July 28

1794 – The French Revolution backfires on two of the main revolutionary leaders themselves, as Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just are executed by guillotine in Paris, France.

1854 – The USS Constellation, the last all sail warship built by the U.S. Navy, is commissioned into service.

1864 – At the Battle of Ezra Church, Confederate troops make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia.

1868 – The 14th Amendment to the Constitution, establishing citizenship for all people ‘born or naturalized’ in the U.S., guaranteeing due process and equal protection of law and restricting states from abridging citizens rights,  is certified as being ratified.

1896 – The city of Miami, Florida is incorporated.

1914 – In the culmination of the July Crisis after the assassination of Arch Duke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, which is considered the start of World War I.

1932 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the Army to forcibly evict the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C.

1935 – First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

1938 – Pan American Airlines Hawaii Clipper disappears between Guam and Manila. The first loss of an airliner in trans-Pacific China Clipper service.

1945 – A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing the 3 crew aboard, 11 people in the building and injuring 26.

1965 – President Johnson orders an increase of the number of troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.

1984 – The summer Games of the XXIII Olympiad open in Los Angeles.

2002 – 9 coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, are rescued after 77 hours underground.

New Jersey Association seeks to sue Garden State over Mr. & Mrs. Smith-style training mandate

If you’re interested in participating in a challenging marksmanship program that’ll tax your tactical abilities, then we’ve got something for you. While you could go to one of the many top-of-the-line and state-of-the-art training destinations to challenge yourself and get in some time behind the trigger, don’t bother. The New Jersey State Police has chartered a program that’s for those seeking a real challenge.

Unfortunately, this challenge is not a joke, but it’s what the state has decided to implement as a training requirement to get a permit to carry. The Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs just asked to have their federal challenge to the law that put this training into effect reopened in the New Jersey Federal District Court because of the onerous mandate.

The newly rolled out training requirements in order to get a permit to carry seem like exactly what’s described above. An authoritative and challenging course of fire that an expert would be looking to use to cut their teeth further, is not what Mr. and Mrs. New Jersey should have to do in order to exercise a constitutional right. Rather than New Jersey be lock-step with the rest of the country that has reasonable training mandates, they’d prefer to force everyday people to be able to rise to a training standard that Mr. and Mrs. Smith would have to.

Sounds hyperbolic, but consider attorney Evan Nappen’s explanation of what the training requirement is for nearly all current and future permit to carry holders. Nappen refers to the training as “New Jersey’s ‘John Wick’ Carry Training Mandate.”

A new and much more difficult level of shooting proficiency is now required for citizens in New Jersey who wish a obtain a Permit to Carry a Handgun or continue to keep their Permit to Carry a Handgun.

The new requirements demand timed firing from concealed holsters. Kneeling position shooting and accurately shooting at 25 yards are also incorporated into the course. It is hard to envision citizen self-defense scenarios justifying the use of deadly force at 25 yards!

There are no exceptions for physically handicapped people. The new requirements are basically the same requirements utilized for retired police officers to get their New Jersey RPO handgun carry card. This means that any citizen who wishes to exercise their Second Amendment rights must now have the same skill level of proficiency as a veteran law enforcement officer who has trained and qualified with firearms for years!

If a person wants a Drivers License, should they be required to qualify as a NASCAR Racer before receiving it? Yet, driving is not a Constitutional right, but carrying a gun is one. Harsh requirements are not permitted for the exercise of Constitutional rights.

New Jersey is using a variation out of the racist playbook of Southern Democrats who tried to stop Blacks from voting by demanding poll taxes and literacy tests.

The anti-Constitutional rights NJ Democrats have done the same thing here for the exercise of Second Amendment rights by all citizens with the passage of the Murphy “Carry Killer” Anti-Civil Rights law.

Nappen points out something we’ve all been saying since last year, and that’s Governor Phil Murphy – as well as many other executives, lawmakers, and judges all over the blue states of the U.S.- have been approaching the NYSRPA v. Bruen decision in the same manner southern leaders treated Blacks during the antebellum Jim Crow period of our country and a post-Brown v. Board of Education United States.

