Free Republic

Days after a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead, the Biden Administration is fighting a court-ordered $230 million verdict for the victims of a different Texas mass shooting. The Justice Department filed an appeal in an attempt to not pay the multi-million dollar verdict to the families and victims of the 2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting by former Air Force airman Devin Kelley, said Texas attorney Thomas J. Henry. “That federal judge found that the United States government was at fault for allowing the gunman to acquire a gun because the...

A federal judge on Monday ruled that the Air Force must pay more than $230 million to survivors and victims' families of the 2017 shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Driving the news: U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in July ruled that the Air Force holds 60% of the responsibility for the shooting in the Texas church because it failed to enter the shooter's criminal history into a federal background check database used for gun purchases. More than 25 people were killed in the shooting.Rodriguez on Monday ordered the Air Force to pay millions, which will compensate more than 80 family...

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Air Force is mostly responsible for a former serviceman killing more than two dozen people at a Texas church in 2017 because it failed to submit his criminal history into a database, which should have prevented him from purchasing firearms. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio wrote in a ruling signed Wednesday that the Air Force was “60% responsible” for the deaths and injuries at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. The attack remains the worst mass shooting in Texas history. Devin Kelley had served nearly five years in the...

Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Steve Smith was endorsed this weekend by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Published: 02-21-06 A tale of two stories: Candidates for a top state court seat both claim to be conservatives and textualists, but there are differences between them. But what's the real difference? Smith came to the court without judicial experience but wrote 16 majority opinions in his two years. During his 2002 campaign, when he upset Perry appointee Xavier Rodriguez, Smith sounded agenda-driven on contentious issues such as school finance and parental notification. Now it seems that his two years on the court have...

Feb. 6, 2004, 9:48PM Giving a name to GOP primary politics By CLAY ROBISON Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle In the end, an important political race may be decided by something as simple (and potentially dangerous) as which of two common names -- Smith or Green -- sounds better to most Republican primary voters. For political insiders, however, the race between Texas Supreme Court Justice Steven Wayne Smith and challenger Paul Green offers an entertaining look at how Gov. Rick Perry is letting his pique at Smith put him at odds with leaders from the far-right wing of his own party,...