Free Republic

A federal judge in the Western District of Texas reversed her Temporary Restraining Order that stopped the Department of Homeland Security from cutting border barriers put in place by the State of Texas. The new order issued Wednesday night reverses that position after the judge heard additional evidence. The case will now proceed to a trial on the merits. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Texas Public Policy Foundation filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Border Patrol, and multiple Biden administration appointees to stop the federal government’s interference...

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a gun rights group, saying Maryland's preliminary handgun-licensure requirement is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled in favor of Maryland Shall Issue, which challenged the law, The Daily Record reported. The decision is a victory for gun rights advocates in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen.

A federal appeals court has set a mid-January deadline for the Louisiana state legislature to draw up a new congressional map, which comes in a long-running legal dispute that included a lower court ruling that found the current map likely unfairly diluted the power of black voters. A three-judge panel in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its order on Nov. 10, requiring the state legislature to pass a new map by Jan. 15, 2024. The appeals court's order notes that, if the state legislature fails to adopt a new map by the deadline, then the lower court should...

A federal judge issued an extraordinary temporary restraining order Monday barring the Biden administration from destroying or tampering with a temporary concertina wire fence installed by Texas to protect its border with Mexico. Chief U.S. District Judge Alia Moses, in Del Rio, ruled Texas had a likelihood of prevailing it its lawsuit and would suffer significant harm if federal officials were allowed to keep dismantling the fence. The decision dealt a stinging rebuke to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and a win for states seeking to enforce border security on their own in the absence of help from the federal...

A full federal appeals court declined to take up Democrat groups’ challenge of Florida’s 2021 election integrity law on Thursday, marking a major win for Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-controlled state legislature. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Thursday’s decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals “let stand an April ruling by a three-judge panel of the [court] that sided with the state on major issues in the case.” The 11th Circuit’s April decision effectively overturned a prior ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker — an Obama appointee — who baselessly claimed the law in question discriminated...

It’s not the first time that U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez has determined that California’s ban on “large capacity” magazines violates the Second Amendment, but hopefully this time the decision will stick. Benitez issued his first ruling before the Bruen decision was released last year, but the Ninth pulled its typical move and overruled him in an en banc review, sending the case to the Supreme Court. After Bruen, the Supreme Court granted cert and remanded the case back to the Ninth Circuit with instructions to reconsider in light of the text, history, and tradition test it laid out, but...

Score another victory for religious freedom! A federal judge issued a ruling in favor of a farmer in East Lansing, Michigan, who was excluded from a public farmer's market because of his Christian beliefs. It turns out that at least some government officials see that the city's rotten actions are violating civil liberties in the name of diversity.The conflict started in 2017 when the city's government decided that the biggest drama in the farmer's market wasn't the price of tomatoes but the fact that Stephen Tennes, owner of Country Mill Farms, has religious beliefs that the city deemed unacceptable. The...

Nick Sandmann, who at the time was a Covington Catholic student, appears in a screengrab taken from a video filed as an exhibit in federal court. A federal appellate panel in a 2-1 decision Wednesday denied former Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann’s bid to revive libel claims against mainstream media outlets over their coverage of his 2019 encounter with Native American activist Nathan Phillips in Washington, D.C. at the March for Life. In July 2022, Senior U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman, a Jimmy Carter appointee sitting in the Eastern District of Kentucky, granted summary judgment and threw out Sandmann’s...

On April 27, 2023, Governor Jared S. Polis of Colorado signed Senate Bill 23-169 into law. The bill increased the required legal age of a person to purchase firearms from 18 to 21, preventing people under 21 from legally purchasing firearms. Exceptions were provided for people in the United States armed forces or peace officers. The bill was challenged by the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO) with two individuals plaintiffs in April, then amended in May. The RMGO and other plaintiffs asked for a preliminary injunction to prevent enforcement of the statute while the case is undergoing adjudication on July...

A federal Judge in Colorado blocked a gun control law that limits the sales of firearms to people 21 and older, holding that it ran afoul of recent Supreme Court precedent. Phillip Brimmer, chief judge for the U.S. District of Colorado, ruled Monday in favor of a firearms advocacy group that sued in order to block the law known as Senate Bill 169. While the law took effect Monday, the judge blocked it from enforcement, ruling it fails the test established in the Supreme Court's 2022 decision Bruen v. New York Rifle & Pistol Association. Overall, voters are slightly torn...

The judge in the Pensacola Naval Air Station terrorist shooting case has asked the Biden administration to declare whether victims of the 2019 attack should be barred from suing Saudi Arabia because of “serious and sensitive matters of foreign policy and military affairs.”@media(min-width:0px){#div-gpt-ad-floridabulldog_org-box-3-0-asloaded{max-width:728px!important;max-height:90px!important;}}U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers directed the court clerk to serve her order on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and others, and asked for a response within 30 days of her July 27 order.@media(min-width:0px){#div-gpt-ad-floridabulldog_org-medrectangle-3-0-asloaded{max-width:580px!important;max-height:400px!important;}}“Given the sensitive nature of the United States foreign relations that could be impacted by this case, the Court finds it necessary…to raise the...

