Free Republic

Seven top Senators said Sullivan's actions violate the Constitution's clear separation of powers on which branch of government may prosecute American citizens. The actions of the rogue federal judge in the Michael Flynn criminal case are an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power that represent a “recipe for tyranny,” seven top senators, including the Senate Majority leader, told a federal court on Monday. In an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) blasted the refusal of Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to grant the Department of Justice’s motion to dismiss...

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to advance President Trump's nomineeto replace Brett Kavanaugh on the high-profile D.C. appeals court, with two Republican holdouts backing off their objections and joining colleagues to support Neomi Rao. The committee voted 12-10 along party lines – with GOP Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Joni Ernst of Iowa joining their fellow Republican lawmakers – to endorse Rao for a seat on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The seat was vacated when Justice Kavanaugh joined the Supreme Court. Rao, 45, heads the White House Office of Information and...

Judge says amnesty ‘arguably crosses the line’Sheriff Joe Arpaio can’t sue the Obama administration to stop the president’s deportation amnesty, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in a decision saying it was too tenuous to try to argue that the amnesty will entice other illegal immigrants to try to make the crossing. The ruling marks a legal victory for Homeland Security — albeit a narrow one, because the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia didn’t reach the actual substance of the president’s tentative amnesty program, instead saying the Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff didn’t prove he was...

A federal appeals court on Friday struck down the birth control mandate in ObamaCare, concluding the requirement trammels religious freedom. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals — the second most influential bench in the land behind the Supreme Court — ruled 2-1 in favor of business owners who are fighting the requirement that they provide their employees with health insurance that covers birth control. Requiring companies to cover their employees’ contraception, the court ruled, is unduly burdensome for business owners who oppose birth control on religious grounds, even if they are not purchasing the contraception directly. “The burden on religious...

Senate Republicans on Thursday filibustered one of President Obama’s nominees to sit on the federal appeals court in Washington, arguing that while the woman is well-qualified, confirming her would allow Democrats to shift the political balance to the left on the country's second-most important court. The vote was the latest skirmish in the fierce, though usually hidden, battle over federal judgeships, which are increasingly becoming a part of the political spoils system. Republicans accused Democrats of trying to pack the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals by adding Patricia Millett to the bench, saying Mr. Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry...

President Obama will elevate the controversy over his recess appointment powers to the highest level, with the National Labor Relations Board announcing Tuesday it will appeal to the Supreme Court a lower-court ruling that held his appointments to the board were illegal. That move will put the thorny case straight before the justices, who will have to decide whether Mr. Obama overstepped his constitutional powers when he did an end-run around Congress last year and named three board members — using his recess-appointment powers at a time when the Senate considered itself still in session. In January a three-judge panel...

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans have blocked the confirmation of federal appeals court nominee Caitlin Halligan for the second time, denying President Barack Obama a key judicial appointment.

President Obama is for the fifth time trying to ram through the Senate confirmation of a radical pro-abortion, anti-gun rights activist to become a judge on the nation’s most important federal appellate court. Previously, the candidate, a renowned leftist attorney who advocates for the rights of terrorists, has been blocked by Senate Republicans, but Obama refuses to give up. For the firth time, Caitlin J. Halligan’s nomination is up for Senate approval to fill a vacancy on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Halligan is currently general counsel for the Manhattan District Aattorney’s office in New York. It’s hardly...

A WaPo op-ed, "Give Us Back Our Gun Law" argues that restricting gun ownership by adults prevents guns from getting into the hands of juveniles, who borrow them from friends and family members or buy them on the black market.Cathy Lanier acting chief of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, and Vincent Schiraldi, of the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, cite gun control laws enacted during 1995 and 1997 in states surrounding D.C. that "choked off black-market sales, while the D.C. ban on guns in the home reduced the ability of youths to borrow guns from family and friends."The pair...