration's decision to defy a federal judge's order is exceedingly rare and highly controversial. "Court order defied. First of many as I've been warning and start of true constitutional crisis," national security attorney Mark S. Zaid, a Trump critic, wrote on X, adding that Trump could ultimately get impeached. The White House welcomes that fight. "This is headed...