Tag: judges

Alabama Judge Who Called Herself “Ultimate Authority” Suspended After Making Racist Remarks Against White Clerk

An Alabama judge was suspended after making a racist remark against a White clerk.

Probate Judge Yashiba Blanchard was hit with a 120-page complaint after she delayed cases to walk her dog and even attacked a White woman with racially charged comments.

Blanchard called herself the “ultimate authority” in conversations with her staff.

Judge Blanchard is accused of ethical and judicial misconduct by delaying cases so she could walk her dogs.

In one case, a patient was hospitalized for an additional two weeks because of Blanchard’s delays.

“This patient will now remain hospitalized for an additional two weeks solely due to the lack of timely access to the hearing process,” an email from hospital staff read, according to the complaint.

“This not only prevents her from being home with her family for Thanksgiving, but it also generates unnecessary hospitalization costs and creates avoidable emotional distress for the patient,” the email read.

Blanchard attacked a chief clerk named Amanda Reid.

“Oh, I forgot you all like kissing white ass,’” Blanchard said to her staffer about her fondness of Reid.

WBRC reported:

A judge in Jefferson County who reportedly told her staff she was the “ultimate authority” with “no boss” has been suspended following a 120-page complaint filed by the Judicial Inquiry Commission.

Probate Judge Yashiba Blanchard is out of the courtroom indefinitely and through this complaint, is formally accused of ethical and judicial misconduct.

Judge Elisabeth French, the presiding judge in Jefferson County, appointed retired Probate Judge Sherri Friday to serve temporarily in Blanchard’s place and appointed retired Judge Carole Smitherman to temporarily serve as Chief Election Official for Jefferson County.

The complaint lays out dozens of allegations against Blanchard that claim she ran the Probate Court in an incompetent and unprofessional manner, routinely targeting attorneys and staff, and manufacturing a backlog that created havoc in involuntary commitments.

The commission charges Blanchard with pattern and practice of failing to diligently discharge judicial duties, pattern and practice of failing to follow the law, pattern and practice of exhibiting bias against attorneys appearing in Blanchard’s court, failure to disqualify from a case in which Blanchard served as an attorney, harassment, intimidation, and retaliation against probate court staff, allowing other court officials subject to Blanchard’s direction and control to engage in harassment and intimidation of probate court staff, and failure to maintain professional competence in judicial administration.

Keep reading

Federal Court Strikes Down Landmark Fluoride Ruling on Technicality — ‘Not the Science’

 A federal appeals court has vacated a landmark decision that found fluoridated drinking water poses an “unreasonable risk” to children’s health under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not challenge the substance of the lower court’s findings — that fluoride is toxic to children and ought to be regulated. Instead, the court based its decision on procedural issues related to the lower court’s handling of the litigation.

The case will now go back to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where District Judge Edward Chen will be required to exclude all scientific evidence that became available after 2020.

Michael Connett, attorney for the plaintiffs, told The Defender the court “instructed Judge Chen to travel back in time to 2020 and make this ruling based on a stale factual record.”

Connett said the directive to ignore years’ worth of evidence on fluoride’s dangers runs counter to the intent of the TSCA — which is to protect hundreds of millions of Americans from substances that are harmful to human health.

The federal appeals court ruling, handed down late Thursday, stemmed from a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) brought by consumer advocacy groups including Food & Water Watch, the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), and Moms Against Fluoridation.

The groups sued after the EPA refused to consider their 2016 citizens’ petition asking the agency to regulate fluoride.

After two bench trials, Chen ruled that fluoride at the federally recommended concentration of 0.7 milligrams/liter (mg/L) posed an “unreasonable risk” to children’s health and ordered the EPA to regulate it accordingly.

However, the 9th Circuit panel said the lower court violated the “party presentation principle” — a legal doctrine requiring courts to act as neutral arbiters rather than taking control of a case’s factual development.

Connett said the decision was “a very expansive and unprecedented application of the party presentation principle.” He said that to date, “this principle has really only been applied to situations where judges raise new legal issues, not where judges use procedural mechanisms to resolve the issues presented.”

Keep reading

Panel of Leftist Federal Judges Defy Supreme Court, Order Alabama to Reinstate its Rigged and Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Map

A panel of leftist judges decided to snub the United States Supreme Court and throw out a perfectly constitutional redistricting map today.

