Free Republic

On May 9, 2024, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit published a split decision vacating the conviction of Steven Duarte for violating 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) makes it a crime for any person to possess a firearm if he has been convicted of an offense “punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” Steven Duarte, who has five prior non-violent state criminal convictions—all punishable for more than a year—was charged and convicted under § 922(g)(1) after police saw him toss a handgun out of the window of...

Bidenites believe they can reelect an unhealthy, unpopular, and unsuccessful president by any means necessary. And they may be right. Joe Biden polls at or below 40 percent approval. Historically, such unpopularity has made it almost impossible for a president to be reelected. His age advances by the hour. His voice falters, his memory fades, and his gait is reduced to short steps, with his arms, winglike and in tandem, offering balance. Biden is not so much an octogenarian as an unhealthy and prematurely aging 80-year-old. It is America’s irony that he is fit for almost no other job in...

A stalwart in the West Virginia Republican Party for decades lost his primary race on Tuesday night due in part to his support of a controversial bill that critics say would provide healthcare for illegal immigrants, according to a group that actively campaigned against him. West Virginia GOP State Sen. Craig Blair, the president of the state senate who has served as a state senator since 2013 and in the legislature for years before that, lost to his primary challenger Tom Willis on Tuesday night, WV Metro News reported. Stand For Us PAC, a group that put $1 million into...

Sacramento State police are warning students of an on-campus sexual battery. A release from the university's police department said the assault happened around 9:20 p.m. on May 8. A person squeezed another person's buttocks while they were walking down the Hornet Tunnel. The police department said that the person believed to be responsible for the battery has since been seen loitering in the tunnel since then. The person is described as a male who is 5 feet, 9 inches tall, wearing a dark baseball hat and a black hoodie that says, "I am Black History" in the front. He also...

West Virginia voters ousted the Republican state Senate president on Tuesday, as well as a doctor who drew fire for breaking with his party over school vaccination policy. They were among at least eight incumbent GOP legislators who lost in the state's primary elections.

As we've noted in the past, Mika Brzezinski has expressed concerns over the fragile psyche of her husband and co-host Joe Scarborough, at one point ordering him to take an extended break from the show. Mika might be inclined to give Joe another long time-out after his disturbed and disturbing performance on Wednesday's Morning Joe. Scarborough absolutely freaked out [see screencap and Mika's stone-faced reaction] over a New York Times/Siena poll showing Trump leading in five out of six swing states. Scarborough was dead serious when he accused the Times of rigging the polls against Biden in order to write...

A voting rights lawsuit that could cost Texas Democrats seats across all levels of government received a hearing Tuesday by the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, known as the most conservative federal appellate court in the country. The Galveston County redistricting case is challenging how the appellate court has previously interpreted the Voting Rights Act, which was passed to protect individual minority groups but has been “twisted” for political advantage. At issue is whether Section 2 of the law requires the county to create a majority-minority district by grouping a “coalition” of black and Hispanic voters....

A judge has ordered a redo of the November 2022 election between Tami Pierce and DaSean Jones for the 180th District Court in Harris County after finding far more illegal votes were cast in the race than the margin of victory. Pierce, a Republican, contested her 449-vote loss to Democrat incumbent Jones in January 2023, but the case was delayed for nearly a year by a motion to dismiss filed by Jones. Judge David Peeples, a visiting judge from San Antonio, ruled Wednesday that the true outcome of the election cannot be determined and ordered a new election. Following a...

The World Health Organization has accused Nigel Farage of spreading misinformation after he launched a campaign to block an international treaty designed to improve global pandemic preparedness. WHO member states are negotiating a deal to shore up cooperation against new pathogens. If adopted, the legally binding treaty would commit countries to helping each other in the event of a pandemic, increase research and sharing of data, and promote fair access to vaccines. But populist figures including Farage and a number of Tory MPs are lobbying the UK government to block the deal, claiming that it will give the WHO power...

Turkey was in "constant contact" with and supports Hamas, which is not a terrorist group, said the Turkish leader. ... Erdoğan has made a habit of comparing Netanyahu and Israel to Hitler and the Nazis... Last week, Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Erdoğan of acting like a “dictator” by blocking the country’s ports to Israeli imports and exports as part of a trade war. “This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements,” tweeted Katz. Erdoğan’s government, which openly supports Hamas in its war against Israel, announced export restrictions...

