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A Massachusetts judge is one step closer to facing a federal trial on charges that she assisted an illegal immigrant in avoiding federal apprehension. A federal judge last week declined to dismiss charges against Massachusetts District Court Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph and now-retired Massachusetts trial court officer Wesley MacGregor. Joseph, MacGregor, and a defense attorney are accused of helping a Dominican man evade being taken into custody at the Newton District Court by ICE agents after a 2018 hearing on criminal charges including drug possession. Prosecutors say the man had previously been removed from the U.S. twice and was...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—After House Republicans formally called for an investigation into the investigators investigating the Trump campaign, congressional Democrats quickly responded by calling for a new investigation into the investigators investigating the original investigators. The investigation will center around claims that the investigators assigned to investigate the investigators may show significant bias, with the new investigators investigating the investigation investigators attempting to determine if there has been any prejudice or corruption in the investigation investigation. “We now know who will investigate the investigators, but who will investigate the investigators investigating the investigators?” Senator Chuck Schumer said in a press conference. “We...

The Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee told the Supreme Court it needs the grand jury materials redacted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to decide whether to impeach Trump over his alleged obstruction of the Russia investigation. Douglas Letter, the Democratic committee's top lawyer, filed a 33-page motion on Monday opposing a Justice Department effort that seeks to have the nation's highest court block the release of the documents. Democrats insist they need the information quickly because the House Judiciary Committee’s “impeachment investigation related to obstruction of justice pertaining to the Russia investigation is ongoing.” “The Mueller Report grand-jury material remains...

(CNN) Sixteen former Watergate prosecutors have told a federal judge he has the authority to sentence former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn to prison despite the Justice Department's effort to toss the case. The filings add prominent voices to the backlash against Attorney General William Barr's softening of criminal prosecutions against President Donald Trump's associates. In legal memos sent to the court on Monday and obtained by CNN, the former prosecutors essentially laid out the legal footing they believe Judge Emmet Sullivan has to reject the dismissal request and sentence Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the...

BREAKING: Judge SULLIVAN has appointed retired judge to argue against the government's motion to dismiss the charge against Flynn.

Roger Stone on Friday night said he believes he will die in jail unless he’s pardoned by President Donald Trump. Stone, a longtime friend and former adviser to Trump, was sentenced on Feb. 20 to three years and four months in prison. Stone was convicted on charges including lying to a congressional committee that was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Stone in recent weeks moved for a new trial, pointing out anti-Trump social media posts made by the jury forewoman, and tried getting the presiding judge to recuse herself after she praised the “integrity” of the jurors....

The Wisconsin Appeals Court has overturned a ruling that sought to purge more than 200,000 people from state voter rolls, according to court documents. “In interpreting the Wisconsin Statutes, courts may not rewrite the plain language of the statutes the legislature has enacted,” the appeals court said. “Acceptance of the arguments of Plaintiffs would cause us to rewrite statutes enacted by the legislature, and that we cannot do.” It added that the ruling has been “reversed, and this matter is remanded to the circuit court for dismissal of plaintiffs’ complaint.” The conservative group that filed the lawsuit, Wisconsin Institute for...

This is a perilous time for a fair and passionate judge to leave the bench. By doing so, they risk having Donald Trump appoint their replacement, and considering Trump’s policies and beliefs, that new appointee is pretty likely to have a harsh anti-immigration stance. But dozens of immigration judges have reported that despite their efforts to stick out the presidency, they’ve just reached their breaking points. The Los Angeles Times spoke with dozens of judges who are quitting or taking early retirement because they simply cannot stomach having to enforce Trump administration policies on immigrants. Immigration Judge Charles Honeyman served...

A Long Island judge intentionally ignored the state’s controversial bail-reform law and refused to release a “menace to society” accused of robbing two banks while awaiting sentencing in federal court, The Post has learned. But the principled stand taken by Nassau County District Court Judge David McAndrews was short-lived, as a higher-level judge promptly reversed his order and released Romell Nellis with an ankle monitor — only to have him cut it off and disappear. Nellis, 40, was busted Jan. 8 in a pair of bank heists in which he allegedly gave tellers notes that threatened, “I have a gun!”...

