Free Republic

A trio of federal appellate judges upheld a prior legal ruling on Thursday that bars the state of Florida from enforcing the ‘Stop WOKE Act’ while it faces ongoing legal battles related to its constitutionality. The measure, supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis, imposes restrictions on the instruction of race-related concepts in Florida’s public universities. The decision affirmed a ruling ordered by Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker last year, where he granted a preliminary injunction against the legislation, finding that it violated First Amendment rights. “Neither the state of Florida’s authority to regulate public school curriculum nor its interest in...

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down Tampa, Florida's ban against talk therapy for minors seeking freedom from unwanted same-sex attraction. The city had tried to block licensed therapists from providing voluntary counseling to those minors. The federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that the ban is unconstitutional under the First Amendment.... The latest ruling is based on Liberty Counsel's previous victory in Otto v. City of Boca Raton in which the Eleventh Circuit had ruled that similar attempts to muzzle counselors from helping their clients in Palm Beach County and the City of Boca Raton were unconstitutional...

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that ordinances in Florida banning the licensed counseling of people with unwanted same-sex attractions are unconstitutional violations of the freedom of speech. "We hold that the challenged ordinances violate the First Amendment because they are content-based regulations of speech that cannot survive strict scrutiny," the ruling from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. The decision was the first from a federal appeals court laws against so-called "conversion therapy" – a term rejected by proponents – since a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. In NIFLA v. Becerra, the high court ruled the...

A federal appeals court on Friday voted against extending the deadline for voters to return their absentee ballots in the state of Georgia. The Atlanta Constitution-Journal reports: A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided 2-1 to grant a stay of a judge’s ruling that would have allowed voters three more days to return their absentee ballots.

Barbara Lagoa, a frontrunner for the open Supreme Court seat that President Donald Trump is pushing to fill, has made her conservative views known in business cases and disputes over the limits of executive power. EX-FELONS’ RIGHT TO VOTE This month, Lagoa joined the majority in a major ruling by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld a law requiring people with past felony convictions to pay outstanding court fees, fines and restitution before regaining the right to vote. PARKLAND MASSACRE FALLOUT In January 2019, Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis elevated Lagoa from an intermediate state court to...

President Donald Trump's announced Saturday night that the Supreme Court nominee he plans to announce next week to fill the vacancy left by Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be a woman, spotlighting two conservative women as his potential pick. During a campaign rally in North Carolina, Trump declared 'I will be putting forth a nominee this week, it will be a woman', later adding his pick would be a 'very talented, very brilliant woman' because 'I like women more than I like men'. As he left the White House for the rally, the president identified two women as front runners: Amy...

US Circuit Judge & former FL Supreme Court Justice Barbara Lagoa is at the top of Trump's list to fill Justice Ginsburg's seat. Source who spoke to WH: “Justice Lagoa is perfect. [Trump] president wants a conservative jurist and he wants to win the biggest battleground." 1/3 2. Geography aside, Lagoa also has some demographic advantages: she's a Cuban-American from Miami (Hialeah), a crucial voting bloc for Trump. Source: "How do Democrats in the Senate vote against a Latina?” 2nd source: “Lagoa is at the top of the list. She checks a lot of boxes.”

Trump spoke privately with McConnell on Friday night following the news of Ginsburg’s death, laying out his preferences for who should replace the liberal justice, according to several people familiar with the conversation. In the phone call, Trump said he liked Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and Barbara Lagoa of the 11th Circuit, according to two people briefed on the discussion. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose details of a private conversation.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump floated two Florida justices as potential additions to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the wake of Friday’s death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, those names have a renewed resonance, with Trump ready to move forward, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowing that Trump’s nominee will get a vote despite the immiment election. Both Barbara Lagoa and Carlos Muñiz, respectively a former and a current member of the Florida Supreme Court appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, were among a list of 20 names introduced by the President to media at the White House earlier...

Senate Republicans confirmed one of President Trump’s judicial nominees to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday and will flip the federal appeals court to a majority of Republican-appointed active judges with another confirmation later this week. It will be the third federal appeals court to be turned to a GOP-majority under the president’s promise to remake the federal judiciary with a conservative bent.

President Donald J. Trump announced Thursday afternoon his intention to nominate two of Florida's newest Supreme Court justices, Barbara Lagoa and Robert Luck, to serve as circuit judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. In so doing, the president likely will reshape the ideological bent of the 11th Circuit. Florida attorneys close to both the high court and appeals court are already buzzing over the appointments. They say Lagoa and Luck will give a reliable 7-5 constitutionalist/textualist majority to the 11th Circuit, which represents Georgia, Alabama and Florida. The two Florida justices will replace Judge...