Free Republic

Federal Bench: Yet another judicial nominee seeks to impose the "empathy" standard on the courts. He thinks judges should base rulings on a plaintiff's status, legislate from the bench and amend the Constitution. Indiana federal judge David Hamilton stands poised to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to assume a seat on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals serving Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. He's a former fundraiser for Acorn and a former leader of the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He is also another in a series of activist judges who believe the U.S. Constitution is not...

Judiciary: The nominee for a California federal district court is an ACLU activist and another advocate for the empathy standard of jurisprudence. He also has a problem with "America the Beautiful." The nomination of Edward Chen is the latest in a series of nominations of people who have no particular fondness for the traditions of law and justice. These nominees see racism everywhere, and believe the courts should be used as instruments of social justice and not to discern the intent of the Founding Fathers who wrote the U.S. Constitution. They believe their "life experience" should be the final arbiter...

Besides for the fact that liberal justices always make the wrong decision, are usually against the foundations of the United States Constitution, do not believe in the Constitution as our Founders wrote it, believe in putting race above the law, and believe in skipping the Constitutional authority of legislation belonging to the United States Congress, there is one more reason to oppose liberal justices. Montana! Montana?

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court of a federal order to reduce the state's prison population by more than 40,000 inmates over the next two years, his office announced Tuesday. A federal three-judge panel last month ordered California officials to reduce the state's prison population because overcrowding has led to unconstitutional levels of care. The order required the state to present a reduction plan by Sept. 18. Schwarzenegger on Tuesday asked the panel to delay that order, a procedural move likely to be rejected. If that happens, the governor plans to file a...

San Francisco -- A federal court panel ordered California on Tuesday to reduce the population of its bulging prisons by 40,000 over the next two years to meet constitutional standards for inmate health care, and said it could be done without releasing dangerous prisoners to the streets. "The convergence of tough-on-crime policies and an unwillingness to expend the necessary funds to support the population growth has brought California's prisons to the breaking point," the three-judge panel said. Unless the courts intervene, the panel said, inmates will continue to suffer and die needlessly because prisons lack the space and the staff...

Our greatest liberties come from the constitution. Having power hungry ideological judges misinterpret it, could only bring us back into the bondage of tyranny and oligarchy. The Founders of this great land were wise enough to put three branches of US Government in place, so one could keep the other in check, preventing unconstitutional governance. We are gradually losing this as a nation. Presidents, politicians and special interest groups lobby for Judicial nominees who would rule according to their ideology, while rejecting those who simply follow the guidance of the constitution of the United States. Yet something is brewing in...

California Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage ban nears The clock is ticking down on the California Supreme Court's imminent decision on whether to uphold Proposition 8, the voter-approved ballot measure restoring the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Based on regulations that require the justices to rule within 90 days of oral arguments in a case, the Supreme Court's decision in the legal challenge to Proposition 8 now will fall on one of three remaining days: Tuesday or next Thursday, or June 1. The high court normally only rules on Mondays and Thursdays, but will issue rulings next Tuesday because...

A pro-family leader says it will only be a matter of time before Vermont's homosexual "marriage" law will be challenged in court. Vermont's new law allowing homosexuals to "marry" contains strong religious exemptions. It states that members of the clergy are not required to "solemnize any marriage" and that the refusal to do so "shall not create any civil claim or cause of action." The law also states that any religious organization within the state will be exempt from providing goods, services, and benefits if those items are requested as part of a solemnization or celebration of a marriage that...

Today Iowa becomes the first state not on either of the nation’s two liberal coasts to impose counterfeit, homosexual ‘marriage’ or its mischievous twin, ‘civil unions,’ on its citizens through judicial tyranny. To call this decision bankrupt is to understate its perniciousness. The evil genius of the pro-sodomy movement is that it targets noble institutions like marriage and adoption in the name of ‘rights,’ and then perverts and uses them to normalize aberrant and destructive behaviors. 'Homosexual ‘marriage’ is wrong because homosexual behavior itself is wrong and destructive – as proved by its role in the needless, early deaths of...

41 Senate Republicans Send Letter To President Obama Urging Consultation On Judicial Nominees March 2, 2009 President Barack H. Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C.  20500 Dear Mr. President: We look forward to working with you as you consider nominees for the federal judiciary.  Unfortunately, the judicial appointments process has become needlessly acrimonious.  We would very much like to improve this process, and we know you would as well.  It is in that spirit that we write early on to suggest two steps your Administration can take to achieve that shared goal.   First, in the beginning...

