Free Republic

SANFORD, Fla. — WFTV has learned charges against George Zimmerman could be getting more serious. State prosecutors said Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman, profiled and stalked 17-year-old Trayvon Martin before killing him, so the FBI is now looking into charging him with a hate crime. Zimmerman admitted to killing Martin in February during a confrontation. However, he claims the shooting was in self-defense. He's facing a second-degree murder charge, which carries a maximum possible sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. In the meantime, FBI investigators are actively questioning witnesses in the retreat at the Twin Lakes neighborhood,...

The "Occupy" movement, which the Obama administration and much of the media have embraced, has implications that reach far beyond the passing sensation it has created. The unwillingness of authorities to put a stop to their organized disruptions of other people's lives, their trespassing, vandalism and violence is a de facto suspension, if not repeal, of the 14th Amendment's requirement that the government provide "equal protection of the laws" to all its citizens. How did the "Occupy" movement acquire such immunity from the laws that the rest of us are expected to obey? Simply by shouting politically correct slogans...

NASHVILLE - Ali Bokhari, now 39, emigrated from Pakistan in 2000 and eventually settled here as a taxi driver. He soon experienced a quintessentially American itch, a nagging sense that “I cannot grow.” But he had an idea: “I can build a better business model for something Nashville has been missing.” He built it and now knows that no good deed goes unpunished by today’s political model — collusion between entrenched businesses and compliant government. ... Represented by the Austin office of the Institute for Justice, the nation’s only libertarian public interest law firm, Bokhari is seeking judicial recognition of...

There is a short phrase, just four words, inscribed up above the main entryway into United States Supreme Court, "Equal Justice Under Law." I took note of this inscription on April 1, 2003, when my case, Gratz v. Bollinger, and a companion case, Grutter v. Bollinger, were heard by the high court. My case challenged affirmative action policies in admissions at the University of Michigan's undergraduate school; Barb Grutter's challenged affirmative action policies at the law school. By the time my case was heard by the Supreme Court the University of Michigan admitted that their affirmative action policy gave a...

It’s time for the Supreme Court to negate affirmative actionDefenders of racially-based preferential treatment argue that affirmative action was part of the original intent of the framers of the 14th Amendment. They should study more history. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case on race-conscious admission policies in the Texas public-university system. Abigail Noel Fisher sued the University of Texas in 2008 when her application was rejected when less academically qualified minority students were accepted. Ms. Fisher argues the race-based admissions policy violated her rights under the 14th Amendment, specifically the equal protection clause which says no...

A new, potentially, game-changing factor has crept into the GOP presidential race. It used to be enough to win the pro-life caucus goers and primary voters to be for overturning Roe. That may be about to change. If it does, all bets on whether Mitt Romney and Rick Perry will remain front-runners are off. Why might the nearly-dormant Life issue come back to, well, liven and shake things up? A fissure has opened on this issue. The candidates are in agreement on the core anti-spending, anti-tax, anti-regulatory issues and, with the exception of outlier Ron Paul, on foreign policy. The...

Democrats have no shame, but this is a new low even for them. Recent talk from Democrats, especially Congressional Black Caucus,(CBC) members about having Barack Obama cite imaginary powers they find in the 14th Amendment as a way to rule by fiat are just flat out hypocritical. CBC member Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina clearly laid out the Democrats case for dumping our democracy and crowning Obama king so he can spend every last dollar we have. He said, “I’ve said time and time again, if the President gets up to August 2nd, without a piece of legislation, he...

The Democratic members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) urged President Obama on Saturday to sidestep Congress and hike the nation's $14.3 trillion debt limit on his own. In a letter to the president, the lawmakers argue that he has "both the authority and a moral obligation" to invoke the Constitution's 14th Amendment "to avoid an economic catastrophe of historic proportions." "We must not allow a political deadlock to cause the United States to default for the first time in our history," the CBC members wrote. "Now that Congress has borrowed money and incurred debt, we cannot – as a...

“I’ve talked to my lawyers,” President Obama said in explaining his dismissal of the argument that Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment authorizes him to raise the debt ceiling if Congress fails to act. “They are not persuaded that that is a winning argument.” But who are President Obama’s cowering lawyers, and why would the former constitutional law professor defer to their overly cautious prediction that the Supreme Court would rule against Obama if asked to adjudicate a dispute between the president and Congress? In fact, it’s far more likely that the Court would refuse to hear the case. And...

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Friday he still believes it is possible to get a debt deal completed to meet the Aug. 2 default deadline. "We still believe that we can get this done in time to meet the deadline of August 2nd," Carney told reporters, saying there needs to be a compromise agreement to break a partisan stalemate. Carney reiterated that the White House would consider agreeing to lift the debt ceiling for a few days if needed to finish a deal.

