Free Republic

Judge Malihi Denied Obama's Motion to Dismiss in Georgia Ballot Access Challenge: Granted Powell's and Swensson's Motion for Separate Hearings Farrar-Welden-Swensson-Powell v Obama, Motion to Dismiss by Obama is Denied, Georgia Ballot Access Challenge Excerpts from Judge Michael Malihi in the Order for Obama's Motion to Dismiss: "Statutory provisions must be read as they are written, and this Court finds that the cases cited by Defendant are not controlling." "Code Section 21-2-5(a) states that "every candidate for federal and state office" must meet the qualifications for holding that particular office, and this Court has seen no case law limiting this...

UPDATE: An Alabama Court has announced that it will hear arguments as to whether Barack Hussein Obama II is in fact eligible to appear on the State Presidential Primary Ballot. Several Alabama citizens have filed a lawsuit within the Alabama Circuit Court to "prevent certification of President Barack Obama for 2012 Alabama ballot access pending final hearing based on factual evidentiary hearings."

David Stilwell and a band of motorcyclists parked their bikes Friday afternoon close to the Long John Silver's on Flamingo Road and Maryland Parkway. Nearby, a group of Metro Police — also on motorcycles — waited. Stilwell, joined by about 10 of his friends wearing black leather jackets, some with firearms resting in holsters on their hips, stood along the sidewalk waving signs that read "Police Checkpoint Ahead." But up ahead wasn't a typical DUI checkpoint; the officers on Flamingo Road were pulling over drivers on cellphones. "Police enforcement should be up front," said Stilwell, of Las Vegas.

Last year saw a slew of states review telecommunications laws designed for a bygone era. Tennessee phased out special charges for in-state long distance calls that subsidized phone companies. Florida and Kansas now allow companies subject to price regulations to better compete with new, less regulated providers. Increased competition has resulted from convergence in the industry, as providers once broken into segregated markets (e.g., cable TV, local and long distance phone, wireless, etc.) now all offer similar broadband phone and video services, or at least a pipe to get them. However, state laws have been slow to change, regulating some...

Hey gents, have you ever found yourself jealous of Captain James T. Kirk and his, …er intergalactic conquests? Do you longingly watch Jabba the Hutt’s dancing slave (her name is Oola, if you’re interested) and wonder, what if? Do you long to go where no man has gone before? Well, once a new sci-fi brothel opens in Nevada, you can. Nevada is the only state that allows legal prostitution, and there are two dozen licensed brothels in the state,

URGENT: PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION AT THIS LINK to show you Stand With Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and AGAINST the political witchhunt of Obama's Department of Justice. This Administration and its open-borders allies La Raza, MALDEF and the ACLU, will stop at nothing to try and destroy the most prominent national symbol in the fight against illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe will not back down. Please sign the petition to show we stand behind him. [UPDATE: The ACLU already has a petition calling for Arpaio's resignation with 16,911 signatures, and rising fast as LA RAZA and The People for the American Way...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's campaign has gotten its court date in Virginia. U.S. District Judge John Gibney Jr. has set a hearing on the validity of Virginia's primary ballot for Jan 13th. Before that hearing, the judge is requiring that the Perry campaign reach out to the other Republican candidates, to see if they would be interested in joining either side of the suit. Perry Communications director Ray Sullivan says the campaign will "respect and abide by that order." In fact, Sullivan says Perry would "welcome other candidate involvement." Virginia has some of the country's toughest ballot requirements. Only two...

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...

Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles— Federal judges have blocked strict new immigration laws adopted by conservative legislatures in half a dozen states, including a ruling last week that said South Carolina may not set up a "street-level dragnet" to stop and arrest illegal immigrants. But immigrant rights advocates who have cheered those rulings may soon find their luck has run out as those rulings head for the Supreme Court. Legal experts believe the high court's conservative majority will take a sharply different approach. So far, lower-court judges have mostly sided with the Obama administration, ruling, as U.S. District Judge...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry today filed an emergency motion in U.S. District Court in Richmond seeking an injunction ordering the State Board of Elections to print presidential primary ballots with his name. Perry filed suit in federal court Tuesday challenging his exclusion from the March 6 primary ballot, naming the three members of the elections board and Pat Mullins, chairman of the state Republican Party. Perry is urging a judge to bar the elections board and Mullins from enforcing the state residency requirement for people who collect petition signatures for ballot access.

