Free Republic

The ugly specter of religious bigotry reared its disgusting head during Senate confirmation of the nomination of Brian Buescher for a federal judgeship. The Constitution’s Article VI, Clause 3 clearly specifies that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States,” but that must be news to Senators Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris. Ed Condon of the Catholic News Agency reports:  A judicial nominee faced questions from Senators this month about whether membership in the Knights of Columbus might impede his ability to judge federal cases fairly. The...

Livingston County District Court Judge Theresa Brennan was arraigned on perjury and two other felony charges Tuesday morning in a Livingston County courtroom. Genesee County Judge G. David Guinn ordered Brennan to surrender her passport and set a bond that doesn't require payment for her to be released. Brennan was charged last week with perjury, tampering with evidence and common law offenses by the Michigan Attorney General's office.

She’s not a senator, but Cynthia Nance plays an enormous role in shaping the debate over some of President Trump’s judicial picks. Ms. Nance, former dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law, handles the American Bar Association’s judicial ratings for nominees to federal courts in North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas, which make up the federal 8th Circuit. The ABA’s role is one the more opaque parts of the process, but Republicans are pushing it into the light, accusing her of allowing personal bias, particularly a fealty to abortion rights, to color her ratings....

Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: "If we work our butts off to make sure that we take back all three chambers of Congress — Uh, rather, all three chambers of government: the presidency, the Senate, and the House." The 3 branches of government: executive, legislative, judicial.

ABC late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel took the stage on Tuesday and jokingly suggested that his “compromise” to the battle of Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination is to chop off the judge’s “pesky penis,” should he be confirmed...“Hear me out on this,” Kimmel began “So Kavanaugh gets confirmed to the Supreme Court, OK? Well, in return we get to cut that pesky penis of his off in front of everyone.”

U.S. Sen. Mazie K. Hirono announced today that she will oppose the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. “Donald Trump long ago announced his intention to nominate a judge off of a list prepared by the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation,” said Hirono in a news release. “When it became clear he chose the one person from that list who believes presidents should not be subject to criminal investigations or civil suits, I knew that nominee would have a very heavy burden of proof. Given his lengthy record of partisan political activity, I could...

Ellis had rebuked Andres for not looking at him while he was talking. "Look at me! Don’t look down," Ellis said. When Andres said he was looking at a document, Ellis said "that’s B.S." And on Wednesday, Ellis chastised Andres again for how he speaks to him. At one point, Andres responded with a simple "yea." "Be careful about that, this is not an informal proceeding," Ellis warned.

In early September, the Senate held a confirmation hearing for Amy Coney Barrett, a Notre Dame law professor nominated for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Sen. Dick Durbin grilled her about her use of the term “orthodox Catholic” to describe those who try to practice the teachings of her church. “Do you consider yourself an ‘orthodox Catholic’?” asked Durbin of Illinois, himself a Catholic, taking issue with Barrett’s use of that term to describe those who strive to align their lives fully with their church’s teachings. Hawaii’s Sen. Mazie Hirono suggested Barrett would be beholden to Catholic teaching when...

FULL TITLE: Corrupt Obama Appointed Judge Amy Berman Jackson Does It Again: Puts Politics Before Law in Manafort Case – Should be Removed It sure seems like every Obama appointed judge is a far left radical who puts their own distorted interpretation of reality ahead of the US Constitution. In this respect, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson is a case study. This past week she again showed that she puts politics before the law. Her actions with Paul Manafort alone are cause for her to be removed or impeached. We reported two months ago and again earlier this month,...

Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has died, a court spokesperson confirmed. He was 87. A liberal champion, Reinhardt was appointed to the bench by President Carter in 1980. He authored key liberal court opinions on hot-button topics ranging from abortion and marriage equality to assisted suicide and immigration. At the same time, the opinions made him a target of criticism from conservative corners — and of regular reversal from the Supreme Court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has agreed with the EEOC that a funeral home engaged in unlawful discrimination when it fired a male funeral director who was “transitioning” to female and dressing as a woman at work. The case is EEOC v. Harris Funeral Homes. The opinion is by Karen Nelson Moore, a Clinton appointee and one of the most left-wing federal appeals court judges in America. She was joined by Bernice Donald and Helene White. Donald, an Obama appointee, is also a far leftist. White was nominated by Clinton but blocked by then-Senator Spencer Abraham....

