Free Republic

The big news on the culture-war front is a federal court's striking down of Proposition 8, California's constitutional amendment protecting marriage. In a two-to-one ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote, "The people may not employ the initiative power to single out a disfavored group for unequal treatment and strip them, without a legitimate justification, of a right as important as the right to marry." Now, I'm not sure why the judges mention a "disfavored group," as if singling out a "favored" one for unequal treatment would be okay. As far as I know, the...

News just began coming out a little after noon on the east coast. A California appeals court has struck down Proposition 8, which banned same sex marriage in the state. A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down California’s ban on same-sex marriage, clearing the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on gay marriage as early as next year. The 2-1 decision by a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that limited marriage to one man and one woman, violated the U.S. Constitution. The architects of Prop. 8...

SAN FRANCISCO – Supporters and opponents of California's ban on same-sex marriage were anxiously awaiting a federal appeals court decision Tuesday on whether the voter-approved measure violates the civil rights of gay men and lesbians. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that considered the question plans to issue its long-awaited opinion 18 months after a trial judge struck down the ban following the first federal trial to examine if same-sex couples have a constitutional right to get married. The 9th Circuit does not typically give notice of its forthcoming rulings, and its decision to do...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won't hear arguments from a conservative watchdog group that wants Justice Elena Kagan disqualified from deciding the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's national health care overhaul. Freedom Watch asked the high court for time to demand Kagan's recusal or disqualification during arguments on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The law is aimed at extending health insurance coverage to more than 30 million previously uninsured people and would, by 2019, leave just 5 percent of the population uninsured, compared with about 17 percent today, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

In a case that stemmed from an investigation by D.C. police and the FBI of a local drug dealer, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that police across the country need a warrant if they want to track suspects using GPS monitors. In the ruling, which was written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the court found that even though the case involved a GPS unit that was attached to a car that was out in the open, it still constituted a "search" under the language of the Fourth Amendment: It is important to be clear about what occurred in this...

A federal appeals court in Virginia today denied an emergency request by Republican presidential hopefuls Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich to be placed on the ballot for the Virginia primary. After failing to get the required 10,000 signatures necessary to be placed on the ballot, the two candidates argued that Virginia’s strict ballot law was unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit agreed with a lower court and ruled today that the candidates had waited too long to file their suit. The court ruled unanimously that Perry and the other candidates “had every...

Wednesday the United States Supreme Court delivered a knockout blow to the White House in the cause of religious liberty. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for a unanimous court swatted away the government’s claim that the Lutheran Church did not have the right to fire a “minister of religion” who, after six years of Lutheran religious training had been commissioned as a minister, upon election by her congregation. The fired minister -- who also taught secular subjects -- claimed discrimination in employment. The Obama administration, always looking for opportunities to undermine the bedrock of First Amendment religious liberty, eagerly agreed....

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Days after the last U.S. troops left Iraq, a federal appeals court ended a lawsuit over an episode that produced one of the more disturbing images of the war: the grisly killings of four Blackwater security contractors and the hanging of a pair of their bodies from a bridge in Fallujah. Families of the victims reached a confidential settlement with the company's corporate successor, Arlington, Va.-based Academi, and the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the suit last week. The settlement was first reported Friday by The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va. The deal ends the...

U.S. District Court in Virginia Expedites Rick Perry’s Ballot Access Lawsuit Richard Winger December 29th, 2011 U.S. District Court Judge John A. Gibney of Virginia has set a hearing in Rick Perry’s presidential primary ballot access lawsuit. He will consider Perry’s request for injunctive relief on January 13. In the meantime, he has established a briefing schedule, and also has instructed attorneys for Perry to communicate with all other Republican presidential primary candidates who had filed a declaration of candidacy, to explain to them how they may intervene in the lawsuit. This shows foresight and thoughtfulness on the part of...

Spanish voters on Sunday are expected to dismiss the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and usher in the conservative People's Party (PP) and its leader, Mariano Rajoy. Mr. Zapatero’s Socialist party (PSOE), which has been in power for eight years, has borne the brunt of public blame for Spain’s increasingly perilous economic situation, which has tainted the party’s leadership candidate, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba. Meanwhile, Mr. Rajoy has been coasting toward an expected landslide victory without saying much about how he plans to reverse Spain’s economic course... The situation is bleak for the eurozone’s fourth-largest...

A U.S. judge sided with tobacco companies on Monday, granting a temporary injunction blocking rules requiring new warning labels that use graphic images like a man exhaling cigarette smoke through a hole in his throat.

Ohio Supreme Court Oral Arguments In Smoking Ban Challenge streaming live

A sunken treasure worth about $500 million was discovered by an American company has been awarded to Spain by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The treasure-laden Spanish ship was located off the coast of Gibraltar in 2007. It had been sunk during a naval battle with the British navy in 1804. Several parties made claim to the treasure. The company that made the recovery, Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc., the governments of Spain and Peru, and 25 individuals who were descendants of the sailors on the ship. The federal district court, which heard...

