Free Republic

Brian Murphy (Senate Judiciary Committee/Twitter) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Senate Democrats hailed President Joe Biden’s pick for the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts as a committed advocate for criminal justice. As a defense attorney, Brian E. Murphy defended rapists and violent criminals while leading a firm that touted its ability to protect the "reputation" of convicted sex offenders. Murphy & Rudolf, a criminal defense firm Murphy founded in 2011, touts its "notable case results," including a dismissal of charges for clients accused of rape, child rape, and murder. In one post on its website, Murphy & Rudolf touts its "50 years of combined...

Lawyers representing migrants flown to Martha's Vineyard nearly two years ago by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis can sue the charter flight company that transported them to the island off the Massachusetts coast, according to a ruling Monday by a federal judge in Boston. The 50 Venezuelans were sent to Martha’s Vineyard from San Antonio, Texas, and had been promised work and housing opportunities. Under Monday's ruling, the migrants can proceed with their suit against Florida-based Vertol Systems Co., which had agreed to fly them to the island for hundreds of thousands of dollars. An email to the company seeking comment...

On Friday, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled a shirt that read "THERE ARE ONLY TWO GENDERS" could be construed as bullying of a protected class and is not protected speech after a 12-year-old and his father filed suit against officials in the Middlesbrough Public School district for First and Fourteenth Amendment rights violations. Judge Indira Talwani said in the court ruling, the boy and his father had "not established a likelihood of success on the merits where he is unable to counter Defendants’ showing that enforcement of the Dress Code was undertaken to protect the invasion of the rights...

Lenin is reputed to have said, “Give me four years to teach the children, and the seeds I have planted will never be uprooted.” Every parent knows this is true: Children are sponges, learning things incredibly quickly. These things then stick, for they are buried in the very deepest recesses of our brains. Today’s leftists are attempting to reinstitute this specific type of Leninism in America. They want your children, and your efforts to protest will be unavailing. A Massachusetts federal judge confirmed this last week, saying that it didn’t “shock the conscience” that a school secretly indoctrinated two children...

The federal government has announced it will appeal the dismissal of its lawsuit against United States gun manufacturers. The government filed a US $10 billion lawsuit against gunmakers, including Smith & Wesson and Barrett Firearms in August 2021, accusing them of negligent business practices that have led to illegal arms trafficking and deaths in Mexico, where U.S.-sourced firearms are used in a majority of high-impact crimes. In a claim filed in Massachusetts, it alleged that the companies have undermined Mexican gun laws by designing, marketing and selling high-powered weapons that appeal to criminal organizations in Mexico. Chief Judge F. Dennis...

(Reuters) -President Joe Biden on Friday nominated a lawyer who represented the Mississippi clinic at the heart of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision to become a federal appeals court judge. Biden's latest slate of nine new judicial nominees included Julie Rikelman, an abortion rights lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights whom the president picked to serve on the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Biden's latest nominees continued the White House's push to diversify the federal bench. They include Daniel Calabretta, a California state court judge nominated...

Judge William Young has just announced in court that he is withdrawing the Opinion he issued dismissing the case brought by a Boston parents group over the so-called Boston “Zip Code Quota Plan.” For background see our posts: Boston Parents Sue Alleging Discrimination Against Asians and Whites In Change of Prestigious Public School Admissions As Predicted, Boston “Zip Code Quota Plan” For Elite Public Schools Reduced Asian and White Admissions, Raised Black and Latino Leaked School Committee Texts Showing Anti-White Bias May Reopen Boston “Zip Code Quota Plan” Case Court Showdown Over Boston “Zip Code Quota Plan” And Concealment of...

President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced this week it is poised to reverse former President Donald Trump’s Navigable Waters Protection Act that helped farmers and ranchers avoid penalties based on arbitrary definitions of navigable waters that could apply to rainwater puddles, seasonal ponds, and other natural water formations. DTN covered the reaction to the EPA’s move: The Biden EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a news release Wednesday the Trump rule has led to a degradation in protection of waters. The agencies asked a federal court to remand the Trump rule, to allow for...

A federal judge in Massachusetts is going to make Twitter explain whether or not it is a “state actor” or a truly private company, and the effects could be significant in reigning in Big Tech’s oppression of conservative views. Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, the man who invented email, ran for US Senate in Massachusetts as a Republican and made allegations of voter fraud on Twitter. These tweets were then deleted by the far-left tech giant. Later it was discovered that they were deleted at the direction of government employees of the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office. Discovering this, Dr. Ayyadurai filed...

A federal judge in Massachusetts is set to force Twitter to explain whether or not it is a “state actor” or a truly private company, according to reports. The effects could be far-reaching in ending Big Tech’s censorship of conservatives.

Appeals court panel says interstate haulers are not exempt from AB 5 law. Interstate truckers could soon come under California’s highly restrictive independent contractor law because of a recent federal appeals court decision. A three-judge panel for the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 that a federal law called the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA) does not preclude application of the state’s AB 5 contractor law to trucking companies operating in interstate commerce. In early 2020, before the new law went into effect, a federal district court judge granted an injunction barring the state from enforcing it...

A federal court in the District of Massachusetts entered an order today authorizing the IRS to serve a John Doe summons on Circle Internet Financial Inc., or its predecessors, subsidiaries, divisions, and affiliates, including Poloniex LLC (collectively “Circle”), seeking information about U.S. taxpayers who conducted at least the equivalent of $20,000 in transactions in cryptocurrency during the years 2016 to 2020. The IRS is seeking the records of Americans who engaged in business with or through Circle, a digital currency exchanger headquartered in Boston.“Those who transact with cryptocurrency must meet their tax obligations like any other taxpayer,” said Acting Assistant...

A man who lost his leg in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing ripped the decision of an appellate court Friday to toss the the death sentence and overturn three of the convictions of terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. “It’s ridiculous,” Marc Fucarile said when asked about the ruling on the local Boston WEEI radio show “Ordway, Merloni and Fauria.” Fucarile — who lost his right leg during the second of two finish-line explosions that killed three and left more than 260 wounded in April 2013 — said the case should be clear cut. “The guy did this. Put him to rest,” Fucarile...

BOSTON (CBS/AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man convicted in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. The three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston issued the decision more than six months after arguments were heard in the case. The April 15, 2013, attack killed three people and injured more than 260 others.

He wrote for ‘Black-ish’ and ‘The Simpsons’ but won’t get his diploma A federal judge allowed Harvard to judge an accused student guilty with an undefined evidence standard that may be less than 50 percent, dismissing his lawsuit against the university on Monday. TV writer and former Wall Street analyst Damilare Sonoiki sued Harvard last fall to clear his name and finally receive his diploma after he was accused of sexual misconduct two days before commencement in 2013. Despite meeting all requirements for graduation, investigators were “sufficiently persuaded” that Sonoiki was responsible for sexual misconduct. The Nigerian immigrant sued Harvard...

Five Central American asylum seekers ordered to remain in Mexico by federal authorities will be able to reunite with their families in Massachusetts until their immigration cases are decided, a federal judge in Boston ruled Thursday. . . . American authorities have said the “Remain in Mexico” policy has helped significantly reduce illegal border crossings. Civil rights groups complain it violates constitutional rights.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered Massachusetts authorities to allow gun shops to reopen after the governor deemed them non-essential businesses that needed to close to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock in Boston ruled that the restrictions ordered by Republican Governor Charlie Baker in response to the pandemic imposed an “improper burden” on the constitutional rights of citizens seeking to possess firearms. Baker imposed the restrictions through executive orders issued beginning in mid-March that, like those adopted in other states, forced the closure of an array of brick-and-mortar businesses in response to the...

The judge wants answers from the government about "serious and disturbing" claims of misconduct. Loughlin's attorneys argue federal agents entrapped her and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, and that the case should be thrown out. Loughlin's defense team also claims the prosecution withheld evidence, citing notes of consultant William "Rick" Singer they say prove the government's interference. Singer is a key witness. "During the course of their investigation of defendants, the government offered Singer the opportunity to cooperate and Singer agreed to a consensual wiretap of his phone," the judge writes. "Subsequently, he made rehearsed calls to the defendants designed to...

121 Mar 18, 2020 ELECTRONIC NOTICE as to Shelley M. Richmond Joseph, Wesley MacGregor Resetting Hearing. The Motion Hearing on Motion 109 MOTION for Discovery of Grand Jury Instructions, 59 MOTION to Dismiss the Indictment Under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12(b), 61 MOTION to Dismiss Indictment Under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12(b), 105 Objection to Magistrate Judge's 86 Order as to Shelley M. Richmond Joseph and 106 Objection to Magistrate Judge's 86 Order as to Wesley MacGregor, currently scheduled for 4/2/2020, is reset for 6/2/2020 at 09:30 AM in Courtroom 13 before District Judge Leo T. Sorokin. (Montes,...