Free Republic

Republican Senator Rand Paul has blasted Attorney General Merrick Garland for his plans for the FBI to crackdown on parents who stand up for woke school boards, warning that Americans should 'be afraid of your government'. Paul said moms at school boards are now being told 'they are criminals' as he slammed the Justice Department's plans to draft in the FBI to prosecute parents for protesting against the likes of critical race theory (CRT) and transgender ideology being taught to their children in schools across America. The Kentucky senator told Fox News Primetime: 'Moms at school boards are being told...

Abner Mikva, a liberal stalwart from Illinois who served in all three branches of the federal government, mentored a young Barack Obama and famously learned firsthand the brazen nature of Chicago’s political machine, has died. The 90-year-old died of bladder cancer Monday at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Steven Cohen, who is married to Mikva’s oldest of three daughters, told The Associated Press. Mikva worked his way up from a welfare-recipient family to the Illinois House, U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Court of Appeals’ bench and later the White House as an adviser to President Bill Clinton. But...

On February 24 New York Times op-ed contributors Abner Mikva and Lawrence Rosenthal argued that it is time to register all guns and license all gun owners; background checks are not enough. Moreover, the authors suggested such licensing and registration would not violate the Second Amendment. According to the NYT op-ed, background checks are not sufficient, there are too many ways to go around them. “A more effective system would require everyone who owns or acquires a gun to register it.” And a second component to this “effective system” would be a licensing requirement for all persons who wish to...

President Barack Obama and his latest Supreme court nominee Elena Kagan have a friend in common -prominent former Congressman and Chicago lawyer, Abner Mikva. Fresh out of Harvard law School Elena Kagan clerked for then Judge Mikva in Washington DC in 1986-87. In the 1990s Obama, Kagan and Mikva were all on the Faculty of the University of Chicago Law School. Obama's relationship with Abner Mikva is long and deep, but has been subject to little scrutiny. After all Abner Mikva is no radical, he is a highly respected "liberal" and Chicago elder statesman. According to the Chicago Sun-Times April...

The Senate has confirmed Elena Kagan as the 45th solicitor general of the United States -- and as the first woman ever to hold the position. Kagan, 48, will be the government's chief advocate before the Supreme Court, though she has never argued a case there or before any other appellate court. She has been dean of Harvard Law School since 2003 and is widely seen as a possible future nominee for the Supreme Court. Senators voted 61-31 to confirm her after three hours of debate that focused on whether she has the right kinds of experiences to be solicitor...

Sixteen appointees and advisers helping president-elect Barack Obama's Justice Department transition efforts all recently sat on the board of an organization little known outside legal circles: The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. The liberal legal network, which blossomed during eight years of Democratic exile, counts as its veterans Obama’s choice for attorney general, Eric Holder: Vice President-elect Joe Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain; and future White House Staff Secretary Lisa Brown. Seven other recent board members are advising the incoming administration on legal, education, and labor-related issues. Theresa Wynn Roseborough is rumored to be a top candidate...

Another important group in Obama's life consists of the Chicago progressives who have mentored him throughout his career. The leader of this group is Abner J. Mikva, a retired federal judge, White House counsel and congressman from Chicago who has known Obama for 20 years, and who often is described as a father figure to the senator. Mikva has quietly helped guide Obama since his Harvard Law School days. He encouraged his political aspirations, was an early advocate of his presidential run and has pulled numerous strings to help to ease the candidate's path. One Mikva protégé is Axelrod. A...

Abner J. Mikva, former chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., circuit, warns that our constitutional rights are at risk in the Bush administration's war on terrorism. ''We dare not let the evil dreams of the terrorists be achieved by ourselves destroying the freedom that they despise,'' he said. ''I can tell you that even though suing bin Laden is not the most likely way to bring him to justice, the rule of law and how to implement it remains the critical order of the day," Mikva told the 34th annual meeting of the Chicago...