Free Republic

Those hoping to determine which long-term path the Republican party will take after today’s Supreme Court decision need to look no further than to the RNC itself. In a message released immediately after the ruling, Reince Priebus mildly criticized the ruling (correctly, in my view) while acknowledging its “finality;” struck a magnanimous note, confirming that the GOP “[respects] those on the winning side of the case” and remains “committed to finding common ground”; and identified the key priority going forward, which is to ensure the protection of conscience rights and the maintenance of religious liberty. *** As for future action,...

Former Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank, the first openly gay member of Congress, said ‘twas he who sank Sam Nunn’s chance of becoming secretary of state under President Bill Clinton. The 1996 move, Frank said, was a pivotal display of gay-and-lesbian clout on the presidential scene. Your daily jolt on politics from the AJC's Political insider blogFrank made the remarks during an interview with Bill Nigut on GPB’s “Two-Way Street,” broadcast over the weekend. The congressman is making the rounds, plugging his autobiography: “Frank: My Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same Sex Marriage.” ***** Frank reserved particular ire...

The young couple wanted really special invitations made up for their wedding, something that looked like a train ticket to fit with the railroad theme of their big day. So bride-to-be Paige Beckwith turned to a Suwanee printer who’d been recommended to her. But the printer rejected the job because of his religious beliefs, the parent company of the printing business said Monday. Beckwith is gay. *** However, a company spokesman at AlphaGraphics confirmed Beckwith’s story. The company also released a statement: “We do not condone discrimination of any kind, and wish to make clear that customers of any race,...

This midlife identity crisis comes at what may be the zenith of Republican influence in the state, courtesy of a race for state GOP chairman. . . . Incumbent John Padgett, the owner of an ambulance company, is seeking re-election to a two-year term. He faces Alex Johnson, a 30-year-old DeKalb County attorney with libertarian leanings. It is something of a rematch. In a final ballot at the 2013 convention, the young Johnson surprised many by receiving 40 percent of the vote — this at a gathering of delegates whose average age is somewhere south of the Mesozoic Era. *****...

The most curious facet of the debate over gay marriage is its violation of our usual requirement that social change occur at a pace that can only be detected with time-lapse photography. On Wednesday, Attorney General Sam Olens indicated that, should the U.S. Supreme Court rule the way many suspect it will this summer, Georgia’s formal, legal antipathy to same-sex unions will vanish as quickly as the flick of a light switch. *** “There’s a distinction between me defending the law and the order from the Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court rules on an issue, we’re going to follow...

INDIANAPOLIS – Gay rights advocates are hoping to parlay the momentum from their legislative victories in Indiana and Arkansas into further expanding legal protections for gays and lesbians in those states and others. Facing widespread pressure, including from big businesses such as Apple and Wal-Mart, lawmakers in Indiana and Arkansas last week rolled back their states’ new religious objections laws, which critics said could be used to discriminate against gays. Amid the uproar, the Republican governors of Michigan and North Dakota urged their own legislatures to extend anti-discrimination protections to gays. ****** Memories Pizza in Walkerton is closed indefinitely and...

The climate in the state Capitol is such that you half-expect to turn a corner and find Lord Cornwallis’s fife-and-drum corps belting out “The World Turned Upside Down.” A Legislature with massive Republican majorities is on the verge of thumbing its nose at anti-tax guru Grover Norquist by raising $1 billion in new spending for transportation. It has legalized a form of marijuana. And in the midst of unrelenting hostility toward Obamacare, GOP lawmakers have brokered an insurance mandate to provide for children with autism. But none of this holds a candle to the fact that the General Assembly has...

Georgia State University students will have the option of selecting roommates of a different gender in the fall. The school plans to begin offering that housing option in all of its residence halls. Students wanting this type of housing arrangement have to notify housing officials of their preference when applying for housing assignments. . . . Georgia State’s move to offer the new housing option comes after requests by siblings, opposite-sex friends and LGBT students wanting to live together, college officials said

Several hundred people packed the Georgia Capitol’s rotunda Tuesday afternoon in support of former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, a showing that supporters hoped would boost efforts to pass a “religious liberty” law. With lawmakers scattered throughout the crowd, representatives of groups including the Georgia Baptist Convention and the national Family Research Council urged proponents to rally against what they framed as a freedom of speech issue. Cochran, recently fired by Mayor Kasim Reed, lost his job over actions he took related to a self-published religious book that many construed as anti-gay. “I just wanted to come and take a...

