Tag: judges

Outcomes of the 92 Election Cases from the 2020 Election Reveal That Judges Didn’t Review Evidence or Address Election Fraud, Part 2

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Sun Times examined the outcomes of the 92 election cases challenging illegalities in the 2020 election and determined that contrary to reports in the mainstream media, almost all of the judges did not consider evidence of election fraud.

This was in large part because the lawsuits didn’t allege election fraud, which is a very specific crime that usually requires a lot of discovery. Lawsuits challenging election outcomes generally cite other laws that are broken, which has long been considered sufficient to overturn elections. Judges issued their rulings in the 2020 cases without getting into the evidence or much discovery.

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South Carolina Senate Debating Bill That Would Tweak Judicial Nomination Process

Peter D'Abrosca
South Carolina

The South Carolina Senate is debating a bill that would make minor changes to how judges are appointed in the Palmetto State.

Currently, the state’s General Assembly, via its Judicial Merit Selection Commission, which consists of a “group of legislators and lawyers who do extensive investigations into judicial candidates, a process that entails examining everything from their finances to their temperament to their knowledge of the law,” appoints judges from the state Supreme Court, all the way down to circuit courts.

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Maricopa County Judge Recuses Himself from Election-Related Case Due to Activist Brother’s Social Media Posts Denigrating Republican Election Lawsuits

Rachel Alexander
Judge

Opposition is increasing to the judges assigned to handle election related lawsuits in Arizona, as their biases are being revealed. After Arizona Senate Majority leader Warren Petersen (R-Mesa) and House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria) requested that Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Tim Ryan recuse himself from their lawsuit challenging the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM) because of his progressive activist older brother’s posts on X, Ryan voluntarily recused himself. 

The Arizona State Senate Republican Caucus issued an announcement praising the recusal. “His brother, Tom Ryan, is a liberal attorney who plagues social media with his contempt for the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature with an incessant number of juvenile posts,” the statement said. “There is no way anyone who has witnessed the antics of Judge Ryan’s brother, which included case-specific criticisms and commentary, can credibly believe that Judge Ryan could give the Legislature a fair trial.”

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Memphis Judge Paula Skahan Reprimanded After She Illegally Freed Prisoner Serving 162-Year Sentence

Tom Pappert
Paula Skahan

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan was publicly reprimanded in a disciplinary action by the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct (TBJC) on Wednesday as a result of her actions that led to Tennessee briefly freeing a man in 2022 after he was previously sentenced to a 162-year prison sentence.

Skahan in 2022 arranged for the release of Courtney Anderson, who spent months outside of prison before Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge J. Ross Dyer ruled Skahan “illegally” released him and ordered Anderson remanded back into the state’s custody.

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State Bar of Arizona Finds Probable Cause in Investigation of Kari Lake’s Attorney, He Expects to Be Disbarred

Rachel Alexander

The State Bar of Arizona is pursuing charges against Kari Lake’s attorney, Bryan Blehm, not merely investigating complaints filed by others. The Arizona Bar told him it has already found probable cause to continue its proceedings against him, which means it will likely result in disbarment. The charges accuse Blehm of violating five ethical rules frequently used as catchall rules to disbar attorneys.

Kari Lake told The Arizona Sun Times, “I will represent myself before I drop the case. [Attorney] Kurt [Olsen] and Bryan are heroes.”

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Commentary: Immigration Court Backlog Is Growing Worse

RealClearWire

New migrants pouring into the U.S. after the Biden administration let a COVID-19 restriction called Title 42 expire last week will not break the nation’s stretched court system. The system is already shattered, according to several former judges, immigration experts, and Department of Homeland Security data.  

The average wait time for a “Notice to Appear” before a judge at one of the nation’s 66 immigration courts is now four and a half years. In some cities it is much longer. In New York City, new migrants do not have to appear in court until 2032. This growing backlog creates an incentive for more people to cross the border and request asylum as each new case pushes assigned court dates further into the future. In the meantime, many migrants are permitted to live and work in the United States.  

