Among the foremost threats to individual freedom in America is the abusive and oftentimes lawless behavior…
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More Legal Shenanigans from the Biden Administration’s Department of Education

Among the foremost threats to individual freedom in America is the abusive and oftentimes lawless behavior of federal administrative agencies, whose vast armies of overpaid bureaucrats remain unaccountable for their excesses.

Among the most familiar examples of that bureaucratic abuse is the Department of Education (DOE).  Recall, for instance, the United States Supreme Court’s humiliating rebuke last year of the Biden DOE’s effort to shift hundreds of billions of dollars of student debt from the people who actually owed them onto the backs of American taxpayers.

Even now, despite that rebuke, the Biden DOE launched an alternative scheme last month in an end-around effort to achieve that same result.

Well, the Biden DOE is now attempting to shift tens of millions of dollars of…[more]

March 19, 2024 • 08:35 AM

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Update on the Anna Nicole Smith Case: the Long, Strange Two-Pronged Trip through Our Legal System Continues Print
By CFIF Staff
Monday, July 06 2009
The fourteen-year jackpot justice abomination that is the Anna Nicole Smith case continues, but may hopefully reach a just conclusion soon.

The fourteen-year jackpot justice abomination that is the Anna Nicole Smith case continues, but may hopefully reach a just conclusion soon.

Although media attention understandably centers upon the tawdry celebrity element of this dispute, it has actually spawned an alarming Supreme Court decision that should trouble all Americans. 

As readers of CFIF’s website may recall, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the 2006 Marshall v. Marshall matter that a duplicative federal bankruptcy court action was somehow not preempted by a preexisting Texas state court lawsuit.  Originally a state probate court matter, overactive lawyers thought they could improve their odds by filing a redundant action in a California federal bankruptcy court.  From there, the case was appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and then to the United States Supreme Court, which remanded back to the Ninth Circuit following its decision. 

The reason for alarm is that in cases such as this one, which center upon state law questions, federal courts had traditionally deferred to state courts.  By eroding that longstanding deference, the Supreme Court not only exacerbated federal intrusion into traditionally state matters, but also increased trial lawyers’ ability to forum-shop and file multiple lawsuits in alternate jurisdictions in pursuit of a result to their liking. 

Moreover, the Supreme Court’s disturbing ruling undermined estate planning and philanthropic giving across the nation by granting federal judges authority over state inheritance matters with which they’re less familiar. 

In the latest installment of this long, strange road trip through the American legal system, the Ninth Circuit held oral arguments last month on remand.    Hopefully, the Court will reach its previous substantive conclusion, thereby providing the Marshall family with long-overdue justice, and making this the last stop in a regrettable legal saga. 

In addition to the Marshall family, the health of the U.S. legal system and sanity of Americans is also at stake.

Notable Quote   
 
"Americans do not trust several major U.S. institutions, including the national news media.The recently released Center Square Voters' Voice poll found that 43% of Americans say the media is trustworthy, compared with 54% who said it is not trustworthy.Younger people were more likely to trust the media, with 47% of those ages 18-34 saying they trust it and 46% saying the opposite.The numbers steadily…[more]
 
 
— Casey Harper, The Center Square
 
Liberty Poll   

Do you believe the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately reject the new Biden administration automobile emissions rule as beyond the scope of administrative agency authority?