BRIGHTON, MI -- A Livingston County court employee has filed a federal lawsuit against the county’s chief judge and embattled district court Judge Theresa Brennan. In a 19-page lawsuit, District Court Administrator Francine Zysk alleges Brennan retaliated against her after Zysk testified in Brennan's divorce proceedings regarding the judge's “dishonesty, perjury, scandalous behavior, bullying of employees and disruption of court officials.” “Francine will suffer in silence no more,” Zysk’s lawyer, Jim Fett, said in a statement Monday. “…Like many of the employees that she has advocated for, Francine has had to seek medical care and counselling to cope with Brennan’s...

U.S. Army vets convicted 187th District Court Judge Joey Contreras, of San Antonio, Texas, on January 31, 2018 refused to release Alphonso McCloud, 28, on bond pending appeal of a four-year prison sentence Contreras rendered on January 22, 2018 for McCloud’s role in a pit bull attack that cost neighbor Doris Mixon Smith, 73, her left arm and caused her to suffer facial disfigurement. The pit bull had previously menaced several other people, according to trial testimony, actually biting at least one of them.

The battle between Senate Democrats and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) over the “blue-slip rule” escalated this week, after another one of President Trump’s judicial nominees advanced without the approval of both of their home-state senators The blue-slip rule — which Democrats describe as a long-running Senate tradition Grassley has taken to ignore — has become a flashpoint for members on the Judiciary Committee. The committee has been tasked with considering the slew of nominees from the Trump administration, many of which have been controversial. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the committee’s top Democrat, said that Grassley’s decision to...

Judicial and LGBT advocates are slamming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for scheduling a vote on a horde of judicial nominees ahead of a possible government shutdown. The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to vote Thursday on 17 judicial nominees, who were re-nominated by President Trump at the beginning of the month. Under Senate rules, nominees have to be approved by the full Senate in order to carry over into a new session of Congress. But advocates are accusing Grassley of trying to avoid public scrutiny by slipping controversial candidates opposed by Democrats into an already stacked agenda....

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The judge, Linda Reade, handed down an unusually long sentence that critics suspected had been motivated by antisemitism. Critics pressed President Barack Obama for clemency, without success...In the cheering crowds, a few red “MAGA” hats could be seen among the traditional black fedoras. Speaking to the throngs at 770 in English, Yiddish, and Hebrew, Rubashkin thanked Trump effusively: “God bless him,” he said, prompting loud cheers. Rubashkin also noted Trump’s recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Today President Donald J. Trump announced his intent to nominate a ninth wave of judicial nominees and a tenth wave of United States Attorney nominees as follows: If confirmed, Joel M. Carson III of New Mexico will serve as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Joel Carson currently serves as a part-time Magistrate Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico and as a partner in the Roswell-based firm Carson Ryan, LLC. Prior to being selected as a Magistrate Judge in 2015, and starting his own firm in 2014,...

The House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday will begin writing a resolution holding top FBI officials in contempt of Congress after the agency missed a Monday deadline to turn over key evidence the committee has been seeking for months.

Judicial Watch today announced that the Superior Court of California, San Francisco County overruled San Francisco Sheriff Vicky Hennessy’s move to end a Judicial Watch taxpayer lawsuit challenging the Sheriff’s sanctuary policy. The lawsuit challenges restrictions on the ability of sheriff’s deputies to communicate freely with Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) about inmates’ citizenship, immigration status, and release dates (Cynthia Cerletti v. Vicki Hennessy, Sheriff (No. CGC-16-556164)). The November 21, 2017 ruling came in a December 2016 lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch on behalf of California taxpayer Cynthia Cerletti. The lawsuit alleges Sheriff Hennessy’s restrictions on communications with ICE conflict...