Tag: judges

The Ninth Circuit Rules—Court-Sanctioned Authoritarianism?

On July 31, 2025, the Ninth Circuit issued its ruling in Health Freedom Defense Fund et al. v. Megan K. Reilly et al., vacating the earlier ruling of a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit in favor of plaintiffs Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF), California Educators for Medical Freedom (CAEMF), and several individual plaintiffs.

The reasoning of the court in its latest ruling, as represented by Judge Bennett’s majority opinion, is an affront to all who value truth, justice, the United States Constitution, and logic. Incredibly, the court concluded that as long as a government official believes a vaccine will protect public health, it is irrelevant whether the vaccine actually works. Armed with this rationale, a state government, simply by uttering the words “This is for public health,” can force any individual to submit to a medical treatment, even if that medical treatment does not benefit that individual—and perhaps harms him. The implication of this line of thinking is clear: Government is our absolute ruler, our master, and we are its chattel.

Here is the context of the ruling: In November 2021, the plaintiffs sued the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for mandating Covid injections for all employees. We argued that the Covid injections do not stop transmission or infection and therefore lack any public health justification. We contended that Jacobson v. Massachusetts, a Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) case from 1905, did not apply to our case because Jacobson was predicated both on the extreme emergency posed by smallpox—its death rate was 30%, whereas Covid has a 1% rate of death—and on a safe and effective smallpox vaccine that was believed to actually stop the spread of the dreaded disease based on decades of use, therefore providing a public health justification.

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Judge Permanently Blocks Trump’s Actions Aimed at Eliminating DEI at Universities

A Maryland-based federal judge on Thursday permanently blocked two of President Trump’s memos aimed at eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at universities.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education issued an ultimatum to all federally funded educational institutions: eliminate DEI programs within 14 days, or face the complete withdrawal of federal funding.

The directive, outlined in a letter from the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), was in response to “pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences” that have turned America’s schools into indoctrination camps.

The letter explicitly warns schools, universities, and state education agencies that their reliance on DEI initiatives—which serve as racial discrimination—violates federal civil rights law.

Under the order, educational institutions receiving federal aid must immediately:

  • Dismantle DEI offices and programming that promote race-based policies.
  • End race-based hiring and admissions practices that disadvantage certain groups.
  • Cease funding or collaborating with third-party organizations that push DEI initiatives.
  • Halt racially segregated graduations, scholarships, and other programs under the guise of inclusion.

Failure to comply, the Department warns, will result in swift consequences—including the potential revocation of federal funding.

US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher said the Department of Education violated the law.

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Portland Antifa member ‘Isabel Araujo’ sentenced to one day of community service; threatens journalist outside courthouse

A violent Portland trans Antifa member has been sentenced to only 24 hours of community service and probation after assaulting a woman.

Isabel Rosa Araujo, born Philip Haskins-Delici and known by several aliases, was convicted last week of attempted assault and unlawful use of mace for attacking Sorbeah al-Mosa in March 2024.

At the sentencing in Multnomah County Circuit Court, the court barred photography. Both parties stated their pronouns, in line with a request from prior hearings by Judge Adrian Lee Brown.

“I left the house today and left my phone next to my stuffed animals since I believe I may be heading to jail,” Araujo told the judge before sentencing. He wore all black and a keffiyeh scarf around his neck.

In addition to community service, Araujo received a seven-day suspended jail sentence and one year of probation. His attorney, Justice Kelley, argued his client should be allowed to carry weapons for self-defense during probation, citing media coverage and “misgendering” from journalist Andy Ngo as a danger to Araujo. The judge only barred him from carrying mace and similar irritants, suggesting he can carry other weapons. Araujo is also prohibited from contacting the victim.

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Dem-Appointed Judge Lets Convict Walk — He’s Now Accused of Kidnapping a Mom and Her Kids

A Kentucky man who was sentenced to 14 years in prison last year but was put back on the street five months after his sentencing has been arrested after a Louisville woman and her children were kidnapped at knifepoint.

Armond Langford. 32, was arrested Friday after a six-hour manhunt, according to WHAS-TV.

Before his arrest, a woman and her two children were kidnapped. The woman said she was forced to drive to a bank as Langford demanded $20,000.