The California Supreme Court announced Tuesday it will hear arguments on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the state's ban on same-sex marriage, in San Francisco on March 5. The high court's written ruling on whether the voter initiative should be struck down will be due 90 days later. The measure, enacted by voters on Nov. 4, amended the state Constitution to provide that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." It overturned a decision in which the court said by a 4-3 vote in May that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- For the pro-life movement, one of the biggest ramifications of the 2008 presidential election is a pro-abortion president who will appoint Supreme Court judges who will keep virtually unlimited abortions in place for decades longer. Now, a new poll suggests Americans are wary of such activist judges. Americans have long been concerned about judges making up the law from the bench, as the high court did in 1973 when it allowed abortion on demand via the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions. Anyone who is curious about the attitude Americans have about President Barack...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- Three federal judges are considering whether they can force California to release 52,000 inmates to relieve crowded prisons without creating a public safety nightmare. The special panel seems persuaded by seven days of testimony that overcrowding in California prisons has led to unconstitutionally poor conditions for sick and mentally ill inmates. Now the judges must decide what to do about it. . . .

Utah's chief federal judge Tena Campbell will not face punishment for breaking the rules by donating to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Because she admitted the error, promised to stop donating to candidates and publicly apologized, she will not face any serious sanction, according to Robert H. Henry, chief justice of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Henry dropped a charge of judicial misconduct on Nov. 11, in a dismissal order that doesn't name Campbell, but the series of events it describes matches her case. The order also sheds new light on how she handled the violation once it was made...

Good News on the Law: Can President Obama Change the Supreme Court?Date 11/07/08 | Topic: Life Today By Stephen L. Bloom Esq.Good News Daily It’s no exaggeration to say that the lives, liberty, and property of Americans (especially the lives of millions of unborn Americans) rest in the hands of the nine Justices of our Supreme Court. With stakes so high, will the election of Barack Obama bring sweeping change to the delicate balance of power on the nation’s top court? Will the rise of President Obama inevitably usher in a new Liberal majority of Supreme Court Justices? With so many...

A federal court case in Pittsburgh could reach the U.S. Supreme Court for a "groundbreaking" decision about whether police officers need probable cause and search warrants to use GPS technology when tracking suspects, a local expert in constitutional law said. Across the country, detectives are using the sometimes-controversial technology to investigate cases. But Pennsylvania law doesn't clearly dictate rules, said University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor John Burkoff, author of the "Search Warrant Law Deskbook." "The law isn't entirely clear," Burkoff said. "There are many areas open to challenge, and to be safe, the best bet would be for...

HARTFORD - Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry, making the state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize such unions. The divided court ruled 4-3 that gay and lesbian couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry under the state constitution, and Connecticut's civil unions law does not provide those couples with the same rights as heterosexual couples. "I can't believe it. We're thrilled, we're absolutely overjoyed. We're finally going to be able, after 33 years, to get married," said Janet Peck of Colchester, who was a plaintiff with her partner, Carole...

Less than a week before its October term is set to begin, the US Supreme Court became a spectacle of sound and fury on Wednesday over a landmark decision handed down three months ago declaring that the death penalty for child rapists is cruel and unusual punishment. At issue was whether the high court would revisit the landmark 5-to-4 decision after revelations last summer that contradicted the majority justices' conclusion that a "national consensus" had emerged against the death penalty for the rape of a child. The June 25 decision said only six states had laws authorizing capital punishment for...

Federal receiver J. Clark Kelso today rejected the state's resistance to turning over as much as $8 billion to improve prison system health care, accusing Attorney General Jerry Brown of misleading a federal judge about the state's ability to cough up the money and renewing his demand that state officals be held in contempt. Brown, representing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Controller John Chiang, had told the court last week that forcing the payment would disrupt the state's already precarious finances. He made his plea a day after the Legislature failed to approve a bill that would have provided bond money...

How is it possible that chronic behavioral malcontent George Miley assaulted a female police officer three weeks ago, but only ended up spending four days in jail? After all, his July 6 attack on Officer Lisa Frazer was followed by his 106th arrest since 2001. Most everyone says the system for punishing quality-of-life crimes like public drunkenness and aggressive panhandling is broken in San Francisco, but Miley seems like an extraordinary case. How can he be on the streets today? The answer is both complicated and simple: Lenient San Francisco juries, clogged courts, and judges who are more willing to...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court ordered reinstatement Monday for 33 janitors in Los Angeles who were fired because their Social Security numbers did not match the government's database, a ruling that could strengthen unions' case against a Bush administration proposal to pressure employers to get rid of suspected illegal immigrants. The decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco did not address the legality of the administration's so-called no-match rule, which a federal judge blocked in October. That rule would threaten employers with civil fines and criminal prosecution unless they fired workers who failed...

New York (AP) -- A judge has ordered New York's governor, Senate and Assembly to raise the pay of the state's judges within the next 90 days. State Supreme Court Justice Edward Lehner in Manhattan said Wednesday that the defendants unconstitutionally abused their power by depriving judges of a pay hike for almost 10 years. He said state legislators illegally linked a judicial salary increase to one for themselves. Lehner, who acknowledged he would be affected by his own decision, ordered the state to raise judicial pay to reflect cost of living increases since 1998.

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- California's highest court has refused to stay until after the November election its decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. Conservative religious and legal groups had asked the California Supreme Court to stop its order from becoming effective until voters have the chance to weigh in on the issue. An initiative that would amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage has qualified for the ballot. Its passage would overrule the court's decision. The Supreme Court says its ruling will be final at 5 p.m. on June 16.

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- The attorneys general of 10 states are urging the California Supreme Court to delay finalizing its ruling to legalize same-sex marriage. The states involved are Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah. The attorneys general say they have an interest in the case because they would have to determine if their states would recognize the marriage of gay residents who wed in California. They want the court to stay its ruling until after the November election,

Conservative groups that want the state Supreme Court to delay same-sex marriages in California until voters decide whether to reinstate a ban on those marriages in November ran into opposition Thursday from Attorney General Jerry Brown, whose office defended the ban in court. A week after the 4-3 ruling striking down the law that allowed only opposite-sex couples to marry, Brown's office urged the court to let its ruling take effect in 30 days, as scheduled, despite the possibility that it would be undone later by a ballot measure. "It is time for these proceedings to end," said Christopher Krueger,...

Mr. Obama, on the other hand, is a lawyer and has had a long and deep interest in the courts and the law. Cass R. Sunstein, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School and an Obama adviser, said in an interview that because Mr. Obama had taught constitutional law for 10 years at Chicago, “he is immersed in these issues.” “The first thing to know,” Professor Sunstein said, “is that he knows this stuff inside and out, and he has the credentials to be easily appointed to the court himself.” From his remarks in the Senate opposing the...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- Same-sex couples in some counties will be able to marry as soon as Saturday, June 14, the president of the California's county clerks association said Monday. Stephen Weir, who heads the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, said he was told by the Office of Vital Records that clerks would be authorized to hand out marriage licenses as soon as that date — exactly 30 days after the California Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage should be legal. The court's decisions typically take effect after 30 days, barring further legal action. "They are shooting...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- More than half of California residents would support amending the state constitution to outlaw gay marriage, according to a new poll published Friday. The Los Angeles Times/KTLA poll of 834 Californians, 705 of them registered voters, found that 54 percent of the voters surveyed backed a gay marriage ban proposed for the November ballot and 35 percent opposed it. The ballot initiative follows a May 15 ruling by the state Supreme Court legalizing same-sex nuptials. But with so many months to go before the election and the court's decision only a week old, the survey...

Here's why: 1. Gang of 14. 2. Warren Rudman. 3. McCain said Alito is too conservative. 4. There is absolutely zero logic in thinking that McCain will nominate the type of judge that will overturn his signature bills.

Well, apparently the will of the people doesn't mean much in California, at least not in the eyes of liberal activist judges. The California State Supreme Court today overturned California laws that define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. One of those laws was a law passed by 61% of California voters in 2000 as a ballot proposition. What's particularly galling is that the decision was a 4-3 decision by the judges, so essentially one person's vote in the court was enough to overrule the will of 61% of the California electorate. Effectively the California court...

Winston-Salem, NC — Sen. John McCain slammed his Democratic rivals’ judicial philosophy and railed against “activist judges” who show “little regard” for the Constitution and even “less interest” for the interests of the American people, during a speech today at Wake Forest University. “Some federal judges operate by fiat, shrugging off generations of legal wisdom and precedent while expecting their own opinions to go unquestioned. Only their favorite precedents are to be considered “settled law,” and everything else is fair game,” McCain said, addressing more than 2,000 University students, staff and faculty at the college’s Wait Chapel, before turning his...

California has the seventh-worst legal climate in the nation for business, according to a survey released Wednesday by a leading business lobby. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform said California's legal climate moved up a spot from last year, but was still stuck in 44th place. "California's low ranking is not surprising, given the fact that California courts have a reputation for certifying class action lawsuits that most other jurisdictions would toss out, and that California juries are increasingly likely to award disproportionately large judgments in civil cases,"

A three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal has determined parents in that state have no legal right to home school. A Christian attorney in Sacramento says unless the ruling is reversed, literally thousands of students in the Golden State will be subject to criminal sanctions. (click here for special webcast starting at 2 p.m. CST) California Justice H. Walter Croskey has stated in an opinion that "parents who fail to [comply with school enrollment laws] may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction, and subject to imposition of fines or an order...

A judge said years of breathing secondhand smoke in an Atlantic City casino gave a dealer lung cancer. Kam Wong never smoked. But a state worker's compensation judge determined a decade of exposure to secondhand smoke at the former Claridge Casino Hotel caused her illness. She was awarded 60 percent disability pay and lost wages for time she missed before and after two surgeries. Her attorney said there was constantly smoke around Wong. Atlantic City passed smoking restrictions for its 11 casinos last April, limiting smoking to no more than 25 percent of the casino floor.

Three GW law professors have endorsed Republican candidate Fred Thompson's campaign for the presidency, joining the Lawyers for Fred coalition. Professors John Fitzgerald Duffy, Orin Kerr and Michael Abramowicz are members of the Law Professors Committee within the coalition. "Sen. Thompson is proud of his experience working as a federal prosecutor," said Darrel Ng, a spokesperson for the Friends of Fred Thompson campaign. "That's why he decided to form something like that (coalition), because of his background." Ng said that having endorsement groups for presidential candidates is an important part of the campaign process. "In campaigns you try to find...

In a decision that affects all national forests, a federal appellate court ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Forest Service cannot cut brush and use controlled burns to reduce the risk of wildfires in and near urban areas unless it first performs a detailed assessment of the environmental impact. The ruling, which reversed a 2005 decision by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. of Sacramento, comes after a devastating fire season that included the destruction of more than 250 homes in the South Lake Tahoe area and a series of Southern California firestorms that displaced hundreds of thousands of residents....

Renegade Judge Strikes Down Iowa Defense of Marriage Act by Jennifer Mesko, associate editor Dr. Dobson calls it a 'purely political ruling.' County Judge Robert Hanson decided Thursday that he will make the laws for Iowa. He struck down the state's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional and ordered Polk County to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.Roger J. Kuhle, an assistant county attorney, argued the issue is not for a judge to decide. The county, home to state capital Des Moines, is expected to appeal the ruling to the Iowa Supreme Court.Dr. James C. Dobson, founder and chairman...

A Boston judge sentences a man to probation and home confinement after his admission that he abducted and sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy. A Nebraska judge sentences a convicted sex offender to probation and electronic monitoring because she fears for the mentally impaired man"s safety in prison. A Vermont judge sentences a child molester to 60 days in jail in order to facilitate his prompt treatment. Justice is hardly blind, if only because it is meted out by the colossal imperfection known as the human. And judges are as human as the person who comes to your home to fix...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government must answer a watchdog group's demands to release records about the nation's classified terrorist spying program, the chief judge of a secretive national security court has ruled. The American Civil Liberties Union, which announced the order Friday, said it was the first time the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had responded to a request filed by the public. In her two-page order, dated Aug. 16, Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly called the ACLU's demand "an unprecedented request that warrants further briefing." The ACLU last week asked the court to explain publicly the need to revamp laws that...

A 7-year-old girl said she had been raped and repeatedly molested over the course of a year. Police in Montgomery County, acting on information from a relative, soon arrested a Liberian immigrant living in Gaithersburg. They marshaled witnesses and DNA evidence to prepare for trial. What was missing -- for much of the nearly three years that followed -- was an interpreter fluent in the suspect's native language. A judge recently dropped the charges, not because she found that Mahamu Kanneh had been wrongly accused but because repeated delays in the case had, in her view, violated his right to...

Justice Robert Jackson, the U.S. attorney general before FDR elevated him to the Supreme Court, famously remarked that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. Today, it’s hard to see why not. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled on Monday that Ali Saleh Kalah al-Marri — an alien al Qaeda operative from Qatar, sent to the United States the day before 9/11 to conduct follow-up attacks and explore the potential for electronic disruptions of our reeling nation’s financial system — may not lawfully be detained as an enemy combatant in the war on terror. According...

Recent attacks on "activist judges" by legislative bodies could be putting the concept of an independent judiciary at risk, retired Associate Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said Friday. "These are appalling times," O'Connor told a crowd of 700 during a moderated discussion about her career at the University of Tulsa. "There is so much rancor and dislike going on." O'Connor asked the crowd if it heard of the attacks on so-called "godless, secular humanist, activist judges," and cited cases in several states where people attempted to introduce ballot measures that would toss judges in jail for making the wrong...

If Americans want to secure new constitutional rights, they should look to the legislative branch, not the Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia said last week. “If you want new rights, create them by statute,” Scalia said April 27 in a speech at the University of Delaware. “If you want new constitutional rights, then you need to amend the Constitution.” Defending his “originalist” approach to interpreting what the framers of the Constitution intended, Scalia said too many Americans, from the man in the street to academics and judges, mistakenly consider it to be a document that must evolve to meet the...

The Environmental Protection Agency must force power plants to protect fish and other aquatic life even if it's expensive, a federal appeals court said in a ruling favoring states and environmental groups. The decision late Thursday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that it was improper for the EPA to let power plants circumvent environmental laws — for instance, restocking polluted water with new fish instead of paying to upgrade their technology. It said the EPA's decisions must "be driven by technology, not cost," unless two technologies produce essentially the same benefits but have much different costs....

Albany, N.Y. -- New York's highest court ordered the state Monday to pay at least $1.93 billion more per year to the New York City school system to provide "a sound, basic education." That is billions less than had been sought in a landmark 1993 lawsuit filed by a group called the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. The state had argued that the city needed to spend at least $1.93 billion to improve the schools.

A liberal-bashing book by a veteran St. Louis judge is to become available publicly this week, but it is already causing a stir in political and legal circles — and prompting some to say it could cost him his job. Chapter 1 of Circuit Judge Robert H. Dierker Jr.'s book, "The Tyranny of Tolerance: A Sitting Judge Breaks the Code of Silence to Expose the Liberal Judicial Assault," has circulated via e-mail since last month and been widely read in legal circles, lawyers and judges say. The sentiments expressed in that chapter, which frequently uses the term "femifascists" and is...

The picture in the following link is a picture of a cross! It is in the Mojave desert but has been boarded up at the behest of the ACLU. click here to view picture and video

(WJZ/AP) Baltimore, MD -- Several top Maryland Democrats are urging Governor Robert Ehrlich to push for an extension of the deadline for voters to postmark absentee ballots. In a letter to Ehrlich dated Sunday, the group asked the governor to instruct his appointees on the Maryland Board of Elections to allow ballots postmarked on election day to be counted. The current deadline is today. The letter cites shortages in absentee ballots because of the high number of requests this year. The letter comes on the heels of a similar request by a coalition of attorneys' groups and civil rights organizations....

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sandra Day O'Connor noticed a disturbing development as her last day on the Supreme Court neared. Over her final years on the bench, more people were talking about "activist judges," an issue she said that appeared to be "erupting all over the country." "That seemed to be a mantra of some kind," she told CNN. Members of the Supreme Court are a notoriously press-shy, but O'Connor, who retired in January, and Justice Stephen Breyer, a 13-year veteran, recently spoke candidly to CNN about their concerns about judicial independence and political retribution against judges. (Watch O'Connor bemoan the...

PITTSBURG - Contra Costa County has missed a deadline to retry a convicted murderer whose first conviction was thrown out for racial bias on the jury, his attorney said Tuesday. A U.S. District Court Judge ruled July 10 that Aldridge Currie must get a new trial in 90 days or be released, said attorney Barry Morris. The 92nd day was Tuesday, Morris said. "They didn't try him in the 90 days," Morris said. "The prison has to release him." Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said the county where the inmate was tried is usually responsible for bringing prisoners back...