Perry's lawyers said a preliminary injunction was necessary since the deadline to print ballots in Virginia will be in two to three weeks. “In the absence of a preliminary injunction, plaintiff will suffer irreparable harm,” per filing. The case is Perry v. Judd, 3:11-cv-856, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond.

One of Newt Gingrich’s first acts as president, if he is elected, will be to drop all of the Justice Department’s lawsuits against states -- including the federal government’s lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s new immigration law. “It’s pretty outrageous when the federal government fails to do its job and then attacks the states for trying to fill the gap created by the federal government,” Gingrich said on the back porch of the Blue Marlin in the Vista after speaking to a crowd of about 300 people for about an hour. Thursday, a federal judge threw out three sections of South...

PHOENIX - The Homeland Security Department will use 50 immigration agents to screen jail inmates in Arizona's most populous county after it revoked the sheriff's authority to access its systems, the agency said Monday in a letter to U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl. ................

Gov. Rick Perry began his 42-city bus tour on a rather populist note Wednesday, saying a diagram of the country’s problems would be a straight line between Washington, D.C. and Wall Street. Perry has been struggling in the polls for months but hopes a tour of Iowa’s small towns in the three weeks leading up to the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3 can lift him back to the front of the pack. “I hope some of you are taking a second look,” Perry said. Perry is trying to sell himself as the true Washington outsider in the Republican race, and...

Border Justice: As the administration proposes unmanned border entry and halving our National Guard force on the border, the Supreme Court agrees to tackle Arizona's tough immigration law in an election year. Arizona wasn't around when the original 13 states formed the federal government knowing there were certain things it could do best, such as the constitutional mandate to provide for the common defense and protect our borders. National and border security involves not only deterring foreign armies armed with tanks, but also protecting our borders from an invasion involving ladders and pickup trucks. That, Arizona argued when it passed...

The Obama administration has turned down a request from Texas to run its Title X family planning program, funded with federal taxpayer dollars, without funding the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The adminsitration sent a letter to inform the Texas Health and Human Services Commission of its intent to deny a request to extend the Medicaid Women’s Health Program if Texas complies with its law banning contractors “that perform or promote elective abortions or affiliate with entities that perform or promote elective abortions.” Earlier this year, Texas yanked about $64 million in funding from Planned Parenthood and directed the funds to...

Here he goes again. Idaho Rep. Dennis Lake, Chair of the powerful Revenue and Taxation Committee, is poised to introduce a massive tobacco tax increase in 2012. The proposal is being supported by a coalition of special interests lobbying for higher taxes. Lake has unsuccessfully agitated for higher tobacco taxes consistently in the past. Rather than take on the difficult decisions and prioritization expected of a legislator, Rep. Lake is content to erode Idaho's competitiveness by raising taxes. In fact, he has essentially deemed the pro-tax coalition his puppetmaster: 'Lake told IdahoReporter.com Monday that is he serving as an “errand...

Supreme Court to settle election district scuffle in Texas as a map signed by Rick Perry is accused of diluting minority voting power Texas’ March primary will likely be delayed after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday blocked the use of state legislative and congressional district maps that were drawn by federal judges. The court issued a brief order late Friday that applies to electoral maps drawn by federal judges in San Antonio for the Texas Legislature and Congress that would have ensured minorities made up the majority in three additional Texas congressional districts. The justices said they will hear...

Justice Department Warns Alabama Law Enforcers On Immigration By Pete Williams and Kari Huus The Justice Department has sent a letter to dozens of local law enforcement agencies in Alabama that receive federal money, warning them that they risk losing that funding if they're not careful in how they enforce the state's tough new immigration law. The Obama administration has already sued the state, claiming that the law is unconstitutional. Now it's keeping the pressure on by addressing how the law is carried out. The law, HB56 passed by the Alabama Legislature in June, attempts to combat illegal immigration by...

...Brown was unable to pass the largest state tax increase in U.S. history earlier this year because legislative Republicans, whose votes were needed due to California's 2/3rds vote requirement to raise taxes, kept their pledge to constituents to oppose any and all efforts to raise taxes. So Brown is now going out to collect signatures, with financial backing of government sector unions and Hollywood, to put an income and sales tax hike on the ballot. (Side note: Brown should hire ATR to consult him, because as we told him back in January, his tax hikes wouldn’t get through the legislature...