Free Republic

President Obama’s plan to transform the U.S. health-care market is once again in trouble. This time, two Republican-appointed judges on a federal appeals court have invalidated a key portion of the program. In other words, the U.S. constitutional system is functioning normally. That’s not to say that the majority of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit correctly struck down the issuance of tax credits through the federal health insurance exchanges in 36 states — though it is true, as the judges said, that the law only speaks of “Exchanges established by the State.”...

... There is indeed Supreme Court precedent stating that courts can sometimes refuse to enforce the plain meaning of a statute where doing so creates an absurd result. But, as Judge Griffith’s D.C. Circuit opinion emphasizes (quoting an earlier DC Circuit ruling), it is limited to cases where enforcement of the text would “render[ the] statute nonsensical or superfluous or . . . create an outcome so contrary to perceived social values that Congress could not have intended it.” In this case, however, the result is far from nonsensical. Indeed, the DC Circuit’s interpretation of the ACA reflects the sort...

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) vowed Thursday afternoon to fight President Barack Obama’s reported plans to expand amnesty for up to six million more illegal residents by the end of the summer.The two senators have been among the most vocal Republican opponents of Obama’s deferred deportation policy, which they say has prompted a flood of unaccompanied minors to try crossing into the United States.GOP senators on Thursday again warned about plans by President Barack Obama to expand an amnesty program for illegal immigrants. (AP Photo)Cruz said he was back at the Texas border last weekend, when he...

Immigration reform won’t happen this year, but ironically the border debacle may make immigration reform more likely in the near to mid-future. Even if the House wanted to, there is little time (a couple weeks now and a few in September) to get any major legislation done. Moreover, with the monkey off their back and the Democrats under fire for the border mess, Republicans will see less urgency to move forward. (SNIP) It’s no longer politically untenable to argue we should first do border security, then evaluate and then address legalization issues. In fact that seems to be the default...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated Thursday that the House will not be considering legislative language to defund President Barack Obama’s deferred deportation policy, which some Republicans want to see as a condition of approving new funding to ease the crisis at the southern U.S. border.Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has said he wants to see Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy defunded, and says that policy is precisely why about 60,000 illegal immigrant children have tried to cross into the U.S. this year.Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is pushing to end President Barack Obama’s deferred deportation policy, but House GOP...

Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-Mich.) said Thursday that he refused to accept an award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of that group’s position on immigration, and called the Chamber the “biggest pro-amnesty group” in the country. “The Chamber of Commerce is beholden to special interests and has long since forgotten the main street businesses that struggle everyday to make payroll and keep their company afloat,” Bentivolio said. “It is with great pride that I reject their award, and call on them to stand on the side of America, instead of on the side of China and corporate interests seeking...

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s push to get tough on illegal immigration has apparently cost him the support of ranchers. The Kansas Livestock Association has come out in support of Kobach’s Republican challenger Scott Morgan in the Aug. 5 primary. The group says Kobach strays beyond the traditional roles of secretary of state by taking up issues such as immigration and blocking federal environmental protections of the lesser prairie chicken.

Tony Dungy is being proven right, and his critics in the media are helping him do it. Dungy, a well-respected coach and revered figure in the NFL community, currently finds himself at the bottom of a media dogpile because he said he would not draft St. Louis Rams rookie linebacker Michael Sam, who became the first openly gay NFL player earlier this year. “I wouldn’t have taken him,” Dungy told the Tampa Tribune in an article published this week. (Reporter Ira Kaufman later revealed that the quotation is from a separate interview he conducted with Dungy in February.) “Not because...

Representative Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is releasing a major document this morning laying out a conservative approach to reforming federal anti-poverty programs (he’s speaking on it this morning at the American Enterprise Institute). Not all of his proposals are specific legislation and some endorse existing legislation. Roughly speaking, here’s what in it: Offer states the option of a big block grant to replace existing federal welfare programs Ryan proposes a pilot program called the “Opportunity Grant,” which offers states the ability to use the funds they currently get for a range of programs to run individually...

In October of 2013, a Pennsylvania resident named Shaneen Allen drove into New Jersey’s Atlantic County and was pulled over by police for an “unsafe lane change.” When the detaining officer arrived at her car window, Allen informed him that she was carrying a concealed firearm, and presented her Pennsylvania carry license as proof of eligibility. Unbeknownst to her at the time, however, was that New Jersey is among the 20 states that do not recognize Pennsylvania’s permit. In consequence, she was arrested. If convicted of the charges that the state has elected to bring, she will be locked in...