“He opened our back door and told them to get in the car…. They got in the car. They drove to the bank. He held a knife at her the whole time, he was telling her to drive faster,” Brandon Strong, husband and father of the victims, told the TV station.

He said his wife was stabbed during the ordeal and was treated for a non-life-threatening stab wound.

Langford had been sentenced to 14 years in prison in February 2024 after being convicted on charges of robbing multiple people who were withdrawing cash from ATMs from August 2021 to November 2021.

However, in July 2024, Judge Jessica Green granted a request for what’s called “shock probation,” in which the surprise of being set free is allegedly what keeps a criminal from reoffending.

Green was named to the bench in 2022 by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.

Louisville council member Anthony Piagentini vented his anger.

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Obama Judge Tosses Lawsuit of High School Girl Who Competed Against Trans Athlete

A judge appointed by former President Barack Obama dismissed the lawsuit of a Pennsylvania teen girl who competed against a transgender-identifying male athlete. 

Girls’ cross-country and track runner Aislin Magalengo filed a lawsuit against Quakertown Community High School and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) earlier this year, alleging that she was made to compete against trans-identifying Luce Allen at a meet in September 2024, Fox News reported. 

Allen won first place at the meet, while Magalengo snagged second place. The complaint alleges that Magalengo had to continue competing against Allen throughout the season, according to the report.

U.S. District Court Judge Wendy Beetlestone, who was appointed by Obama in 2014, dismissed the lawsuit on August 1. 

“Her Amended Complaint is devoid of any factual allegations that she was subject to purposeful discrimination, other than asserting as much in the most conclusory fashion,” Beetlestone wrote in her decision. “She points to no instances of students assigned female at birth being treated differently than those assigned male at birth, and, as such, she has failed to plausibly state a claim for sex-based discrimination.” 

Magalengo’s attorney, Keith Altman, said they plan to appeal the decision, according to the report. 

“The client’s disappointed, obviously, and still believes strongly in what’s happened,” Altman said, according to NBC Philadelphia. “We’re going to continue pursuing the issue. We think it’s an extremely important issue, and it’s got to be resolved.”

“It is irrefutable that males, as a general proposition, are more physically capable than females. We think that it is fundamentally unfair that somebody that simply says, ‘Well, I identify as a female’ is now able to compete with females and dominate women’s athletics. It just doesn’t make sense,” he added.

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Judge Says Don’t Unseal Epstein Grand Jury’s Transcripts

Transcripts of grand jury testimony that led to sex trafficking charges against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell shouldn’t be released, a judge ruled Monday in a stinging decision suggesting the Trump administration’s real motive for wanting them unsealed was to fool the public with an “illusion” of transparency.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in a written decision that federal law seldom allows the release of grand jury materials and that making the documents public casually was a bad idea.

The judge also belittled the Department of Justice’s argument that releasing grand jury materials might reveal new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, calling that premise “demonstrably false.”

The decision was a blow to President Donald Trump, who had called for the release of transcripts as he seeks to dispel rumors and quell criticism about his long ago involvement with Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019.

Trump campaigned on a promise to release files related to Epstein, but was met with criticism — including from many of his own supporters — when the small number of records released by his Justice Department lacked any real bombshells.

In his ruling, Engelmayer wrote that after privately reviewing the grand jury transcripts, anyone familiar with the evidence from Maxwell’s 2021 sex trafficking trial would “learn next to nothing new” and “would come away feeling disappointed and misled.”

“The materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor. They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s. They do not reveal any heretofore unknown means or methods of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s crimes,” Engelmayer said.

He said the materials also don’t reveal new locations where crimes occurred, new sources of Maxwell and Epstein’s wealth, the circumstances of Epstein’s death or the path of the government investigation.

The best argument to release the transcripts might be that “doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal,” Engelmayer wrote.

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Man Gets ZERO Jail Time After Being Caught on Video Violently Beating Two Elderly Pro-Lifers

Earlier this year, Patrick Brice was found guilty of savagely beating two elderly pro-life activists, Mark Crosby, 73 and Dick Schaefer, 80, in May of 2023 outside a Planned Parenthood in Baltimore, Maryland. Video shows Brice kicking Crosby in the face and, as reported by the Baltimore Banner,  left him with a permanent eye injury.

On Thursday, Baltimore City Circuit Judge Yvette M. Bryant sentenced Brice to ZERO jail time and instead received one year of home detention and three years’ probation.

Video of the attack, shared by Baltimore Police, shows Brice engaged in a heated conversation with the activists before he turns and rushes Schaefer, whose back was turned, and  tackles him against a concrete planter and knocking him to the ground.

Brice then straddled the 80-year-old, who had his back to him, tackling him across a large concrete planter and knocking him to the ground.

When Crosby came to Schaefer’s aid, Brice then knocked Crosby off his feet, sending him to the pavement, straddled him, and began punching Crosby in the face.  Brice got off of the helpless victim, kicked him in the head, and walked away.

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Judge rules against firefighter injured by COVID shot after employer rejected medical exemption

Former New York City firefighter O’Brian Pastrana, who was forced to retire after he was diagnosed with permanent heart damage following the mandated COVID-19 shot, is not entitled to financial compensation for his losses, a federal judge ruled last week.

U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan ruled that none of Pastrana’s fundamental rights were violated when he was denied a medical exemption – even though he experienced a severe reaction to the first shot – and compelled to either get fully vaccinated or be fired by the New York City Fire Department (FDNY).

Cogan said the vaccine mandate wasn’t to blame for Pastrana’s injury, as he claimed. “In this case, Pastrana always had a choice between receiving the vaccine and keeping his job.”

Pastrana also “was free to decide between taking the vaccine or seeking different employment” in another department or a neighboring state, Cogan ruled. And he was “free not to receive the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, potentially sacrificing his career.” As a result, the city can’t be held accountable for his injuries, Cogan ruled.

Based on the facts presented, Cogan granted the city’s motion for summary judgment, ruling in the city’s favor without a trial.

Christina Martinez, one of Pastrana’s attorneys, said the court sidestepped the unconstitutional conditions doctrine, which prohibits the government from conditioning a public benefit, like employment, on the waiver of a constitutional right.

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Judge temporarily halts construction at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention center over environmental concerns

A federal judge has ordered a halt to the construction of the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades due to environmental concerns.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ruled that the facility can continue operations and hold detainees. However, the continued construction of the facility is temporarily barred for the next two weeks.

The ruling followed an eight-hour meeting in which five witnesses were called by the environmental groups who issued a lawsuit over the detention facility. The environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe asked Williams to halt operations and further construction at the facility, arguing that it’s built on environmentally protected wetlands and reverses billions in environmental restoration.

The plaintiffs argued that the detention center was illegally built due to federal and state officials bypassing a review process legally required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

“This is a very common-sense law that requires the government to look before it leaps, to analyze the environmental impacts, to do an environmental impact study, to take public comment, to consider alternatives, and none of that was done at so-called ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’” stated Eve Samples, the executive director of Friends of the Everglades.

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Judge rules against Seattle employees fired for religious refusal of COVID vax

King County Superior Court Judge Tanya L. Thorp has ruled in favor of the City of Seattle in a high-profile lawsuit brought by dozens of former city employees who were terminated after refusing to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Thorp ruled that none of them had sincerely held religious beliefs when they objected to the vaccine mandate. She said their beliefs are “secular cloaked in religious vernacular,” and that prayer is not a reasonable manner for decision making.

In her ruling, Thorp agreed with arguments presented by the city’s outside counsel, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, granting a motion for summary judgment on most of the plaintiffs’ claims. The employees from City Light (SCL), the Seattle Police Department (SPD), Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), and the city’s Finance/Admin department (FAS) had alleged violations of Washington’s Law Against Discrimination (WLAD), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, failure to accommodate religious beliefs and wrongful termination.

In court documents obtained by The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, the City argued that the plaintiffs did not demonstrate a bona fide religious belief that conflicted with the vaccine mandate. Thorp said that their objections were “secular concerns cloaked in religious vernacular.”

The city further argued that prayer alone does not convert a personal decision into a protected religious belief, citing federal case law that distinguishes personal or medical objections from religious practices.

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