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UK Court Decides Kids under the Age of 16 Can Take Puberty Blocking Medication Without Court Approval

Admin
Bink, a gender non-conforming 10 year old child playing outside.

Doctors can now prescribe puberty blocking medication to children under the age of 16 without a judge’s approval, Britain’s Court of Appeals ruled on Friday.

The decision reverses last year’s ruling that children seeking gender reassignment aren’t mature enough to give informed consent to take puberty blocking medicine, the Associated Press reported. The decision said that doctors should seek court approval before prescribing the medication because the drugs were still experimental.

The Tavistock and Portman National Health Service (NHS) trust, Britain’s only gender identity development service (GIDS) for children, appealed last year’s ruling, the AP reported. The Court of Appeal sided with the trust Friday, ruling it was “inappropriate” for the high courts to issue their guidance, and it was up to the doctors to “exercise their judgment” regarding patients’ consent.

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Proposed Bill to Protect Law Enforcement, Judges from Civil Rights Intimidation

Corinne Murdock

Legislators are proposing that law enforcement and judges shouldn’t have to live in fear or face retaliation for their chosen profession. The bill would add those two groups as protected classes against civil rights intimidation, along with race, color, ancestry, religion, and national origin. 

Under the legislation, offenders would earn a Class D felony for injuring, threatening to injure, or coercing another person with the intent to unlawfully intimidate based on the belief or knowledge that the victim is a law enforcement member or judge. That level of punishment would also be applicable if someone were to damage, destroy, or deface another’s property based on that belief or knowledge. Class D felonies are two to twelve years’ prison time, and up to $5,000 in fines.

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Commentary: Courts’ Inaction Tell Voters Democrat Election Fraud Is ‘Too Big to Fail’

Admin

The courts have spoken, one after another. Some 74 million Americans have been denied our day in court.  The Democrats’ crime of stealing a presidential election is too big to fail.

Our play-it-safe judges don’t want to venture into these enormous seas, full of sharks, without precedent. They want to say in the safe spaces of the familiar. Stealing an election for city council is familiar enough to be overturned by law. Stealing a presidential election by wholesale fraud is above the law.

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Nashville Bar Association Petitions Tennessee Supreme Court to Require Annual Critical Race Theory Training of Tennessee Attorneys and Judges

Laura Baigert

The Nashville Bar Association (NBA) has petitioned the Tennessee Supreme Court to modify its rules to require two hours of training on an annual basis to cover the topic of critical race theory.
Critical race theory is “the view that the law and legal institutions are inherently racist and that race itself, instead of being biologically grounded and natural, is a socially constructed concept that is used by white people to further their economic and political interests at the expense of people of color,” according to Britannica.

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Marsha Blackburn Pushes Bill to Allow Concealed Carry for Prosecutors, Federal Judges

Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) this week announced she is co-sponsoring a bill that, if passed into law, would allow current and retired law enforcement officers to carry concealed firearms.

As written, this bill, the Protect Our Prosecutors and Judges Act, would also apply to current and retired local, state, and federal prosecutors, as well as retired judges.

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Commentary: The Courts Would be Wise to Stay Out of Political Battles

Admin

The nine philosopher-kings enthroned on the Supreme Court were finally gracious enough to let President Trump proceed with his plans to build a wall at the southern border, at least for now. In a 5-4 ruling, the court last month overturned an appellate court’s decision, allowing the Trump Administration to tap into military funds and continue construction while litigation is pending.

