Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Federal courts

Supreme Court Urged to Hear Case Over Public Access to State Voter Rolls
Just The News, Approved, National

Supreme Court Urged to Hear Case Over Public Access to State Voter Rolls

By Tate Rosentreter | Just the News Executive director of Honest Elections Project Jason Snead told The Center Square that “the Ninth Circuit absurdly ruled that voter rolls are not a record related to list maintenance, but the result of list maintenance activity, and therefore can be kept secret.” Honest Elections Project filed an amicus brief on behalf of the petitioner in Public Interest Legal Foundation v. Nago, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the case, with an attorney arguing that voter rolls being available for public view are vital to election integrity. Executive director of Honest Elections Project Jason Snead told The Center Square that “the Ninth Circuit absurdly ruled that voter rolls are not a record related to list maintenance, but the result o...
Supreme Court Opens Door to New Mail-In Ballot Safeguards Before November
The Epoch Times, Approved, National

Supreme Court Opens Door to New Mail-In Ballot Safeguards Before November

By Matthew Vadum | The Epoch Times A majority of the justices voted to let executive order 14399 take effect while litigation continues. The U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 24 ruled that President Donald Trump may—for the time being—enforce his executive order restricting voting by mail ahead of the November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. The high court’s unsigned order in favor of the Trump administration allows the federal government to enforce the president’s Executive Order 14399, dated March 31, which was aimed at tightening mail-in voting rules in 23 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, which challenged it in court. The Supreme Court stated that its new order “does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to...
Federal Judges Rebuke Colorado Immigration Judge Over Repeated Bond Hearing Errors
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Federal Judges Rebuke Colorado Immigration Judge Over Repeated Bond Hearing Errors

By Michael Karlik | The Denver Gazette Multiple federal judges in Colorado have freed people from immigration custody after determining that one immigration judge violated their directives for properly conducting bond hearings. For nearly a year, Colorado’s U.S. District Court has faced a flood of habeas corpus petitions from those in immigration detention. The most common allegation is that the government is improperly denying bond hearings to people who are eligible by law. Colorado’s judges have largely agreed with that argument, and the Denver-based federal appeals court recently handed down a binding interpretation of the law confirming that view. However, that has not ended the legal battle. Federal judges, in granting habeas petitions, have t...
Trump Takes Mail-In Voting Dispute to Supreme Court Before Midterms
CYBERSCOOP, Approved, National

Trump Takes Mail-In Voting Dispute to Supreme Court Before Midterms

By Greg Otto | CYBERSCOOP In a Monday filing, the Justice Department said states sued before agencies even decided how the order would work. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to let it enforce an executive order that would restrict mail-in voting, after a federal appeals court kept the order blocked in nearly half the states just months before the November midterm elections. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that a Massachusetts federal judge acted too soon when she struck down key parts of the order, which blocked federal agencies from carrying it out in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Sauer said the order only directs agencies to study changes and has not yet produced a final rule, so no state has suffered harm. ...
When judges become lawmakers: Brazil’s warning for America’s constitutional balance
Undercurrent, Approved, Commentary, National

When judges become lawmakers: Brazil’s warning for America’s constitutional balance

By Michael Hancock | Commentary, Undercurrent Substack Brazil Did Not Lose Its Democracy Overnight. It Allowed One Institution to Rise Above the Rest. The greatest threats to constitutional government rarely arrive as revolutions. More often, they arrive as evolutions, unfolding quietly rather than all at once. No tanks roll through the streets. No constitution is suspended. Elections continue. Congress still meets. Presidents still campaign. Courts remain open. Everything appears normal. Until one day it isn’t. What changes is not the existence of democratic institutions but the balance among them. Liberty depends less upon the existence of government than upon the careful distribution of governmental power. The Founders understood this better than mos...
Colorado turns the first Trump DOJ’s own words against its Second Amendment lawsuits
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado turns the first Trump DOJ’s own words against its Second Amendment lawsuits

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice When the Justice Department sued Colorado in May over its large-capacity magazine ban, the state went looking for ammunition of its own. It found it inside DOJ's filing cabinets. In its federal court filing on June 30, Colorado submitted a motion to dismiss that leverages two memos from Jeff Sessions, the first attorney general in Trump's first term. The state utilizes these documents to contend that the DOJ is attempting to assert an authority that its own former leadership said it should not exercise. The 2017 memo told department heads that "it is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies." The 2018 memo warned that long-term federal court supervision of state an...
Supreme Court Has Spoken But Constitutional Debate is Far From Over on Birthright Citizenship
Approved, Commentary, National, The Federalist

Supreme Court Has Spoken But Constitutional Debate is Far From Over on Birthright Citizenship

By: John C. Eastman | Commentary. The Federalist Lincoln believed self-government requires citizens and their representatives to continue reasoning together about the meaning of the Constitution, even after courts have spoken. The Supreme Court has spoken. Now what? That question has confronted the nation before. In 1857, the Supreme Court believed it had settled one of the most consequential constitutional controversies in American history. In Dred Scott v. Sandford, Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that persons of African descent could never become citizens of the United States and that Congress lacked authority to prohibit slavery in the territories. Many believed the court had spoken the final constitutional word. Abraham Lincoln disagreed. His admi...
Federal Judge Permanently Blocks Key Parts of Trump’s Election Order
kdvr.com, Approved, National

Federal Judge Permanently Blocks Key Parts of Trump’s Election Order

By Alliyah Sims | KDVR DENVER (KDVR) — A federal judge has permanently blocked key parts of President Donald Trump’s executive order on elections, ruling after a legal fight that began last year over voter registration rules and proof-of-citizenship requirements. The decision strikes down provisions tied to how states verify voter eligibility and says those responsibilities belong to states and Congress, not the president. The ruling also turns a temporary block into a permanent one; however, an appeal is expected. Rob Preuhs, Professor and Chair of Political Science at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said the concern at the center of the case is how election systems could impact eligible voters. “That means that we’re all potentially at the risk o...
Foreign-Born Judge Sparkle Sooknanan Halts Federal Citizenship Checks For Voter Rolls
The Federalist, Approved, National

Foreign-Born Judge Sparkle Sooknanan Halts Federal Citizenship Checks For Voter Rolls

By: Breccan F. Thies | The Federalist A foreign-born federal judge in D.C. ruled Monday that Americans are not allowed to check the citizenship of prospective voters because doing so might “purge voter rolls.” D.C. District Court Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, who is from Trinidad and Tobago, blocked the Trump administration from using an updated database called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system in order to ensure that only American citizens vote in American elections. Sooknanan became a U.S. citizen in 2009, but seemingly still retains citizenship in Trinidad and Tobago, which she said she would only renounce “if required by law.” As Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., pointed out, “If judges can stop Presidents, they should not...
Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Federal Gun Ban For Marijuana Users
The Federalist, Approved, National

Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Federal Gun Ban For Marijuana Users

By: Shawn Fleetwood | The Federalist The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held on Thursday that the federal government’s use of a federal law restricting gun possession for certain unlawful drug users to be “inconsistent with the Second Amendment.” “The Second Amendment protects the right of ‘all Americans’ to keep and bear firearms for self defense,” the court’s “narrow” ruling reads. “Affording the government ‘broad power to designate any group as dangerous and thereby disqualify its members from having a gun’ would risk allowing it to ‘quickly swallow’ the Second Amendment.” Known as U.S. v. Hemani, the case centers around the government’s prosecution of Ali Hemani, a Texas resident who was charged under a provision (18 U.S. Code § 922(g)(3)) ...