Free Republic

Last week, a New York court issued judgments against Donald J. Trump and his sons, asserting violation of state anti-fraud law in connection with several real estate mortgage loans. The judgments, which aggregate $355 million and may escalate to $454 Million or more, shocked Republicans and Democrats alike and stunned the national real estate community. It was immediately apparent that something was wildly wrong, since the Trump transactions were nothing unusual or remarkable for the real estate industry. Essential Requirements for Claims of FraudThe case primarily involves applications for mortgage loans submitted by Trump entities to major federal banks. The...

In a motion for leave to file an amicus brief, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons tells the Court that the criminalization of language used in medical reports will have a profoundly chilling effect on the practice of medicine. In November, 2012, John Natale, M.D., of Chicago, a cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon, went to federal prison on charges related to difficult, life-saving operations on several patients performed nearly 10 years ago. The patients survived and did well despite an expected mortality of 90 percent.

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. – It almost sounds like the makings of a joke: an atheist, a Muslim and the Mechanicsburg Halloween parade. But non-believers aren’t laughing about an attack and insist what’s really frightening is the way a district judge ruled on it. The Atheists of Central Pennsylvania decided to walk in the Mechanicsburg Halloween parade. There was a zombie Pope and a zombie Muhammed. On YouTube, you can catch a scary moment. It’s dark and distorted, but a Muslim man comes off the curb extremely offended at Muhammed being depicted in this way. “He grabbed me, choked me from the...

The United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals filed its long awaited opinion in what has been popularly called the "Mount Soledad Cross Case". In effect, they held that because the Cross is a Christian Symbol it must be removed from a war memorial. I know that some who read my assessment will take exception. However, I will not "nuance" the anti-Christian bigotry revealed in the opinion of these three unelected black robed Federal Judges. They held that the Mount Soledad cross, which has stood on Mount Soledad since 1913, has somehow now become a violation of the Establishment Clause...

Stock prices are increasing because interest rates are falling … not because of a better economy. What will happen to stock prices, pension funds, 401 K accounts, when interest rates increase again? ... Obama called on Republicans in his Saturday radio address to compromise, join his team, on implementing change … when it has been the Democrats who have not compromised or included the Republicans since 2007 when Democrats took control of Congress. He said that America wants his agenda, and that people are just frustrated with the economy, but not his agenda. Boehner says that Republicans were elected on...

For generations in Western culture, legal jurisdiction over people and events within a nation's borders rested only with that nation's government. In recent years, however, human rights activists have pushed the concept of "universal jurisdiction," by which judges in one country can assert authority to prosecute any offense regardless of where it took place. The zealots have found their champion in one Baltasar Garzon, a judge on the Spanish National Court. A socialist activist as a college student, Garzon at age 32 became the youngest magistrate on the court. Now 53, he has spent many of the intervening years practicing...

LOS ANGELES, March 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Thousands of homeschoolers in California are left in legal limbo by an appeals court ruling that homeschooling is not a legal option in the state and that a family who has homeschooled all their children for years must enrol their two youngest in state or private schools. Justice H. Walter Croskey in a written opinion said, "California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children."The sweeping February 29th ruling says that California law requires "persons between the ages of...

A defense attorney's law license is at risk because he posted an angry description on the Internet of embattled Broward Circuit Judge Cheryl Alemán, calling her an "evil, unfair witch."Last week, as Alemán was on trial for alleged misconduct before the Judicial Qualifications Commission, The Florida Bar signed off on its finding that Sean Conway may have violated five bar rules, including impugning the judge's qualifications or integrity. In the Halloween 2006 posting on a blog, Conway denounced Alemán for what he said was an "ugly, condescending attitude" and questioned her mental stability after, he says, she unlawfully forced attorneys...

A grieving Memphis couple has given up on its seven-year custody battle over a foster daughter after the Tennessee Supreme Court ordered the girl must be returned to her biological parents in China. Larry Parrish, a lawyer for Jerry and Louise Baker, said in a statement the couple would not make themselves available to the media. But he said the family has concluded any further attempts to keep the 8-year-old girl they've called Anna Mae in their home would be futile. "It has been soberly concluded by the Bakers that Anna has been forced by a defective system to suffer...