The anti-civil liberty pinkos have jumped the shark when it comes to regulation, and the new training standard is a bridge too far. Consider footnote #9 from NYSRPA:

That said, because any permitting scheme can be put toward abusive ends, we do not rule out constitutional challenges to shall-issue regimes where, for example, lengthy wait times in processing license applications or exorbitant fees deny ordinary citizens their right to public carry.

The training would constitute an abusive end according to the opinion. Not only are the training requirements beyond what would be considered “designed to ensure only that those bearing arms in the jurisdiction are, in fact, ‘law-abiding, responsible citizens,’” not consistent with the footnote, as a sidebar, the newly instituted fees fit that bill as well.

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Chevron Deference Violates the Constitution, Argues FPC and FPCAF in Supreme Court Brief

Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and FPC Action Foundation (FPCAF) announced the filing of an important brief with the United States Supreme Court in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, in which FPC and FPCAF ask the Supreme Court to overrule the deference doctrine the Court established in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. The brief can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

Chevron deference, as it has come to be known, requires a court to defer to an executive branch agency’s interpretation of federal law, even if that interpretation is not the best interpretation of the law. This doctrine has allowed federal executive branch agencies, such as the ATF, to run wild, unchecked by either Congress or the courts. Ending Chevron deference will help ensure that courts can better check federal executive branch power.

“Chevron violates Article III by transferring from the judiciary to the executive the ultimate interpretative authority to say what the law is,” argues the brief. “It violates Article I by incentivizing Congress to abdicate its legislative duties and delegate legislative authority to the executive. As a result, Chevron accumulates legislative, executive, and judicial powers in a single branch of government—which the Founders considered the very definition of tyranny.”

“The Framers of our Constitution learned from thousands of years of human experience that governments with power concentrated in one body are unsustainable and often tyrannical,” said FPCAF’s Director of Constitutional Studies, Joseph Greenlee. “The Framers, therefore, separated the legislative, executive, and judicial functions in our Constitution to prevent tyranny and safeguard our liberties. Chevron deference undoes this deliberate design, paving the way for abusive governance. We’re hopeful that the Court will use this opportunity to overrule Chevron and restore the Founders’ design.”…

They’re keeping it under wraps because if it got out it would hurt their agenda. They know it. We know it.

 

Lawyer believes decision on release of Covenant shooter’s writings could take up to 3 years.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — The debate over whether the Covenant shooter’s writings should be released continues four months after the tragic mass shooting that claimed six innocent lives at a private, elementary school in Nashville.

The court battle has been back and forth for two months now, but one of the lawyers tells FOX 17 News this case may not be resolved for three years.

Nashville Police Chief John Drake says the shooter had a detailed map, drawings of The Covenant School, known entry points, and journals. Almost four months later, the writings have yet to be released, despite public records requests from several organizations which are now suing the Metro government.

“What was going on with The Covenant School shooter? What were the motivating factors? Were there psychological issues? Were there organic issues?” says John Harris, the attorney representing the Tennessee Firearms Association.

TFA is one of several organizations suing for the writings.

Metro Police originally denied the open records citing an open criminal investigation, but Harris believes since the shooter is dead and they haven’t identified another person of interest, that exception doesn’t apply. Plus, Harris feels Metro Police need to comply with The Tennessee Public Records Act.

“Did you think that this whole process would last this long?” asks FOX 17 News’ Amanda Chin.

“Absolutely not. These cases were filed, and we expected that the show cause hearings would’ve taken place as initially scheduled back in May, and here we are almost two months later and the case is nowhere near resolution,” says Harris.

This comes after the judge allowed The Covenant School, church, and parents to intervene and discuss why they feel the writings shouldn’t be released. The petitioners appealed that decision, which is why the judge paused the case for now.

“Do the petitioners take any responsibility for this case lasting so long?” asks Chin.

