Free Republic

Below is my column in the Hill on the first hearings this week to be held by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. It could be one of the most consequential investigations for free speech in decades if it pulls back the curtain on government censorship programs. After the historic release of the Twitter Files by Elon Musk, questions remain on any similar coordination with other social media companies with federal agencies like the FBI to target views considered “disinformation” or “misinformation.” Here is the column: This coming week a new House select subcommittee will hold...

These same considerations that Casey relied upon nearly 30 years ago to justify affirming Roe v. Wade provide the precise basis to overturn Casey today.Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—a case considering the constitutionality of Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act which, with some exceptions, bans abortions after 15 weeks. While in granting certiorari the Supreme Court limited the question on appeal to “whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional,” Wednesday’s arguments focused more broadly on whether the high court should overrule Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood. Even...

Prioritizing government-owned broadband networks would be inconsistent with the Constitution’s provisions regarding private property and commerce.As part of its massive $2 billion infrastructure proposal, the Biden administration is proposing an ambitious $100 billion broadband plan. The plan overreaches, misdirecting subsidies in ways that are wasteful, such as shoveling funds to areas already served instead of those lacking service. And the plan suggests the need to regulate the broadband prices of private service providers as if they were public utilities. As a matter of policy, these aspects of the Biden broadband plan are serious enough defects. But here we want to...

In a major but likely controversial victory for free speech, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned the conviction of a retired Air Force colonel for using a racial epithet at the shoe store on the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia. Jules A. Bartow, who is white, was arrested after a bizarre and disgraceful exchange with an employee, including the use of the “n word” with the African American woman. The highly offensive and repugnant language of Bartow was denounced by the court, but the unanimous panel still reversed T.S. Ellis III, Senior District Judge of...

The case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Corlett, represents the first time in more than a decade that the high court will hear a Second Amendment case.On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by two petitioners challenging New York’s denial of their applications for concealed-carry firearm licenses. The case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Corlett, represents the first time in more than a decade that the high court will hear a Second Amendment case. Here’s your lawsplainer for the case—and Second Amendment jurisprudence.The Second Amendment provides: “A well regulated...

Those disappointed in the outcome of this election and of the Texas suit should not lose sight of the constitutional values that will last far beyond any one lawsuit and any one election.On Friday, the Supreme Court denied Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint challenging the presidential election results in four states. The court’s order explained that leave to file was denied “for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution” because Texas had not “demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.”This was the right result for...

It is hard to believe the justices put the constitutional question above their desire to avoid appearing to meddle in the 2020 election.Late Friday, the Supreme Court rejected Texas’s election-related lawsuit against fellow states Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia. The Supreme Court was right—and wrong. A week ago today, Texas filed a Motion for Leave to file a Bill of Complaint in the U.S. Supreme Court against the four states, charging constitutional violations related to the 2020 election. Texas also sought preliminary injunctive relief to prevent the putative defendant states from taking further actions related to the election. Two days...

The sweeping language of the Equal Rights Amendment provides a practically endless number of potential legal hooks for gender-bending social engineering from the bench. On Monday evening, feminist legal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg repeated her view that advocates for Equal Rights Amendment, among whom she counts herself an enthusiastic member, have to start from the beginning in the ratification process.Despite even Ginsburg’s misgivings, on Thursday, the House will vote on the question of reviving the defunct and ruinous ERA. If they choose to remove the long past-due deadline on the amendment’s ratification, they will not only be endorsing an...

This week, House Democrats will reportedly pass a measure to lift the 1982 deadline on a feminist amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would actually hurt women and identity politics groups. This week, House Democrats will reportedly pass a measure to lift the 1982 deadline on a feminist amendment to the U.S. Constitution, although the Supreme Court, legal scholars, and the U.S. Department of Justice have said the attempt is unconstitutional. The so-called Equal Rights Amendment was defeated in the 1980s by a woman-led coalition that argued women’s rights will be damaged by attempting to eliminate all distinctions between men...

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas is, once again, under attack. And, once again, the attacks are from liberals who cannot tolerate Thomas' consistent, unyielding and faithful commitment to America's founding principles. The latest concerns Thomas' 20-page opinion offered up in Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, recently considered by the Supreme Court. Planned Parenthood challenged Indiana law prohibiting abortion for reasons of sex, race or non-life threatening deformity. The challenge was upheld in district court and the law overturned. However, the Supreme Court chose not to rule on the matter for procedural reasons, turning it back to...

