Free Republic

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – According to reports, a U.S. District Judge has sentenced the last of four men who pleaded guilty to torching the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct during summer 2020. In court on Monday morning, June 7th, Judge Patrick Schiltz sentenced 27-year-old Bryce Michael Williams to two years and three months in federal prison and ordered him to help pay $12 million in restitution for the damage. Judge Schiltz described the defendant as a “good person who made a terrible mistake.” While the judge handed down a lighter sentence than prosecutors had requested under state guidelines, he denied Williams’...

Flying under the radar as Democrats mysteriously “find” uncounted ballots in Florida and Arizona in a brazen attempt to steal elections is Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who is still fighting for candidacy. Friday, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia granted the Georgia Democratic Party’s request to allow absentee ballots trickling in from Dougherty County to be counted, as long as they were postmarked on or before Nov. 6 or received by Friday. The county’s election results now will not be certified until Tuesday. Abrams’ sister, Leslie Abrams, happens to be an Obama-appointed District Court Judge...

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators were granted permission to search Justine Damond's home hours after she was shot and killed by a Minneapolis police officer, according to court records. A criminal law expert can't understand why. "When I read that search warrant, I really cannot find probable cause to search her home," he continued. According to court documents, investigators applied for the warrant on the following grounds:   The property or things above-described was used as a means of committing a crime The possession of the property or things above-described constitutes a crime. The property or things above-described is...

Ethan Couch, 18, and his mother, Tonya Couch, were taken into custody in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Samantha Jordan told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Monday night.

Watching Fox News Channel coverage of Zimmerman trial. Judge has just sprung another surprise against Zimmerman, saying jury can consider Martin's death as child abuse so jury can convict based upon that, too, and perhaps convict him of voluntary manslaughter. This trial is a travesty.

New Jersey: Court Upholds Man Arrested For Visible Gun Case In Car New Jersey appellate court upholds five-year sentence for ex-cop who was driving with his legally owned guns. Readington TownshipMotorists driving through New Jersey can be subjected to a warrantless search if their luggage is similar in appearance to a gun case, an appellate court ruled last week. The Superior Court's Appellate Division upheld a five year prison sentence against Dustin S. Reininger, a former police officer who was in the process of moving from Maine to Texas when a Readington Township police officer recognized the cases in the...

With just two weeks remaining before his trial, George Zimmerman's attorneys returned to court this morning for an important pre-trial hearing. Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson has been be asked to decide a long list of issues, things that will determine how the trial plays out and what jurors will see and hear.

BREAKING: JUDGE ORDERS EARLY VOTING IN ORANGE COUNTY, FLA., EXTENDED 4 HOURS AFTER DEM PARTY FILES LAWSUIT... DEVELOPING... Just a headline at this point.

MADISON — Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced today that the Department of Justice will appeal the decision issued yesterday in NAACP v. Walker, et al., Dane County Case No. 11-CV-5492. Yesterday afternoon, the Honorable David T. Flanagan issued his decision invalidating and permanently enjoining Wisconsin’s Voter ID law. “My office will be appealing the Dane County Circuit Court’s decision in NAACP v. Walker, et al. Voter identification helps ensure election integrity. It is a measure that protects the right to vote. And similar election integrity reforms have been upheld as constitutional by the United States Supreme Court. I...

When the Supreme Court on Monday began hearing oral arguments in the cases challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—AKA “Obamacare”—Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan showed up to hear the arguments and gave no indication she would recuse herself from judging the cases even though she had cheered enactment of Obamacare as an Obama political appointee and had personally assigned her top deputy in the Obama Justice Department to defend the law in federal court. A federal law, 28 USC 455, says a Supreme Court justice must recuse from “any proceeding in which his impartiality might...

Madison - A Dane County judge permanently enjoined the state's new voter ID law on Monday - the second judge in a week to block the requirement that voters show photo identification at the polls. "A government that undermines the very foundation of its existence - the people's inherent, pre-constitutional right to vote - imperils its legitimacy as a government by the people, for the people, and especially of the people," said the eight-page opinion by Dane County Judge Richard Niess. "It sows the seeds for its own demise as a democratic institution. This is precisely what 2011 Wisconsin Act...

Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan, who granted a temporary injunction against Wisconsin's new voter identification law, signed a petition urging the recall of Gov. Scott Walker. *** His clerk called back to say Flanagan would only answer questions submitted in writing at the courthouse. State Republican Party spokesman Ben Sparks said his party will be filing a complaint with the state Judicial Commission asking it to investigate why Flanagan did not recuse himself. "The very fact that Dane County Judge David Flanagan signed a petition to recall Governor Walker calls today's court proceedings regarding Wisconsin's voter ID law into...

A New Mexico man who said he was forced to pull his own tooth while in solitary confinement because he was denied access to a dentist has been awarded $22 million due to inhumane treatment by New Mexico's Dona Ana County Jail. Stephen Slevin was arrested in August of 2005 for driving while intoxicated, then thrown in jail for two years. He was in solitary at Dona Ana County Jail for his entire sentence and basically forgotten about and never given a trial, he told NBC station KOB.com Tuesday night. "'[Jail guards were] walking by me every day, watching me...

(Jan. 6, 2012)— At approximately 3:05 ET, Atty. Orly Taitz contacted The Post & Email following the hearing scheduled for today in Taitz v. Fuddy in the First Circuit Court in Honolulu with Judge Rhonda Nishimura. Astoundingly, although we are told that Nishimura was aware that Taitz was not available on January 26, 2012 because of a ballot challenge hearing in Atlanta, GA, she scheduled a hearing on the subpoena issued by the court in Georgia for the very same day. Taitz said that because of the Motion for Reciprocal Subpoena Enforcement filed with the Hawaii court, Judge Nishimura was...

Robert Poole, chairman of the state board of directors for The Second Mile, contributed about $2,400 to the campaign of Magisterial District Judge Leslie Dutchcot in 2007, according to Dutchcot’s campaign finance reports. Dutchcot arraigned Jerry Sandusky and set the $100,000 unsecured bail, after the Attorney General’s Office asked for a higher, cash bail and electronic monitoring. Criticism has arisen that Dutchcot had a conflict of interest with The Second Mile, as a volunteer and donor for the organization Dutchcot. She has not commented on that issue, saying previously that a judge is not allowed to comment on pending cases....

Should public school officials have the right to prevent students from wearing pro-American garb on Cinco de Mayo? This question has been at the heart of a California court battle between the Morgan Hill Unified School District and students who were told by a principal and assistant principal that they could not wear American flag t-shirts on the Mexican holiday back in 2010. Following the incident, a lawsuit against the district was launched by the students and their families. This week, the case came to a close, with a federal judge ruling against the students — a blow that is...

The ATF’s website has an FAQ section. First up: “I want information on relief of federal firearm disability? (I am a felon but want to own a firearm, how do I get my privilege restored?)” According to dictionary.com, a “privilege” is “a right, immunity or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most: the privileges of the very rich.” It behooves the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to remember that all Americans have the RIGHT to bear arms. And once again, I state my firmly held conviction that ANY American who has paid his or...

Billionaire George Soros spends tens of millions each year supporting a range of liberal social and political causes, from drug legalization to immigration reform to gay marriage to abolishing the death penalty. But a less well-known Soros priority -- replacing elections for judges with selection-by-committee -- now has critics accusing him of trying to stack the courts. Most non-federal judges around the country are selected by voters in elections. But some states use a process called “merit selection” in which a committee – often made up of lawyers – appoints judges to the bench instead. Soros has spent several million...

“Since his death last summer, associates of Sun Ming Sheu, an activist fighting alleged judicial corruption in New York, remain convinced that he was murdered and that police aren’t aggressively investigating his death because of a coverup.”cont'd...

A Wisconsin judge has struck down a law taking away nearly all collective bargaining rights from most state workers. Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi ruled Thursday that Republican legislators violated Wisconsin's open meetings law during the run up to passage. She says that renders the law void.