“I don’t think so. Two of the petitioners are news media outlets and they were extremely concerned with the intervention issues because it proposes to create new exceptions to the public records act that had never existed,” says Harris.

On the other side, most of the Covenant families do not want the writings released, with many penning emotional letters to the judge.

The mother of William Kinney, one of the nine-year-old children who lost his life, believes those who are calling for the release of these records “clearly care nothing about the wellbeing of their fellow humans” and “seek to rob the six murder victims of dignity in their deaths by demanding the release of sensitive details.”

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Code Kept Secret for Years Reveals Its Flaw—a Backdoor
A secret encryption cipher baked into radio systems used by critical infrastructure workers, police, and others around the world is finally seeing sunlight. Researchers say it isn’t pretty.

FOR MORE THAN 25 years, a technology used for critical data and voice radio communications around the world has been shrouded in secrecy to prevent anyone from closely scrutinizing its security properties for vulnerabilities. But now it’s finally getting a public airing thanks to a small group of researchers in the Netherlands who got their hands on its viscera and found serious flaws, including a deliberate backdoor.

The backdoor, known for years by vendors that sold the technology but not necessarily by customers, exists in an encryption algorithm baked into radios sold for commercial use in critical infrastructure. It’s used to transmit encrypted data and commands in pipelines, railways, the electric grid, mass transit, and freight trains. It would allow someone to snoop on communications to learn how a system works, then potentially send commands to the radios that could trigger blackouts, halt gas pipeline flows, or reroute trains.

Researchers found a second vulnerability in a different part of the same radio technology that is used in more specialized systems sold exclusively to police forces, prison personnel, military, intelligence agencies, and emergency services, such as the C2000 communication system used by Dutch police, fire brigades, ambulance services, and Ministry of Defense for mission-critical voice and data communications. The flaw would let someone decrypt encrypted voice and data communications and send fraudulent messages to spread misinformation or redirect personnel and forces during critical times.

Three Dutch security analysts discovered the vulnerabilities—five in total—in a European radio standard called TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio), which is used in radios made by Motorola, Damm, Hytera, and others. The standard has been used in radios since the ’90s, but the flaws remained unknown because encryption algorithms used in TETRA were kept secret until now.

The technology is not widely used in the US, where other radio standards are more commonly deployed. But Caleb Mathis, a consultant with Ampere Industrial Security, conducted open source research for WIRED and uncovered contracts, press releases, and other documentation showing TETRA-based radios are used in at least two dozen critical infrastructures in the US. Because TETRA is embedded in radios supplied through resellers and system integrators like PowerTrunk, it’s difficult to identify who might be using them and for what. But Mathis helped WIRED identify several electric utilities, a state border control agency, an oil refinery, chemical plants, a major mass transit system on the East Coast, three international airports that use them for communications among security and ground crew personnel, and a US Army training base.

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July 27

1189 – En route to the Holy Land during the Third Crusade, Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa I, leading his army, arrives at Niš, the capital of Serbian King Stefan Nemanja for resupply.

1299 – Historians date the day as the founding of the Ottoman state when  Osman I invades the territory of Nicomedia in modern northwest Turkey, for the first time.

1663 – The English Parliament passes the second Navigation Act requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies have to be sent in English ships from English ports.

1775 – The Second Continental Congress passes legislation establishing “an hospital for an army consisting of 20,000 men.”, founding the U.S. Army Medical Department.

1778 – During the Revolutionary War, the British and American ally French fleets fight to a standoff west of the isle of Ushant, at the mouth of the English Channel.

1789 – President Washington signs the legislation establishing The  Department of Foreign Affairs, later to be renamed The Department of State.

1816 – During the Seminole Wars, US Navy Gunboat No. 154 ends the siege of Negro Fort when its cannon fire explodes the fort’s powder magazine

1866 – The first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable is successfully completed, laid from Valentia Island, Ireland, to Heart’s Content, Newfoundland.

1880 – During the Second Anglo-Afghan War, Afghan forces led by Mohammad Ayub Khan defeat the British Army in battle near Maiwand, Afghanistan.