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Donald Trump Has Put More Than 100 Judges on the Federal Bench

Admin

by Kevin Daley   The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s 100th judicial nominee Thursday, passing a symbolic threshold meant to signal the GOP’s determined push to staff the federal judiciary with conservative jurists. As of this writing, the president has appointed 102 judges to the federal bench. That total includes 63 trial judges, 37 appeals judges and two Supreme Court justices. “Today marks an incredible milestone as the Senate confirmed President Trump’s 100th judicial nominee,” said Carrie Severino, chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network. “This is a big win for the country to have judges who fairly apply the law and adhere to the Constitution sitting on our nation’s most prized courts.” Though Trump and the Senate Republican caucus have processed nominees with stunning proficiency, the administration has not yet overcome left-leaning majorities on many federal appeals courts, while a burgeoning number of trial court vacancies present a daunting challenge. The Senate reached the 100-judge mark with the confirmation of Rodolfo “Rudy” Armando Ruiz to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on a 90-8 vote. Ruiz is a state court judge and a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group that advises the…

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Despite Rebuke From Chief Justice, Trump Says Judges are Harming National Security

Admin

by Kevin Daley   President Donald Trump defended his criticism of a federal judge who barred enforcement of his new asylum rules Wednesday, after Chief Justice John Roberts issued a statement rebuking the president’s broadsides. In a pair of afternoon tweets from his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida, Trump said that a series of rulings that stalled his immigration agenda have jeopardized the security of the nation. Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have “Obama judges,” and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country. It would be great if the 9th Circuit was indeed an “independent judiciary,” but if it is why…… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018 …..are so many opposing view (on Border and Safety) cases filed there, and why are a vast number of those cases overturned. Please study the numbers, they are shocking. We need protection and security – these rulings are making our country unsafe! Very dangerous and unwise! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018 Trump’s latest censure arose Tuesday when U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar stayed the administration’s new asylum rules, which in effect…

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McConnell Says Confirming Judges Will Be His ‘Top Priority’

Admin

by Rachel del Guidice   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says his “top priority” for the rest of the year and into the new Congress is filling the judiciary with President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees. “The president, I think, has done an excellent job in picking young men and women who believe the job of the judge is to follow the law and we intend to keep confirming as many as we possibly can as long as we are in a position to do it,” McConnell said Wednesday at a press conference. “It’ll still be my top priority in setting the agenda here in the Senate,” McConnell said. McConnell also said that the Senate has been successful in making two Supreme Court appointments and 29 circuit judges, adding that, “we’re not through doing those this year.”While not all Senate races are settled, Republicans are poised to pick up two seats in the Senate. John G. Malcolm, vice president of the Institute for Constitutional Government and director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal in an email that McConnell is correct to set his sights on judicial confirmations.…

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Grassley Says Blue Slips Won’t Veto President Trump’s Judicial Picks

Admin

Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley signaled this week he won’t adhere to a strict “blue-slip” policy for judicial nominees, clearing the path for Republicans to install some of President Trump’s picks over the objections of home-state Democrats. Mr. Grassley said the blue-slip tradition was intended to make sure the president consults with senators about judicial…

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Fifteen Federal Judges Have Been Impeached by the House of Representatives

Tennessee Star Staff

Fifteen federal judges have been impeached since the Constitution was ratified in 1789, according to the Federal Judicial Center. Eight have been convicted, three have resigned prior to trial in the Senate, and four have been acquitted. The list includes one associate justice of the Supreme Court, thirteen federal district judges, and one commerce court judge. Here’s the full list, courtesy of the Federal Justice Center: Impeachments of Federal Judges John Pickering, U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire. Impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives on March 2, 1803, on charges of mental instability and intoxication on the bench; Convicted by the U.S. Senate and removed from office on March 12, 1804. Samuel Chase, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States. Impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives on March 12, 1804, on charges of arbitrary and oppressive conduct of trials; Acquitted by the U.S. Senate on March 1, 1805. James H. Peck, U.S. District Court for the District of Missouri. Impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives on April 24, 1830, on charges of abuse of the contempt power; Acquitted by the U.S. Senate on January 31, 1831. West H. Humphreys, U.S. District Court for…

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