Free Republic

In Jackson Women's Health Organization v. Currier, (SD MS, Nov. 20, 2018), a Mississippi federal district court held unconstitutional a recently enacted Mississippi statute that prohibits most abortions after 15 weeks gestation. The court said in part: [T]he real reason we are here is simple. The State chose to pass a law it knew was unconstitutional to endorse a decades-long campaign, fueled by national interest groups, to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. This Court follows the commands of the Supreme Court and the dictates of the United States Constitution, rather than the disingenuous calculations of the...

A liberal-leaning California-based federal appeals court that has often ruled against President Donald Trump dealt him another setback this week in a major immigration case and soon could be asked to weigh in on a pipeline project he has championed. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, has been a thorn in Trump’s side since he took office last year and has drawn the Republican president’s ire for its decisions in high-profile cases. See more examples

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that the U.S. law banning female genital mutilation was unconstitutional and dismissed charges against several doctors in Michigan who carried out the procedure on underage girls as part Muslim sect’s religious practice.

WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts is pushing back against President Donald Trump's description of a judge who ruled against Trump's new migrant asylum policy as an "Obama judge." It's the first time that the leader of the federal judiciary has offered even a hint of criticism of Trump, who has previously blasted federal judges who ruled against him. Roberts said Wednesday the U.S. doesn't have "Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges." He commented in a statement released by the Supreme Court after a query by The Associated Press.

<p>A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from denying asylum to migrants who illegally cross into the United States, saying the policy likely violated federal law on asylum eligibility.</p> <p>The judge pointedly denied the claim that the president, by fiat, could give the manner of entry added legal weight as a determinant of asylum. He reasoned that the “interpretive guide” of United Nations compacts on asylum lent extra force to congressional requirements. The intent of Congress, Tigar wrote, was “unambiguous.”</p>

One emailer wrote: ““You are a disgusting, vile Jew … This is OUR country: you’re merely living here (for now).” A caller said: “You should have died in the Holocaust with the rest of your people.” But the calls that most disturbed Tanya Gersh consisted only of the sound of gunshots being fired. The terror campaign — known as a “troll storm” — was the result of Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin’s December 2016 directive, urging hundreds of thousands of readers to harass the Jewish woman and her family, according to court filings. Gersh sued the known neo-Nazi. On Wednesday,...

The cable network made an emergency request so its correspondent could have access to the White House as lawsuit continues. WASHINGTON—A federal judge granted an emergency motion to restore the White House press credential of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta—a victory for the network in a closely watched press-freedom case. The lawsuit could determine whether the government can ban individual reporters from public buildings. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed to the bench by President Trump, granted CNN’s request for a restraining order temporarily restoring Mr. Acosta’s press access to the White House while the case proceeds. Lawyers for Mr....

A Georgia federal judge ruled in favor of Democrat Stacey Abrams’ campaign Monday night, ordering election officials to review thousands of provisional ballots that have not been counted in the contested election for governor. Judge Amy Totenberg, a New Yorker who serves on the Atlanta-based court, said that the race cannot be officially certified until those ballots were counted. Many voters have complained they were told at polling stations they weren’t registered and had to file provisional ballots. Abrams would need to gain more than 20,000 votes to force a runoff against Republican Brian Kemp.

A federal judge blocked the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline Thursday, ruling that the Trump administration hadn’t justified changing President Obama’s earlier rulings. Judge Brian Morris of the U.S. District Court for Montana, who was appointed by Mr. Obama, handed environmentalists a huge victory by saying Mr. Trump’s decision to sign the permit for the Canada-to-Texas pipeline shortly upon taking office did not have a sufficient basis ....

All the Lefty Twitter blue-checks are touting the opinion of the toothless geezer John Paul Stevens that Brett Kavanaugh doesn't have the temperament to be on the Supreme Court. Stevens also believes that the Second Amendment should be abolished, and that Merrick Garland should have been given a hearing. He also believes that pixies steal his dentures when he can't find them.

The Trump administration’s plan to deport more than 300,000 undocumented immigrants whose home countries have been hit by disasters was blocked Wednesday by a San Francisco federal judge, who said the administration had abruptly changed federal policies without explanation and may have been motivated by racism. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen issued a nationwide injunction preserving temporary protected status for former residents of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti and Sudan. President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security had decided to revoke that status for all four nations, eliminating the immigrants’ protections from deportation. The deportations had been scheduled to start with the...

