Free Republic

A decision by a judge appointed by former President Donald Trump to temporarily halt a Justice Department investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate triggered an avalanche of criticism from across the legal spectrum, including attacks from conservatives who served in the Trump administration. “It was deeply flawed in a number of ways,” former Attorney General William Barr said. But Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling is just one of a flurry of controversial decisions by Trump judges in recent months that have been criticized as out of step with longstanding legal principles. Among the provocative decisions from...

The Supreme Court on Friday issued a 5-4 ruling upholding the Trump administration's public charge rule, which withholds green cards from immigrants that are dependant on government welfare programs. Typically, the government looks at cash assistance programs but the Trump administration recently expanded that rule to include non-cash assistance programs, like food stamps, the Washington Free Beacon reported.  The policy follows under the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes a legal immigrant ineligible for a green card if they are deemed “likely at any time to become a public charge."Justice Sonia Sotomayor filed a dissenting opinion, at which point she...

U.S.—With the confirmation vote on Brett Kavanaugh looming, Democrats expressed fear and trepidation Friday at the idea of having to actually legislate through Congress instead of courts in the future, should the Supreme Court tilt to the right.

Desperate Measures For the sake of absurdity, suppose that I issue a nationwide injunction against all welfare payments because they violate fundamental American principles of self-reliance, personal responsibility, and limited government. Should our government immediately cease payments? Should it vow to appeal my ruling and to pass legislation limiting my authority? Of course not! A proper response is to laugh me out of the courtroom. Furthermore, if our government did appeal my “ruling” or pass legislation, then it would be validating my false authority and setting the precedent that some random citizen can override the duly elected Congress and president....

For at least half a century, judicial restraint has been the clarion call of the conservative legal movement. After the Warren Court era, Roe v. Wade, and very nearly a “right” to welfare benefits, it was not surprising that conservatives would seek to rein in judicial self-aggrandizement. The principal conservative response was to promote judicial deference: Judges should resist the temptation to legislate from the bench and “defer” to the political branches. Unfortunately, time has shown that this response was too blunt. Particularly in constitutional cases, judicial deference has led to a steady expansion of government power. This, in turn,...

(snip) So to the question: why did Roberts change his mind the apparent answer is that ABC’s sources don’t know. But pundits, no less than astronomers are always eager to find the unseen source of an action. Having observed an effect, they want to know the cause. This was famously the case with Planet X, and the search for it led to the discovery of Pluto. (snip) The mystery, like the actual cause of Robert’s change of heart, still awaits a definitive explanation. It may lie in a desire to put any future limitation of Congressional action on a sound...

Faced with a string of Supreme Court ruings in cases dear to liberal hearts regarding campaign censorship and gun control, America’s liberals are taking up a new line of argument regarding the courts by accusing the right of being hypocritical on the subject of “judicial activism.” It’s a rather convenient argument and certainly comes in reaction to conservative and libertarian groups’ now-successful attempts to use the courts to their advantage as the left has done for decades.

Case No. 8168047 IN THE Supreme Court of the State of California KAREN 1. STRAUSS et al., Petitioners, v. MARK B. HORTON, as State Registrar of Vital Statistics, etc., et al., Respondents; DENNIS HOLLINGSWORTH et al., Interveners. INTERVENERS' OPPOSITION BRIEF KENNETH W. STARR (Bar No. 58382) 24569 Via De Casa Malibu, CA 90265-3205 Telephone: (310) 506-4621 Facsimile: (310) 506-4266 ANDREW P. PUGNO (Bar No. 206587) LAW OFFICES OF ANDREW P. PUGNO 101 Parkshore Dr Ste 100 Folsom, CA 95630-4726 Telephone: (916) 608-3065 Facsimile: (916) 608-3066 Email: andrew@pugnolaw.com Attorneys for Interveners TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF AUTHORITIES iii ISSUES PRESENTED 1...

Three GW law professors have endorsed Republican candidate Fred Thompson's campaign for the presidency, joining the Lawyers for Fred coalition. Professors John Fitzgerald Duffy, Orin Kerr and Michael Abramowicz are members of the Law Professors Committee within the coalition. "Sen. Thompson is proud of his experience working as a federal prosecutor," said Darrel Ng, a spokesperson for the Friends of Fred Thompson campaign. "That's why he decided to form something like that (coalition), because of his background." Ng said that having endorsement groups for presidential candidates is an important part of the campaign process. "In campaigns you try to find...

A former Army scientist's work and his public advocacy for bioterrorism defense led to the dismissal of his libel suit charging the New York Times with publishing columns unfairly linking him to the 2001 anthrax attacks. In a 28-page opinion released yesterday, Judge Claude Hilton of Alexandria, Va., concluded that the scientist, Steven Hatfill, was a public official and a public figure. Those findings set a high bar for Mr. Hatfill's suit, requiring him to present evidence that the author of the columns, Nicholas Kristof, knew that the columns were false or had strong reason to think they were untrue....

There are exactly 316 benefits of marriage. I learned that from the decision of New York's highest court upholding the ban on same-sex marriage, which means that the often-wed Elizabeth Taylor has enjoyed these benefits 2,528 times, while a lesbian could not have any of them, despite having a stable relationship and a child or two. If it pleases the court, your decision is just plain idiotic. I choose Taylor because she is everything this very important court (New York, after all) did not take into account in upholding its touchingly Victorian version of marriage. The majority decision, written by...

BOWERS, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF GEORGIA v. HARDWICK ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT After being charged with violating the Georgia statute criminalizing sodomy by committing that act with another adult male in the bedroom of his home, respondent Hardwick (respondent) brought suit in Federal District Court, challenging the constitutionality of the statute insofar as it criminalized consensual sodomy. The court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded, holding that the Georgia statute violated respondent's fundamental rights. Held: The Georgia statute...

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-10) outlawed the requirement that would-be voters in the United States take literacy tests to qualify to register to vote, and it provided for federal registration of voters -- instead of state or local voter registration which had often been denied to minority and poor voters -- in areas that had less than 50% of eligible voters registered. The act also provided for DOJ oversight to registration, and the Department's approval for any change in voting law in districts whose populations were at least 5% African-American. It was signed into law by...

BREAKING ON THE AP WIRE: WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has upheld Oregon's one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.

Judge Samuel Alito is a very good nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. This is what those who voted for President Bush in 2000 and 2004 were hoping for and expecting when they pulled those levers. There are no questions about Alito's judicial philosophy. We know what he believes. And because we know what he believes, the opposition will be fierce. The extremists will be pulling out the long knives in an effort to convert his name into a verb as they did with another very distinguished nominee, Judge Robert Bork. While I have no reservations about criticizing President Bush...

Per Fox News...

That carefully crafted political blank slate of Judge John Roberts is getting filled in piece of by piece. And what it reveals is an ugly portrait of a backstabbing establishment Republican who subverted the political will of the greatest American president of the 20th century. Memos drafted by the Supreme Court nominee during his tenure in President Reagan's Justice Department show a distinct hostility to the conservative ideals embraced by his boss and to some of the individuals who championed those ideals. Take, for instance, a Dec. 14, 1981, memo, obtained by the Washington Times, and written to his colleague,...

Douglas W. Kmiec is a professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University.Almost anyone on President Bush's short list of Supreme Court nominees will rouse Senate Democrats to filibuster. No one seriously believes that this will happen because his picks will lack proper training, integrity or temperament. Rather, what riles Democrats is Bush's repeated assertion that he will not appoint someone who "legislate[s] from the bench." They and their allies believe that Bush's opposition to judicial activism cloaks his real desire to fill the court with like-minded conservatives. They are wrong. The president's view on activist judges is a defensible, neutral...

With three weeks to Election Day, it is time for Republicans to close the deal with swing voters -- independents, Southern and Midwestern moderates, blue-collar households, Catholics, and Hispanics. The tactics of Senate Democrats and their liberal allies are now so nakedly partisan that the judiciary could well become the issue that wins tight Senate races and presidential battleground states for the GOP. (A secondary benefit of campaigning on this issue is that it establishes a clear "judiciary mandate" -- an advantage when addressing the Senate's rule for filibusters and a bonus when the time comes to nominate a Supreme...

Massachusetts burning: 'Gay marriage' leads to incest Posted: March 26, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Attention parents: "Do you know where your children are?" How about your spouse? If you have any doubts about the relationship between your children and a step parent and if you live in the state of Massachusetts, you have even more reason to worry now. In a case determined on Tuesday of this last week, the Massachusetts high court nullified six indictments against a 60-year-old male for having had sexual intercourse with his step-daughter from the time she was 15 and 16 years of age....