The Briefing Room
General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: Elderberry on October 23, 2022, 01:07:14 pm
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WND 10/22/2022
Warns sanctions possible for subpoena of organization unrelated to case
A federal judge has scolded Joe Biden's Department of Justice for its "burdensome" badgering of a conservative organization.
The revelations come in a commentary at the Daily Signal by Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation.
He explained that the DOJ had subpoenaed the Alabama chapter of the conservative group Eagle Forum.
He reported the "outrageous" demand, however, was met with an immediately pushback from "dozens" of conservative groups supporting the Eagle Forum's request to throw it out.
So the DOJ "caved and narrowed their request – as the judge in the case put it – to '1%' of what they were demanding before," he explained.
It gets better.
"At a hearing on Oct. 14 on the motion, according to a transcript we have obtained, federal Judge Liles C. Burke castigated the Justice Department for its 'vastly overbroad and unduly burdensome' subpoena and declared that he 'would have issued an order to quash' the subpoena if the Justice Department had not withdrawn almost all of it. And Burke hinted that he would be open to considering sanctions against the Justice Department," von Spakovsky explained.
The background is that all the usual left-wingers sued Alabama over its "Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act" that bans puberty-blocking chemicals and body-mutilating surgery on minors.
The Eagle Forum wasn't even a defendant; it just spoke out in support of the law, he said.
"But because of their advocacy, they were targeted by the Justice Department with a massive, capacious subpoena that sought everything the Eagle Forum and its volunteers have done or said for the last five years on this issue. It was clearly an attempt to intimidate the organization, deter its activism, and perhaps punish them for exercising their First Amendment rights on a policy issue the Biden administration disagreed with," von Spakovsky said.
More: https://www.wnd.com/2022/10/judge-scolds-bidens-doj-burdensome-badgering-conservative-group/ (https://www.wnd.com/2022/10/judge-scolds-bidens-doj-burdensome-badgering-conservative-group/)
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Here's a more concise version of the original post,
just to make it easier to follow.
Alabama passed a law prohibiting the sexual mutilation of minors, by surgery or drugs.
It's called the "Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act".
The "Justice" Department sued Alabama to try to block the law.
The Alabama chapter of Eagle Forum spoke in favor of the law.
The "Justice" Deparment obtained a subpoena against Eagle Forum,
demanding everything they and their volunteers
have said or done on the subject in the last five years.
Many conservative groups objected.
The "Justice" Department withdrew 99% of their subpoena.
Federal Judge Liles C. Burke castigated the Justice Department for
its 'vastly overbroad and unduly burdensome' subpoena
and declared that he 'would have issued an order to quash' the subpoena
if the Justice Department had not withdrawn almost all of it.