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This column originally appeared in the January 27th print edition of National Review: America is a land of acronyms, and, useful as they are, acronyms can quickly curdle into jargon. SLAPP stands for "strategic lawsuit against public participation" — i.e., using legal action to cow an opponent into silence, and withdrawal from the public square. It was coined in the Eighties by Penelope Canan and George W. Pring at the University of Denver, and in the Nineties they turned it into a book: SLAPPs: Getting Sued for Speaking Out. And it proved so influential that by the Oughts various jurisdictions...

[w/video] Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is dismayed that “every single Democrat senator goes in line and docilely agrees” with the Obama administration, claiming the president’s abuse of authority and ever-expanding powers should be challenged by lawmakers in both parties. Cruz spoke with Fox News’ Shannon Bream on Sunday about President Barack Obama’s increasing authority at the expense of Congress, particularly after Senate Republicans were blocked from filibustering judicial nominees through the “nuclear option.” Bream asked the senator if “stacking courts” is a presidential right and whether Republicans would be objecting if one of their own was in the White...

  Sam Casey sat at the head of the largest conference table in Washington and watched open-mouthed as half the room emptied, and religious freedom was grievously wounded. It happened in an instant that July day in 1999, but had been building quietly for weeks as one of the most potent left-right coalitions in the country was sundered.         The recent legal and legislative history of religious freedom in America can be described in many ways, but ping-pong comes to mind.The Constitution prevents the federal government from establishing a state religion but also prevents the government from hampering its...

Supreme Court Halts Contraception Mandate For Religious Groups By M. Alex Johnson and Winston Wilde, NBC News Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted a last-ditch plea from Catholic groups Tuesday night to block a birth control mandate in the new health care law for religious organizations, just hours before it was to have gone into effect. The archdioceses of Washington, D.C., and Nashville, Tenn., the Catholic Conference of Michigan and several affiliated groups requested the emergency stay of provisions of the Affordable Care Act that would require companies — regardless of religious beliefs — to provide contraceptives and other abortion-inducing...

Bringing in the New Year, and not just at Times Square. This just in from the Associated Press, WASHINGTON (AP) — Only hours before the law was to take effect, a Supreme Court justice on Tuesday blocked implementation of part of President Barack Obama’s health care law that would have forced some religion-affiliated organizations to provide health insurance for employees that includes birth control.Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s decision came after a different effort by Catholic-affiliated groups from around the nation. Those groups had rushed to the federal courts to stop Wednesday’s start of portions of the Affordable Care Act, also known...

A scathing discrimination complaint is pitting three appointees of Gov. Deval Patrick against his own administration, accusing it of paying a black male administrative judge more than three women who hold the same job, including former Democratic state Sen. Cheryl Jacques. The three Patrick-appointed administrative judges at the Department of Industrial Accidents say officials led by state labor boss Joanne Goldstein lavished a six-figure starting salary and prime downtown parking space on Judge Michael Williams, who, according to the complaint, has less experience. “Would you want to bite the hand that feeds you? None of us want to do that....

Larry Klayman’s long journey in the legal wilderness appears to be over. Klayman, the conservative legal activist well-known in Washington political circles a decade ago for his no-holds-barred court battles against the Clinton administration, was thrust back into the spotlight Monday after he obtained the first major ruling from a federal judge that the National Security Agency’s surveillance program was constitutionally flawed.... “We live in an Orwellian state,” Klayman said, warning that citizens angry about surveillance were about to “rise up.” If litigation fails, “the only alternative is for people to take matters into their own hands,” he told Leon.

A Georgia appeals court has upheld an earlier ruling ordering a state resident to pay $50,000 to his one-time fiancé for breaking his promise to marry her. Courthouse News Service (CNS) reports Melissa Cooper sued Christopher Ned Kelley for fraud and breach of promise after their rocky, 10-year relationship ended in 2011. The couple reportedly had lived together since 2000 and had a child. A trial court reportedly awarded Cooper damages and attorneys’ fees worth $50,000, and now the Georgia Court of Appeals is affirming that order by ruling, "Cooper testified that she was devastated by Kelley's fraud and breach...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLQebqVQKcc The Senate, by not passing a budget, and by saying fund all or nothing, has taken away the House's power of the purse to defund courts or an other agency that goes beyond its power. If the House impeaches a judge, the current senate would neither try nor convict and remove from office. If the House abolished a court, or limited its jurisdiction, that law would never get through the senate. Every means by which the people can rein in a courts power would be halted by the US Senate and then by former Senator Barack Obama. Therefore, we...

The Senate voted 38-53 against breaking a filibuster of the nomination of Judge Robert Wilkins to the court, after blocking votes on two other D.C. Circuit nominees -- Patricia Millett and Nina Pillard -- earlier this month. "I am deeply disappointed that Senate Republicans have once again refused to do their job and give well-qualified nominees to the federal bench the yes-or-no votes they deserve," the president said in a statement. "The American people and our judicial system deserve better," he later added. "A majority of the United States Senate supports these three extraordinary nominees, and it is time for...

