Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — Basic rights and political freedoms in the United States are deteriorating at a faster pace under President Donald Trump, exacerbated by attacks on key institutions like the press and the courts, according to a new report released Tuesday by Freedom House. In its annual global assessment, the think tank slammed the Trump administration for withdrawing from America's "historical commitment to promoting and supporting democracy," calling it perhaps the most striking on a "long list of troubling developments" around the world in 2017. The report criticizes Trump for making false statements, refusing to disclose his taxes and other...

In another striking judicial development, Judge William Alsup, a Clinton appointee from San Francisco, issued an injunctive order Jan. 9 prohibiting President Trump from moving forward rescinding President Obama’s DACA order. Although it only applied to established DACA applicants, and left untouched the ban on future applications, the order is offensive nevertheless, and demonstrates the terrible problem plaguing our country resulting from the actions of activist judges. Essentially, the plaintiffs, which included the State of California, argued that President Trump had acted randomly and capriciously in removing the DACA order because, among other reasons, he did not give notice and...

We are witnessing a treasonous rebellion by leftist judges who are declaring the last election null and void. At the core of these traitors' arguments is the belief that the people do not have the right to express their views through the electoral process. Essentially, these courts are declaring that President Trump doesn't have the same authority as his predecessor and that the powers of the executive branch are constrained by what the judiciary thinks is good policy. These judges assert that President Trump can't overrule the executive orders of his predecessor with his own executive orders. If that were...

There’s been a huge development in the ongoing struggle to protect the Dreamers, the beneficiaries whose immigration status is protected under DACA. U.S. District Judge William Alsup of in San Francisco just issued an injunction blocking the Trump Administration from ending the program as it announced it would do in September.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday launched a review of a little-known but widely used practice of immigration judges closing cases without decisions, potentially reshaping immigration courts and putting hundreds of thousands of people in greater legal limbo. Sessions posed detailed questions challenging the use of "administrative closures," an increasingly common outcome that allows people to stay in the country without legal status. The attorney general invited feedback from advocates and others, after which time he may issue new instructions for immigration judges nationwide. Administrative closures have been a lifeline to immigrants who apply for citizenship, permanent residency or other...

A recent surge in arrests and cocaine seizures in Peru points to an increased presence of Mexican drug cartels, counter-narcotics officials say. The cartels have also contributed to more drug-related violence in Peruvian cities, ports and in remote valleys in this Andean country where coca, cocaine's base material, is grown, the officials say. Peruvian claims of Mexican cartels expanding echo those by officials in other Latin American countries, from Honduras to Argentina, where Mexican gangs have supplanted once-powerful Colombian cartels as kings of the illicit-drug underworld. .... That Mexican drug lords are sending emissaries here is no surprise to Hidalgo...

Today President Donald J. Trump announced his intent to nominate a ninth wave of judicial nominees and a tenth wave of United States Attorney nominees as follows: If confirmed, Joel M. Carson III of New Mexico will serve as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Joel Carson currently serves as a part-time Magistrate Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico and as a partner in the Roswell-based firm Carson Ryan, LLC. Prior to being selected as a Magistrate Judge in 2015, and starting his own firm in 2014,...

BIASED Judge in Fusion GPS Case FORCED to Recuse Herself This may be the most obvious case of conflict I’ve seen in a while. How this judge could have ever gotten the Fusion GPS case shows a lack of integrity in our justice system. As True Pundit wrote of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, and her “blatant conflicts of interest in the Fusion GPS case”: On Thursday the United States District Court for the District of Columbia re-assigned the Fusion GPS bank record case to a new federal judge, removing Chutkan from making any additional decisions on the case. This...

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee chastised their Republican colleagues on Thursday, accusing them of rushing President Trump’s judicial nominees through the confirmation process. Ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said it was the fastest confirmation pace for circuit court nominees she could remember in her 25 years on the committee. “I want to point out that it’s a marked contrast to the traditional rate of confirmations,” she said. “For example, last week marked the fourth hearing since May when two circuit court nominees were on the agenda the same day. That’s four times in six months, yet this committee only...

Federal agents spent months tracking down Conn, who cut off his electronic monitor and fled in June. Conn pleaded guilty in March to stealing from the federal government and bribing a judge in a more than $500 million Social Security fraud case.

