Free Republic

Attorney Marc Victor in a tie;  Rick Bailey in the gray shirt The good news is that Rick Bailey has had his expensive gun collection returned.  The bad news is that he had to fight for it in court in the first place, in spite of never being convicted of any offense.   From the canadafreepress.com: BELLEVUE, WA – A retired Navy veteran in Arizona whose gun collection had been seized by Glendale police now has his firearms back, the Second Amendment Foundation revealed today. SAF had intervened in the case of Glendale resident Rick Bailey early last month, taking...

It's a sad day in America when due process rights granted in the Constitution need protection, but here we are. On college campuses across the country, students — particularly male students — are learning the hard way that they have little if any due process rights should they ever be accused of sexual assault. Indeed, an accusation is all that's needed to destroy or severely alter their future. The reason for this comes from the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, which has reinterpreted Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to view sexual assault as a form...

Kaci Hickox, the nurse forcibly quarantined by New Jersey upon her return from West Africa, is threatening a legal challenge to her confinement. Her lawyers claim she is being deprived of her liberty in violation of the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. Due process cases are fact specific, and I am not privy to information NJ authorities had before them or their decision-making process. However, it is highly unlikely that she will prevail. While the Supreme Court has long held quarantines to be constitutional, it has not ruled directly on the scope of permissible quarantines. However, in the...

Senator Ted Cruz isn’t one to throw a bone to the Obama administration. But a new bill that he introduced would give the government enormous new powers when it comes to national security. It’s called the “Expatriate Terrorist Act” and on the surface its intentions seem good enough. It allows the United States to revoke the citizenship of anyone fighting for or aiding a terrorist group like ISIS. “If we do not pass this legislation, the consequence will be that Americans fighting alongside ISIS today may come home tomorrow with a U.S. passport, may come home to New York or...

This image of a VA letter revoking second amendment rights based on PTSD diagnosis appears to be legitimate.   I do not recall ever seeing this type of revocation being challenged in the courts.   As the decision is a bureaucratic one, not one that was made with due process through the courts, a challenge other than the appeal process might hold promise. The point here is that the VA should not have the power to unilaterally make this decision without court oversight.  The existence of an appeals process is not, in my opinion, sufficient due process.   I do not know...

The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that the word "child" includes both the born and unborn. The decision comes in the case of a woman who was convicted for using cocaine during her pregnancy. Her baby tested positive for the drug at his birth. Under Alabama law that is considered "chemical endangerment of a child." The court ruled the state has a legitimate interest in protecting the lives of children from the earliest stages of their development. "God, not governments and legislatures, gives persons these inherent natural rights," Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and Justice Tom Parker wrote in their...

Lois Lerner, who was director of the Internal Revenue Service’s Exempt Organizations Division, used her position in the IRS to deny conservative groups their constitutionally protected rights to due process and equal protection of the law, the House Ways and Means committee alleged today in what the committee called a “criminal referral letter” sent to Attorney General Eric Holder. The letter presents information the committee says “tends to show intentional wrongdoing, including targeting specific taxpayer groups for adverse treatment, making misleading statements to law enforcement, and the possible disclosure of confidential taxpayer information.” …

Since this bill isn’t going away — we don’t have the votes to kill it — we are working with our allies AND the bill’s authors to transform it into something fair and constitutional. We’ve come a long way, and there are still more changes to come. There’s another hearing Wednesday at 2:15 in Room 10 of the State Office Building, and if you can come to show your support for civil rights, we’d love to see you there. The long version: Last Thursday and today, the Minnesota Senate and House heard their separate versions of Billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s “domestic...

During a recent broadcast, left-wing MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews labeled Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex) a “terrorist.” “Is there any sane person who wouldn’t find this man terrifying?” Matthews asked. “If he had his way he’d undo all the great work accomplished by President Obama. Obamacare would be gone! Taxes would be cut. Food stamps and disability payments would be curtailed forcing more people into the workforce. Progress toward social justice and equality would be pushed aside in a dangerous pursuit of economic growth.” The proximate cause of Matthews’ latest outburst seemed to be Senator Cruz’s efforts to derail Obamacare by...

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American government agencies—state, local, and federal—made a record 13,753 requests to read emails or gather other information sent through Google’s Gmail and other services in 2012, more than half without warrants, according to statistics released by Google. The total number of users about whom government agencies wanted information also set a record at 31,072, up from 23,300 in 2011, the first year Google began reporting the data. The discrepancy comes because government agencies request information on multiple users or accounts at the same time. … Google keep records of all email and other communication sent through its e-mail, telephone, YouTube,...

No presidency is complete without a constitutional crisis, real or imagined. Political critics claimed George W. Bush committed a string of high crimes and misdemeanors, from the Iraq war, to torture, to illegal wiretaps. Bill Clinton’s impeachment was not over his horn dogging, but his mendacities regarding said activities. Ronald Reagan traded arms for hostages. Richard Nixon resigned over his involvement in the Watergate cover up when he forgot the president is not above the law. And, really, doesn’t every constitutional crisis start with a president believing the Constitution is a list of suggestions best left for others to follow?...

There are a number of problems with this administration’s conduct of the War on Terror in general, and with its drone campaign in particular. But the elimination of Anwar Al-Awlaki — an al-Qaeda militant with a demonstrated commitment to the destruction of the United States who happened to have been born in New Mexico — is not one of them. The release of a Justice Department white paper outlining the administration’s legal case for the targeted killing of American citizens who are in cahoots with al-Qaeda has raised protest from the left, which has leeway to criticize the president now...

The Justice Department memo makes a case for the legality of drone strikes to kill Americans abroad who pose an “imminent threat of violent attack.” This is a reference to “self-defense.” Brennan was the first administration official to publicly acknowledge drone strikes in a speech last year, calling them “consistent with the inherent right of self-defense.” The “inherent right of self-defense” is another clear reference to moral reasoning on war as represented by Just War theory. The problem is, the Justice Department memo doesn’t limit the legality argument to what would be commonly understood as “imminent threat” and thus the...

A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an associated force” -- even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S. The 16-page memo, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, provides new details about the legal reasoning behind one of the Obama administration’s most secretive and controversial polices: its dramatically increased use of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects, including those aimed at American citizens, such as the...

What is the most dangerous place in America? Is it the mean streets of the south side of Chicago? Well, it's very dangerous there, more dangerous than Afghanistan, apparently. But no, that is not the most dangerous place in America. Is it Detroit? No.  South Central LA? No. Miami? No. Is it the war zone we call our southern border? No. Those are very dangerous places, unfortunately. But the most dangerous place to be in America is in the womb of your mother. Abortion is the leading cause of death in this country. Think about that. What should be the...

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A Hillsdale man says the government has violated his Second Amendment rights by prohibiting him from obtaining a firearm because of a three-decades-old involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital. Clifford Tyler, who says his mental-health issue was only temporary, has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids against local, state and federal agencies alleging that they are violating his constitutional right to keep and bear arms. “As a consequence of this overbroad ban, sane, trustworthy, competent individuals that are not a threat to themselves or others and are not in any way mentally...

An innocent man was shot dead by police after deputies mistook him for an attempted murder suspect. Lake County, Florida officers showed up at the Blueberry Hill apartment of Andrew Scott at around 1.30am on Sunday Roused from his bed in the middle of the night by an unknown presence at his property, Andrew Scott answered the door holding a gun. Officers had not announced who they were because they did not want the man they thought was inside, Jonathan Brown, to escape.

Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court decided that Americans have no right to due process. Indeed, the Court not only upheld a fraud perpetrated on the public — it became a willing participant. The assessment charged for failure to comply with ObamaCare’s “individual mandate,” which requires Americans to purchase health insurance, was presented to the country by the administration and the Democratic Congress as a penalty assessed for lawlessness — i.e., for refusing to honor this new legal requirement. It was strenuously denied by proponents that they were raising taxes.

Oh yeah, peep her discussion with Bill O’Reilly the other night on the Trayvon Martin case as well... Jasmine Rand, an attorney representing Trayvon Martin‘s family, spoke to Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday night about how the case has been unfolding. O’Reilly asked about the new information about Martin’s school records, which Rand said bear zero legal relevance to case. Responding to the issue of the Black Panthers, Rand said the family does not support any calls for violence.