There is growing pressure on President Obama to simply declare an increase in the debt ceiling by executive order and tell everyone else: Deal with it. “If nothing passes out of here and the president is sitting at his desk on Aug. 2 with no legislation, what should he do to make sure that the country doesn’t go into default?” asks Rep. James Clyburn (D) of South Carolina, the third ranking House Democrat. “Every president has used executive power to do big things,” he adds, citing President Truman’s integrating the Armed Forces and President Eisenhower’s integrating public schools. Invoking the...

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) on Friday ramped up growing Democratic pressure on the White House to consider invoking the Fourteenth Amendment to raise the debt ceiling. "Is there anything that prohibits him from doing that? The answer is no," Harkin said. The White House has been going about the idea the wrong way by asking whether the amendment legally gives the president the power to raise the debt ceiling without Congressional authority, according to Harkin. Although President Obama indicated last week that his lawyers had looked into the legality of the so-called “Fourteenth Amendment solution,” he said they were “not...

President Obama should invoke the 14th Amendment to hike the debt ceiling unilaterally as a last resort to prevent a government default, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday. "It's arguably his power to do so," Hoyer told MSNBC. "Very frankly, if it came down to his looking default in the eye on Tuesday or taking this action, as President Clinton said, better to take the action and find out later that perhaps he went beyond his authority but at least protected the credibility of the United States of America," he said. The remarks align Hoyer with a number...

What President Barack Hussein Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, by how he is talking, it sure sounds like the Obama White House and the Democrats are getting desperate. It is a sure sign that the Democrats with President Obama are on “the ropes”. The is should come as no surprise because it is a sign that the American people are starting to scream out to the White House, Senate, and House that ENOUGH is ENOUGH. What start with many tea party movement protests going back to early 2009, has come to this late week and the efforts to resolve the...

Calm down. The US will not miss a coupon payment on its $14.3tn debt next Wednesday. A genuine default would be “Lehman on Steroids” in the words of Ex-Treasury secretary Larry Summers. Precisely for that reason President Obama will not pull the trigger, EVEN IF the debt ceiling talks break down in acrimony. Obama still has a clutch of cards to play, in extremis. As Yves Smith from Naked Capitalism argues, the White House can challenge the constitutionality of the debt ceiling in Congress. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution states that the “validity of the public debt of the...

Bill Clinton recently revealed that if he were in office now that he would “without hesitation” use the 14th Amendment to justify ignoring the congressional debt limit. He was less clear about whether he thought it was constitutional, claiming that he would force the courts to rule on the issue. Here’s how the former president framed his argument: “I think the Constitution is clear and I think this idea that the Congress gets to vote twice on whether to pay for [expenditures] it has appropriated is crazy… [Lifting the debt ceiling] is necessary to pay for appropriations already made.” This...

Bill Clinton: I'd use 14th Amendment By: Jennifer Epstein July 19, 2011 06:25 AM EDT Former President Bill Clinton would invoke the 14th Amendment - “without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me,” he says - to raise the debt ceiling if he were in President Barack Obama’s shoes, with the deadline to raise the limit just two weeks away. “I think the Constitution is clear and I think this idea that the Congress gets to vote twice on whether to pay for [expenditures] it has appropriated is crazy,” Clinton said in an interview with journalist Joe Conason. Clinton...

Lo and behold! As we celebrated this Fourth of July amid the debt-ceiling fight, the netroots and progressive pundits suddenly discovered the Constitution’s relevance in fiscal matters. It doesn’t seem like that long ago — because it wasn’t that long ago — that they ridiculed the very idea of constitutional limits on Congress in economic policymaking, and even mocked the GOP’s public reading of the Constitution at the beginning of the current session. Of the new House rule requiring a statement of the constitutional authority for bills, Ian Millhiser wrote at ThinkProgress that “the constitutional lunatics are now in charge...

Remember when George W. Bush....after using it's reflection to groom his Hitler stash...would wave his scepter and declare stuff conservatives didn't like unconstitutional? Law professors, Democratic senators and liberal commentators have recently raised a tantalizing possibility for ending the congressional wrangling over raising the federal limit on borrowing: President Obama could simply declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional and be done with it. Advocates of this approach cite the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which states that the “validity of the public debt of the United States...shall not be questioned.�From The Washington Post What an explosive revelation to make after...

