Free Republic

CHEYENNE — U.S. government officials who engage in regional planning for an area of Wyoming and Montana that supplies 40 percent of the nation’s coal must consider reducing coal mining as a way to fight climate change, a judge has ruled. Friday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Great Falls, Montana, applies to the Powder River Basin, where house-sized dump trucks haul loads mined around the clock from open-pit coal mines. Some of the mines measure more than a mile wide. Morris rejected U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials’ argument that climate change could be addressed when they...

President Donald Trump’s administration must defend a lawsuit targeting his plan to end a program offering protection from deportation for hundreds of thousands of children of undocumented immigrants. U.S District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn, New York, narrowed but didn’t dismiss the suit on Thursday, finding that there was a “plausible inference” that it was illegally aimed at Mexicans. He previously blocked the U.S. government from ending the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and from halting the renewal process, but hadn’t decided whether to allow the case to proceed.

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Seattle opened the door Thursday for thousands of immigrants to apply for asylum, finding that the Department of Homeland Security has routinely failed to notify them of a deadline for filing their applications. U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez issued the ruling in a class-action lawsuit brought by immigrant rights groups on behalf of those who fear persecution if returned to their home country.{snip} Government lawyers argued that they do publish some materials that inform asylum seekers of the deadline and that federal law does not require that officials directly notify asylum seekers of...

Federal judge upholds Massachusetts assault weapons ban © Getty Images A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on Friday challenging Massachusetts's ban on assault weapons. U.S. District Judge William Young said in his ruling that the firearms and large magazines banned by the state in 1998 are “not within the scope of the personal right to ‘bear Arms’ under the Second Amendment.” The features of a military-style rifle are "designed and intended to be particularly suitable for combat rather than sporting applications," Young wrote. Massachusetts was within its rights since the ban passed directly through elected representatives, Young decided. “Other states...

A federal judge in Washington State has declared that all civic groups nationwide must accept people of the other sex into their single-sex spaces and activities, or else be stigmatized and sued by the federal government. In legal jargon, Judge Marsha Pechman declared in a lawsuit against the Pentagon’s “transgender” policy that the federal government must use its powers to champion people who want to live as members of the sex, either inside the military or outside, just as it must use federal powers to suppress racism: Today, the Court concludes that transgender people constitute a suspect class. Transgender people...

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” So begins the First Amendment to our Constitution. Those words have been turned into a “law” that allows courts to demand an impenetrable wall of separation between religion and government. A recent case shows how amazingly far they will go to ensure that. In 1925, a group of citizens in Bladensburg, Maryland wanted to honor 49 men from Prince George’s County who had lost their lives during the First World War. The local chapter of the American Legion and families funded a memorial usually...

Seventh Circuit imposes nationwide injunction on effort to withhold grants from 'sanctuary' locales President Donald Trump's efforts to punish so-called sanctuary cities around the country, as well as the state of California, suffered a serious legal blow Thursday when a federal appeals court in Chicago upheld a nationwide injunction against administration rules requiring localities to cooperate with federal immigration authorities in order to win public safety grants. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a nationwide injunction preventing Attorney General Jeff Sessions from imposing the new conditions on grant money as a way to penalize municipalities around...

Deepest blow yet to Trump’s phaseout ....Judge John D. Bates’s ruling would require a full restart, meaning even illegal immigrant “Dreamers” who’d never been approved before would now be able to apply for DACA.... judge imposed a 90-day delay on his own ruling to give the government a chance to reargue its case, but for now the ruling stands as the most severe blow yet to Mr. Trump’s phaseout. Judge Bates said the government’s reasoning for revoking DACA wasn’t convincing enough, and so it amounted to an “arbitrary and capricious” decision, which makes it illegal under the Administrative Procedures Act....

The White House on Thursday slammed the mayor of Philadelphia’s “disgusting” celebratory dance after a court ruled in favor of the city in a fight with the Trump administration on its sanctuary city status. U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration cannot cut off grants to the city over policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Baylson said the conditions the administration placed on the city were unconstitutional, “arbitrary and capricious.” Video tweeted by Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney’s deputy chief of staff showed him dancing with chief of staff Jane Slusser. “Sanctuary city, yeh!” a giddy...

A federal court on Friday again said the Trump administration cannot implement its ban on most transgender military service while a lawsuit against it proceeds. “The status quo shall remain ‘steady as she goes,’ and the preliminary injunction shall remain in full force and effect nationwide,” Judge Marsha Pechman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington wrote Friday. In doing so, Pechman quoted the top Navy admiral, who told a Senate panel in April that it’s been “steady as she goes” since transgender people have been allowed to serve openly. Pechman is one of four federal...

WICHITA, Kan. — A federal judge has ruled Kansas cannot require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, a setback for Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in a case with national implications for voting rights. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson sided with voters...

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson on Monday ruled a Kansas law that requires new voters to prove citizenship is unconstitutional and ordered Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to return to school as punishment for repeated violations of court rules. Her 118-page ruling sides with the American Civil Liberties Union in a two-year legal battle over the law’s burden and effect on elections. She provided a damning assessment of Kobach’s witnesses, calling their evidence flawed, invalid, biased, irrelevant, unreliable and untrustworthy.

The judge blamed the "chaotic circumstance of the government's own making" for the turmoil surrounding the separation of migrant children from their parents. A federal judge in San Diego ordered immigration agents on Tuesday to stop separating migrant parents and children who have crossed the border from Mexico and to work to reunite families that have already been split up while in custody. U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by an anonymous woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo and backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which was expanded to become...

A federal district judge has ruled President Donald Trump’s administration’s practice of indefinitely detaining some asylum seekers can’t proceed, dealing a major blow to what immigration attorneys have said is one of the administration’s tools to deter people from seeking safe haven in this country. The lawsuit was filed in March by the American Civil Liberties Union and named as a defendant the El Paso Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office. Other field offices named in the lawsuit include Detroit, Los Angeles, Newark and Philadelphia. The El Paso office covers West Texas and New Mexico. The ACLU alleged in...

NY Judge: Trump Admin Acted In 'Bad Faith' By Adding Citizenship QuestionCiting “bad faith,” a federal judge has ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to disclose additional information regarding its decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Judge Jesse Furman of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York announced on Tuesday that lawyers representing the government must produce a log of documents that were being withheld, as well as provide an explanation for why the administration did so. Furman further demanded that the government include documents from the Commerce and Justice Departments...

Democrats are in a state of sheer panic. They're panicking because last week, Justice Anthony Kennedy -- a reliable vote in favor of certain leftist priorities including abortion and same-sex marriage -- announced that he will step down from the Supreme Court, leaving President Trump a second selection. This apparently will lead to the end of a free America. According to Jeffrey Toobin of CNN, the remade Supreme Court will spell doom: "Abortion illegal, doctors prosecuted, gay people barred from restaurants, hotels, stores; African-Americans out of elite schools, gun control banned in 50 states, the end of regulatory state." None...

Getting back our liberties Posted: December 17, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Last week's column, "Let's Do Some Detective Work," provided unassailable evidence that the protections of liberty envisioned by the Constitution's Framers mean little today. I was pleasantly surprised by the responses from fellow Americans expressing disgust and fear over what our nation is becoming. Several asked how we can regain our liberties. My short answer is: I'm not sure they can ever be recovered. Let's look at it. We all have a moral obligation to pay our share for constitutionally mandated functions of the federal government, but...