Tag: judges

Judge rules Utah’s redistricting violated rights; orders new maps by 2026

The Utah Legislature violated voters’ rights by approving congressional boundaries that split Salt Lake County, Third District Court Judge Dianna Gibson ruled.

She said lawmakers bypassed the independent redistricting commission established by voters and drew maps that unlawfully favored Republicans. The ruling means new congressional maps must be drawn ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Gibson said when Legislators enacted the new Congressional Map in 2021 using HB 2004, it violated the law already established and “cannot lawfully govern future elections in Utah.”

The Legislature has until Sept. 24 to redraw districting lines so they align with the ballot initiative called Proposition 4. The plaintiffs and third parties will also have the opportunity to submit maps, which could be used if the legislature’s maps do not meet the requirements.

Gibson’s ruling is the latest in a saga of court hearings regarding Utah’s congressional districts.

Keep reading

Wisconsin Judge Charged With Helping Illegal Alien Evade ICE Rakes In Nearly $50K In Pay

Suspended while she faces charges for allegedly helping a violent illegal immigrant elude federal law enforcement officials, Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan continues to collect full pay and benefits on the backs of Badger State taxpayers. 

The Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge has raked in $48,997 in pay since the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan from the bench in late April, according to information obtained through an open records request by The Federalist. Dugan’s biweekly pay rate is $6,712, with an annual salary of $174,512, according to the Wisconsin Court System. 

Meanwhile, Dugan has established a legal defense fund to pay for a high-powered team of lawyers that includes former Solicitor General Paul Clement and former federal prosecutor Steve Biskupic. In its first three weeks, the fund had raised nearly $140,000, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Dugan doesn’t have to report on who gave what until next year, the news outlet reported. 

“Judge Hannah Dugan deserves a full and aggressive defense,” states the fund website, which bills the federal felony charge against her as “the prosecution of America’s independent judiciary.”

‘Denied’

The judge insists that she is immune from prosecution, that she has the right to do as she pleases in her courtroom — apparently up to breaking the law. She argues that the charges should be dropped. 

U.S. Magistrate Nancy Joseph disagrees. Last month, Joseph found Dugan’s arguments “unconvincing” in recommending Dugan’s motion to dismiss the charges be denied. 

“It is well-established and undisputed that judges have absolute immunity from civil lawsuits for monetary damages when engaging in judicial acts. This, however, is not a civil case,” the magistrate wrote in her thorough, 37-page decision. “Accordingly, I recommend that Dugan’s motion to dismiss the indictment on judicial immunity grounds be denied.”

Dugan has been charged with felony obstruction and misdemeanor concealing an individual to prevent arrest. She is accused of aiding previously deported illegal immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz’s brief escape from federal law enforcement officials in April while he was appearing in front of Dugan on battery charges. Dugan faces up to six years in prison and a $350,000 fine if found guilty. 

As The Federalist has reported, FBI agents arrested Dugan on April 25 at the courthouse, a week after the judge, according to the criminal complaint, misdirected federal agents, delaying them from apprehending Flores-Ruiz. The illegal immigrant was set to appear before Dugan for a pretrial conference on three misdemeanor counts of domestic battery. Flores-Ruiz is expected to be deported again after he serves a federal prison term for violating immigration law, Milwaukee’s ABC affiliate, WISN, reported. 

The criminal complaint states that Dugan was “visibly angry” in confronting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who appeared with an administrative warrant to take the illegal alien into custody. After sending the law enforcement officials to the chief judge’s office, Dugan escorted Flores-Ruiz and his legal counsel out of the courtroom through the “jury door,” which leads to a non-public area of the courthouse, according to the charges. 

Keep reading

San Francisco Judge Forces Trump To Keep Funding Sanctuary Cities

A federal judge in San Francisco ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot suspend funding to 34 ‘sanctuary’ cities which limit or refuse cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

US District Judge William Orrick  – a rich kid lawyer appointed by former President Barack Obama to the US District Court for the Northern District of California – ordered the extension of a preliminary injunction barring the administration from blocking funding or placing conditions on federal  funding for those jurisdictions. Orrick also prevented the administration from imposing immigration-related conditions on two particular grant programs. 

The Trump administration initially tried to block funding to dozens of cities and counties over sanctuary city policies – cutting off their Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants due to noncompliance with federal immigration enforcement. 

The protected cities include; Boston, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Baltimore, San Jose, San Diego and others – while major counties covered include Multnomah County in Oregon, which encompasses Portland; Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, which encompasses Pittsburgh; and Hennepin County in Minnesota, which encompasses Minneapolis, the Epoch Times reports, nothing further; 

The Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure on sanctuary communities as it seeks to make good on President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to remove millions of people who are in the country illegally.

One executive order issued by Trump directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to withhold federal money from sanctuary jurisdictions. Another order directs every federal agency to ensure that payments to state and local governments do not “abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.”

In May, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a list of more than 500 “sanctuary jurisdictions” and said that all of those municipalities and counties would be sent a formal notification deeming them to be noncompliant with the Trump administration’s orders. Those officials would also be informed by DHS on whether they were said to be in violation of any federal laws.

Orrick said in his order that the administration’s decisions to withhold federal funding in those jurisdictions are a “coercive threat” that he deemed to be “unconstitutional.”

Keep reading

Obama Judge Shields Sanctuary Cities From Donald Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Efforts

A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot cut funding to 34 cities and counties in response to sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

U.S. District Judge William Orrick, who previously issued an order protecting more than a dozen other jurisdictions, extended a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from pulling federal money or attaching immigration-related conditions to its use.

Keep reading

The judge has a little explaining to do

It finally happened.  Sensible New Yorkers have come to terms with the damage that “getting Trump” has done to their image as a place to invest money.  After all, why would any investor or business owner want to operate in a state where a “fraud” case can be invented against you?  I have a feeling that a lot of people with wealth in New York started making plans to pack up to Florida or elsewhere.  You can’t blame them for saying:  “They ‘got’ Trump, I’m next.”  Last, but not least, who remembers Kevin O’Leary telling a CNN host:  “What fraud? This is not about Trump anymore”?

As always, we check with Professor Jonathan Turley for some perspective:

For some of us who covered that trial, the most vivid image of Engoron came at the start. He indicated that he did not want cameras in the courtroom, but when the networks showed up, Engoron took off his glasses and seemed to pose for the cameras.

It was a ‘Sunset Boulevard’ moment. We only need Gloria Swanson looking into the camera to speak to ‘those wonderful people out there in the dark!’ and announcing ‘all right, [Ms. James], I’m ready for my close-up.’

The close-up was not a good idea, and, on appeal, it was perfectly disastrous. The court found little legal or factual basis for his fine. The purported witnesses not only did not lose a dime, but they testified that they made money on the loans and wanted new loans with the Trump administration. That did not move Engoron. From the start, he was speaking to those ‘wonderful people out there.’

You did not have to go far. In both the civil and criminal trials of Trump in New York, there was a carnival atmosphere in the street outside the courthouse. It was really not derangement as much as delirium. Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James had injected lawfare directly into the veins of New Yorkers. Pledging in her campaign to bag Trump (without bothering to name any crime or violation), James was elected based on her recreational rather than legal appeal.

Yet, James could not have succeeded if she had not had a judge willing to ignore reality and cook the books on the fines. She needed a partner in lawfare. She needed Engoron.

Even for some anti-Trump commentators, the judgment was impossible to defend, and some acknowledged that they had never seen any case like this one brought in New York.

Yes, no one had seen justice like that before.  Why?  Because there was no justice here.  It was using the legal system to get Trump, or something that our judicial system was not supposed to do.

Keep reading

Biden judge sticks it to Trump by releasing teens who assaulted Big Balls as president celebrates DC crackdown: ‘Everybody’s safe now’

A Biden-appointed judge has defied President Donald Trump by releasing two teenagers accused of assaulting a DOGE employee on the streets of Washington D.C.

The revelation comes shortly after Trump celebrated his success in cracking down on crime in the capital, telling Americans ‘everybody is safe now’ in a Thursday press conference.

Trump had dedicated mass resources to Washington in the weeks after 19-year-old former DOGE staffer Edward ‘Big Balls’ Coristine was attacked on the streets.

Coristine was left bloody, badly beaten and fearing he was concussed on August 5 when he tried to stop a carjacking. 

Judge Kendra Briggs, who was appointed by Joe Biden during his presidency, on Thursday ordered the release of the two teenagers believed to be responsible for the crime.

The two suspects, a boy and girl both aged 15, are accused of an attempted carjacking and assaulting Coristine on August 3. Police later shared photos of a third suspect.

The duo, who cannot be named due to their ages, are from Hyattsville, Maryland, and have been placed under strict rules in order to be released from juvenile detention. 

The girl will move into a youth shelter house, while the boy is permitted to live at his mother’s home.

Both will be required to attend school and will have a strict curfew, as well as electric monitoring.

‘School and home, that’s it,’ Briggs told the duo, according to The Washington Post.

‘The fact that this court is stepping you down from Youth Services Center is a serious step,’ the judge added.

The pair are forbidden from contacting one another, and Briggs assured them that if she heard of any breaches, there would be an emergency hearing scheduled to deal with the consequences.

Each teenager had one parent virtually present at the hearing.

The girl has another pending matter in Maryland, and prosecutors objected to her release, describing her as a danger to the community and a flight risk.

Keep reading

Judge Refuses To Release Epstein Files, Says DOJ Should Do It Instead Of Legal ‘Diversion’

A Clinton-appointed federal judge on Wednesday denied the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury materials used to charge Jeffrey Epstein with sex trafficking, and instead said that the federal government is the ‘logical party’ to dump said ‘files.’

“The information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts pales in comparison to the Epstein investigation information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice,” US District Judge Richard Berman wrote in a 14-page ruling, in which he said there is “clear precedent and sound purpose” for keeping the records under seal – and that the DOJ failed to show the Epstein papers demonstrate a “special circumstance” which would justify their release. 

You do it…

According to Berman, the government has already conducted a comprehensive investigation into Epstein, and has assembled a “trove” of documents, interviews and exhibits. In fact, the government has such a mountain of evidence outside of that case – records which “dwarf” the “70 odd pages” of grand jury materials, that Berman cited it as a “significant and compelling reason” to reject the request. 

“The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein Files,” wrote Berman, adding “By comparison, the instant grand jury motion appears to be a ‘diversion’ from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government’s possession.”

Berman’s ruling is the latest in a saga pitting Trump – a former Epstein associate whose previous AG Bill Barr ‘presided’ over the death of the disgraced pedophile. Barr’s father, who wrote pedo-centric short stories – hired Epstein to teach children at the Dalton school in the early 1970s when Barr Senior was headmaster. 

Keep reading

Biden-Appointed Judge Shockingly Rules Against Birthright Citizenship — Ninth Circuit Says Children of Foreign Diplomats Are NOT Automatically U.S. Citizens

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has just ruled that a man born in New York City in 1950 is NOT an American citizen.

The court affirmed what the Constitution’s framers and generations of Americans have always understood, the Fourteenth Amendment does not grant automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. to foreign diplomats.

The case involved Roberto Moncada, who was born in New York City in 1950 while his father served as a Nicaraguan attaché at the United Nations.

For nearly seventy years, Moncada lived as an American, holding passports and even swearing oaths of allegiance multiple times.

But in 2018, after reviewing records, the government discovered that his father had served as an attaché, a diplomatic position that carried full immunity, not a simple consul as previously believed.

That detail changed everything. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, only those born “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States are citizens.

Children of foreign ministers and diplomats are explicitly excluded. Moncada’s father’s immunity meant his entire household, including his newborn son, was outside U.S. jurisdiction.

The court reviewed conflicting evidence, including records listing Moncada’s father as both “Deputy Consul” and “Attaché.” But after weighing the record, most importantly the State Department’s “Blue List” identifying him as an attaché with full diplomatic privileges, the panel concluded that the government had proved by clear and convincing evidence that Moncada was never a U.S. citizen

Moncada filed suit in 2019 to challenge that decision.

Keep reading

Kentucky judge killed by sheriff ran courthouse like ‘brothel’ — and traded sex for favors at twisted parties: victim

The rural Kentucky judge gunned down in his own chambers last year ran a twisted sex ring in which young women were coaxed into performing sexual favors just to get out of trouble, one of the alleged victims claims.

Tya Adams alleges she was among those caught up in Judge Kevin Mullins’ apparent sex-for-favors scheme that saw him and others in the tiny town of Whitesburg demand sex in exchange for cash, or to get offenders off the hook.

Adams told NewsNation’s “Banfield” that Mullins — who was shot execution-style in his Letcher County chambers, allegedly by his longtime sheriff pal Shawn Stines, last September — had warned her to keep quiet about the so-called depraved ring.

“We would do sex parties and perform shows and have sex with them for money, things like that,” Adams alleged. “It was consensual. But it was the thing that we were so young, and then they used it against us and to destroy our lives later.”

Adams said she felt forced to go along with the judge’s scheme because she feared Child Protective Services would somehow get involved and upend her life.

“They would make sure to make you feel as small and degraded and belittled as possible to take your power away,” Adams said.

Keep reading

Judge Gives Probation to Las Vegas Teen Who Fatally Shot Dad over Taking Away Electronics

A judge ordered probation on Thursday for the teenager who fatally shot his father on December 28 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The accused is 16-year-old Lincoln Peterson. HIs mother said the deadly incident happened after the boy’s family took his electronics away because of his bad grades, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on Thursday.

His parents reportedly believed he was “sneaking electronics” and a fight erupted.

“The teen said his mother had struck him with a belt, according to an adult certification order. He was running from his parents when he picked up a handgun sitting on top of a dryer and fired backward,” the article read. However, the teenager claimed he was unaware he hit someone.

Keep reading