Free Republic

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument that refusing to wear face masks at school board meetings during the COVID-19 outbreak constitutes protected speech under the First Amendment. The court ruled on cases involving individuals who claimed retaliation by school boards for not wearing masks at public meetings. The court emphasized that disobeying a masking requirement does not fall under protected speech, comparing it to other forms of non-compliance with the law. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, “A question shadowing suits such as these is whether there is a First Amendment right to refuse to wear...

Beginning with Franklin Roosevelt, the mainstream media began to lean left, but it was subtle and still hewed to American constitutional and cultural norms. The lean became overt with Nixon’s presidency and accelerated in extremism during Reagan’s and both Bushes’ administrations. With Trump, though, the media shifted from bias to outright dishonesty and censorship. We had the Russia Hoax, the Ukraine Hoax, and, perhaps most deleteriously, the “Hunter Biden laptop is Russian disinformation” Hoax. Worse is to come, though, and you’re paying for it: The Biden administration is using taxpayer dollars to fund an AI system that will assist the...

Key members of the since-disbanded Select Committee on January 6th admit in a new PBS documentary that the entire operation was an election-year publicity stunt.On Wednesday, Frontline PBS published a new documentary, “Democracy on Trial,” chronicling the House committee’s work. Pivotal players on the partisan probe conceded in the two-and-half-hour documentary that the panel’s public performances produced for prime-time television were orchestrated as entertainment media.“The one thing that we knew was the information that we have is compelling,” said Illinois congressman-turned CNN commentator Adam Kinzinger. “The thing we needed to do was tell that to the American people in a...

The FBI violated private citizens’ constitutional rights when it seized contents from hundreds of safe deposit boxes during a 2021 raid on a Beverly Hills business suspected of money laundering, a federal appeals court ruled last week. "This was a resounding victory, not just for our clients, but for the hundreds of people who've been stuck in a nightmare for years because of what the FBI did," Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Rob Frommer, who represented several plaintiffs in the case, told Fox News. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found the bureau violated U.S. Private Vaults box holders’...

The FBI’s seizure of contents from safe deposit boxes during a raid on a Beverly Hills vault in 2021 violated the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled on Jan. 23.FBI director Christopher Wray testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee in Washington, on Nov. 15, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)Agents raided U.S. Private Vaults, a business that allowed people to rent safe deposit boxes anonymously, based on the belief that criminals were using the service. The search warrant stated that agents could only open the boxes to inventory their contents and identify the owners for the return of their...

“In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught.”- Hunter S. ThompsonAccording to the FBI, you may be an anti-government extremist if you’ve:a) purchased a Bible or other religious materials,b) used terms like “MAGA” and “Trump,”c) shopped at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Cabela’s, or Bass Pro Shops,d) purchased tickets to travel by bus, cars, or plane,e) all of the above.In fact, if you selected any of those options in recent years, you’re probably already on a government watchlist.That’s how broadly the government’s net is being cast in its pursuit of domestic extremists.We’re all fair game now, easy...

The Canadian Government used disinformation in the form of faked intelligence to frame the Freedom Convoy anti-vaccine-mandate protesters as violent extremists and justify invoking the Emergencies Act, an investigation by Public has found. Here’s an excerpt. A months-long Public investigation reveals that the Canadian Government used disinformation to crack down on the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protest, led by truckers demanding an end to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, in February 2022. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canada’s national police force, then promoted this false information to other ‘Five Eyes’ English-speaking nations. This discovery is significant because it contributes to a pattern of...

Ninth Circuit panel unanimously orders FBI to destroy records it created during searches of US Private Vaults boxes.. PASADENA, Calif.—This morning, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously ruled against the government in a long-running class action lawsuit from the Institute for Justice (IJ) on behalf of people who rented security deposit boxes at US Private Vaults. The decision slammed the FBI for overstepping its authority when it opened up hundreds of renters’ boxes, conducted criminal searches of them all, and attempted to permanently keep everything in the boxes worth more than $5,000, all without charging any box...

Studies cannot pose more than minimal risk to humans and must include appropriate safeguards to protect the rights, safety, and welfare of those involved.In an effort to encourage the discovery of more treatment and diagnostic options in the medical field, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has finalized a rule allowing certain clinical trials to operate without obtaining informed consent from participants. The hitch? The study cannot pose more than minimal risk to humans and must include appropriate safeguards to protect the rights, safety, and welfare of those involved. The rule was issued in late December 2023 and went...

