Free Republic

A fiasco best left in the US ONLY in America! That sentiment rings true for so much and the appointment of judges is no exception. Just witness the present state of affairs where the US Senate is considering whether to confirm President George W. Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Imagine for the moment that Alito was Australian. It would work as follows. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock would call a brief press conference. He would announce Alito's appointment, highlight his impeccable resume, and then wrap things up. "Curse the slow news day," those present would say. In response,...

Burlington, Vermont -- January 4, 2005 There was outrage Wednesday when a Vermont judge handed out a 60-day jail sentence to a man who raped a little girl many,many times over a four-year span starting when she was seven. The judge said he no longer believes in punishment and is more concerned about rehabilitation. Prosecutors argued that confessed child-rapist Mark Hulett, 34, of Williston deserved at least eight years behind bars for repeatedly raping a littler girl countless times starting when she was seven. But Judge Edward Cashman disagreed explaining that he no longer believes that punishment works. "The one...

PHOENIX -- A federal judge Friday ordered the Legislature to spend more money on education for students learning English and said he will impose fines starting at $500,000 a day late next month if deadlines aren't met. U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins also ruled that the estimated 160,000 Arizona students learning English will be able to get high school diplomas without passing the state's graduation test until they've had time to prepare in adequately funded programs. Plaintiffs claim the state's AIMS test is unfair to students learning English because of shortcomings in programs intended to improve their skills in...

Little Rock -- The Arkansas Supreme Court ordered the state Thursday to fix deficiencies in school funding by late 2006, ruling that reforms made after the court stepped in three years ago are not enough. In a 5-2 ruling, the justices did not order specific funding levels but said legislators were wrong to freeze school spending at $5,400 per student this year, and "grossly underfunded" improvements to school buildings and equipment. A special session of the Legislature will be needed if the state is to meet the court deadline. The next regular session of the Legislature, which meets every other...

A state appeals court Thursday overturned a ruling that would have allowed gay couples to marry in New York City. The state Supreme Court's Appellate Division ruled 4-1 that Justice Doris Ling-Cohan erred in February when she held that the state's domestic relations law is unconstitutional since it does not permit marriage between people of the same sex. "We find it even more troubling that the court, upon determining the statute to be unconstitutional, proceeded to rewrite it and purportedly create a new constitutional right," the appeals court said. The Supreme Court is New York's main trial-level court.

Mass. Justice Sorry for 'Red State' Remark By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago Massachusetts' chief justice has apologized for a remark she made about "red states" during a commencement speech last spring after a citizen complaint was filed with the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct. In greeting the audience at the Brandeis University commencement last May, Chief Justice Margaret Marshall commented on the hundreds of blue and white balloons held in nets tied to the rafters. "No red states here," Marshall told the crowd, using a term used to describe Republican-leaning states. In her apology Friday, the...

The superintendent of the California school district involved in a controversial 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling over parental rights has questioned the motives of the parents involved in the case. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court dismissed the appeal filed by parents who had sued the Palmdale School District over a sex survey handed to students in the 1st, 3rd and 5th grades. The court, in upholding a lower court decision, ruled that "there is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children."

A state appeals court has overturned the sentence of a Jacksonville teen who tried to rape another student in a high school bathroom, saying the judge considered the needs of the victim over the needs of the attacker. "They reversed me because I was more concerned about the safety of the girls in our public schools," Circuit Judge A.C. Soud said Friday. The appeals court ruled this week that the judge must reconsider incarcerating the Ed White High School student for pulling a classmate into a bathroom, ripping off her pants and taunting her that he was just the first...

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Setting aside habitat in Sonoma County for the endangered California tiger salamander would cost $336 million in lost development opportunities over the next 20 years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday. The agency released the estimate as part of a draft economic analysis of a proposal to protect 74,000 acres on the Santa Rosa Plain as the stocky amphibian's "critical habitat" - a designation that would restrict development on the land.The study, conducted by a private consulting firm, found that setting aside the land would cost $210 million in mitigation costs and $114 million...

WASHINGTON — The Federal Election Commission must begin work on writing tougher campaign finance rules to govern the 2006 elections after a federal appeals court declined to intervene in a challenge. In a one-page order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to reconsider a decision requiring the FEC to write new rules to carry out a 2002 campaign finance law. The FEC requested the full court's review in August after a three-judge panel upheld U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's 2004 ruling striking down several FEC rules interpreting the new law. Commissioner Michael Toner () said Friday's order means...

