Free Republic

Muslim-American groups are applauding President Barack Obama's nomination of a Washington lawyer to serve in U.S. District Court — a move that could make him the first ever Muslim-American federal judge, according to advocates. If confirmed, Abid Riaz Qureshi would sit on the District of Columbia's federal bench, the White House announced Tuesday. Qureshi, who graduated Harvard Law School in 1997, is a partner in the D.C. office of Latham & Watkins LLP, specializing in healthcare fraud, securities violations, and cases involving the False Claims Act, according to a White House statement. "I am confident he will serve the American...

Ebrard's Group Throws Itself Against Cardenas Agustin Guerrero, director of the René Bejarano-supported National Democratic Left (IDN),1 qualified Cuauhtemoc Cardenas2 as a "traitor" to the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). "Cardenas the Engineer3 is not with the PRD in principle nor with its project, and we did not sign a letter of renunciation, we simply made a decision to go to Fox's cabinet, because we are charging him there. That commission for the bicentennial of the celebrations of Independence is not an honorary post, it is a position which has a budget and pays him for organizing it; therefore...

Encinas warns that an institutional political crisis is near He indicates that the GDF1 will not permit elements of the Federal Preventive Police to go out from their assigned perimiters. The Head of Government of the Federal District, Alejandro Encinas, warned that [the country] is on the brink of passing from a post-electoral conflict to an institutional political crisis. "I believe that there are three objectives in the situation which our country is living through. I believe that we are passing from a post-electoral conflict to an institutional political crisis. Whoever does not want to see it as such,...

In an Oct. 10 editorial titled "The Promise of the First Amendment," the publisher and chief executive of the New York Times opined that for a federal judge to imprison their reporter Judith Miller for contempt of court violates the press freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment. This argument misstates existing law and misunderstands the issues at stake.... The Times argues that "the press cannot perform its intended role if its sources of information -- particularly information about the government -- are cut off." Hence, Ms. Miller has a First Amendment right to refuse to respond to the subpoena. This...

A prosecutor's investigation into an apparent attempt by the Bush administration to punish a political opponent by revealing classified information has veered terribly off course. It threatens grievous harm to freedom of the press and the vital protection it provides against government misconduct. The reality of the threat was driven home, quite personally for us, last week, when a federal judge in Washington sentenced a Times reporter, Judith Miller, to up to 18 months in prison for refusing to testify before a grand jury. The panel is looking into who gave Robert Novak the name of a covert Central Intelligence...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 - President Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, testified on Friday to a federal grand jury investigating whether it was anyone at the White House who had illegally disclosed the name of a C.I.A. undercover officer to a newspaper columnist, a lawyer for Mr. Rove said. "He answered fully and truthfully every one of their questions," the lawyer, Robert Luskin, said. Mr. Luskin added that Mr. Rove, who testified for more than two hours, did not seek to avoid answering any question on legal grounds. A spokesman for the White House, Scott McClellan, said the testimony demonstrated...