1890 – Vincent van Gogh shoots himself and dies 2 days later.

1919 – The Chicago Race Riot erupts after a racial incident occurred on a South Side beach, leading to 38 fatalities and 537 injuries over 5 days.

1921 – At the University of Toronto, biochemist Frederick Banting proves that the hormone insulin regulates blood sugar.

1929 – The Geneva Convention of 1929, dealing with treatment of prisoners of war, is signed by 53 nations.

1940 – The animated short A Wild Hare is released, introducing the character of Bugs Bunny.

1949 – The de Havilland Comet, the first jet-powered airliner, flies for the first time.

1953 – A cessation of hostilities is achieved in the Korean War when the United States, China, and North Korea sign an armistice agreement.

1964 – 5,000 American military advisers are sent to South Vietnam bringing the total number of United States forces there to 21,000.

1974 – The House Judiciary Committee votes 27 to 11 to recommend the first article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon.

1995 – The Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C..

1996 – In Atlanta, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics.

2002 –  A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes during an air show at Lviv, Ukraine killing 77 people and injuring more than 500 others, to date the deadliest air show disaster in history.

2005 – After an incident during STS-114, launching Shuttle Discovery on the first flight since the Shuttle Columbia disaster,  NASA grounds the Space Shuttle fleet, pending an investigation of the continuing problem with the shedding of foam insulation from the external fuel tank.

Florida judge tosses gun possession cases now that permitless carry is in effect

On July 1st, it became legal in Florida for lawful gun owners to carry a concealed firearm without the need for a government permission slip. While the start of permitless carry hasn’t led to the state devolving into the Wild West or an anarchic dystopia, it has left courts around the state wrestling with what to do about those individuals who were arrested and charged with carrying without a license before the new law took effect.

On Tuesday, an Orange County courtroom was the setting for both a judge and prosecutors to throw out more than a half-dozen cases, though not every defendant is in the clear.

In a rapid-fire hearing Tuesday, an Orange County judge dismissed five cases of people charged with illegally carrying a concealed firearm that began before Florida’s new permit-less carry law took effect, while prosecutors opted to drop charges against two others.

The seven total decisions were made in a nine-minute span, with prosecutors and defense attorneys mostly referring to written arguments and saying little out loud.

Judge Mark Blechman did not give a reasoning when announcing his decision, but the few questions he asked suggested he was following the guidelines set out by the new law.…

So far, attorneys said Orange County’s court system has acted similarly to a roulette wheel, with attorneys getting different outcomes in each court room they argue in.

“I have about five pending right now with motions in various divisions,” Kathleen Gillard, whose client was among Blechman’s dismissals, said. “One judge still has it under advisement. I had watched a hearing last week where another judge granted somebody’s motion.”

Many attorneys have not yet asked their judges to dismiss their cases. Attorney Roger Weeden speculated it was because they were waiting to see how the early rulings would go. It’s estimated that there are hundreds of charges pending in various stages of the court system in Orange and Osceola counties alone.

Weeden said he himself had a half dozen cases he was working to offload, and hoped Tuesday would begin a domino chain.

“The judges are all going to be mindful of what the other judges are doing,” he explained.

Though prosecutors dropped the charge of carrying without a permit in two cases, both defendants are still facing charges for more serious crimes, according to State Attorney Monique Worrell.

The action by Judge Blechman seems like the most appropriate course to take. If the actions of those defendants were against the law when they were arrested, but the law now allows them to legally carry, what benefit is served by bringing them to trial or even offering them a plea deal in exchange for admitting guilt? The criminal justice system in this country is plagued with inefficiency and an over-reliance on plea bargains as it is, and clogging up courtrooms with non-violent, possessory carry cases that are no longer a crime is a terrible use of taxpayer dollars and the finite resources of prosecutors, public defenders, and the judiciary, not to mention a nightmare when it comes to protecting civil rights.