As The Associated Press reported, a three-judge panel in Alabama’s redistricting case issued a preliminary injunction barring the state from switching maps.

It requires Alabama to continue using the 5-2 racially gerrymandered map the court ordered for congressional elections in 2024. The state had recently voted to reinstate its old map, which was 6-1 Republican.

This also means Democrats will regain an additional Black-majority seat for now.

This is after the Supreme Court SPECIFICALLY ruled that racial gerrymandering was unconstitutional.

The AP reported:

Federal judges on Tuesday temporarily blocked Alabama’s plan to use a new congressional map that could give Republicans an advantage in a key House race in the midterm elections.

A three-judge panel in the state’s long-running redistricting case issued the preliminary injunction that prevents the state, at least for now, from switching maps. It requires the state to continue using the same court-ordered districts that were used for congressional elections in 2024.

Lawyers representing Black voters in the state’s lengthy redistricting case had sought the preliminary injunction, arguing the same panel in 2023 found the state map was intentionally discriminatory against Black voters. They also argued Alabama was creating chaos by trying to change lines in the middle of an election year.

Keep reading

DNI Gabbard presses to declassify secret but critical court opinion during FISA renewal debate

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is pushing to declassify a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinion expected to reveal major compliance failures in the government’s use of Section 702 surveillance powers, Just the News has learned.

The effort comes as Congress is debating whether to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the government to collect communications of foreign targets located abroad.

Civil liberties advocates and constitutional scholars have long argued the program also sweeps in large volumes of Americans’ communications without warrants, creating what critics describe as a loophole around Fourth Amendment protections.

At the center of the controversy is the government’s ability to conduct so-called backdoor searches, in which analysts query databases containing incidentally collected American communications. 

The pending court opinion is expected to detail concerns over how federal agencies have managed queries of Section 702 databases and whether internal guardrails designed to prevent abuse were circumvented, according to a senior intelligence official.

The Justice Department reportedly discovered in 2024 that the FBI had used a filtering mechanism that enabled personnel to query Section 702 data without fully complying with oversight requirements established under the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act. 

Investigators reportedly found the system lacked adequate counting, tracking, and approval procedures that are required under the law.

Although officials said the specific tool was later shut down, the still-classified court opinion reportedly indicates that similar tools may continue to exist elsewhere within the intelligence community, including at the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Gabbard announced Friday she is stepping down June 30 to spend more time with her husband, Abraham, who was recently diagnosed with bone cancer.

Keep reading

Democrat Sen. Van Hollen Roasted For Celebrating Obama Judge’s Decision to Drop Criminal Case Against MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen got roasted for celebrating a federal judge’s decision to drop the criminal case against MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

A federal grand jury in Tennessee previously indicted Kilmar Abrego Garcia for “transporting undocumented migrants within the United States.”

He was charged with one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and one count of unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens.

According to the indictment, Kilmar Abrego Garcia and co-conspirators from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and the US were trafficking illegal aliens from 2016 through 2025.

Read the indictment here.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed the criminal indictment against MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Judge Waverly Crenshaw, an Obama appointee, granted Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss the human trafficking case for vindictive and selective prosecution in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

Keep reading

Out of the Twilight Zone: Judge praises behavior of gang rapists, sentences them to ‘rehabilitation’

A judge handling the case of a teenage gang convicted of luring two young girls and then raping them gave them rehabilitation orders instead of jail.

And he praised them for their behavior.

“You have all done very well with the restrictions put in place throughout the trial,” claimed the judge, in the United Kingdom. “I think of you as very young and none of you have (sic) been in any big trouble before.”

It was in a report at Not the Bee that the details of the judge’s near-advocacy for crime appeared.

“Sane human beings know these little monsters deserve the most serve punishment available. This being in the UK, however, means they don’t even go to jail,” the report said. “The judge handed down ‘rehabilitation sentences’ for the three gypsy perpetrators while somehow excusing their despicable actions.”

The Daily Mail noted the gypsies, of the “traveller community,” were convicted of rape as well as taking indecent images of a child, because they recorded their own abuse of a 15-year-old girl.

The case was in Southampton Crown Court, where the judge said, “None of you need to go to prison.”

