The Latest
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We can't let this be the new normal.
Confirmed Judges Confirmed Fears tracks the damaging impacts of Trump-appointed judges around the country, and chronicles the decisions that hurt all of us.
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Shooting claim against police
Easley v. City of Riverside
Trump Ninth Circuit Judge Mark Bennett would have dismissed a police shooting case based on a legal argument that the defendants had already conceded and based on disputed facts that are within the jury's province to decide.
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Limiting release of grand jury records
McKeever v. Barr
Trump D.C. Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas cast the deciding vote to restrict judges' ability to release grand jury material that could also limit release of some of the information in the report of special counsel Robert Mueller.
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Dissent would deny attorneys' fees to victim
Guest-Marcotte v. Life Insurance Company of North America
Trump Sixth Circuit Judge Amul Thapar tried to deny attorneys' fees to a worker with a disability who had to bring extensive legal proceedings to reverse what the majority called an "egregious"� denial of disability benefits.
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Attempted restrictions of abortion
EMW Women's Surgical Center v. Beshear
Trump Sixth Circuit Judge John K. Bush voted to reverse a lower court decision and upheld a Kentucky law requiring physicians to subject women to medically unnecessary and potentially harmful procedures before providing them with abortion care.
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Forced arbitration
Lamps Plus v. Varela
Trump Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh made it possible for the Court to take yet another step to reshape the law to strip working people of their rights against powerful corporations through forced arbitration.
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Harming homeless people
Martin v. City of Boise
Trump Ninth Circuit Judge Mark Bennett tried to uphold a Boise ordinance and practice that criminalized people who live in poverty and experience homelessness for sleeping outside when they had no access to alternative shelter.
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Unconstitutional evidence
U.S. v. Johnson
Trump Eleventh Circuit Judges Newsom, Branch, and Grant cast the deciding votes that reversed a panel decision and ruled that a police officer could seize and use as evidence a bullet found on an unarmed man who was not subject to a full search.
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Cruelty in executions
Bucklew v. Precythe
Trump Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch wrote and Justice Kavanaugh joined a 5-4 opinion that authorized execution despite evidence it would inflict cruel and unusual pain, significantly weakening Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
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Dissent would uphold unfair trial
U.S. v. Garcia
Trump Seventh Circuit Judge Michael Brennan would allow the denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal even though there was no direct evidence that the individual even possessed any cocaine and the conviction was based solely on a police agent's interpretation of an "encrypted"� phone call between the individual and another defendant.
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Upheld abortion restriction
Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio v. Hodges
Trump Sixth Circuit Judges Thapar, Bush, Larsen, and Nalbandian vote to allow Ohio's law to bar state health departments from providing funding to Planned Parenthood for health care services because it provides abortions with non-state funds.
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Harming job discrimination victims
Lewis v. City of Union City
Trump Eleventh Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom, joined by Trump Judges Branch and Grant, makes it dramatically harder for victims of illegal job discrimination to have their day in court when there isn't a "smoking gun."
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Dissent would harm immigrant
Solano-Abarca v. Barr
Trump Sixth Circuit Judge John Nalbandian would allow abuse of discretion by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) when it failed to even discuss new medical evidence that showed that deportation of a parent would result in unusual hardship because of his sick daughter.
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Dismissing worker retaliation claim
Morgan v. Robinson
Trump Eighth Circuit Judges Stras and Grasz vote to throw out without a trial a claim that a sheriff had improperly fired a deputy to retaliate against him for statements made by the deputy during a political campaign against the sheriff.
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Harmed immigrants' rights
Nielsen v. Preap
Trump Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh cast the deciding votes in a decision that ruled that under federal law, immigrants who have been released after committing even minor crimes should be picked up even years after their release and detained indefinitely pending possible deportation hearings.
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Discrimination against transgender prisoners
Gibson v. Collier
Trump Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho votes to throw out without trial a claim that prison officials violated the Eighth Amendment by showing deliberate indifference to a transgender person in jail.
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