Tag: judges

Court Lets Florida Age Verification Demands on Meta Proceed

A Florida appeals court on has refused to stop the state attorney general’s lawsuit against Meta.

The lawsuit is the same one in which Attorney General James Uthmeier in October asked the court to make Meta implement age checks on all Floridian users.

The court of appeals was asked by Meta to quash the decision of a lower instance, Pasco County Circuit Judge Alicia Polk, who last year refused to dismiss the case in a brief order, finding that the complaint “sufficiently pleads the claims.”

Meta went to the appeals court to try and get the lawsuit dismissed, but the judges found that the question of “irreparable harm” was “dispositive” and that they therefore “do not reach the merits of the petition.”

In a footnote, the court said that nothing in its opinion should be taken as “in any way to constitute a comment on the merits of the Attorney General’s FDUTPA complaint or Meta’s claim of immunity from liability under section 230 or the First Amendment.”

The court did, however, address some of these issues, and ruled that Section 230 is a “limited statutory immunity” and “not absolute immunity from involvement in any type of lawsuit” – which means that a platform can be made to go through the whole legal process before this defense is tested.

As for the First Amendment, the court found that the lower instance judge’s decision “does not come close to infringing on Meta’s First Amendment rights” and that “none of Meta’s First Amendment rights have been altered” – since no injunction has been granted yet.

The court did quote a previous ruling that said First Amendment protections extend to “unnecessary litigation that chills speech” – and said that the burden of litigating was not enough to establish such a violation.

Meta argued that it has “the right to exercise editorial discretion over the third-party content provided on its platforms” and “the right to be free from government-compelled speech.”

In its petition, Meta said, “Just as Meta could not be held liable for alleged harm caused by a direct exercise of editorial discretion, Meta cannot be held liable for alleged harm caused by publication features that simply operationalize its editorial choices.”

The state of Florida said that its case is about Meta’s “own conduct” – namely, its design choices – and conceded that editorial control of third-party content is protected.

In October, Florida was asking the court to make Meta “Request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook accounts belonging to users that Meta’s systems know or predict to be under the age of 14, and mark for deletion the accounts of those who do not verify their age within 30 days.”

Another request was to “Treat users who Meta has reason to believe are under 14 or under 18 years of age as under those respective ages unless the users age verify.”

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French Judge Indicts Famous Author Over Comments About Islam He Made Four Years Ago

A French judge indicted writer Michel Houellebecq Tuesday for comments he made about Muslim immigrants during an interview in 2022.

Houellebecq is charged with “complicity in incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence against a group of people on account of their origin or their belonging or not belonging to a particular ethnicity, nation, race or religion,” according to Le Monde.

In November 2022, the famous novelist told the right-wing magazine Front Populaire, “The wish of the population with French roots, as the phrase goes, is not for Muslims to assimilate, but for them to stop stealing from and assaulting them, in short, for the violence to decrease, for them to respect the law and people. Or, another good solution, for them to leave.”

He continued, further observing regarding the “great replacement” theory of white Europeans being replaced by non-European Muslims, “I was very shocked that it was called a theory. It’s not a theory, it’s a fact.

“Renaud Camus is a good writer [who promoted the theory], that’s beyond doubt. So, he observed a great replacement or – to be more precise – the changing ethnic and religious composition of the European population. It’s a statistical evidence,” Houellebecq said.

The percentage of immigrants in France has increased from 8.1 percent of the population in 2006 to 11.3 percent as of 2024 (or over 9 million people). Muslims now make up about 10 percent of the population, versus 6 percent in 2006.

The top two countries of origin for immigrants to France are the Muslim-dominated Algeria and Morocco, with Tunisia and Turkey also in the top 10, according to the most recent statistics from WorldAtlas.

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Would-Be Trump Assassin Ryan Routh Files 178-Page Appeal, Blames Trump-Appointed Judge

Would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh filed a 178-page appeal on Monday, asking to have his conviction overturned on the grounds that he didn’t receive a fair trial.

Routh was the man found hiding in some bushes at Trump’s golf course on Sept. 15, 2024. As Trump was golfing on another hole, a Secret Service agent spotted Routh pointing a rifle at the agent. The agent shot at Routh six times from about five feet away – missing all his shots and causing the would-be assassin to flee the scene. He was caught about 45 minutes later on the I-95 in Martin County. He was arrested, found guilty earlier this year of attempting to assassinate Trump, and sentenced to life in prison.

But according to his appeal, he never received a fair trial.

For starters, the presiding judge was Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, refused to recuse herself. Cannon also cut Routh’s opening and closing statements short, and denied him access to classified information that the government holds about him.

“In allowing the government to withhold discovery, the district court erred in failing to consider whether the information would be helpful to the defense. Instead, the court granted the motion based only on findings that the government made a sufficient showing that the information was classified and that its disclosure could cause serious damage or exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States,” Routh’s attorneys argued.

Routh is currently being held at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado – the home of Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols, World Trade Center attacker Ramsey Yousef, and other terrorists.

The DOJ has yet to respond to his appeal.

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Detroit Voters Elect a Disgraced Judge Barred from Serving Due to Misconduct

Detroit voters elected a defrocked judge to serve another term despite her being unable to be seated on the bench for another three years following a six-year suspension for misconduct.

Judge Kahlilia Davis, 50, won her election to Detroit’s 36th District Court on November 3, but will not be able to put on her robe until her suspension is over in 2029.

First elected in 2016, Davis’s tenure was “marked by scandal as she faced a number of allegations of abuse and misconduct, including wrongfully jailing defendants and throwing out legitimate cases,” the Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

Davis was also accused of intentionally ignoring instructions from the district’s chief judge, tampering with and disabling courtroom recording equipment, displaying an unauthorized disabled parking placard, and using Bible verses to threaten colleagues, the Mail and Click On Detroit reported.

According to the Mail:

She was initially suspended in 2020 and left the judgeship in 2022, and in 2023 the Michigan Supreme Court suspended Davis from serving on the bench for six years due to the allegations. In 2024, the Michigan secretary of state’s office was ordered by a judge to keep Davis off a future ballot, but Davis successfully sued to reverse that ruling earlier this year.

Davis received almost 84,000 votes in the election.

Due to the low-profile nature of judges, voters told news outlets that they were not aware of Davis’s alleged antics on the bench or her suspension by the state’s high court.

“They didn’t advertise that,” Detroit voter Jeffrey Williams told Click on Detroit.

He continued, “They should have let us know that she was suspended and wouldn’t be able to serve as a judge — and then we could have made a decision whether we wanted to vote for somebody else.”

Davis is not the only jurist in a major U.S. city that was elected to office despite a questionable record on the bench.

As Breitbart News reported last week, Chicago voters re-elected a Cook County judge who gave a pretrial release to a career criminal with more than 70 arrests — overriding prosecutors — only for him to allegedly set an innocent young woman on fire as she rode on a commuter train.

University of Chicago political science professor John Mark Hansen explained how the judiciary is not often held accountable for bad behavior or decisions.

“Judicial elections are what’s known in the political science business as ‘low information elections,’” he told CBS News, adding that most voters have little time or motivation to learn about their records.

When Davis was suspended, the state’s Supreme Court found she “engaged in a series of misconduct incidents that ‘besmirched the judiciary’s reputation and prejudiced the administration of justice,’” the Mail reported.

Davis’s inability to don a robe raises questions of how the court will operate without one of its judges being able to sit on the bench for another three years and whether Davis will receive pay during her suspension.

District Court Chief Judge William McConico told news outlets in a statement that the court’s status would be determined by the State Court Administrator’s Office but offered no immediate solution.

“The Court respects the decision of the people of Detroit to elect Judge Davis, just as we respect and recognize the authority and decision of the Michigan Supreme Court to suspend her,” she said in the statement.

She continued, “Both decisions must be acknowledged, and our responsibility is to ensure that the Court continues to fulfill its obligations to the public in the interim.”