Liberal groups already enjoy a tremendous structural advantage over conservative groups in terms of foundation support, bricks and mortars institutions and a steady pipeline of youngsters eager to shape mankind to their own image. There’s another often overlooked advantage enjoyed by the left: big law firms donating thousands and thousands of hours to help leftist causes far outside of the American mainstream. There is no counterpart donation of time and money for conservative causes. Big Law’s ideological “lawfare” completes the architecture for attacks on election integrity laws, springing free Al-Qaeda terrorists and even suing conservative new media pioneers like Andrew...

Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu will oppose her leadership’s border aid package, complicating Senate Democrats’ plan to pass the legislation before August recess. The Democratic senator said in an interview that she has two main problems with the bill: Lack of coordinating language for the multiple government agencies that will receive funding from the bill and “little faith” in the State Department’s ability to use its share of the money to combat the violent atmosphere back in home countries of undocumented migrants. “Those are the two reasons that I am a no. And it’s unlikely those will be fixed,” said Landrieu,...

South Dakota Democrats are playing a tough hand in the Senate race, but they thought they could count on a wild card — former Sen. Larry Pressler — to help the contest break their way. Pressler seems to have other plans. Democrats already faced long odds to hold retiring Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson’s seat. Obama lost South Dakota by 18 points last cycle, and the state marks the GOP’s best pick-up opportunity in its 6-seat quest to win the majority. The front-runner, popular former GOP Gov. Mike Rounds, faces several foes: Democrat Rick Weiland; state Sen. Gordon Howie, a conservative...

The Obama administration is coming under fire for once again making a unilateral change to ObamaCare -- this time, quietly exempting the five U.S. territories and their more than 4 million residents from virtually all major provisions of the health care law. The decision was made a week ago, and was a long time coming. For months, the territories have been complaining that the law was implemented so poorly in their regions that it destabilized their insurance markets. Until now, the Department of Health and Human Services claimed its hands were tied. But last Wednesday, the department reversed course. The...

Federal Election Commission Chairman Lee Goodman issued a stark warning on Wednesday when he suggested that political speech and press freedoms were under assault by federal regulators. In August, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will engage in a bus tour promoting his new book, The Way Forward: Renewing the American Idea. This was revealed in the release of a letter from the FEC following a request from Ryan’s attorneys to ensure that the House Budget Committee chairman remained in compliance with campaign regulations. Ryan’s team asked for and received permission to use campaign funds to purchase his own book in order...

When conservative outside groups fail to defeat a bill in Congress, the cheers come from all over D.C. Business groups mock the incompetence of the groups; Republican leaders declare that they've been taught a hard lesson by the shutdown; Democrats just like to see 'em lose. The House's passage last week of the highway trust fund bill overcame opposition from the Club for Growth and Heritage Action, which made the passage look like a big win. There's been less coverage of this week's narrow conservative win. The Securing Energy Critical Elements and American Jobs Act, or SECEAJA was the brainchild...

Analysts always strain to generalize about elections. We want to “model” them, find the common elements, and project them as early as possible based on the commonalities. That’s a legitimate approach, but we need always remember that every election is different. Every single one. It isn’t just the candidates that change up, or the specific events that end up defining an election season, or the particulars about presidential and congressional job approval. In midterm elections, especially, the combination of competitive districts and states varies greatly, expanding or contracting the potential for change. Last year, and even in the beginning of...

You don't think the Egyptian government was trying to send a message, do you? Kerry flew to Tel Aviv from Cairo, where he met Tuesday with Egypt’s president and other high-level officials. An unusual screening process occurred involving Kerry and his State Department team as they were subjected to a metal detector before meeting with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi at the Egyptian presidential palace. Reuters reports that Kerry and his aides were checked with a metal detector. Security personnel reportedly raised a handheld metal-detector wand to Kerry’s suit jacket before waving him through. Kerry’s aides were also subjected to the handheld...

July, 1964. Fifty years ago this month. The Republican Party nominates Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater for president. The resulting uproar was somewhere north of hysteria. And that was just from the GOP establishment of the day. Followed famously by a November landslide Goldwater “defeat” in which the Arizonan carried a mere five states in his race against Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. Goldwater was the first conservative Republican to win nomination since the 1924 selection of Calvin Coolidge (the vice president who had succeeded Warren Harding after his death). From 1928 all the way through 1960, every GOP nominee from Hoover...

I may regret writing this column. Retaliation by a state agency is an ugly thing. My best hope is that the bureaucrats who have made my life a living hell for these past few months don’t read insignificant little articles written by nobody columnists for a bi-weekly newspaper. It wasn’t bad enough that the cable, phone, credit card, garbage, power, and water companies, along with the Florida Retirement System and bank, gave me major grief after Frank died. Apparently it doesn’t matter that no payment was ever late or not paid in full. Since Frank was the primary, they reasoned...