City of Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran has been fired, Mayor Kasim Reed announced in an afternoon press conference on Tuesday. The announcemet comes after Cochran was suspended for one month without pay after reportedly publishing a paperback book with, what Reed called, "disturbing sentiments about the LGBT community." Mayor Reed listed among the reasons motivating his decision the fact that Cochran wrote a book with inflammatory language without asking permission from him and that he spoke out during the investigation. Reed stressed that this was not about Cochran's religious beliefs but about the judgment to publish a book that...

[O]pponents of exam extensions have declared that to grant these requests [to delay exams for "distressed" students] would be a disservice to the students. Law students, they argue, must learn how to engage critically with the law in the face of intense adversity. Drawing comparisons to events surrounding the Civil Rights Movement and other times of intense turmoil, these opponents portray today’s law students as coddled millennials using traumatic events as an excuse for their inability to focus on a three-hour exam. In essence, law students are being told to grow up and learn how to focus amidst stress and...

Representative Marlin Stutzman (R., Ind.) accused House Republican leadership of reneging on a deal made with him to get his support on a crucial procedural vote that almost killed the $1.1 trillion cromnibus. “I was very surprised and even more disappointed to see the cromnibus back on the floor,” Stutzman said in a Thursday evening statement. “The American people deserve better.” Stutzman was one of the last Republicans to cast his ballot in favor of a rule allowing the House to vote on the cromnibus. National Review Online reported that Stutzman backed the rule at the last minute after leadership...

I am reliably informed that Speaker Boehner is energetically working with the Obama White House to entice Democrats to come aboard the CRomnibus — and is deaf to conservative Republicans who are pushing for a very short term CR with a mechanism for denying funding for President Obama’s lawless unilateral amnesty for illegal aliens. We’ll see what happens, but the Speaker evidently thinks he can get over the goal line by teaming up with Dems.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves wrote in his ruling, “The Fourteenth Amendment operates to remove the blinders of inequality from our eyes. Though we cherish our traditional values, they must give way to constitutional wisdom. Mississippi’s traditional beliefs about gay and lesbian citizens led it to defy that wisdom by taking away fundamental rights owed to every citizen. It is time to restore those rights."

Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran has been suspended without pay for one month because of authoring a religious book in which he describes homosexuality as a “sexual perversion” akin to bestiality and pederasty. Mayor Kasim Reed’s spokeswoman Anne Torres said the administration didn’t know about “Who Told You That You Are Naked?” until employees came forward with complaints last week. . . . Cochran has been ordered to undergo sensitivity training and has been barred from distributing copies of the book on city property after a number of firefighters said they received them in the workplace.

It’s a brilliant, brutally cynical near-term gambit. He delayed action until after the election, he even told everybody he was doing it! And then he completely screwed over the incoming Republican majority, making their lame-duck and first 100 days a complete pain-in-the-ass, while shoring up support among his progressive doubters who, if you watched MSNBC tonight, are back to 2008 levels of adoration. Still, what are the Republicans going to do? Impeach him? There’s a smart-ish strategy that involves funding the rest of the government while denying DHS the funds to enforce His Majesty’s edict. But when POTUS vetoes it,...

A federal judge on Wednesday overturned the state gay marriage ban in Montana, one of the last states to continue its legal fight despite rulings from appeals courts that oversee them that found gay and lesbian couples could wed. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled Montana's constitutional amendment limiting marriage to between a man and a woman violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. "This Court recognizes that not everyone will celebrate this outcome," Morris wrote. "This decision overturns a Montana Constitutional amendment approved by the voters of Montana. Yet the United States Constitution exists to protect disfavored minorities from...

Republicans David Perdue and Gov. Nathan Deal each won more than 40 percent of the Hispanic vote on their way to victory Tuesday despite staking out get-tough positions on illegal immigration, a new report shows. The Pew Research Center report shows Perdue defeated Democrat Michelle Nunn for his Senate seat with 42 percent of the Hispanic vote and 53 percent of the overall vote. Deal turned back a challenge from Democrat Jason Carter with 47 percent of the Hispanic vote and 53 percent of the overall vote. *** In exit poll surveys, Latino voters ranked the economy as the most...

Health officials secured a court order telling a man who has infected at least eight people with HIV to stop spreading the virus that causes AIDS. The King County Superior Court order issued Sept. 4 orders the man to follow a health department cease and desist order and to show up for counseling and treatment appointments, The Seattle Times reported Thursday (http://bit.ly/1xONjeK ). The name of the man was not released to protect his privacy. [!!!!!!]