One of President Trump's judicial nominees is getting much-needed support from the Judicial Crisis Network. The network is throwing its support behind Kyle Duncan, President Trump's choice for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana.Duncan has quite the track record. He is a Constitutional lawyer and represented Hobby Lobby in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Hobby Lobby case tackled the question of whether or not the Religious Freedom Act of 1993 allows a business to not provide contraception to its employees based on the sincerely held religious beliefs of its owners. In a...

Article. III. Section. 1. The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office. Section. 2. The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which...

Ted Cruz once argued that Americans have no constitutional right to bear dildos, that the government has a legitimate interest in discouraging "autonomous sex," and that allowing the sale of sex toys is the first step on the road to legal incest. This history comes courtesy of David Corn, who went searching for skeletons in Cruz's closet and stumbled across a bunch of dildo baggage instead. On Wednesday, the Mother Jones magazine published an exposé detailing Cruz's defense of a ban on sex-toy sales while serving as the Texas solicitor general. Back in 2004, several adult-plaything providers challenged a Texas...

It has been well established under the Constitution and throughout our history that the president's job as the chief federal law enforcement officer permits him to put his ideological stamp on the nature of the work done by the executive branch. The courts have characterized this stamp as "discretion." Thus when exercising their discretion, some presidents veer toward authority, others toward freedom. John Adams prosecuted a congressman whose criticism brought him into disrepute, an act protected by the First Amendment yet punishable under the Alien and Sedition Acts, and Thomas Jefferson declined to enforce the Acts because they punished speech,...

Barack Obama famously declared that as a former teacher of Constitutional law, he actually respects the Constitution, unlike his predecessor in the Oval Office. Subsequent events make it fair to wonder exactly how he shows this respect. Some on the Left barely conceal their disdain for the world-changing handiwork of dead white males. Reverence for the Constitution isn’t universal even among its chief custodians. Justice Ruth Ginsburg raised eyebrows when she advised Egyptian civic activists she wouldn’t look to the US Constitution as a model today. She pointed instead to the constitutions of South Africa, Canada, and the European Charter...

Dcapetto wrote: Where does it say god given anything? Here is our constitution find me the passage that says god given. The Newest Liberal Criminal Assault The Right To Self Defense Dear Comrade Cap, Books are for reading, not just for burning. "Man ... must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature.... This law of nature...is of course superior to any other.... No human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this: and such of them as are valid derive all their force...from this original." -...

Mary Margaret Penrose, a full time professor of Law with Texas A&M University, has called for the full repeal of the Second Amendment. Utilizing her unquestioned exercise of the First Amendment, the Texas Professor insisted the Constitution was outdated, and needed some substantial re-writing. Penrose was speaking in Connecticut (at a gun-control symposium) when she launched into her misinformed explanation of the Second Amendment; implying that our enumerated right to possess a firearm is largely responsible for the mass shootings that have cropped up in recent years. Her argument, and blatant contempt for the Constitution (which she admits to describing...

There’s a narrative emerging among leftists pundits, commentators, and columnists that the current government shutdown is due to a fundamental flaw in the American form of government. Chris Hayes on MSNBC (ya know, the guy that looks like a 16 year old wannabe economist?) recently dedicated an entire segment of his show to exposing the “fatal flaw in our Constitution”. According to MSNBC’s woefully statist anchor, our Constitutional form of government inhibits the ability for government to adequately (or speedily) race toward action. Which, in a way, is true. Fascism, in comparison, enables for a rapid-response-government that forfeits deliberation for...

In his new book, "The Liberty Amendments," my friend Mark Levin is offering a bold plan for the re-establishment of America's founding principles and a restoration of constitutional republicanism through a series of amendments to the Constitution. I know of no one who has a greater reverence for our Constitution and for the scheme of limited government and personal liberties it established. Mark has been a student of America's founding and its constitutional history since he was a young boy, when he and his friends would visit Philadelphia, where it all started, and study the history. I had many outstanding...

Recent opinion polls demonstrate a deepening distrust of the federal government. That's not an altogether bad thing. Our nation's founders recognized that most human abuses are the result of government. As Thomas Paine said, "government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil." Because of their fear of abuse, the Constitution's framers sought to keep the federal government limited in its power. Their distrust of Congress is seen in the governing rules and language used throughout our Constitution. The Bill of Rights is explicit in that distrust, using language such as "Congress shall not abridge," "shall not infringe,"...