Women are to be allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia. K ing Abdullah bin Abdulaziz announced the change yesterday and also said women would be allowed to run in elections. However, the new law will not come into force until 2015. In a speech, the king said the move was in accordance with sharia law.

Lawyers for the Missouri State Teachers Association say they have a signed injunction from Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem stopping the Facebook law from going into effect. The MSTA says they received the injunction just after 10 a.m. Friday. In the ruling, Judge Beetem said that based on evidence, teachers in Missouri use social media as a primary form of communication. He also said the law "clearly prohibits communication between family members and their teacher parents using these types of sites. The Court finds that the statute would have a chilling effect on speech." The injunction lasts for 180...

No vandalism. No violence. No Harassment. No Obstruction. No intimidating. No threatening. No Blocking. No Trespassing. Those were just a few of the restrictions placed on members of the local 827 IBEW bargaining unit, their dependents, minors, households and relatives in an injunction signed by NJ Superior Court Justice Mary Beth Rogers last week. Rogers also set restrictions on picketing, allowing no more than six picketers at the entrance to any Verizon owned property at any one time. Picketers were also advise that no more than two picketers may picket a private residence of a Verizon employee and must stay...

ACLJ Calls 11th Circuit Decision "Critical Step Forward in Undoing ObamaCare" WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which is actively challenging ObamaCare, said today's decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declaring the individual mandate of ObamaCare unconstitutional represents a "critical step forward in undoing ObamaCare.""The appeals court got it right and the decision represents a critical step forward in undoing ObamaCare," said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ, which is involved in litigation challenging ObamaCare. "The individual mandate, which forces Americans to purchase health insurance, exceeds the authority...

(Reuters) - An appeals court ruled on Friday that President Barack Obama's healthcare law requiring Americans to buy healthcare insurance or face a penalty was unconstitutional, a blow to the White House. The Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, found that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to buy coverage, but also ruled that the rest of the wide-ranging law could remain in effect. The legality of the so-called individual mandate, a cornerstone of the healthcare law, is widely expected to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Obama administration has defended the provision as...

A federal appeals court ruling this week could significantly diminish public university religious groups' ability to restrict membership and leadership to students who agree with their teachings. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that San Diego State University's nondiscrimination policy for officially recognized campus groups is constitutional. The policy is based on a nondiscrimination policy used at all the schools in the California State University system. Two Christian groups sued SDSU in 2005, alleging the policy violated their free-speech and religious-freedom rights. For the groups to be recognized as official campus groups, they were required to allow all...

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new Kansas law that would have stripped Planned Parenthood locations in the state of federal funding. U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten ordered the state to immediately resume funding for Planned Parenthood Monday, agreeing that without the injunction the abortion provider would suffer while the case works its way through court. Kansas Planned Parenthood leaders claimed the law would force them to close clinics. They also said nearly 6,000 patients would face higher costs, have less access to services, and longer waits or travel times for appointments. The state argued that public health...

A Mexican national was executed Thursday for the rape-slaying of a teenager after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down a White House-supported appeal to spare him in a death penalty case where Texas justice triumphed over international treaty concerns. Humberto Leal, 38, received lethal injection for the 1994 murder of Adria Sauceda. She was fatally bludgeoned with a piece of asphalt. Leal was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. EDT (2221 GMT).

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, July 6, 2:34 PM SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court has barred further enforcement of the U.S. military’s ban on openly gay service members. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Wednesday the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy must be immediately lifted now that the Obama administration says it’s unconstitutional to treat gay Americans differently under the law.

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal appeals court has barred further enforcement of the U.S. military's ban on openly gay service members.</p> <p>A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Wednesday the "don't ask, don't tell" policy must be immediately lifted now that the Obama administration says it's unconstitutional to treat gay Americans differently under the law.</p>

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WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has ruled for Wal-Mart in its fight to block a massive sex discrimination lawsuit on behalf of women who work there. The court ruled unanimously Monday that the lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cannot proceed as a class action, reversing a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The lawsuit could have involved up to 1.6 million women, with Wal-Mart facing potentially billions of dollars in damages. Now, the handful of women who brought the lawsuit may pursue their claims on their own, with much less money at stake and...

— The Supreme Court blocked the largest sexual-discrimination lawsuit ever from proceeding as a class action on Monday, handing a victory to Wal-Mart in a case that pitted the massive retailer against millions of its female employees. The court’s decision could have broad implications for workers seeking jointly to sue their employers. The justices overturned an earlier U.S. appeals court ruling that gave class-action status to 1.5 million female Wal-Mart employees, past and present, seeking billions of dollars in a suit accusing the retailer of paying women less and giving them fewer promotions at the company

Walmart has scored a crucial victory in the world’s largest sex discrimination case after the US Supreme Court threw out a class action lawsuit against it that sought to encompass more than 1m people. The decision is likely to have wide-ranging implications for the course of legal disputes between big business and workers in the US because it will establish new standards plaintiffs must meet in order to mount class actions. Walmart was accused by six plaintiffs of paying women in the US less than men and of passing them over for promotion, but they had sought to represent a...