KOIN 6 Reports: A lawsuit filed by a Democratic senator from Oregon aiming to compel the Trump administration to release 100,000 pages of documents on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is inching forward in federal court, with an Obama nominee assigned to hear it.Sen. Jeff Merkley’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in the nation’s capital, has been overshadowed by sexual harassment accusations against the nominee, but the case remains alive, with summonses prepared for U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others, court documents show.Now Merkley is asking the federal court to order the Trump administration, which has claimed executive...

A federal judge in San Francisco is asking whether President Trump’s “America first” agenda is camouflage for racial hostility. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen on Tuesday heard arguments over whether the Trump administration should be blocked from rolling back parts of George H.W. Bush-era humanitarian policy that offers foreign nationals U.S. residency from dangerous countries, Bloomberg reported. Roughly 300,000 people from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Sudan could be deported if the Trump administration is successful in overturning sections of the policy, the news outlet noted. Chen noted a memo authored by former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy Secretary...

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has been ordered to be deposed due to his decision to reinstate a citizenship status question in the upcoming 2020 census. A U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York "Secretary Ross must sit for a deposition because… his intent and credibility are directly at issue, had an unusually strong personal interest and that he went through with this action despite "strong and continuing opposition" from the U.S. Census Bureau… there is a “heightened risk in the current political climate” that the question will lead to a lower response rate “because of...

AGJeff Sessions is telling Justice Department lawyers to push back against federal judges who have imposed nationwide injunctions against many of the Trump administration’s policies. "A number of such injunctions in recent years have brought to the fore 'the problem of judges acting outside the bounds of their authority' and granting relief that reaches far beyond the confines of the particular case or controversy before them,”.. adding, “Consistent with the longstanding position of the Ex. Branch under Administrations of both parties, the Dept.of Justice opposes the issuance of such nationwide injunctions.” In the memo, Sessions tells lawyers to remind the...

A federal judge on Friday ordered 32 Florida counties to provide sample Spanish language ballots that could help more than 30,000 Puerto Ricans, including many displaced by last year’s Hurricane Maria, to cast votes in the November election. Chief Judge Mark Walker of the federal court in Tallahassee, the state capital, said failing to help eligible voters would likely violate the federal Voting Rights Act, which blocks states from conditioning the right to vote on an ability to understand English. “Puerto Ricans are American citizens,” wrote Walker, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. “Unique among Americans, they are not...

Judge Robert S. Lasnik, United States District Judge of the Western District of Washington, at Seattle, issued a permanent injunction against the Trump Administration State Department. The injunction is to prevent the State Department from implementing a court settlement with Defense Distributed, allowing them to exercise their First Amendment rights. The permanent injunction was issued on the 27th of August, 2018, in Seattle, Washington State.  The temporary restraining order had been issued on 31 July.   Judge Lasnik has taken the power of deciding what may or may not be lawful, based on the principle of potential harm. Potential, or irreparable...

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is not giving up on his promise to protect his state taxpayers from funding the largest abortion group in America, Planned Parenthood. On Thursday, McMaster said he plans to contest a judge’s ruling blocking his efforts, WCNC News reports. “My position is the taxpayers of South Carolina who do not support the promotion of abortion should not have to support with their tax money the promotion of abortion, and that’s what Planned Parenthood does any way you look at it,” McMaster told reporters. In July, McMaster took a bold stance against the abortion industry by...

A federal judge on Monday granted a preliminary injunction to a coalition of states seeking to block a Texas-based company from posting online blueprints for how to make 3D-printed guns. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik followed an initial temporary restraining order he granted in late July that blocked the federal government from implementing terms of a settlement the company, Defense Distributed, struck with the State Department earlier this year that would have allowed founder Cody Wilson to start posting the files again. The ruling Monday means the blockade will continue while the judge considers the broader...

WASHINGTON – In a landmark decision, a federal judge has ruled that President Trump violated the U.S. Constitution and laws providing checks and balances in the federal government by attempting to deny more than 2 million federal workers their legal right to representation. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled late friday that the Trump administration’s May 25 executive order on official time violated the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the separation of powers as established in law. The American Federation of Government Employees, which was the first union to challenge President Trump’s...