Free Republic

As most of you already know, the Tax Day Tea Parties were a huge success in terms of number of gatherings (over 850) and total numbers participating (over 1 million according to some sources). From what I observed both in person at our Appleton, Wisconsin Tax Day Tea Party and online at various websites, the Tax Day Tea Parties were, for the most part, a genuine grassroots phenomenon. Just the diversity of signs showed that no one person or organization had planned the messages on the highly individualistic signs.

The legal challenge to the federal health care law will begin in earnest this morning, as Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli lobs the nation's first constitutional arguments against the law in a federal courtroom in Richmond. Cuccinelli and his team will get an hour to argue to a federal judge that the law is an unprecedented overreach by Washington that turns the Founders' intention for a limited federal government on its head. The Obama administration will likewise get an hour to argue Cuccinelli's suit is frivolous and should be tossed from court.

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) told CNSNews.com he does "not know that" President Barack Obama had the constitutional authority to tell BP to surrender its stockholders' money into an escrow account outside the company's control that would be used to pay damages to victims of the Gulf oil spill. Moreover, Nelson said the constitutional question was “not going to get answered” because BP agreed to Obama’s demand. In his Tuesday speech from the Oval Office, President Obama said, "Tomorrow, I will meet with the chairman of BP and inform him that he is to set aside whatever resources are...

(CNSNews.com) – Elena Kagan, President Barack Obama’s choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court, is best known for moving Harvard Law School away from the 100-year old “case-law method” of legal study. But in the process, critics say, she moved the nation’s premier law school away from requiring the study of U.S. constitutional law towards the study of the laws of foreign nations and international law.

The Vote: Conned by the promise of an ephemeral executive order, the last holdouts cave and ObamaCare advances. It doesn't add a single doctor or hospital room, but needs 17,000 new IRS agents to enforce it. Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., spent months spelling out in minute detail how the Senate version of the health care overhaul permitted federal funding of abortion through its failure to expressly prohibit it. In the end, he cashed in his principles for an unenforceable executive order that is trumped by the Senate bill he voted to pass. An executive order is not the law of...

States' Rights: Idaho requires its attorney general to sue the feds if ObamaCare passes while Virginia, the cradle of liberty, heads the line of states in front of the federal courtroom. Somewhere Patrick Henry is smiling. As the second coming of King George III seeks to impose the leftist mandate of national health insurance on the unwilling American people, the states are once again in revolt. This time they're unwilling to be the colonies of an imperial federal government determined to spend and tax us into bankruptcy while treating the Constitution as if it were bird cage liner. Is this...

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama has no constitutional concerns about signing a bill passed by controversial House rules that are being proposed by Democrats to pass healthcare. Obama, a former constitutional law professor, would sign a bill if it is passed by the controversial "Slaughter Solution," Gibbs said. The proposal would deem the Senate version of the bill passed after House approval without an actual vote in the House. House Republicans have cried foul, and many have questioned whether that process would be constitutional. But Obama has downplayed any controversy surrounding the procedure, telling Fox...

As a rule I oppose most constitutional amendments, believing that most of our problems stem not from the way the Constitution was written and stands, but from ignoring it. That said, the Founders themselves allowed for amendment, so one can't dismiss the value of the flexibility. What would it take to start the ball rolling for a constitutional amendment that states, in essence: "The House of Representatives shall initiate no bill that does not spectify from its outset the exact Article and Section of the United States Constitution which enumerates and authorizes the proposed legislation as a legitimate constitutional function...

Proposed Constitutional Amendment

Otis McDonald, 76, stands before the Supreme Court, which Tuesday heard arguments in his suit to overturn Chicago's handgun ban Gun Rights: Otis McDonald, 76, an Army vet who lives in a high-crime area of Chicago, thinks the Constitution gives him the right to bear arms to protect himself and his wife as he protected his country. We think so too. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on behalf of four Chicago residents led by homeowner McDonald, the Second Amendment Foundation and the Illinois State Rifle Association to overturn Chicago's three-decade-old ban on owning handguns. In a 5-4...

Kerchner et al. vs. Obama & Congress is without doubt a case that will go down in the history books of law, and the Appellate Brief written by Attorney Mario Apuzzo, Esq., is a veritable treasure trove of Constitutional Law and interpretation on the rights of We the People to petition for redress in the most important matter in our form of government, the question of the eligibility of a putative sitting president. Recently the attorneys representing Barack Hussein Obama and the U.S. Congress have admitted the formidability of the arguments mustered against their clients by requesting an extension on...