BIG news for supporters of the rule of law on immigration. 2 weeks after ruling in favor of AZ's law targeting employers who hire illegals- the U.S. Supreme Court voided a lower court ruling blocking Hazelton's law that does the same and also targets landlords who rent to illegals. The Court ordered the 3rd Court of Appeals to reconsider the case in light of the pro-AZ ruling, and may signal a major legal shift in our direction. Join Stand With Arizona

America's Ruling Class-And the perils of a Revolution Angelo Codevilla As over-leveraged investment houses began to fail in September 2008, the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, of major corporations, and opinion leaders stretching from the National Review magazine (and the Wall Street Journal) on the right to the Nation magazine on the left, agreed that spending some $700 billion to buy the investors' "toxic assets" was the only alternative to the U.S. economy's "systemic collapse." In this, President George W. Bush and his would-be Republican successor John McCain agreed with the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Many, if not...

Officers may break in if they hear sounds and suspect that evidence is being destroyed, the justices say in an 8-1 decision. Justice Ginsburg dissents. The Supreme Court gave police more leeway to break into homes or apartments in search of illegal drugs when they suspect the evidence otherwise might be destroyed. Ruling in a Kentucky case Monday, the justices said that officers who smell marijuana and loudly knock on the door may break in if they hear sounds that suggest the residents are scurrying to hide the drugs. Residents who "attempt to destroy evidence have only themselves to blame"...

Rashid Qawi Al-Amin succeeded where thousands of Virginia prison inmates before him have failed: He prevailed in a lawsuit against the government. Al-Amin won a settlement with the state that forces the prison system to supply him, and the Greensville Correctional Center library, with Muslim reading materials, CDs and DVDs. He'll also receive $2,000. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's office decided to settle the seven-year legal battle after a series of court rulings in Al-Amin's favor. The state admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement but did agree to perform eight different acts to satisfy Al-Amin's claims. The case highlights a trend...

The Fourth Amendment expressly imposes two requirements:All searches and seizures must be reasonable; and a warrant may notbe issued unless probable cause is properly established and the scope of the authorized search is set out with particularity. Although“ ‘searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are pre-sumptively unreasonable,’ ” Brigham City v. Stuart, 547 U. S. 398, 403, this presumption may be overcome when “ ‘the exigencies of the situation’ make the needs of law enforcement so compelling that [a]warrantless search is objectively reasonable under the Fourth Amendment,”

Judge Doesn't Block Indiana Law De-funding Planned Parenthood Indianapolis, IN -- A federal judge has declined a request by the Planned Parenthood abortion business to issue a temporary restraining order blocking a new state law Governor Mitch Daniels signed that yanks its taxpayer funding. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/11/judge-doesnt-block-new-law-de-funding-planned-parenthood/

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Indiana won a key victory in its fight to cut off public funding for Planned Parenthood Wednesday when a federal judge refused to block a tough new abortion law from taking effect, a move that could boost Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' image among social conservatives as he considers running for president. U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt denied Planned Parenthood of Indiana's request for a temporary restraining order despite arguments that the law jeopardizes health care for thousands of women.

The Supreme Court on Monday took no action on Virginia’s request that it immediately review the nation’s health-care overhaul law.

The now-retired federal judge who struck down California's ban on same-sex marriage shared his reflections with reporters for the first time Wednesday, saying that the trial should have been televised and that he never considered stepping aside because he is gay."If you thought a judge's sexuality, ethnicity, national origin (or) gender would prevent the judge from handling a case, that's a very slippery slope," former Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker told reporters in a conference room at the San Francisco courthouse where he served for 21 years."I don't think it's relevant," he said.Independent thinker Walker, 67, who retired from...

It must be nice belonging to a political party that not only has amnesia about the things they say and do, but also knows the media will not remind the public. It has only been two years since Obama invited the Republicans into the White House for an eye to eye meeting about the way they will all work together. Unfortunately for the GOP, Obama had no intention of working with them, instead he told them to their face, "I WON", "and you have no say in how things will be done". Pretty ballsy statement for a man who...