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Dem. Judge Picked by Dem. CA Gov Removed from Bench Over Racist, Sexist Comments

A Los Angeles County judge appointed by former California Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown has been removed from office over a persistent pattern of misconduct in the courtroom.

On Tuesday, the California Commission on Judicial Performance ordered Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Draper to be removed from office for making a number of racist and sexist remarks in court, according to Courthouse News Service.

“Judge Draper persistently violated the standards governing judicial behavior and engaged in extensive and severe misconduct,” the commission said in a statement.

“Judge Draper’s misconduct reflected either a concerning lack of familiarity with ethical precepts, or an unwillingness to conform to those precepts,” the statement continued.

The California Commission on Judicial Performance’s 87-page order listed numerous examples of Draper’s behavior, including one from February of 2023, when he was presiding over Odom v. Los Angeles Community College District, a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit.

During a posttrial hearing featuring a black female attorney working for the defense, Draper launched into an unsolicited discussion about the skin tones of blacks, interracial relationships and racial mixing, black football players and the history of black quarterbacks, and Lyndon Johnson and the Civil Rights Act.

When talking black skin tones, he used terms like “coal black” and “light brown.”

The commission found these comments irrelevant and gratuitous, and concluded that they constituted prejudicial misconduct.

During another incident connected to the Odom litigation, Draper invited two female attorneys into his chambers. During the ensuing conversation, he recounted how male attorneys at his former law firm supposedly treated female secretaries.

At one point, he described the male attorneys telling their secretaries, “You better be able to f*** better than you can type.”

The commission concluded that this behavior also constituted prejudicial misconduct.

The most serious finding from the order was that in June of 2023, Draper sent an email to commission personnel and several other judges, including retired Judge Lance Ito (who presided over the 1995 double-murder trial of former football star O.J. Simpson), that included confidential records from a 2017 juvenile dependency case involving child sexual abuse allegations.

Among the records were multiple photographs of two minors naked in a bathtub. The commission found that disclosing these confidential juvenile records was misconduct.

According to the commission’s report, Draper also repeatedly made inappropriate comments about female colleagues.

For example, on two occasions he told Presiding Judge Samantha Jessner that she was “cute when [she was] mad.” After Jessner explained that the remark was inappropriate, Draper doubled down and repeated it, the report stated.

Draper also repeatedly told court administrator Lindsey McFarlane that she was cute, including in emails copied to other employees. In addition, he patted female court counsel Phu Nguyen on the head several times during a hallway encounter. She testified that she hadn’t welcomed the contact and was embarrassed, the report stated.

The commission concluded that this behavior reflected gender bias and was inappropriate for a judge.

In its final report, the commission slammed Draper for refusing to accept responsibility or display even a modicum of remorse.

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Federal Judge REFUSES to Toss $10 BILLION Lawsuit Against Fake News BBC Over Deceptively Edited January 6 Speech

President Donald Trump scored a major legal victory Tuesday after a federal judge in Florida refused to dismiss his multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against the BBC over its deceptively edited coverage of his January 6, 2021, speech.

The ruling delivers another embarrassing setback for the British taxpayer-funded broadcaster, which previously admitted that its editing created a misleading impression of Trump’s remarks.

Judge Kuntz, a Trump appointee confirmed by the Senate in July 2026, wrote in his order: “Here, the news entity created the story. BBC admitted as much by confirming it had edited a video to make it appear as though President Trump made a statement he never made.”

The court found that Trump had plausibly alleged the broadcaster damaged his reputation and knew, or should have known, the clip was misleading. The BBC must now file an answer to the surviving defamation count by December 1, 2026. The judge dismissed a separate claim under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

President Trump celebrated the decision on Truth Social:

“A Huge Victory against Fake News BBC, a terrible abuser of the truth… We will continue fighting against, and defeating, all of those who try to deceive the American People!”

