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The Supreme Court will consider allowing the Trump administration to enforce rules that allow more employers to deny insurance coverage for contraceptives to women. The justices agreed Friday to yet another case stemming from President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, this time about cost-free birth control. The high court will review an appeals court ruling that blocked the Trump administration rules because it did not follow proper procedures. The new policy on contraception, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, would allow more categories of employers, including publicly traded companies, to opt out of providing no-cost birth control...

President Trump’s nominations to the federal courts have flipped three circuits making them majority Republican-appointed, lowered the age of GOP-appointed judges by 14 years, and reshaped the judiciary for decades to come, according to a series of new reports. When Trump took office in January 2017, only four of the 13 U.S. appeals courts had a majority of Republican-appointed judges. Today, seven of the 13 appeals courts do. This year alone, the Second, Third and 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have flipped from majority Democratic-nominated to majority Republican-nominated, according to Law.com. All total, 187 Trump-appointed federal judges have been...

The Supreme Court agreed Dec. 6 to hear a challenge to a Delaware law invalidated by a lower federal court that regulates the partisan makeup of that state’s courts. The Supreme Court granted a petition brought by Gov. John C. Carney, a Democrat who has held the post since January 2017. Carney is appealing a loss at the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, which struck down the state law on April 10. Current law provides that no more than 50 percent of the judges on the Supreme Court, Superior Court, “or those courts together with the Court of Chancery, may...

FULL TITLE: Abortion-Pill Mandate Heads Back to Supreme Court After Third Circuit Strikes Down Religious and Moral Exemption When the HHS abortion-pill mandate went into effect over eight years ago, the ACLJ filed the first lawsuit on behalf of a for-profit business challenging the mandate. We eventually brought suit on behalf of a total of thirty-two individuals and companies challenging the mandate in federal courts across the country. When the Supreme Court decided Hobby Lobby v. Burwell in 2014, one of the most important religious freedom cases ever decided by the Court, many thought that would be the end of...

Trump has already “flipped” the Third Circuit. He’s made serious inroads on other circuits. Now, he’s posed to fully flip the Eleventh Circuit. At the outset of the Trump administration, it had an 8-3 Democratic majority (with one vacancy). So that’s an impressive swing. One administration, not even in power for three years, has flipped the federal circuit for Florida, Georgia, and Alabama from 8-3 Democrat to 7-5 Republican, with a majority of those Republicans being Trump judges.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday a Pennsylvania county's 70-year-old seal and flag is allowed to remain after being targeted by the Freedom From Religion Foundation . The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia ruled 3-0 Thursday that after the Supreme Court upheld the Bladensburg "Peace Cross" war memorial in June as a historic monument, the Lehigh County can maintain its seal as a symbol that “has become part of the community.” The seal and flag feature grain silos, the Liberty Bell, a heart, among other items. But it was the cross at the...

President Trump, who already has had a mammoth impact on America’s judicial system by appointing over 100 judges and flipping the Pennsylvania-based Third Circuit Court of Appeals to majority Republican appointees, is posed to flip another Circuit Court of Appeals: The Second Circuit. There are 13 Circuit Courts of Appeals in the U.S. As Bloomberg Law reports, on Wednesday the Senate confirmed Joseph Bianco to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Another judge, Michael Park, is expected to be confirmed later this week. Bloomberg noted, “When Trump makes additional appointments for vacancies that will be left by...

In a split decision, a three judge panel at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals effectively ruled the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights is a second-rate right, not entitled to the full protections of other enumerated rights.  The opinion was filed on 5 December, 2018. The case is Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, Inc. v. Attorney General New Jersey, No. 18-3170 (3rd Cir. 2018). The two majority judges followed the trend of other Circuits where the Second Amendment is being degraded and reduced to second-rate status.  Only a month ago, the First Circuit ruled...

A federal appeals court upheld New Jersey’s magazine-capacity-limit laws, arguing 2-1 that three 10-round magazines are just as good as two 15-rounders. They said that a magazine-capacity limit does not present a burden to self-defense. New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal favored the decision to limit gun owners to 10-round magazines. (Photo: Grewal) Previously New Jersey residents had a magazine-capacity limit of 15 rounds, due to a law passed in 1990. The new law restricts gun owners to 10 rounds and they must modify, destroy or register any magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds. The law makes an...

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 U.S. Court of Appeals judge has ordered U.S. officials to intercept a mother and her 12-year-old daughter on a plane Friday being deported to Guatemala and immediately return them to the United States. The 34-year-old mother, Ana, and her daughter were woken up at 3 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Friday and pulled from their rooms at a Pennsylvania family detention center, where they had been living for over a year, said her attorney, Bridget Cambria. By 10 a.m., the two were placed on a plane flying to Panama City, where they would catch a second flight to Guatemala...