"Liberal" Justices Turn Back Clock...To the Year 1215 Thomas M. Sipos You no longer own your own home or have the right to buy one. This is due to an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, approved June 23. No, this amendment didn't pass both houses of Congress and three fourths of the state legislatures, in what is whimsically termed "the amendment process." Rather, our Constitution was amended in the usual way, by judicial fiat. In essence, five Supreme Court justices -- John Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Anthony Kennedy -- voted that you no longer own your own...

With Terri Schindler-Schiavo’s death now literally yesterday’s news, I suppose much of the dust stirred up over the legal issues of her case will start to settle. Yet I find myself hoping it won’t. Her case drew tremendous attention and stirred a lot of emotion because it involved questions of when life-supporting procedures should be terminated, what is an acceptable quality of life, what legal protections should be extended to someone whose condition has dipped below that “acceptable” level, and where are we as a society on the slippery slope which ultimately leads to genocide. These are not questions that...

Separation Of Powers: The Constitution says we have three co-equal branches of government. The Terri Schiavo case is the latest example of one branch thinking it is more equal than the others. The attempt by Congress to extend to Schiavo the same right of access to federal courts that a convicted murderer on death row has, including the right to a new hearing based on new evidence, has been attacked in many quarters as a violation of the separation of powers and a political usurpation of judicial powers.Echoing this opinion was Judge Stanley Birch. Writing for the majority in the...

Does the U.S. Constitution really protect the distribution of graphic—even hard-core pornographic—videos depicting rape and murder? Unfortunately, a U.S. District Court judge in Pittsburgh seems to think so. On January 20, Judge Gary Lancaster dismissed a 10-count obscenity indictment against the alleged distributors of hard-core pornography, Extreme Associates. In his ruling, this lower court judge unilaterally expanded the opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2003 case that struck down Texas’ homosexual sodomy prohibitions, Lawrence v. Texas.

Prayer for Terri Schiavo and the Schindlers In to your hands, O Lord, we commit our dear sister Terri and her loving family. Strengthen them, O Lord, for the days and tasks ahead, open the doors that the dark one has tried to shutter close and have mercy on this family. Bring mercy and wisdom to the minds of those who deal with her. May the judges who wrestle with these issues be gifted with respect for mercy and life. Terri and her family are such a symbol of life, of it's preciousness, and of the evil that men do...

We make a lot of assumptions about those who have been brain damaged the way Terri Schiavo has. We see them lying there, changed from the person they used to be to something different. No one wants to be there. We are repulsed, turned away, and think it is perhaps the worst of fates. And yet how little we know about what's going on inside a person's head during all of this. We could learn more, like by using MRIs to see how much cognitive ability is really left, but too often in our rush to disassociate ourselves from the...

In the latest judicial attack on the Ten Commandments, a federal judge ordered a monument containing the Commandments removed from the lawn of the Gibson County courthouse in Indiana. The monument was placed there by the local Elks lodge in 1956 as a part of a national campaign to check the rising number of delinquent youth. While being carted off to jail for abetting public indecency, a strip club owner said the display caused him "irreparable harm," so he decided to enlist the aid of the ACLU to have the monument removed. Long story short, on January 31 Southern District...

There is no vacancy on the Supreme Court, but the battle over the next nominee has already begun. Hollywood's favorite group, People for the American Way, is bragging about its new war room, equipped with dozens of computers and scores of staffers to conduct opposition research on President Bush's presumed nominees and network with grassroots organizations. Other liberal groups are conducting polling and raising funds for paid television advertising. Conservatives must prepare for this fight, but in a way that is smarter and different from the past. The Left's approach will be to smear the candidate, whomever he or she...

While news coverage tends to focus on developments in the White House and with Congress, most folks pay little or no attention to what happens on the Supreme Court. That's a shame, says constitutional scholar and former Reagan Justice Department official Mark Levin, since the Court wields so much unchecked power affecting the everyday lives of Americans, often in ways detrimental to the nation. Released today, Levin's new book "Men in Black" is nothing short of an indictment of the high court, detailing judicial abuses from its founding in 1801 right through modern day decisions on abortion and homosexual rights...

<p>Judge orders government to find, release all Bush military records...</p>

To fans of theater, last week's U.S. Senate debate about same-sex marriage was a genuine farce. Yet with straight faces that would make John Kerry envious, Democrats repeatedly invoked "states' rights" -- traditionally a Republican imperative -- as the linchpin of their opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have defined marriage as between one man and one woman. Simply stated, states' rights in this case really mean full power to state courts, which are being allowed to create (rather than interpret) laws in defiance of the democratic process and in contempt of the clear preference of a majority...