It’s unclear how many of the “hundreds” of outstanding cases around the state are purely possessory in nature, but there’s no reason why judges and/or prosecutors can’t dismiss the charges of carrying without a license while keeping any underlying charges in place. Florida’s criminal justice system, like its legislature, should be focused on delivering consequences for crimes of violence, not fueling infringements on our fundamental right to bear arms that have since been wiped off the books.

St. Louis and D.C. Show Gun Control Isn’t About Public Safety

With many prominent government officials exhibiting a flagrant indifference to violent crime, it’s getting harder for anti-gun politicians to pretend that their gun control schemes are anything other than a means to harass law-abiding gun owners. Recent incidents from anti-gun jurisdictions St. Louis and the District of Columbia further illustrate this point.

According to the station, Jones texted her father, “Chicago has strict gun laws as well but that doesn’t deter gun violence.” Jones put more faith in social programs, texting, “It’s about investing in the people.”

These once-private comments are a stark contrast to Jones’ public statements and actions. Jones is a co-chair of billionaire Michael Bloomberg front-group Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns (MAIG). MAIG, along with Moms Demand Action, are part of the Bloomberg gun control conglomerate Everytown for Gun Safety.

The mayor also supported a “federal Red Flag law.” As enacted, red flag laws empower the government to confiscate a law-abiding person’s firearms without due process.

As NRA-ILA has repeatedly pointed out, despite having some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, the District of Columbia has exhibited little interest in prosecuting those who misuse firearms.

A December 2021 study from the federal enclave’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) found that “In Washington, DC, most gun violence is tightly concentrated.” The report went on to explain,

This small number of very high risk individuals are identifiable, their violence is predictable, and therefore it is preventable. Based on the assessment of data and the series of interviews conducted, [National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform] estimates that within a year, there are at least 500 identifiable people who rise to this level of very high risk, and likely no more than 200 at any one given time. These individuals comprise approximately 60-70% of all gun violence in the District.

According to the report, “Approximately 86 percent of homicide victims and suspects were known to the criminal justice system prior to the incident. Among all victims and suspects, about 46 percent had been previously incarcerated.” Further, “most victims and suspects with prior criminal offenses had been arrested about 11 times for about 13 different offenses by the time of the homicide.”

Data in a 2023 D.C. Sentencing Commission report revealed that out of a total of 5,558 MPD arrests for carrying a pistol without a license (CPWL) made between 2018 and 2022, 56.6% (3,146 cases) were “no papered” (“the prosecuting authority… elected not to immediately file charges in Superior Court related to the arrest”) or were closed without a conviction. Only 97 cases (1.74%) ultimately resulted in a prison sentence. The figures on arrests and dispositions for “unlawful possession of a firearm” (UPF) offenses show the odds in favor of lawbreakers were pretty good, too. Out of 2,149 total arrests made for UPF crimes in the same time period, the majority (62.6%, or 1,346 cases) were “no papered” or closed without a conviction. Of the remaining cases that resulted in a conviction and sentencing for UPF, only 14.5% (312 cases) concluded with the offender behind bars.

Sometimes an individual case can illustrate an issue better than a mountain of statistics.

On July 5, a high school social studies teacher visiting the federal enclave from Kentucky was shot to death on Catholic University’s campus during a robbery. At least some of the incident was captured by surveillance cameras. Police announced on July 11 that they had arrested a suspect in the case. Further, police say that they have matched the suspect’s DNA to a ski mask found at the scene of the crime.

Reporting on the suspect’s criminal record, Washington, D.C.’s NBC affiliate noted, “Public records show [the suspect] has a lengthy criminal history. He was arrested five times since 2019 and was convicted of carrying a pistol without a license, burglary and threats.”

The Washington Post elaborated, reporting,

D.C. police arrested [the suspect] during a traffic stop in 2019 and charged him with having an illegal firearm after finding a .40-caliber Glock loaded with 15 hollow-point bullets tucked under a sweater.

Court records show he pleaded guilty to carrying an unlicensed gun and was sentenced to probation, with a one-year prison term suspended. Those records show he violated the terms of his release and in 2020 was resentenced to six months in jail.