The boys targeted one victim on Snapchat, “before luring her to an underpass where they laughed and filmed themselves as they raped her,” the Mail reported.

First it was two 14-year-old boys. Then a few months later they were joined by a 13-year-old boy for a second attack, this time raping a young girl at knifepoint.

The Daily Mail said all three were convicted of rape during a five-week trial.

Keep reading

Obama Judge Dismisses Criminal Case Against MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia

A federal judge on Friday dismissed the criminal indictment against MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Judge Waverly Crenshaw, an Obama appointee, granted Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss the human trafficking case for vindictive and selective prosecution in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

The Trump DOJ vowed to appeal Judge Crenshaw’s decision.

Last October, Judge Crenshaw set a hearing on whether the child-trafficking case against MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia was due to “vindictive prosecution.”

Crenshaw set a hearing based on public statements made by Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, Kristi Noem, and others.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an El Salvadoran national who was illegally residing in Maryland. In 2019, an immigration judge ordered Abrego Garcia, an alleged member of the dangerous MS-13 gang, removed from the US.

After a months-long court battle over his deportation, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was transported back to the United States from El Salvador to face criminal charges.

Keep reading

Trump Admin Moves to Supercharge Deportations with Unprecedented Immigration Judge Addition

The Justice Department announced on Thursday the onboarding of over 80 new immigration judges, the largest addition in agency history.

The Executive Office of Immigration added 77 full-time judges and 5 temporary ones, according to a DOJ news release.

“The Trump administration is committed to reestablishing an immigration judge corps that is dedicated to restoring the rule to the law in our nation’s immigration system,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

“Today, we are onboarding the largest immigration judge class in agency history. This could only happen thanks to President Trump’s decisive leadership and commitment to securing our borders. I also applaud EOIR’s leadership team for helping facilitate these hiring efforts and recruiting highly qualified and talented personnel in record time,” he added.

EOIR has hired 153 permanent immigration judges since the start of the fiscal year Oct. 1.

The DOJ noted, “Reducing the immigration court backlog remains one of the highest priorities for the agency. Since January 20, 2025, EOIR has completed more than 1.08 million cases and has reduced its pending caseload in immigration courts by more than 447,000 cases, bringing the pending caseload down from approximately 4 million to under 3.53 million, the sharpest decrease in caseload in EOIR’s history.”

Keep reading

Judge Grants Biden’s Request to Intervene in FOIA Fight, Blocks Public Release of 70 Hours of Audiotapes of His Conversations with Ghostwriter

A federal judge on Thursday granted Joe Biden’s request to block the public release of the audiotapes of his conversations with his ghostwriter.

The Oversight Project filed a FOIA lawsuit requesting records from Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden. The judge denied the Oversight Project’s request.

However, US District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, denied Biden’s request to use this case to block the release of the audiotapes to the House Judiciary Committee.

Earlier this month, it was reported that the DOJ was preparing to release damning audio of Biden’s interview with former Special Counsel Robert Hur. The Department is also going to release 2017 audio recordings of conversations with his ghostwriter in which he disclosed classified information.

Biden previously asserted executive privilege over the audio recordings related to then-Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into his stolen classified documents scandal.

Republicans have argued that Joe Biden cannot assert executive privilege over the audio since the transcript has already been released.

Then-US Attorney General Merrick Garland classified the audio tapes of Biden’s interview with Hur as “Top Secret” and locked it way in a SCIF.

Keep reading

Disgusting SoCal dad pleads guilty to incest after daughter killed herself — sentenced to only 3 years in California prison

A Southern California father admitted in court to sexually abusing his biological daughter after supplying her with alcohol during a visit to his home, in a disturbing case that ended with the young woman later taking her own life.

Stephen Vincent Chavez, 41, pleaded guilty Monday to one felony count of incest and one misdemeanor count of furnishing alcohol to a minor in connection with the abuse of his 18-year-old biological daughter, Makayla, prosecutors said.

The case drew outrage online after authorities revealed Chavez is expected to receive just three years in state prison, KTLA reported.

Chavez moved up his scheduled court appearance in order to enter the plea. Prosecutors said he also acknowledged abusing a position of trust and targeting a particularly vulnerable victim.

Keep reading