Chicago, Ill., Nov 15, 2013 / 04:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Obama administration’s defense of the HHS mandate is “unsound and extraordinary” for contending that business owners cannot have religious freedom protections. “The government’s argument is premised on a far-too-narrow view of religious freedom: Religious exercise is protected in the home and the house of worship but not beyond,” the court’s Nov. 12 decision in Grote Industries v. Sebelius said. “Religious people do not practice their faith in that compartmentalized way; free-exercise rights are not so circumscribed.” Compelling businesses owners and...

Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser, held at a private residence in Dallas, Texas, President Obama stated, “we are remaking the courts.” The President’s statement is especially important, due to the fact that critics of the President have long accused him of attempting to change the American court system, in order to ensure his leftist agenda is deemed to be constitutional. The President, however, has denied doing this, until now... Continue reading at BeltwayExaminer.com

At a fundraiser, Obama makes a chilling admission about the courts Posted at 5:07 pm on November 7, 2013 by Twitchy Staff I missed this line from Obama last night at DSCC fundraiser: "We are remaking the courts." — Josh Lederman (@joshledermanAP) November 07, 2013 Yep, at a fundraiser in Texas last night, President Obama said his administration is “remaking the courts.” Here’s the full quote for context via a WhiteHouse.gov transcript: We were able to reform our financial system so that the likelihood of taxpayer-funded bailouts is a lot less than it was. We were able to expand funding...

Court Rules Obama Admin Can’t Make Catholic Family Business Follow HHS Mandate by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 11/1/13 1:07 PMA powerful federal appeals court ruled today that a Catholic family-run business does not have to comply with the Obamacare abortion mandate requiring it to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions.Francis A. Gilardi, Jr. and Philip M. Gilardi, two brothers who own and control two companies that are involved in the processing, packaging, and transportation of fresh produce, filed suit against the Obama administration on behalf of their business, Freshway Foods, a nearly 25 year old...

12 Texas Abortion Clinics to Close Thanks to New Pro-Life Law by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 11/1/13 10:35 AMNow that a federal appeals court has allowed a new pro-life law in Texas to take effect, as many as 12 abortion clinics are slated to temporarily close because they can’t comply with the law’s requirements to protect women’s health from dangerous abortions.The law requires abortion practitioners to have admitting privileges at a local hospital within 30 miles of the location of the abortion clinic to be able to transport women quickly and easily in medical emergencies when they are injured...

Sixteen States Tell Supreme Court: Uphold Ban on Abortions After 20 Weeks by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 10/31/13 5:06 PMA group of 16 states have filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court this week that encourage the high court to reverse a federal appeals court decision overturning a ban the state of Arizona passed to ban abortions after 20 weeks because unborn children feel pain.The states are among the parties that filed briefs asking the high court to reverse a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit decision against an Arizona law restricting non-emergency abortions after 20 weeks....

According to Alliance Defending Freedom, the Obama HHS mandate is currently losing 32-5 in federal courts from all of the lawsuits ADF and other pro-life legal groups have brought. “The Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy penalties by the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies if the mandate’s requirements aren’t met,” ADF says.Below is a rundown of some of the victories, click the links for more details about the particular case.Colorado: Newland v. Sebelius: The Newland family...

Authorities say two men convicted on murder charges were mistakenly released from a Florida prison with forged documents. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office says Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker were released separately from a prison in the Florida Panhandle in late September and early October. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement learned about the mistake Tuesday. Walker was serving a life sentence on a second-degree murder conviction. Jenkins was serving a prison sentence for a 1998 first-degree murder conviction. According to the sheriff’s office, both convictions stemmed from crimes committed in Orange County.

The Senate Judiciary committee will vote on either Wednesday or Thursday whether to confirm Robert Wilkins, President Obama’s nominee to the prestigious D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals -- the court often referred to after the Supreme Court as the “second highest court” in the country. President Obama has spared little rhetoric in threatening Republicans should they dare defeat or delay Wilkins’ nomination. When Wilkins was nominated in June, Obama accused Republicans of being “cynically” engaging in “unprecedented”obstruction of judicial nominations. Democrats claim that any fair consideration would guarantee Wilkins’ quick confirmation. After all, as they point out, Wilkins was quickly...

PHOENIX – A federal judge has rejected arguments by the Department of Justice that she cannot intercede in a congressional bid to investigate how and why the agency first lied about the Operation Fast and Furious “gun walking’’ operation in Arizona. Judge Amy B. Jackson said federal courts are entitled to determine whether the Obama administration is wrongfully withholding documents from a House panel looking into the now-abandoned practice of letting illegally purchased weapons make their way to Mexico. That practice came to light when “walked’’ guns ended up at the scene where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed...