Free Republic

For nearly a decade, 2012 contender Newt Gingrich has been floating some controversial ideas aimed at reining in the federal judiciary. He's called that branch of government "grotesquely dictatorial" and elitist. Should he become president, Gingrich says he'll ignore Supreme Court decisions if they don't square with his interpretation of the Constitution or what he believes the country's founders intended. Gingrich says federal judges should be called before Congress to explain their decisions, suggesting Sunday that he'd even approve of arresting them if they refused to show up. It's an issue raised Thursday in Fox News' GOP debate in Iowa,...

Statement by Gov. Rick Perry: U.S. Senate Should Reject Nomination of Liberal Judicial Activist Caitlin Halligan AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today issued the following statement: “As New York Solicitor General, Caitlin Halligan used her liberal interpretation of the law to target pro-life Americans, gun owners, and gun manufacturers, and otherwise use the law as a liberal political tool. The last thing the American people need on the second highest court is another liberal judicial activist, like Ms. Halligan, who lacks respect for the U.S. Constitution. “The nomination of liberal activist Caitlin Halligan to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals...

In a pending civil lawsuit in a Texas Federal Court, a constitutional nightmare is occurring that could have ominous consequences for all Americans. In violation of the Constitution, The activist federal judge in this case has made a U.S. business owner essentially a slave without any due process or hearing. All of the relevant details of this profoundly disturbing case are summarized at case overview tab on LawInjustice.com. No case in recent judicial history resembles more of a Stalinist show trial. The conduct appears to be more corruption than merely judicial activism and the litany of outrages occurring are almost...

A federal judge in Austin on Tuesday ruled that key components of Texas' abortion-sonogram law are unconstitutional, stopping the state from enforcing it until a court rules on a legal challenge filed on behalf of several obstetrician-gynecologists. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said...the law, which was to take effect Thursday, violates the free speech rights of doctors and patients. He ordered that the state cannot impose penalties against doctors who don't fulfill its requirements. "The Act's onerous requirements will surely dissuade or prevent many competent doctors from performing abortions, making it significantly more difficult for pregnant women to obtain abortions,"...

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott says two state senators suing him because he rejected federal money to build high-speed rail want the court to push their failed policies. His sometimes stinging response filed Wednesday with the Florida Supreme Court calls them "senators whose policy preferences have not prevailed in the political process." Republican Thad Altman and Democrat Arthenia Joyner filed the lawsuit Tuesday, saying Scott overstepped his executive authority by killing the project after the Legislature approved it and appropriated money for it. Oral arguments in the case are set for 3 p.m. today. Both sides have asked the court...

A federal appeals court has overturned the 25-years-to-life sentence of a South Bay man who was caught driving while intoxicated in 1999, six years after a drunken accident that killed a passenger. A Santa Clara County judge based his decision to sentence Rick Wilson under California's "three strikes and you're out" law on findings he made about Wilson's previous crime. That violated Wilson's right to have a jury decide those questions, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in a 2-1 ruling Tuesday. The court cited a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision that entitles defendants to...

TRENTON — Wednesday’s long argument over funding New Jersey schools returned to the state Supreme Court, where stark battle lines were drawn. The Newark-based Education Law Center, which advocates for needy students, argued that cuts in school funding made by Gov. Chris Christie and the Legislature last year violate the state’s constitutional obligations. It wants the state ordered to fully bankroll the court-approved school funding formula. In response, the state argues that cuts to education couldn’t be avoided because of the recession — and that the court has no role in how the state spends its money because there’s no...

The Cross in the classroom was removed in the Albert-Magnus Gymnasium after a protest from parents. Even the morning school prayer was reduced to a good morning meditation prayer circle. Regensburg [kath.net] As one father weighed in, the cross was removed from Albert-Magnus Gymnasium's classroom and the usual school prayer was mangled into a neutral good morning circle meditation. This was reported in the Mittelbayrische Zeitung. With this we see the effect Crucifix-ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court.

Jan Brewer is asking a federal court to disallow foreign governments from joining the federal lawsuit. | AP Photo Close By SCOTT WONG | 10/6/10 9:57 AM EDT Updated: 10/6/10 7:21 PM EDT In a new twist in the fight over Arizona’s immigration law, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer on Tuesday asked a federal court to disallow foreign governments from joining the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit to overturn the law. The move comes in response to a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling issued Monday, allowing nearly a dozen Latin American countries — Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador,...

Thursday September 9, 2010 Iowans Seek to Sack Three Judges who Legalized Gay “Marriage” By Peter J. SmithDES MOINES, Iowa, September 9, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on Wednesday waded into a unique state electoral battle, where conservatives are seeking to recall from the bench three state Supreme Court justices that legalized same-sex “marriage” in 2009. Speaking at a panel organized by the Iowa State Bar Association in the Hotel Fort Des Moines, O'Connor asserted that “the judges should not be subject to retaliation" from voters for the decisions they render.According to the...

A U.S. judge in Boston has ruled that a federal gay marriage ban is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right a state to define marriage. U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro on Thursday ruled in favor of gay couples' rights in two separate challenges to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. The state had argued the law denied benefits such as Medicaid to gay married couples in Massachusetts, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004. Tauro agreed, and said the act forces Massachusetts to discriminate against its own citizens....

Warner Todd Huston -- the "Publius" on the right hand side of the photo above -- caught my eye today with this post. It gives me faith that there are some honest elected representatives who still have America's best interests at heart. And this one in NEW JERSEY, yet!!! My favorite sentiment about the U.S. Supreme Court is from that rascal President Andrew Jackson. In 1832 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Worcester v. Georgia that Old Hickory wasn’t too happy with. In reply he is famous for the sentiment that the Court made its decision and proposed...

As noted in this space countless times, California's government is broken, endemically incapable of addressing the state's most pressing policy issues. As the crisis has deepened, another factor has made itself increasingly evident – intervention by state and federal courts in what used to be political policy decision-making. The chronically unbalanced state budget is the most obvious example of the system's dysfunction. Any major financial decision discomfits someone. Those who feel aggrieved often go to court, seeking either to overturn or at least delay its implementation. One federal judge seized control of the prison health care system, saying the state...

Police need reasons to believe a suspect is dangerous before firing a Taser and can't use their stun gun simply because the person is disobeying orders or acting erratically, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Monday. The decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sets judicial standards for police and for people who claim they were victims of excessive force after police hit them with a Taser dart. "The objective facts must indicate that the suspect poses an immediate threat to the officer or a member of the public," Judge Kim Wardlaw said in the 3-0...

During his first year in office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger railed against state lawmakers, calling them "girlie men" and "obstructionists." As he enters his final year, Schwarzenegger is targeting a different branch of government: judges who "are going absolutely crazy." The Republican governor openly complains about the judiciary these days for blocking budget decisions and forcing California to find billions of dollars elsewhere. Recent judgments have contributed to the state's $20.7 billion projected deficit. Courts have ruled that California's attempts to divert transit and redevelopment money are illegal. They have found in some cases that the state cannot furlough workers. They...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Obama administration refused Friday to follow a federal judge's order to provide insurance benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee in San Francisco and said its hands were tied by a discriminatory law. "This issue shows exactly why Congress needs to repeal" the law, which prohibits federal benefits to same-sex couples, government lawyer Elaine Kaplan said in a message to attorneys for court employee Karen Golinski. One of Golinski's lawyers, Jenny Pizer of the gay-rights group Lambda Legal, said Kaplan's response was "something we might have expected from the Bush or Reagan administration, and...

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...

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...