US citizenship is the most sought after commodity on the market today. Yes, you read correctly, "commodity". Where else in the world can one go and be paid to retire, living off of other people's property, when they have no work history? Where else can one go to have a baby and then, in the name of that baby, reap the property of those they have no loyalty or allegiance to? Where else in the world can one enter illegally and not be subject to the laws thereof? Why the good ole' US of Despotism of course! The doctrine of...

UNITED STATES CONSTITUTIONARTICLE IISec 5 No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. Nearly a year ago now, Mark R. Levin with all his constitutional expertise stated the dual citizenship is not 14th Amendment citizenship. Rather it is citizenship by statute. If so, the how...

AUGUSTA, Maine -- Gov. Paul LePage is facing more opposition to the removal of murals from the Maine Department of Labor, this time in the form of a lawsuit. It was filed late Friday afternoon. Attorney Jeff Young filing the lawsuit against LePage; Laura Boyette, acting commissioner, Maine Department of Labor and Joseph Phillips, director of the Maine State Museum. The mural was removed from the Maine Department of Labor's Augusta office in late March. It is being stored in a building off Route 27 in Augusta that is being rented by the state. LePage had ordered the mural be...

The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus filed a lawsuit Monday against the state of Georgia seeking to dissolve the city charters of Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, Milton and Chattahoochee Hills. Further, the lawmakers, joined by civil rights leader the Rev. Joseph Lowery, aim to dash any hopes of a Milton County. The lawsuit, filed in a North Georgia U.S. District Court Monday, claims that the state circumvented the normal legislative process and set aside its own criteria when creating the “super-majority white ” cities within Fulton and DeKalb counties. The result, it argues, is to dilute minority votes in those...

Leo Donofrio and friend uncover a definitive statement of the definition of the term "natural born citizen" on the House Floor in 1872 by John Bingham the principal framer of the 14th amendment.

During a debate (see pg. 2791) regarding a certain Dr. Houard, who had been incarcerated in Spain, the issue was raised on the floor of the House of Representatives as to whether the man was a US citizen. Representative Bingham (of Ohio), stated on the floor: “As to the question of citizenship I am willing to resolve all doubts in favor of a citizen of the United States. That Dr. Houard is a natural-born citizen of the United States there is not room for the shadow of a doubt. He was born of naturalized parents within the jurisdiction of the...

"Jeffrey Toobin Issued False Legal Statements to Anderson Cooper Regarding Vattel and the 14th Amendment. With natural born citizen legislation racing through 11 state legislatures, truthful legal analysis is more important than ever. False statements issued on CNN yesterday via an Anderson Cooper interview with Jeffrey Toobin demand correction. CNN, should they not immediately correct the false statements, will be privy to the stench of propaganda. Jeffrey Toobin, alleged to be a “CNN Senior Legal Analyst”, gave a clearly false description of Vattel’s definition of “natural born citizen”. Toobin stated that the Vattel definition requires a person to be born...

Reps. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), John Campbell (R-Calif.), and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) have cosponsored the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 introduced by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). All four Members signed onto the bill shortly after it was introduced in the 112th Congress. The bill currently has 56 cosponsors and amends current U.S. code to require at least one parent to be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident for a new born to receive automatic citizenship. The Fourteenth Amendment extends citizenship to all persons born in the U.S. and "subject to the jurisdiction"; it also grants Congress the...

While 2010’s immigration debate centered on the controversial Arizona law, 2011’s promises to be focused on a different — and even more explosive — topic: birthright citizenship. Kris Kobach, the recently elected Kansas secretary of state, is a lawyer and professor of law who specializes in immigration issues. The architect of Arizona’s SB-1070, he is the legal mind behind two new proposals to challenge the automatic granting of citizenship to any child born in the United States, regardless of the legal status of his parents. The first proposal is state-level legislation that would not affect the federal citizenship of an...

As the new Congress convened, a group called State Legislators for Legal Immigration proposed two laws. One would declare that children of parents who immigrated here illegally are not born "subject to the jurisdiction" of the U.S. and so are not birthright citizens under the 14th Amendment. Under the other, states would issue two types of birth certificates, one for those born "subject to the jurisdiction" of the U.S. and one for everyone else. The states have no power to pass the first proposed law. Congress may be able to, but it is a bad idea that will not halt...

Americans abhor extremism. It is the reason our democracy has lasted for more than 200 years and why we have rejected both socialism and right-wing radicalism. American political parties have generally hewed to the center, unlike their European counterparts, so that even major political shifts moved the country only from center right (as in the Reagan and Bush administrations) to center left (as in the current administration). It is a lesson that both parties should take to heart, but one that poses special problems for the Republicans as one group of extremists attempts to hijack the GOP on a single...