Topeka, Kan. -- Kansas cannot punish illegal underage sex more severely if it involves homosexual conduct, the state's highest court ruled unanimously Friday in a case watched by national groups on both sides of the gay rights debate. The Supreme Court said in a unanimous ruling that a law that specified such harsher treatment and led to a 17-year prison sentence for an 18-year-old defendant "suggests animus toward teenagers who engage in homosexual sex." "Moral disapproval of a group cannot be a legitimate state interest," said Justice Marla Luckert, writing for the high court. The defendant, Matthew R. Limon, has...

SAN DIEGO - For more than 50 years, the Mount Soledad cross has stood sentry over this city, a 29-foot-tall white landmark that, from its panoramic perch atop one of the tallest hills for miles around, has played host to weddings, baptisms and quiet contemplation. For 16 years, the Mount Soledad cross, now a part of a Korean War veterans memorial, has been a focus of bitter and still unresolved litigation. "This is the most beautiful piece of land in California, if not the country," said Paul Rodriguez, a resident smitten one afternoon by the exhilarating wind-swept views of the...

Manager of Media Programs, Center for Media and Public Policy, The Heritage Foundation A federal District Court Judge has ruled that the privacy rights of illegal aliens convicted of heinous crimes in this country are more important than the public's right to know if the government is properly enforcing a key immigration law.  Amazing as the ruling itself may be, what is even more stunning is the fact that U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Richard J. Leon was affirming the Bush administration’s position in the case. President Bush nominated Leon in 2001 and the Senate confirmed...

Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- A second Missouri judge has put a hold on a new Missouri law that would reduce abortions by helping teenagers and women who suffer from botched abortions. Jackson County Circuit Judge Charles Atwell issued a temporary restraining order after another judge had done the same thing. Judge Atwell claimed the law was a violation of free speech because it prohibits abortion facility staff or other adults apart from a minor teen's parents from taking her to another stat for a secret abortion. He also said the law threatens irreparable harm to Planned Parenthood and other...

The Netherlands and Belgium were the first countries to give full marriage rights to homosexuals. In the United States some politicians propose “civil unions” that give homosexual couples the full benefits and responsibilities of marriage. These civil unions differ from marriage only in name. Meanwhile in the Netherlands polygamy has been legalised in all but name. Last Friday the first civil union of three partners was registered. Victor de Bruijn (46) from Roosendaal “married” both Bianca (31) and Mirjam (35) in a ceremony before a notary who duly registered their civil union. “I love both Bianca and Mirjam, so I...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has announced that while she does not like being the only female on the Court, just "any woman will not do" to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Apparently merely being appointed for life with authority to declare what is and is not law in America is not enough anymore; sitting Supreme Court Justices should now be allowed to dictate who will become future Justices, as well. Justice Ginsburg fumed, "I have a list of highly qualified women, but the president has not consulted me." How dare him! I expect the White House will...

In Missouri, Kansas and across the country, verbal attacks on judges are increasing in frequency and viciousness. Some call it a war on the American judiciary. Missouri Supreme Court Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr., who faces a retention vote next year, said he abhors unfair and inaccurate attacks on judges, such as those leveled at his Supreme Court colleague Richard Teitelman when he was up for retention last year. Teitelman’s perceived liberal leanings on some issues led to the attacks. But Limbaugh said a judge’s ideological bent should be fair game for consideration by voters. “Citizens are entitled to retain for...

INDIANAPOLIS - A judge who ordered two Wicca believers to shield their son from their "non-mainstream" faith overstepped his authority, an appeals court said Wednesday in dismissing the order. The Indiana Court of Appeals said state law gave a custodial parent the authority to determine a child's upbringing, including religious training. A judge could find that certain limitations were needed to protect a child from physical or emotional harm. The parents' appeal, brought by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, claimed among other issues that the decree was unconstitutionally vague because it did not define mainstream religion. But the appeals court...

Racial makeup of jury that convicted Miller-El renews concerns about discrimination DALLAS - A Supreme Court decision citing racial discrimination during trial provided Thomas Miller-El, convicted or murder, an opportunity to leave Texas' death row after 20 years, but Dallas prosecutors will try to prevent that by retrying him. Dallas District Attorney Bill Hill says the high court's decision in June doesn't question the guilt of Miller-El, a black defendant accused of killing a white hotel clerk and wounding another during a robbery. His office says the state will again seek the death penalty. Prosecutors have until late November to...

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency, trying to overcome a court ruling that threatens a proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada, proposed new radiation exposure limits for the project Tuesday aimed at protecting the public for up to 1 million years. Under the proposal, people living near the Yucca Mountain waste site 10,000 years from now could be exposed to as much as 350 additional millirems of radiation annually, more than three times what is allowed from nuclear facilities today by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The maximum levels of exposure before 10,000 years would be 15 millirems per year, a...