Since President Trump was inaugurated, leftists have brought a series of lawsuits on behalf of supposedly aggrieved parties–themselves, mostly–seeking to enjoin enforcement of administration policies. District Court judges in venues remote from the issue at hand, like a federal judge in Hawaii who purported to block implementation of the administration’s “travel ban,” have issued nationwide injunctions far exceeding the scope of any case or controversy actually before them (if any). This is a perversion of our legal system that encourages, to put it mildly, judge shopping. As a 41-year litigation veteran, I can tell you that judge shopping happens all...

A federal judge says Broward schools and the Sheriff’s Office had no legal duty to protect students during the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom dismissed a suit filed by 15 students who claimed they were traumatized by the crisis in February. The suit named six defendants, including the Broward school district and the Broward Sheriff’s Office, as well as school deputy Scot Peterson and campus monitor Andrew Medina. Bloom ruled that the two agencies had no constitutional duty to protect students who were not in custody. “The claim arises from the actions of...

Judge John Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia made the remarks Thursday at a townhall-style event on judicial independence in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center. Though he did not name Trump specifically, his comments left little mystery as to whom he was referring. “There are a lot of pressures,” Bates said. “The pressures are fairly severe in some quarters. And there’s a risk of eating away at the rule of law, eating away at judicial independence, and that’s not easily recovered if it is impacted.” “‘Once the independence of judges is destroyed, the Constitution...

The Trump administration on Tuesday formally asked the Supreme Court to block a nationwide ban on the administration's new asylum policy that was unilaterally instituted by a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge last month. In a November news conference days before the midterm elections, Trump had vowed to turn away all asylum seekers who attempt to cross the border illegally instead of properly presenting themselves at ports of entry. The president, who has long said the asylum process is rife with fraud, said the emergency policy was necessary as the leading Central American migrant caravan approached the U.S. border...

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a temporary restraining order against a Trump administration policy that denies asylum to illegal aliens. The 2-1 decision is the latest setback the 9th Circuit has rendered to President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. “Just as we may not, as we are often reminded, ‘legislate from the bench,’ neither may the executive legislate from the oval office,” Judge Jay Bybee wrote for the majority. Former President George W. Bush appointed Bybee to the bench, and the judge has a conservative reputation.

SAN FRANCISCO — A divided U.S. appeals court late Friday refused to immediately allow the Trump administration to enforce a ban on asylum for any immigrants who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border. The ban is inconsistent with an existing U.S. law and an attempted end-run around Congress, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 decision. "Just as we may not, as we are often reminded, 'legislate from the bench,' neither may the Executive legislate from the Oval Office," 9th Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, a nominee of Republican President George W. Bush, wrote for...

Split 3rd Circuit Upholds NJ's Ban on Large-Capacity Gun Magazines The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has rejected a challenge to New Jersey’s ban on firearm magazines holding more than 10 rounds. The appeals court, by a 2-1 margin, said the law limiting high-capacity magazines does not violate the Second Amendment, the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause or the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The court affirmed an order from the U.S. District Court that denied challengers’ motion to preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the law. Judges Joseph Greenaway Jr. and Patty Shwartz ruled to affirm the lower court....

A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down a portion of federal law that makes it a crime to encourage illegal immigration, ruling that the statute violates the First Amendment. “Criminalizing expression like this threatens almost anyone willing to weigh in on the debate,” Judge A. Wallace Tashima wrote in his opinion for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Politico reported. Federal prosecutors argued that the law should apply only to individuals who provide "substantial assistance" to immigrants entering or residing in the U.S. illegally, according to Politico, which noted that the law took effect before President Trump took office....

A federal judge in New York has ruled the Trump sanctuary city crackdown illegal Friday — but even went further and also ruled the law Congress passed requiring information-sharing is unconstitutional. Judge Edgardo Ramos‘ decision frees sanctuary jurisdictions in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington, Massachusetts and Virginia to continue their policies without fear of losing federal money. The judge said the Trump administration attempted to write new conditions of cooperation, including notifying the feds of illegal immigrants ready for pickup, beyond what Congress had authorized. He said it is up to Congress to decide those conditions. “The...

A federal judge struck down Mississippi’s controversial law banning most abortions after 15 weeks about eight months after the Republican governor approved it. The law, called the Gestational Age Act, was considered to be the most restrictive in the U.S. It banned abortions after 15 weeks and only allowed for exemptions if the pregnancy threatened a woman's life or "major bodily function" or if the fetus would be “incompatible with life” outside of the womb. Exemptions would not be granted for pregnancies that resulted from rape or incest. Doctors who violated the ban would have faced mandatory suspension or revocation...

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...