Former US President Barack Obama is set to visit Chinese Leader Xi Jinping this Tuesday while on a five-day trip to China, India and France. A statement from Washington's spokeswoman has told CNN that former President Barack Obama is set to meet with his former counterparts during his trip, including Chinese President Xi Jinping. Obama, who will be arriving in Shanghai to deliver remarks at the Global Alliance of SMEs Summit, will meet with Xi for the first time since September 2016, when both leaders ratified the Paris climate agreement in their respective countries. Just recently, current US President Donald...

WASHINGTON — Louisiana U.S. Sen. John Kennedy lambasted several of the Trump administration's picks for the federal judiciary, calling one nominee "embarrassing" and questioning the competency of the White House office charged with vetting potential judges. Kennedy became the first GOP senator to vote against a Trump administration nominee for a federal judgeship Tuesday night, turning down his thumb at Gregory Katsas' nomination for the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The senator said Katsas, an attorney who currently serves as deputy counsel to President Donald Trump, would have an inherent conflict of interest on the appeals court because of...

The Senate confirmed one of President Trump’s lawyers to become a judge on the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., overcoming concerns that he could end up deciding the legality of key parts of the Trump agenda — including decisions he was part of. On a 50-48 vote, Gregory Katsas became the first Trump-appointed judge on the D.C. circuit. One Republican, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, voted against Mr. Katsas while one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, joined the GOP in support. “He does an extraordinary job for President Trump, but to me, there’s an appearance of a...

Conservatives have a new court-packing plan, and in the spirit of the holiday, it’s a turducken of a scheme: a regulatory rollback hidden inside a civil rights reversal stuffed into a Trumpification of the courts. If conservatives get their way, President Trump will add twice as many lifetime members to the federal judiciary in the next 12 months (650) as Barack Obama named in eight years (325). American law will never be the same. The “outer turkey” in the plan is the ongoing Trumpification of the courts. In the final two years of Obama’s presidency, Senate Republicans engaged in tenacious...

President Donald Trump should give special thanks to two U.S. Senators this Thanksgiving weekend. One is still serving in the Senate, the other recently retired. One is a Republican. The other a Democrat. And what should President Trump be thanking them for? Quite simply they have handed him one of the biggest victories any president could claim in the past 45 years. Yes, this has happened even as one of the most widely covered stories of the past year has been President Trump's difficulties in working with Congress. The growing rift between him and Republican Senators John McCain, Jeff Flake,...

President Donald J. Trump Announces Five Additions to Supreme Court List One year ago, President Donald J. Trump was elected to restore the rule of law and to Make the Judiciary Great Again. Following the successful confirmation of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court of the United States and the nomination of more than seventy Federal judges—including five individuals from his Supreme Court list—President Trump today announced that he is refreshing his Supreme Court list with five additional judges. President Trump will choose a nominee for a future Supreme Court vacancy, should one arise, from this updated list...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley will schedule a hearing for a federal appeals court nominee that Minnesota Sen. Al Franken had been trying to block through an informal system known as the blue slip process. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley announced Thursday that Democrats will not be able to block President Donald Trump's judicial nominees through an unofficial senatorial courtesy system known as the "blue slip process," saying he will hold hearings on some nominees even if both home state senators haven't given their approval. Grassley's move will get rid of one of the few obstacles the Trump...

(CNN)The White House has struck back at both Bush presidents Saturday after the two made stinging comments about President Donald Trump in a new book about the father and son. "If one presidential candidate can disassemble a political party, it speaks volumes about how strong a legacy its past two presidents really had," a White House official told CNN. "And that begins with the Iraq war, one of the greatest foreign policy mistakes in American history." "President Trump remains focused on keeping his promises to the American people by bringing back jobs, promoting an 'America First' foreign policy and standing...

The recent Islamic terror attack in New York City by a visa carrying jihadist outlines crystal clearly, how critical it is for America to enhance its permeable vetting process, and eliminate the suicidal “Diversity Lottery Visa Program.”Even if critical National Security-minded legislation such as the RAISE Act, put forth by Sens. Tom Cotton (AR) and David Perdue (GA), were to be passed, which it no doubt should be, the radical left will likely still find a way to subvert it.It is one of the most settled aspects of constitutional law that a president has the authority to exclude, or deport...

The Senate confirmed two more appeals court picks Thursday, closing out a week that saw them devote all their time to filling the federal judiciary with President Trump’s nominees. Including the two latest picks, they confirmed four circuit judges and one district judge this week — overcoming Democratic filibuster attempts for each. Senators voted 56-41 to confirm Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison Eid for a seat on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, then voted 54-43 for Stephanos Bibas, who is nominated to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Justice Eid will fill Supreme Court Justice Neil M....