John Schumacher Sacramento Bee The drive comes from deep inside, propelling Errol Kerr toward an Olympic moment that connects two countries, two parents. Kerr, 23, lives with his ski-loving American mother, who helps him practice his starts in homemade gates at their house in Truckee [California]. His Jamaican father (emphasis added) died when Kerr was 12. So when Kerr straps on his skis for the Olympic ski cross event on Cypress Mountain in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Feb. 21, he'll compete for Jamaica and fulfill his dream. He is looking to create more than a sequel to the film "Cool...

TARP: The OMB director is grilled over the misuse of bank bailout funds for purposes other than intended by Congress. This taxpayer money wasn't intended to be the administration's perpetual slush fund. When the specifically targeted and named Troubled Asset Relief Program was enacted, we were told it was a necessary and wise investment. It would stabilize the financial system and keep credit and money moving. We would even get our money back and then some. Many banks didn't want the money or need it. Some were told to take it or they'd be audited. So they took it. The...

Jefferson City, Mo. (AP) - Although President Barack Obama's push for a health care overhaul has stalled, conservative lawmakers in more than two-thirds of the states are forging ahead with constitutional amendments to ban government health insurance mandates. The proposals would assert a state-based right for people to pay medical bills from their own pocketbooks and prohibit penalties against those who refuse to carry health insurance. In many states, the proposals began as a backlash to Democratic health care plans pending in Congress. But instead of backing away after a Massachusetts election gave Senate Republicans the filibuster power to halt...

When Massachusetts elected Senator Scott Brown it was the Scott heard round the world. When Barack Obama attacked the Supreme Court of these United States for upholding Constitutional Law in his State of the Union lecture, it was Obama being a 3rd world thug. When Justice Sam Alito responded to Obama with "NOT TRUE", as the maniacal mob of Democrats were jeering and having bodily secretions like at a cock fight, it was an American Patriot in Sam Alito rekindling the words, "Don't Tread on Me!" This is not about protocols in what Obama did in smashing the decorum of...

We haven't received our census questionnaire yet. But, my poor mother did. She lives in another state. She old and become rather frail and it takes her time to do things. When I spoke to her today, she said she spent all day filling it out. I told her, I know for a fact that all of those questions are illegal for them to ask except how many individuals live in your house. Is there any other questions that we are suppose to answer but, that one?

ONE HUNDRED FIRST LEGISLATURE SECOND SESSION LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION 289CA PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT Introduced by McCoy, 39; Carlson, 38; Christensen, 44; Coash, 27; Fulton, 29; Harms, 48; Janssen, 15; Krist, 10; Lautenbaugh, 18; Price, 3; Schilz, 47; Utter, 33. Read first time January 13, 2010 Committee: 1 THE MEMBERS OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST LEGISLATURE OF 2 NEBRASKA, SECOND SESSION, RESOLVE THAT: 3 Section 1. At the general election in November 2010 the 4 following proposed amendment to the Constitution of Nebraska shall 5 be submitted to the electors of the State of Nebraska for approval 6 or rejection: 7 To...

A Minnesota judge has ordered the state to reinstate money for a food program that Gov. Tim Pawlenty cut from the budget, saying he acted unconstitutionally. Several people in the program for the poor sought an injunction to restore money while their court case proceeds Ramsey County District Judge Kathleen Gearin granted their wish in an order on Wednesday. Her temporary restraining order keeps the money intact indefinitely. The case stems from $2.7 billion in cuts the Republican governor announced this summer to balance the budget. He took the action using an executive power that allows the governor to trim...

It is coming. A showdown in America, not some wild west show, but a real showdown, just like Europe is facing, with Islam. Islam is not a religion but our government is treating it as such. Islam is a theocracy that governs citizens way of life, in the same way the Constitution is the light that governs America (when Congress is not in session).

Self-Evident Truths: Sen. Dianne Feinstein says it comes under the Commerce Clause. Rep. Steny Hoyer says it's mandated by the "general welfare" clause. Despite liberal wishes, health care is not a right. The "living Constitution" that Democrats and their court appointees have given us may be the death of our freedoms. Their constitution adapts to the times and serves the whims of the elitists. The Constitution is supposed to limit government powers. It does not allow government to do anything it feels like doing. Cass Sunstein, the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is the author of...