I’ve blogged a few times about the Third Circuit’s litigation in United States v. Katzin, a case on the Fourth Amendment implications of installing a GPS device. Initially, a panel of the court held that installing a GPS device on a car requires a warrant and that the exclusionary rule applied because there was no binding precedent allowing the government to install the device. Next, DOJ moved for en banc rehearing of just the exclusionary rule holding, which the Third Circuit granted. That brings us to the new development: On Wednesday, the en banc Third Circuit ruled that the exclusionary...

A federal court case that argues President Obama probably is not even a U.S. citizen, much less a "natural born citizen" as required by the U.S. Constitution of the chief executive officer, has been scheduled by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for June 29. In a letter dated yesterday to Mario Apuzzo, the attorney representing plaintiff Charles Kerchner and others, the clerk of the court said the case has been "tentatively listed on the merits on Tuesday, June 29, 2010." The notice said there is a possibility the case would have to be moved, and the court "will...

Obama is running out of tricks, and running out of room to derail the legal cases against his usurpation of the Presidency of the United States. His distaste for Americans is even more evident now: taxpayers are footing the bill while Obama uses the Justice Department against Americans, and against the Constitution. But every day, he is exposed even more, and it is only fitting that whatever past he has catches up to him in real time. He will crack with the increasing pressure, so let’s keep it up. Narcissists cannot stand to be proven wrong, but once the little...

On his final day as a federal appeals judge, Samuel A. Alito Jr. issued an opinion that favored a female postal worker claiming sexual discrimination, and another that upheld a warrantless airport search that uncovered illegal drugs. Those 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rulings and a third one authored by Alito had been in the works for months but were released just Tuesday, the day Alito was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as a justice of the Supreme Court. In the Pennsylvania postal worker case, Alito wrote the opinion for a three-member panel that reversed a lower...

OF ALL THE SMEARS AIMED at Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, perhaps none was more demagogic than the attack on his opinion in a case involving the body search of a 10-year-old girl during a Pennsylvania drug bust. Leading up to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, the Alliance for Justice, a Washington-based group, ran a 30-second TV ad charging that Alito "even voted to approve the strip search of a 10-year-old girl." The case came up repeatedly last week in the questioning of Democratic senators Ted Kennedy and Patrick Leahy. The case is indeed interesting, but not for the reason...

Home > News & Policies > Radio Address Archives For Immediate ReleaseNovember 5, 2005 President's Radio Address      Audio     In Focus: Judicial Nominations      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week I was proud to nominate Judge Sam Alito to be an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Alito is one of America's most accomplished and respected judges. During his long career in public service, he has demonstrated all the qualities that the American people expect in a Supreme Court Justice: mastery of the law, a deep commitment to justice, and great personal character. He is scholarly, fair-minded,...

An attorney with the Family Research Council (FRC) says a case before the Third U.S. Court of Appeals could have a big impact on obscenity laws nationwide. Two years ago, California-based Extreme Associates and its owners Robert Zicari and Janet Romano were indicted by the Department of Justice for selling videos with brutal and graphic depictions of sexual violence. However, earlier this year -- in a blow to the government's renewed crackdown on extreme, hard-core, violent porn -- U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster threw out those indictments, ruling that the government's ban on distribution of obscenity violated the public's constitutional...

Federal Appeals Court Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.Born 1950 in Trenton, NJ Federal Judicial Service: U. S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Nominated by George H.W. Bush on February 20, 1990, to a seat vacated by John Joseph Gibbons; Confirmed by the Senate on April 27, 1990, and received commission on April 30, 1990. Education: Princeton University, A.B., 1972 Yale Law School, J.D., 1975 Professional Career: Law clerk, Hon. Leonard I. Garth, U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, 1976-1977 Assistant U.S. attorney, District of New Jersey, 1977-1981 Assistant to the U.S. solicitor general, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington,...

Federal Appeals Court Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.Born 1950 in Trenton, NJ Federal Judicial Service: U. S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Nominated by George H.W. Bush on February 20, 1990, to a seat vacated by John Joseph Gibbons; Confirmed by the Senate on April 27, 1990, and received commission on April 30, 1990. Education: Princeton University, A.B., 1972 Yale Law School, J.D., 1975 Professional Career: Law clerk, Hon. Leonard I. Garth, U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, 1976-1977 Assistant U.S. attorney, District of New Jersey, 1977-1981 Assistant to the U.S. solicitor general, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington,...