A federal judge has voided the court-martial conviction of former Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who left his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was then captured and held by the Taliban for five years. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton on Tuesday issued a 63-page ruling granting summary judgment in favor of Bergdahl, who was convicted after pleading guilty in 2017 to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Walton argued that Bergdahl was denied a fair trial because the military judge who presided over the court martial, Jeffrey Nance, failed to disclose that he had applied to the executive...

A federal judge has voided former Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's court-martial sentence and subsequent rulings on the case by military judges, setting up the possibility that he could request a reinstatement of rank or change of status for his dishonorable discharge. Senior Judge Reggie Walton, of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., issued an order Tuesday that partially granted the federal government's motion to dismiss the Bergdahl case. But Walton ruled in favor of Bergdahl's argument that the Army judge in his case failed to disclose a possible conflict of interest -- that he had applied for a civilian...

An Oregon law that forbids recording in public without consent runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, a U.S. court has ruled.James O'Keefe, founder Project Veritas, at the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Oct. 12, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)Oregon law 165.540, first enacted in 1955 and subsequently broadened to bar secret recording of conversations, is unconstitutional, Judge Sandra Ikuta, a George W. Bush appointee writing for the majority in the 2–1 ruling, said.Exceptions to the prohibition include recording at public meetings, such as city council hearings; while a felony that endangers human life is being committed; and...

A federal judge has rejected the Department of Justice's request to move legal proceedings over former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn's malicious prosecution claims to Washington, D.C."In sum, the Court concludes that the interests of justice weigh against transfer of this case to the DDC. Plaintiff is entitled to seek redress in his home forum, and Defendant’s Motion presents no overwhelming need to disturb that choice," wrote District Judge Mary Scriven in a June 12 order. "The only party who would clearly be inconvenienced by relocation of this action to the DDC is Plaintiff, who would be forced to...

Derrick James, McAlester News-Capital, Okla. Thu, June 8, 2023 at 4:08 PM PDT·3 min read Jun. 8—A federal judge denied an Oklahoma death row inmate's request for new attorneys two months before his clemency hearing. Anthony Sanchez said in a video response posted online by his spiritual advisor, Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, the ruling was a "devastating blow." "I'm having trouble understanding the idea of me not having the lawyers I want to represent me," Sanchez said. "I would rather do my own clemency myself than let Mark Barrett or Randy Coyne represent me. I am prepared to reject clemency...

District Judge Halil "Sul" Ozerden's ruling leaves only five states that mandate shots without religious exemptions on kids.GULFPORT, Mississippi (LifeSiteNews) — Mississippi officials must allow students to obtain religious exemptions from vaccine mandates, a federal judge ruled recently. The southern state had remained one of only two red states that did not offer religious exemptions from school shot mandates. The other is West Virginia. District Judge Halil “Sul” Ozerden ruled on April 18 that the state’s health officer and a handful of local school district officials were “enjoined from enforcing Mississippi’s school compulsory vaccination law…unless they provide an option for...

On Thursday, a panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals handed Florida Governor a huge victory over Marc Elias, judicial overreach, and industrial strength stupidity. By a 2-1 decision, an Obama judge dissenting, the panel upheld nearly all of Florida’s overhaul of voting rules in May 2021. I would call it controversial, but it was only controversial to people whose lives depend upon supporting vote fraud. In May 2021, the Florida legislature passed a major overhaul of state election law. The law’s goals were to make elections more transparent and trustworthy while outlawing known abuses of the system,...

Autokeycard.com Seized By the ATF, Owner Arrested For Selling A Drawing In the Autokey Card case, a jury found Matthew Hoover, better known as CRS Firearms on YouTube, and Justin Ervin guilty. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) charged the men with violating the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934 for selling machineguns and conspiracy. Ervin faced an additional charge of structuring. The case stems from Mr. Ervin selling a metal card with an image inspired by a lightning link etched into it. Ervin sold the cards as a novelty and contracted with Mr. Hoover to promote...

A federal judge in North Dakota has temporarily blocked the implementation of the Biden administration’s controversial “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule, granting the request of a coalition of 24 states and more than a dozen industry groups. On Dec. 30, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its final “Revised Definition of Waters of the United States” rule, broadening what types of water sources were subject to federal regulation under the Clean Water Act. In issuing the April 12 injunction (pdf), U.S. District Judge Daniel L. Hovland held that the plaintiff states had successfully demonstrated that the new rule...