Steve King Moves Forward on Bill to End Birthright CitizenshipPosted by Stephanie Condon January 6, 2011 10:13 AM Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa, marking his first day as head of a House immigration panel, introduced a bill on Wednesday to end the practice of birthright citizenship. The bill would amend section 301 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to clarify those classes of individuals born in the United States who are nationals and citizens of the United States at birth. It's generally thought that the 14th Amendment provides a constitutional guarantee of citizenship for anyone born in the United...

"State Lawmakers Take On Birthright Citizenship WASHINGTON — Conservative lawmakers from five state legislatures launched a joint campaign on Wednesday to try to cancel automatic United States citizenship for the American-born children of illegal immigrants. At a news conference here, Republican legislators unveiled two model measures they said would be introduced in at least 14 states. One was a bill clarifying the terms of citizenship in those states to exclude babies born here of illegal immigrant parents. The second was a compact between states to adopt common positions on the issue. The lawmakers acknowledged that the state bills were not...

Arizona state politicians will introduce model legislation this week to encourage states to prevent children of illegal immigrants from being granted citizenship under the 14th Amendment. Lawmakers in at least 14 states have said they are committed to passing the legislation targeting birthright citizenship. Arizona's anti-illegal-immigrant bill, SB-1070, was also based on model legislation that could be easily copied by states, and at least seven states are likely to pass bills similar to the first Arizona immigration overhaul this year, according to one analysis by an immigrants rights group. Arizona state Senator Russell Pearce will unveil the bill Jan. 5...

Like any responsible pregnant woman, Chen Lei (not her real name) wants the best for her unborn child. She and her husband live in Shanghai; both work for a foreign IT company, and they have more choices than their parents' generation could even dream of. So Chen, 30, is one of an increasing number of mainland Chinese women who are taking advantage of a loophole in American law to travel to the United States to give birth. "Most Chinese women who go to the U.S. to give birth do so for their child's future, for the education, and for the...

Jackson: Obama must tend to black vote By: James Hohmann October 27, 2010 05:38 PM EDT www.politico.com ________________________ __________________ The Rev. Jesse Jackson thinks President Barack Obama could increase black turnout next week, and thus limit Democratic losses, by promising a second economic stimulus that includes funding for urban renewal. The civil rights leader faults the Democratic Party for waiting too late to advertise in key races and laments the president’s failure to better sell his accomplishments. But he said there might still be time to stop Republicans from winning control of the House. “The black vote, which is bigger...

Illegal Immigration: Lawmakers in 14 states are joining to restore the intended meaning of the 14th Amendment: that being a U.S. citizen requires more than just your mother sneaking past the Border Patrol. The architect of Arizona's immigration law, SB2070, announced Tuesday a new crusade to correct what he perceives as an unfortunate misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment that allows children of illegal immigrant parents to be considered U.S. citizens if they're born on U.S. soil. "This is a battle of epic proportions," Mesa Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce said. "We've allowed the hijacking of the 14th Amendment." He says...

Lawmakers in at least 14 states are collaborating on proposed legislation to deny U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants, according to lawmakers, including the sponsor of Arizona's 2010 law targeting illegal immigration. "We're taking a leadership role on things that need to be fixed in America. We can't get Congress to do it," Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce, of Mesa, said Tuesday. "It's a national work group so that we have model legislation that we know will be successful, that meets the constitutional criteria." The efforts by the state legislators come amid calls to change the U.S. Constitution's 14th...

With the U.S. midterm elections five weeks away, the Tea Party movement is already the big winner of 2010. This anti-government, grass-roots Republican offshoot has rattled the party establishment — making the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, the party’s most prominent 2012 presidential possibility — and has dominated the debate this campaign season. The Tea Partiers believe they are on the cutting edge of a revolution: the “future of politics,” as Ms. Palin says. More likely, they are a short-term catalyst for Republicans and a long-term problem. Nevertheless, their victories are impressive — toppling the Republican Party’s choices in...

Las Vegas copyright enforcement company Righthaven LLC has suffered a legal setback, with the newest federal judge in Las Vegas ruling one of the Righthaven defendants may have a meritorious defense in arguing the Las Vegas Review-Journal provides an "implied license" for the online reposting of its stories. U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro on Friday granted a request by defendant Jan Klerks of Chicago that a clerk's default against him be set aside so he can fight the Righthaven lawsuit -- a motion Righthaven had opposed.

The explosion of an issue on the national scene often seems to come from nowhere. That is really a misconception; what more accurately defines the process is that the issue bubbles to the surface of our culture and finally reaches what is called a “tipping point.” The definition of “tipping point” is the moment at which an object is displaced from a state of stable equilibrium into a new and different state. That has now occurred with what has become known as “anchor babies,” and the problem lies with the misinformation that has been bantered about. The common argument against...