A Swastika scrawled by a pupil in a classroom has raised parents' fears that children are being brainwashed into anti-Semitism by pro-Palestinian activists. The crude graffiti at a Brighton comprehensive was last night being investigated by police. The image, in marker pen on the back of a plastic chair, has been visible at Patcham High School for several weeks. Alarmed parents alerted the headteacher over the weekend to the 'frightening' development. A family with children at the school, said: 'Pupils have been targeted by pro-Palestinian activists in our area. They are making massive efforts to radicalise British children into anti-Semitic...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, the Silicon Valley investor Nicole Shanahan, said on Wednesday night that she had given another $8 million to their independent presidential campaign as it carries out the expensive endeavor of gaining ballot access across the country and tries to propel Mr. Kennedy onto debate stages. Ms. Shanahan’s new donation, which she announced at a comedy fund-raiser in Nashville, brings her total contribution to the campaign to $10 million, not including the $4 million she gave to a super PAC backing Mr. Kennedy to help pay for a Super Bowl advertisement early this year. Ms....

Lawyers for E. Jean Carroll have asked a federal appeals court to expedite Donald Trump’s appeal of the verdict in their first trial in which a jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages after finding Trump liable for defamation and battery in May 2023. Carroll wants to see the oral arguments for the appeal scheduled to take place by July, arguing that the former president will try to further delay the proceedings, using his ongoing criminal trial or busy campaign schedule as an excuse. The motion with the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals filed Tuesday cites Trump’s numerous attempts...

In an interview posted on on Tuesday, Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that he’s changed his position on third-trimester abortions. This came after he said in an interview that he supports a woman's right to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. Kennedy made the remarks in an interview with comedians Shane Gillis and Matt McCusker this week. "There's no way you can change my mind by calling me names or criticizing me or by marginalizing or vilifying me. But, you can always change my mind with facts,” Kennedy said. “If you […] show me I'm wrong...

When Hunter Biden's laptop, with all its crazy photographs and incriminating emails, came to light before the 2020 presidential election, the media colluded to ignore the story completely, dubbing the laptop Russian disinformation. If you dared to speak of it on social media, you were lucky if your posts would just be suppressed or censored instead of having your account disabled. The laptop was, of course, completely genuine, and the mainstream media conveniently (and quietly) only admitted so after the election.Another incriminating Biden family artifact that was made public during the campaign was the Ashley Biden diary, which, like the...

Ohio is launching additional measures to ensure foreign nationals aren’t voting in elections, the state’s leading election official announced Tuesday.According to an office press release, LaRose, a Republican, issued a directive to the state’s 88 county boards of elections “initiating a confirmation and removal process of non-citizens from the state’s voter registration rolls.” LaRose’s office will also be taking further steps to “conduct an annual review of the statewide voter registration database to identify persons who appear not to be United States citizens,” as required by state law. “It is my duty under the law to uphold the constitution, and...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a Colombian migrant in Massachusetts last week who was wanted for homicide, according to the agency. A Colombian court had given him a 17-year sentence in 2016 for aggravated homicide, aggravated theft and possession of a weapon. The migrant allegedly crossed the southern border near San Luis, Arizona, without being inspected, admitted or paroled by U.S. immigration officials. Upon his arrest by Border Patrol in November, he received a notice to appear before an immigration judge and was released on an order of recognizance, according to ICE. Last month, the House Homeland Security committee said...

The Trump campaign and the GOP are suing to stop Nevada’s forgiving law allowing mail ballots to be counted four days after Election Day.As a Nevada law allowing mail ballots received up to four days after Election Day to be counted faces a legal challenge, a fresh look at Nevada’s 2022 vote count reveals the potentially election-flipping number of mail ballots that were counted despite arriving after Election Day. In just Clark County, nearly 40,000 mail ballots were counted that arrived in the days after voting supposedly ended, roughly 5 percent of the county’s total ballot count. In that same...

Have changes in the economy impacted you personally this year? I am doing the same financially as I was at this time last year (25 Votes, 19.53%) • I am doing worse financially than I was this time last year (82 Votes, 64.06%) • I am doing better financially than I was at this time last year (21 Votes, 16.41%) Do you support or oppose recent pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses? Oppose (69 Votes, 71.13%) • Support (11 Votes, 11.34%) • Not sure (17 Votes, 17.53%) In the Middle East Situation, are your sympathies more with the Israelis or...

A group of radical pro-Palestinian activists took over a building at the University of California Berkeley on Wednesday, just hours after administrators and protesters struck a deal to end a weeks-long “encampment.” The Daily Californian, the UC Berkeley student newspaper, reported: A group of pro-Palestine protesters broke in and took over Anna Head Alumnae Hall on Wednesday afternoon. The protesters — gathering in a group of about 30 by 3:15 p.m. — hung up the Palestinian flag as well as boards reading “Free Gaza” and “Avenge Al Shifa.” [Al-Shifa is a hospital in Gaza that was taken over by terrorists,...