Dem lawmaker says Supreme Court may nix individual mandate By Daniel Strauss - 03/23/11 01:53 PM ET On the one-year anniversary of the historic healthcare reform law, at least one Democratic congressman disagrees with his party’s prevalent opinion and believes the U.S. Supreme Court may well strike down the law’s individual mandate as unconstitutional. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) doesn't see the debate over the Obama administration's healthcare reform law going away anytime soon, and concedes that things may go unfavorably for the law, at least in part, when challenges to it eventually reach the Supreme Court. 
 In a conference...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court refused today to let same-sex marriages resume in California while it considers the constitutionality of a 2008 ballot measure that defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Gay and lesbian couples and the city of San Francisco had asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month to lift its suspension of a federal judge's August 2010 ruling that declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional. The couples and the city, plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging Prop. 8, cited the appeals court's decision to put the case on hold while the...

A Kansas church known for its angry, anti-gay protests at funerals of U.S. troops won an appeal Wednesday at the Supreme Court in a case testing the competing constitutional rights of free speech and privacy. In an 8-1 ruling, the justices said that members of Westboro Baptist Church had a right to promote what they call a broad-based message on public matters such as wars. The father of a fallen Marine had sued the small church, saying those protests amounted to targeted harassment and an intentional infliction of emotional distress. "Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move...

The split opinion of judges all over the country continue. D.C. Federal District Judge Gladys Kessler has ruled the health care law to be constitutional. In her ruling, Kessler says: First, this Court agrees with the two other district courts which have ruled that the individuals subject to § 1501’s mandate provision are either present or future participants in the national health care market. See Liberty Univ., 2010 WL 4860299, at *15 (“Nearly everyone will require health care services at some point in their lifetimes, and it is not always possible to predict when one will be afflicted by illness...

The State of Alaska -one of 26 states signed-on as Plaintiff in the Florida federal case- has decided not to implement ObamaCare in any way after that judge struck down the entire stealth HC nationalization as unconstitutional... WSJ: Alaska Governor Sean Parnell said he won't implement the federal health-care overhaul after a judge in Florida struck down the law as unconstitutional. It's not immediately clear what practical impact the unusual move would have on Alaskans, an estimated 14% of which are uninsured year-round. A major expansion of the federal law is still pending, and a legal expert and health-care consumer...

In Loudoun County, Chief General District Court Judge Dean S. Worcester ruled last week that he would defy the Virginia Supreme Court because the justices were simply wrong.

Nice review of how Judge Vinson struck "down the entire health-reform law on the grounds that the individual mandate was not severable from the rest of the statute." And yes I performed a search on the title words "nuts and bolts"

Judge Declares Pro-Abortion ObamaCare Unconstitutional A federal judge in Florida has issued a new ruling in what is the largest lawsuit filed against the Obamacare health care law. U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson says the individual mandate is unconstitutional and, therefore, the entire law is as well. Leading pro-life groups have opposed the Obamcare law because it allows massive abortion funding and prompts concerns about rationing of health care. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/31/judge-declares-pro-abortion-obamacare-unconstitutional

FEDERAL JUDGE RULES OBAMA HEALTH CARE LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL... DEVELOPING...

San Diego, Calif., Jan 31, 2011 / 01:12 pm (CNA).- Members of the San Diego Fire Department have won a sexual harassment lawsuit against the city for being forced to participate in a local gay pride parade in 2007. On Jan. 26, the California Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the city and instead upheld a lower court ruling in favor of the firefighters. The move ends a several-year legal legal battle for four firefighters who lodged a complaint against San Diego for being forced to participate in the city’s gay pride parade in 2007. Although the...

An appellate court has ruled that Rahm Emanuel is not legally a resident of Chicago, and therefore cannot run for mayor. The decision overturns a previous ruling. “We conclude that the candidate neither meets the the municipal code’s requirement that he have ‘resided’ in Chicago for the year preceding the election in which he seeks to participate nor falls within any exception to the requirement.� More at the Chicago News Cooperative.UPDATE: �The Supreme Court is absolutely loathe to overturn an appellate court decision,� an Illinois lawyer tells Politico’s Ben Smith. I have heard much the same from others familiar with Illinois...

In a dramatic ruling giving gun owners a win in an National Rifle Association / California Rifle and Pistol (CRPA) Foundation lawsuit, this morning Fresno Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hamilton ruled that AB 962, the hotly contested statute that would have banned mail order ammunition sales and required all purchases of so called “handgun ammunition” to be registered, was unconstitutionally vague on its face. The Court enjoined enforcement of the statute, so mail order ammunition sales to California can continue unabated, and ammunition sales need not be registered under the law. The lawsuit was prompted in part by the many...

The Supreme Court's newest justice, Elena Kagan, handed down her first opinion Tuesday, writing that a debtor cannot escape increased payments to his creditor under a complicated formula found in a 2005 bankruptcy law. Seven of the other eight justices agreed. The case examined language in the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act specifying the terms by which people in debt are to repay their obligations. The law allows for people to exclude or deduct $471 per month from their disposable income for car payments. Jason Ransom filed for bankruptcy in 2006 after going more than $80,000 in debt....