In a news alert, multiple countries are implementing an extensive rollout of new AI cameras designed to automatically detect various violations. This development has raised concerns about the potential misuse of such surveillance systems. Speculations suggest that these AI cameras might be leveraged for enforcing health protocols like mask rules, social distancing, and even vaccine mandates. Explore the implications of this technology in this unfolding scenario.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis let it be known Monday that he won’t support legislation in the Sunshine State that would put taxpayers on the hook for former President Donald Trump’s legal bills. In response to a Politico report noting that “some Florida Republicans” are backing a measure that could grant as much as $5 million to the 77-year-old GOP presidential primary front-runner, DeSantis tweeted: “But not the Florida Republican who wields the veto pen…” The proposal, filed by state Sen. Ileana Garcia (R-Miami), would set aside state funds for legal fees incurred as a result of criminal charges brought by...

When cops stopped Antonio Sing-Ledezma's car following a shooting outside El Paso, Texas, in March and asked him if he had anything illegal on him, he didn't mention the handgun with the scratched-off serial number hidden in the vehicle. Sing-Ledezma, who did admit to having some marijuana and a glass pipe in his jacket pocket, told the officers that he had just been shot. When they asked him who pulled the trigger, however, he became uncooperative. A subsequent search of his vehicle turned up the weapon. A Mexican citizen wanted for murder in his home country who'd previously been deported...

A bill being debated in Maine’s state legislature would give authorities the power to take children away from parents who oppose allowing medical providers to impose “gender-affirming care” onto their children. The bill, LD1735, is explicit about this startling new power In its summary, for instance, directly states, “The bill authorizes a court to take temporary jurisdiction because a child has been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care.” There seems to be no provision made for religious objection. Parents would have no parental rights on the issue; either they allow their children to be exposed...

Who watches the watchmen? All of us, if we're smart. In the age of surveillance, that means monitoring how and where the snoops put us under scrutiny. Among the people and organizations doing such important work is the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which recently updated one of its countersurveillance tools. "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today unveiled its new Street Level Surveillance hub, a standalone website featuring expanded and updated content on various technologies that law enforcement agencies commonly use to invade Americans' privacy," the group announced January 10. Understanding How We're Being Watched The hub consolidates information about such evolving...

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is requesting a transcribed interview with a former Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) official for allegedly flagging consumer transactions that had the phrases “TRUMP” or “MAGA” in them. On behalf of the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, Jordan sent a letter requesting testimony to Noah Bishoff, the former director of an office in the Strategic Operations Division of FinCEN, which is part of the Treasury Department. Jordan said the committee had obtained documents showing that FinCEN outlined “typologies” of persons of interest in materials distributed to financial institutions. He said these...

World Economic Forum (WEF) founder and chairman Klaus Schwab has called for members of the general public to be excluded from election processes, arguing that voters could be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).Schwab made the chilling calls during a WEF interview with Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

American civilization has been turned upside down, and we have a rendezvous soon with the once unthinkable and unimaginable. In the last six months, we have borne witness to many iconic moments evidencing the collapse of American culture. The signs are everywhere and cover the gamut of politics, the economy, education, social life, popular culture, foreign policy, and the military. These symptoms of decay share common themes. Our descent is self-induced; it is not a symptom of a foreign attack or subterfuge. Our erosion is not the result of poverty and want, but of leisure and excess. We are not...

Three Pennsylvania State Troopers and seven other individuals spent several hours inside a building on Amos Miller’s Lancaster County farm while conducting a search on Jan. 4, 2024, eventually leaving with multiple coolers containing Miller’s property. Attempts were made by The Lancaster Patriot to enter the facility during the search, but a Pennsylvania State Trooper said, “we’re conducting a search warrant inside this building right now,” and told the reporter to leave the building until the search was completed. The search was conducted by employees of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, with Pennsylvania State Police offering assistance as needed. A...

The FBI cannot seem to stop trampling American citizens' constitutional rights. But some victims of government abuse have fought back. And their tenacity has left the bureau scrambling to save face. According to Rob Johnson, senior attorney at the nonprofit Institute for Justice, a landmark Fourth Amendment case pending in California might soon result in severe chastisement for the tyrannical FBI. In 2021, the bureau raided U.S. Private Vaults, a safety storage company based in Beverly Hills, California, on suspicion of money laundering -- a charge to which the company later pleaded guilty. While conducting their raid, however, FBI agents...

The U.S. Supreme Court is likely to strike down a Colorado court ruling that removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s ballot. However, the conservative majority on the highest court is likely to do so in a narrow way that doesn’t get into the weeds of whether President Trump's actions constituted insurrection, according to a constitutional law expert.The Supreme Court may say the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause doesn’t apply to the president, predicted Horace Cooper, senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, who formerly taught constitutional law at George Mason University.The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on...