Authorities said that after his release, he continued to violate his release conditions, alleging that he failed to report to the probation office, among other issues. A hearing on those violations is scheduled for July 18.

Washington, D.C.’s FOX affiliate shared more details on a pair of 2022 incidents involving the suspect, reporting,

In May 2022 [the suspect] was charged after getting into a shootout with a neighbor and in August 2022, he was arrested with making threats of bodily harm to a 7-Eleven employee. He was convicted in March 2022 and released.

In the shootout case, investigators say an unregistered Ghost Gun was used. However, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. essentially dropped charges against [the suspect] after his attorney argued [the suspect] fired at his neighbor in self-defense. Charges were dropped in June, but a trial date had been set for July 10 — five days after Emerson was killed.

Targeting so-called “ghost guns” was purportedly so important to Mayor Muriel Bowser that in 2020 the District of Columbia enacted “Emergency Ghost Gun Legislation.”

The recent episodes in St. Louis and Washington, D.C. make clear that decisions to push gun control have little to do with public safety. Gun control offers unscrupulous politicians and their supporters a way to deflect from the repercussions of their own woeful mismanagement while often targeting the constituents of their political rivals.

Appears personal to me.

Man suspected of shooting and injuring Dallas-area doctor was then shot and injured by police

CEDAR HILL, Texas (AP) — A man suspected of shooting and injuring a doctor at a Dallas-area medical building was shot and injured Tuesday by police officers after his vehicle was involved in a crash with another vehicle and officers could see he had a long gun, police said.

Police in Cedar Hill, located just southwest of Dallas, said that officers were dispatched at 12:17 p.m. to Methodist Family Health Center after getting a call about a person with a gun in the building. A minute later, the dispatcher heard a gunshot.

The first officer arrived at 12:21 p.m. and saw a doctor on the ground in front of the building with a gunshot wound, police said. Police said that another officer saw a man with a long gun leaving the scene, police said. Police said that the officer then relayed the suspect’s vehicle information to other officers. At 12:22 p.m., the suspect’s vehicle was involved in a crash just down the road.

Police said that after the crash, the suspect still had the long gun and five officers fired their weapons toward him.

The doctor who was injured was in stable condition at Methodist Dallas Medical Center, while the suspect was in critical condition, police said. The driver of the car the suspect’s vehicle was in a collision with was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

 

This gets verified and replicated and away we go to the races…

The First Room-Temperature Ambient-Pressure Superconductor

Sukbae Lee, Ji-Hoon Kim, Young-Wan Kwon

For the first time in the world, we succeeded in synthesizing the room-temperature superconductor (Tc≥400 K, 127∘C) working at ambient pressure with a modified lead-apatite (LK-99) structure. The superconductivity of LK-99 is proved with the Critical temperature (Tc), Zero-resistivity, Critical current (Ic), Critical magnetic field (Hc), and the Meissner effect.

The superconductivity of LK-99 originates from minute structural distortion by a slight volume shrinkage (0.48 %), not by external factors such as temperature and pressure. The shrinkage is caused by Cu2+ substitution of Pb2+(2) ions in the insulating network of Pb(2)-phosphate and it generates the stress.

It concurrently transfers to Pb(1) of the cylindrical column resulting in distortion of the cylindrical column interface, which creates superconducting quantum wells (SQWs) in the interface. The heat capacity results indicated that the new model is suitable for explaining the superconductivity of LK-99.

The unique structure of LK-99 that allows the minute distorted structure to be maintained in the interfaces is the most important factor that LK-99 maintains and exhibits superconductivity at room temperatures and ambient pressure.

Judge vacates Bowe Bergdahl’s desertion conviction

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — A federal judge on Tuesday vacated the military conviction of Bowe Bergdahl, a former U.S. Army soldier who pleaded guilty to desertion after he left his post and was captured in Afghanistan and tortured by the Taliban.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton in Washington says that military judge Jeffrey Nance, who presided over the court-martial, failed to disclose that he had applied to the executive branch for a job as an immigration judge, creating a potential conflict of interest.