There have been numerous debates about “birthright” citizenship in recent weeks. As the Heritage Foundation has pointed out, the claim that the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on the children of visitors or illegal aliens is mistaken. Neither the text nor the legislative history supports such an interpretation. Perspective is needed. How many other countries have birthright citizenship? How many such children are there in the United States, and how much is this costing us? The Center for Immigration Studies has just released a study by Jon Feere that gives some answers. The report didn’t get the attention it should have...

It appears that the GOP -- with the help of the Tea Parties, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and the Devil -- is out to revise the 14th Amendment to the point of meaninglessness. Maybe even write the amendment out of the Constitution itself -- if not discard the Constitution completely. And all so that poor foreign newborns, who have never hurt a fly, won't be awarded with free American citizenship upon first seeing the light of day. Makes you sick, doesn't it? At least that's how the legacy media, along with various immigration activists and liberal politicians, have chosen to...

Legal scholars and constitutional lawyers please opine. Many people want to discontinue the federal government’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship clause. People feel that it is just plain wrong for people to be awarded citizenship because their parents broke the law. The illegal immigrant parents will become legal citizens too when their citizen children turn 18, so who needs all that headache of jumping through amnesty hoops. (They can become a citizen here and never learn English). Anybody who didn’t qualify for amnesty (with legal documents or falsified documents) in 1986 just stayed anyway. There are four ways...

The suggestion by at least three senators that the Constitution be amended to deny birthright citizenship to children of illegal aliens born in the United States has induced derogatory retorts that to do so would negate the 14th Amendment's protection of civil rights. Historical facts - ignored by those opposed - in fact demonstrate that such an amendment would reinstate the rule as originally intended by the adoption of the 14th Amendment in 1868. At issue is the first clause of the 14th Amendment, which states, "All persons born ... in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,...

Most people in the United States disagree with the current interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which grants automatic citizenship to all children born on American soil, according to a poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion. 55 per cent of respondents would not grant citizenship to children born to foreigner tourists traveling with valid visas. In addition, 67 per cent of respondents would deny citizenship to the offspring of people who are in the U.S. illegally. Seventy per cent of Americans think the children of foreigners with legal documentation, such as students or workers with a proper visa,...

Last night I heard McCain say we should have hearings on immigration. Someone please tell Hannity and McCain that we have had at least three hearings in very recent years. Overwhelmingly they have showed that birthright citizenship was never intended for illegal aliens in the 14th amendment. Does McCain thnk we are stupid? http://judiciary.house.gov/legacy/6042.htm http://books.google.com/books?id=U2aiZ4xPirUC&lpg=PA1&dq=%22Dual%20citizenship%2C%20Birthright%20citizenship%22&pg=PA11#v=onepage&q&f=false On another Fox show with Bill Hemmer, he mis-stated that the 14th amendment included anchor babies. Either they are not doing their homework, or they are intentionally trying to mislead the uninformed masses.......... again.

Amnesty is defined as the action of governments by which persons or groups who have committed a criminal offense of a political nature that threatens the sovereignty of a country, are granted total or partial, conditional or unconditional, immunity from prosecution for that crime. Amnesty law, the core of “Comprehensive Immigration Reform”, is not the solution to our illegal alien crisis, despite misguided claims from the Left. Indeed, past amnesty law dramatically increased illegal immigration, and any suggestion of new amnesty law only encourages more of the same, with illegals crowding into the country to get in under the wire...

It is my considered opinion that Congress has authority under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to define the jurisdiction of the United States. Indeed, it is my contention that Congress has exercised that power on many occasions, most recently in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Senator Jacob Howard, the author of the citizenship clause in the Fourteenth Amendment, defined who would fall within the "jurisdiction of the United States": [E]very person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of...

Adopted in 1868, the 14th Amendment defined citizenship — making it clear that former slaves and their descendents were American citizens. But part of that amendment, that everyone “born in” the US becomes a citizen, has become controversial during the immigration debate, with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and others calling for hearings on whether to repeal or revise the language. A Pew survey out this week notes that illegal immigrants who have children here (who then become insta-citizens) represent a not-insignificant portion of new births. Of the 4.3 million babies born in 2008, 340,000 were to illegal immigrants. The breakdown:...

The original intent of the 14th Amendment was never to grant “anchor baby” or “birthright” status to illegal aliens bent on gaming the system here in America. Unfortunately, that’s how the liberals have interpreted it and thus allowed the system to be misused.