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Supreme Court opens two-day hearing on Ottawa’s 2020 gun ban

The Supreme Court of Canada began hearing arguments in Ottawa on Monday in the challenge led by the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights (CCFR) against the federal government’s May 2020 firearms ban. It is the first of two days that will test whether cabinet had the legal authority to outlaw the guns by regulation.

Nine justices, sitting in the court’s temporary home in the West Memorial Building, are hearing four appeals together. The 2020 order-in-council prohibited roughly 1,500 models and variants, including the AR-15 and Ruger Mini-14. Later additions have pushed the list past 2,500.

At the centre of the case is a limit Parliament wrote into the Criminal Code: cabinet may not prohibit a firearm it considers reasonable for hunting or sporting use in Canada. The appellants say cabinet ignored that limit.

Christine Generoux, an Ottawa gun owner representing herself, opened for the challengers. She warned that the government’s reasoning, that the guns could cause harm, could apply to any firearm and invites future bans. She accused Ottawa of “using our community as scapegoats to cover for their own poor public policy.”

CCFR counsel Michael Loberg of Calgary argued the banned rifles have long been used for hunting and sport shooting, and that cabinet overstepped the mandate Parliament gave it. The CCFR’s written argument says neither lower court asked whether the guns were actually used for those purposes.

The bench pushed back. Justices asked whether the owners had given enough weight to public safety in the balance cabinet tried to strike, and several pressed counsel on the details of the federal measures, according to reports from the courtroom.

Federal lawyers defended the ban as a reasonable use of cabinet’s broad discretion, justified by the risk that these guns make mass shootings deadlier. They say the prohibition affects only three to five per cent of gun owners and that thousands of other firearms remain legal for hunting and sport.

The challengers have lost twice already. The Federal Court dismissed the case in October 2023, and the Federal Court of Appeal unanimously upheld that ruling in April 2025. The Supreme Court granted leave in March.

The hearing resumes Tuesday with interveners. Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario are lined up against the ban, along with several firearms and shooting-sport groups. The Canadian Constitution Foundation will argue for a clearer test of when tools like the RCMP’s Firearms Reference Table amount to law. The Coalition for Gun Control is the only intervener explicitly backing Ottawa.

No ruling is expected this week. A decision is anticipated in 2027. Until then, the amnesty for owners of the banned guns continues, and it now runs until 90 days after the court rules.

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Clinton-Appointed Judge Forces Communist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Administration to Hand ICE Names and Birthdates of Certain Male Residents at Bronx Migrant Shelter

A federal judge has delivered a clear defeat to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s sanctuary-city obstruction, ordering his administration to turn over identifying information on certain male residents of a city-run Bronx homeless shelter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In a ruling issued Friday, November 6, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, sided with federal immigration authorities in their months-long battle with New York City over records involving residents of the Bruckner Boulevard homeless shelter in Mott Haven.

The decision clears the way for ICE to obtain the names and dates of birth of certain male shelter residents with serious criminal histories, subject to screening by a court-appointed special master.

According to the New York Post, the city repeatedly fought requests from ICE for identifying information about people living inside the sprawling migrant facility.

But Kaplan rejected the city’s arguments that the subpoena was excessively burdensome or an improper attempt to circumvent New York’s sanctuary policies.

In his November 6 memorandum opinion, Kaplan wrote that the city “has not shown that producing this list would be unduly burdensome” and that the records are “material and relevant to the enforcement of the federal immigration laws.”

He rejected the city’s claims of an improper “fishing expedition” and speculation that ICE was mainly trying to undermine local sanctuary policies, stating that nothing in the record showed the agency sought the information for any reason other than enforcing immigration law against those with serious criminal histories.

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Judge Takes Off Jihadist’s Ankle Monitor So He Can Focus on Romance and a New School Job

A judge has taken the ankle monitor off an individual indicted for activities aligned with Hamas and for putting university employees’ families on a hit list. The judge decided that the ankle monitor interfered too much with the Jew-hating, would-be jihadi’s romantic life, Islamic prayer practices, and new job at a Milwaukee kids’ school.

The fact that a school (Islamic or not) is even allowed to hire someone who has an ankle monitor for fantasizing about committing Hamas-style massacres in America is absolutely insane. Reportedly, the judge cared more about Ahmet Kerem Körkaya’s sex life and facility in performing prayers to his demon-god than about the possibility that he could actually carry out one of his multiple threats. We have no idea if Körkaya actually decided to be peaceful now, and since he doesn’t seem to be suffering any long-term consequences for his actions, why should he be?

The Daily Wire reported that the “Michigan 8” include ringleader Körkaya, who “engaged in a coordinated campaign of violent, criminal acts seeking to pressure University of Michigan leaders and other businesses in the Eastern District of Michigan to cut off all ties with Israel.”

For Our VIPs: Gun Control Fail: Black Illinoisans Have Highest Firearm Death Rates in USA

RAIR Foundation USA reported on November 6 about the update in Körkaya’s case. Apparently he tried to obtain the address for the university regent because he had put the regent’s family on his “hit list.” One of his co-conspirators suggested burning down another target’s house. The group also used Hamas symbols and made calls for genocidal war against Jews, such as “intifada,” when putting graffiti on properties.

Federal prosecutors allege that following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel that killed over 1,200 people, Körkaya and other activists became involved in organizing what they described as “autonomous actions” against individuals they believed were connected to or were supportive of Israel… In a brief for Körkaya’s detention hearing, prosecutors stated that Körkaya embraced Hamas symbolism and propaganda to such an extent that investigators recovered from his electronic devices videos described as Hamas propaganda material depicting militants using inverted red triangles to designate targets before killing them. Federal prosecutors charge that Körkaya and several co-defendants also exchanged and possessed videos showing Hamas attacks and killings, arguing that the imagery later resurfaced in vandalism campaigns directed at individuals and institutions targeted by the group…

‘Körkaya allegedly wrote that he intended to become “the dirtiest f*cking doctor ever” and claimed he would like to become a target’s physician in order to “poison her ass slowly.”’

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Newly Elected Democrat Arrested for Killing Someone Just One Day after Being Elected

An Iowa judge was arrested on felony charges just one day after voters approved keeping her on the bench, following a crash that killed one pedestrian and seriously injured another. District Associate Judge Lynn Poschner, 45, was arrested November 4th, 2026. She faces charges of homicide by vehicle and serious injury by vehicle, both involving allegations of reckless driving. The collision occurred weeks before Election Day.

The crash happened September 25th on 86th Street north of Aurora Avenue in Urbandale. Police responded around 9:15 p.m. after a vehicle struck two people crossing the street, and both pedestrians were transported to a hospital with serious injuries. The driver remained at the scene. One of those struck, 60-year-old Urbandale resident Jasmira Kadic, died from her injuries October 28th.

Poschner’s name appeared on the November 3rd ballot for a judicial retention vote in Polk County. Unofficial results showed 95,762 votes in favor of keeping her in office and 43,313 against, giving her approximately 68.9% support. Voters were deciding whether the incumbent should remain in her position, with a yes vote supporting retention and a no vote opposing it.

Those election totals were published by SpectrumVote. According to a criminal complaint described in Iowa Public Radio’s reporting, Poschner told police she looked down at her phone and tapped the screen to adjust audio through her vehicle before hitting the pedestrians. She said she didn’t see them. Investigators subsequently examined the phone and found its screen had been on and unlocked around the time of the collision.

Poschner had served on the bench for years before the election. Her Iowa Judicial Branch biography lists her appointment as May 2018 and identifies her position as district associate judge in District 5C, which covers Polk County. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Northern Iowa in 2003. She graduated from Drake Law School with high honors in 2007 and worked in private practice before becoming a judge.

Libs of TikTok drew attention to the arrest in a post on X, identifying Poschner as a Democrat and emphasizing the timing of her arrest. “She allegedly admitted to police that she had been looking at her phone and did not see the pedestrians,” the account wrote. A 2020 Iowa judicial voting guide also listed her political affiliation as Democrat. Her judicial retention election was nonpartisan.

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