Walton noted that former President Donald Trump had strongly criticized Bergdahl during the 2016 presidential campaign. Bergdahl’s lawyers argued that Trump’s comments placed undue command influence on Nance.

Walton rejected the specific argument surrounding undue command influence, but he said a reasonable person could question the judge’s impartiality under the circumstances.

Bergdahl was charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after the then-23-year-old from Hailey, Idaho, left his post in Afghanistan in 2009. He said he was trying to get outside his post so he could report what he saw as poor leadership within his unit, but he was abducted by the Taliban and held captive for nearly five years.

During that time, Bergdahl was repeatedly tortured and beaten with copper wires, rubber hoses and rifle butts. After several escape attempts, he was imprisoned in a small cage for four years, according to court documents.

Several U.S. service members were wounded searching for Bergdahl. In 2014, he was returned to the U.S. in a prisoner swap for five Taliban leaders who were being held at Guantanamo Bay.

The swap faced criticism from Trump, then-Sen. John McCain and others. Both Trump and McCain called for Bergdahl to face severe punishment.

In 2017, he pleaded guilty to both charges. Prosecutors at his court-martial sought 14 years in prison, but he was given no time after he submitted evidence of the torture he suffered while in Taliban custody. He was dishonorably discharged and ordered to forfeit $10,000 in pay.

His conviction and sentence had been narrowly upheld by military appeals courts before his lawyers took the case to U.S. District Court, resulting in Tuesday’s ruling.

The Justice Department declined comment on the ruling Tuesday.

Eugene Fidell, one of Bergdahl’s lawyers, said he was gratified by the ruling and said Walton’s 63-page opinion shows how meticulous he was in rendering the ruling.

Calls and emails to the immigration court in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Nance now serves as an immigration judge, were not returned Tuesday evening.

July 26

920 – During the Reconquista, the armies of the alliance of Navarre and Léon lose in battle against the moslem army of the Emir of Córdoba at Valdejunquera.

1139 – During the Reconquista, the day after defeating the moslem army of Ali ibn Yusuf, Prince Afonso Henriques is proclaimed Afonso o Conquistador, King of Portugal.

1529 – Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro is appointed governor of Peru.

1758 – During the French and Indian War, British forces are victorious in their siege of the French Fortress of Louisbourg on Nova Scotia and complete taking control of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

1579 – English explorer Francis Drake, on his voyage of circumnavigation, discovers a major bay on the coast of California -modern day San Francisco Bay.

1775 – Benjamin Franklin takes office as Postmaster General as the United States Post Office is established by the Second Continental Congress.

1788 – New York ratifies the U.S. Constitution.

1861 – General George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.

1863 – At Salineville, Ohio, Confederate cavalry under the command of General John Hunt Morgan are captured by Union forces.

1908 – Attorney General Charles Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner, later to be renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

1941 – In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indochina, the United States, Britain and the Netherlands freeze all Japanese assets and cut off oil shipments.

1945 – The Potsdam Declaration defining the terms of surrender required of Imperial Japan – basically unconditional – is signed in Germany by the leaders of the U.S., the UK and China. The USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian island with the components for the Little Boy nuclear bomb.

1947 – President Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council.

1948 – President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the military of the United States.

1953 – Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, starting the Cuban Revolution.

1963 – NASA’s communications satellite, Syncom 2 is launched from Cape Canaveral to become the world’s first geosynchronous satellite.

1971 – Apollo 15 is launched as the first Apollo “J-Mission”, with the first Lunar Roving Vehicle stowed aboard the LM Falcon. 

1990 – The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is signed into law by President Bush.

2005 – Shuttle Discovery is launched on mission STS-114 as the first flight after the Columbia Disaster in 2003.

2016 – Hillary Clinton becomes the first female nominee for President  by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Solar Impulse 2, piloted alternately by André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard,  becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth.