Free Republic

Democrats shouted "Shame! Shame!," but seven Republicans switched their votes and defeated a measure to protect gay rights. The final vote was 213-212 after the chaos on the House floor. That was enough to defeat an amendment by Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., aimed at upholding an executive order that bars discrimination against LGBT employees by federal contractors. Maloney and other Democrats were incensed. "They literally snatched discrimination from the jaws of equality," Maloney said. He said he had approached Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as McCarthy worked on GOP colleagues to vote against the measure. McCarthy told Maloney to...

With just days until his high school graduation, a Minnesota student was suspended Monday for displaying a Confederate flag on school grounds, and his participation in Friday’s commencement ceremony was questioned. But after an early-morning protest Tuesday in his support and a meeting between the family and school officials, senior Cody Nelson was back in class and will graduate with his classmates Friday night. Nelson was sent home Monday morning from Crosby-Ironton High School after he refused to remove the flag from the back window of his car that was parked on school grounds. Principal Jim Christenson had asked him...

11 Dec 2015 Thursday night on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposed ban Muslim for entering the Untied States would violate the First Amendment of the Constitution. Giuliani said, “I think we have to be very careful about who we let in. I don’t think we should let any of the refugees in. I think they should be put in a safe zone in Syria, but if you do a ban on all Muslims, I have no question that you violate the first amendment. The reality is if you...

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has launched a campaign against Catholic hospitals, charging that the health of patients-- especially women-- may be endangered by the US bishops' health-care directives. Noting that Catholic institutions account for one of every six hospital beds in the US, the ACLU remarks that Catholic institutions are generally forbidden to perform abortions and sterilizations or to euthanize patients: procedures that the ACLU defines as forms of "health care" Thus the ACLU report concludes that "health care" is not always available at US hospitals because of Catholic teachings. "When hospitals prevent doctors from providing care, the...

In the 1950s, it was: “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?” Today, it’s: “Are you now, or have you ever been, a climate-change denier?” I’m not referring simply to the fact that it’s politically incorrect to question assertions of man-made global warming. That’s bad enough, but no -- I mean that if some powerful individuals get their way, it could soon be a federal crime to do so. “The bottom line is simple,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said at a recent press conference. “Climate change is real.” He was joined...

Could the next president of the United States be neither Clinton, Trump, Cruz, or Kasich ... but Thomas Perez? It’s far more likely than you might think. Even before any candidate definitively secures either party’s presidential nomination, 2016 is looking more and more like 1912 all over again. In that fateful year, Theodore Roosevelt -- after four years of bored retirement -- decided that he wanted to be president again. However, Roosevelt’s handpicked successor William Howard Taft refused to yield. Because of the split, even though the Democrats’ dour, arrogant Woodrow Wilson won fewer popular votes than perennial failed...

As Americans, we’re blessed by our Constitutional freedoms, but they’re so easily taken for granted. When any of our liberties are under attack, they must be defended and preserved for future generations. Our religious civil liberties are guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Clarifying religious freedom is an ongoing challenge. In Everson...

Image from campusreform.org Universities are developing a deserved reputation for places that act as little fascist states, only allowing speech that the University Administration agrees with, or is considered "politically correct".  The University of Alabama has lived up to the reputation by citing a student who was peacefully wearing an empty holster in a protest over the Universitity's no weapon policy.  The campus police explicitly say that they are citing the student because "someone called it in".  The campus policy does not prohibit holsters.  The citation is for "Engaging in activities that threaten the safety of the campus community"...

Judicial Watch & Allied Educational Foundation to Supreme Court: Protect the Laws that Keep Public Officials Honest Defending the First Amendment against the Obama IRS Only 3 U.S. Airports Require Employee Security Checks JW Gets Props in The Wall Street JournalJudicial Watch & Allied Educational Foundation to Supreme Court: Protect the Laws that Keep Public Officials Honest With a notorious Democrat in the White House, it bears repeating that there are corrupt politicians in both the Republican and Democrat parties. The “corruption caucus” in the political world is both bipartisan and growing. True to our non-partisan educational mission, we...

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin signed a bill Wednesday that removes the names and titles of county clerks from marriage licenses, giving legal "finality" to the religious accommodation that Rowan County clerk Kim Davis was looking for. Davis, who made headlines when she spent over five days in jail last September for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses with her name and title on them because of her Christian beliefs, had called on the state's then-Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear to create a religious accommodation allowing her to drop her name and title from marriage certificates that her office issued. The accommodation,...

A Republican state lawmaker from Tennessee is under attack from Democrats because he disseminated a video that criticizes Islam. Mt. Juliet Rep. Susan Lynn found herself likened to racists from the 1960s on Tuesday for sharing copies of a DVD, titled "America's Mosques Exposed: Video Evidence They Are War Factories," on behalf of a constituent. Democrats and allied activists denounced Lynn as a hate-monger. "It hit me really personally because I remember the 60s. I remember the discrimination. I remember having to sit in the back of the bus," state Rep. Johnnie Turner, a Democrat from Memphis, said Tuesday during...

Sharon Stone has cancelled filming of an upcoming project in Mississippi as a result of the state’s newly passed anti-LGBT ‘religious freedom on steroids’ bill, HB 1523. The film’s producers informed Mississippi Film Studios president Rick Moore that the law was a deal-breaker for Stone. The unnamed film project reportedly tackles the consequences of cyberbullying. James Cromwell is slated to direct. “Unfortunately, Sharon Stone feels strongly that shooting in Mississippi is not an option while the law exists,” Moore said. “The other producers have chosen to regroup and find another location.” Moore said he has heard of projects on the...

As we have seen from recent events in Paris, Brussels and all across the world, terrorism is not an obscure phenomenon that only impacts the Middle East. And no longer can Americans ignore the threat of terrorism as primarily a European problem. Although attacks in the United States are less frequent due, in part, to our distance from the region, increasingly, leaders associated with terrorist groups are now finding their way onto American soil. Not only must we be concerned about terrorist cells hiding in communities around the United States, but we now also have to worry about domestic Muslim...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Let's continue to cycle through the latest news developments on all this. This is a couple interesting statistics here. Ted Cruz has won more delegates than Donald Trump since Rubio got out of the race. I'm not talking votes here, although it might be the same thing, but Cruz has won more delegates than Trump since Rubio got out. And of course this was the Cruz strategy. You know, get all of these Republicans that are not going anywhere to drop out and have all of the votes on the Republican side that are not going to...

Having already made a .50-caliber sniper gun the official state rifle, Tennessee lawmakers on Monday gave final approval to making the Holy Bible the state’s official book. The state Senate voted 19-8 in favor of the bill despite arguments by the state attorney general that the measure conflicts with a provision in the Tennessee Constitution stating that “no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religious establishment or mode of worship.” Opponents argued the Bible would be trivialized by being placed alongside other state symbols such as the official tree, flower, rock or amphibian. But both chambers of...

As our Great Sexual Heresy continues its march onwards and downwards, state governments have forced bakers, wedding planners, florists and other businesses to service faux weddings. This is unprecedented, as never before were Americans governmentally compelled to participate in events they found morally objectionable. Yet when some project out on our cultural trajectory and say churches one day will be subject to the same coercion, they’re met with laughter; this will never, ever happen, they’re told. Yet this is an illogical and inconsistent position. Prefacing a statement in opposition to the hapless bakers at a campaign stop a while back,...

President Obama is so paranoid about linking terrorists to the Muslim faith that when French President François Hollande used the phrase “Islamist terrorism” at a meeting in Washington, White House officials posted their official press video with audio of the words cut out completely. The White House’s transcript of the event shows the French leader declared at the 4:49 minute mark that “the roots of terrorism, Islamist terrorism, is in Syria and in Iraq.” But rather than include Hollande’s remark in its entirety, the Obama administration posted footage in which his interpreter’s English translation of the words “Islamist terrorism” was...

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has vetoed legislation he said would legalize discrimination of the LGBT community. The Democratic governor made the announcement Wednesday during a radio appearance on WTOP. The measure would prohibit the state from punishing religious groups that refuse services related to gay marriages. Republican supporters said it would protect people from expressing their religious beliefs. …

mayor of San Francisco has banned all publicly-funded city employees from traveling to North Carolina. The NFL is threatening to block Atlanta, Georgia from hosting a future Super Bowl. The NBA is threatening to relocate next year’s All Star game from Charlotte, North Carolina to another city. Corporate giants like American Airlines and Hollywood giants like Disney are threatening action against Georgia and North Carolina. Why? It is because North Carolina has passed a bill requiring people to use the public bathroom or locker room that corresponds to their birth certificate gender and because Georgia has enacted legislation (yet to...

Candidates for public office in Ohio can lie and get away with it under a recent federal court ruling that struck down a state law banning false statements in campaigns, an attorney says. Attorney Donald Brey, who has represented Republicans in cases before the Ohio Elections Commission, told The Columbus Dispatch his clients mostly tell the truth, but can legally lie as long as they don’t defame anyone.In past elections, the commission ruled on false-advertising complaints. That changed when the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals a few weeks ago upheld the 2014 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy...