Free Republic

Cracking down on hate, abuse and online trolls is also hurting Twitter’s standing with investors. The company’s stock plunged Friday after it reported a decline in its monthly users and warned that the number could fall further in the coming months. The 20.5 percent plunge comes one day after Facebook lost 19 percent of its value in a single day. Twitter says it’s putting the long-term stability of its platform above user growth. That leaves investors seemingly unable to value what the biggest companies in the sector, which rely on their potential user reach, are worth. Twitter had 335 million...

Last week, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, wrote to Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos , demanding that he no longer sell at Amazon any material that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) dislikes. Yes, it has come to this. Ellison’s letter to Bezos focuses on an alleged neo-Nazi’s material being sold at Amazon and published through Amazon’s self-publishing service. However, Ellison makes clear that his intentions are far more sweeping, particularly with his opening gambit: I am writing to you with my concerns about the amount of money Amazon has made from the sale...

Elections have consequences. One of the levers of power in the executive branch is the ability to settle lawsuits. Trump era officials in the Department of Justice have agreed to settle a lawsuit meant to stop an egregious violation of First and Second Amendment rights. Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed published computer code that enabled people with 3D printers to print a crude single shot pistol and parts of semi-automatic rifles. The Federal government ordered Defense Distributed to stop distribution of the computer code. Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed complied, and filed a lawsuit, with the help of the...

July 18, 2018 The owners of a Pennsylvania farm have been ordered by the Sewickley Heights Borough to cease and desist holding Bible studies on their private property. Borough leaders accused Scott and Terri Fetterolf of improperly using their 35-acre farm as a place of worship, a place of assembly and as a commercial venue. They were served a cease-and-desist order in October 2017, the Post-Gazette reported.

President Donald Trump has nominated federal appeals court Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh has taken the pro-life side in important cases and has very strong pro-life Bona fides — prompting leading pro-life groups to praise him for a sterling pro-life record. President Trump applauded Judge Kavanaugh as someone who would apply the Constitution as written but Planned Parenthood launched a fierce attack the Supreme Court nominee, claiming he would “wreak havoc” on abortion. In one of his most celebrated decisions, Judge Kavanaugh ruled against the Obama HHS mandate that forced Hobby Lobby, Little Sisters of the Poor...

Cody Wilson’s Defense Distributed and Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) reached a settlement with the Department of Justice allowing unfettered publication of 3D gun files and other information in a case centered on free speech. Breitbart News reported that SAF filed a suit on behalf of Defense Distributed on May 6, 2015, seeking to free Wilson from a federal mandate that he not post blueprints for The Liberator pistol online. Over three years later, the announcement comes that Wilson and SAF won.

Reflections on the nature of today's demonstrations… Right at the beginning of the Bill of Rights, our Constitution clearly protects American citizens’ right to speak freely on political issues. The First Amendment promises that “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.” The Constitution doesn’t grant them an audience; it doesn’t promise that anyone will listen to them, or read their writings or join in their demonstration. It just allows them to do it, and leaves it up to local and state governments to manage...

Justice is coming for unions that forced non-members to pay "non-political" agency fees that went to prop up Democratic candidates. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that forcing workers who disagree with a union to make these payments anyway violates the workers' First Amendment rights. Less than a week after that ruling, Janus v. Association of Federal, State, City, and Municipal Employees (FSCME), seven California teachers have filed a class-action lawsuit to recoup unjustly forced fees. "This lawsuit will enable teachers like me to recover the agency fees that we were wrongly forced to pay against our will," Scott Wilford,...

Political science professor John McAdams is going to be reinstated at Marquette University following a victory at the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He had been suspended by the school for writing a blog post critical of a graduate student. "The undisputed facts show that the University breached its contract with Dr. McAdams when it suspended him for engaging in activity protected by the contract's guarantee of academic freedom," said the opinion written by Justice Daniel Kelly. The state's high court ordered Marquette to "immediately reinstate Dr. McAdams with unimpaired rank, tenure, compensation, and benefits." ( Journal Sentinel ) The case...

Justice Kennedy was a fierce defender of the First Amendment. As he explained in one of his last opinions on the bench, the government “must not be allowed to force persons to express a message contrary to their deepest convictions. Freedom of speech secures freedom of thought and belief.” Not many can fill Justice Kennedy’s shoes when it comes to the First Amendment. But one who might is Justice Kennedy’s former law clerk: Judge Raymond Kethledge of the Sixth Circuit. Court watchers love comparing nominees to sitting justices. Judge Kethledge’s writing reminds me of the Chief’s. His focus on statutory...

In a remarkably honest exposé, the New York Times acknowledged Saturday that “liberals who once championed expansive First Amendment rights are now uneasy about them” ever since conservatives realized they should apply to them as well. The Times cites First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams who noted that whereas the left once led support for First Amendment protections, they are now “at least skeptical and sometimes distraught at the level of First Amendment protection which is being afforded in cases brought by litigants on the right.” The difference between then and now? Many of the ideas currently being protected by free...

JUSTICE ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. Under Illinois law, public employees are forced to subsi­ dize a union, even if they choose not to join and strongly object to the positions the union takes in collective bar­ gaining and related activities. We conclude that this arrangement violates the free speech rights of nonmem­ bers by compelling them to subsidize private speech on matters of substantial public concern. We upheld a similar law in Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., 431 U. S. 209 (1977), and we recognize the importance of following precedent unless there are strong reasons for...

Guns have been made by individuals as long as there have been guns. In the United States, it has always been legal to own the means of production to make your own guns. It has always been legal to make your own. Hobbyists have been making firearms as long as the United States has existed. The national war on the Second Amendment started in the 1930's. Passed in 1934, the National Firearms Act required a license to make some guns for commercial sale. A federal tax stamp was required to own short barreled rifles and shotguns, and guns that can...

In a democratic republic, freedom of expression and enlightened, open-ended debate are paramount. Yet in America in 2018, First Amendment rights are vanishing for conservatives. There's a reason: Powerful entities such as online and televised media, many of whom are left-oriented, have gradually shape-shifted our nation's speech to match their political flavor. For progressives, this uneven playing field is a seismic boon. For conservatives, not so much, nor is it good for even moderate left-wing thinkers. Under such a regimen, though, a land and people once revered as freedom-loving now creep closer toward socialism. Yet there they stand: the venomous...

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a Minnesota law banning voters from wearing political apparel to the polls, saying it was too draconian in stifling Americans’ First Amendment rights. The 7-2 decision said it may be possible for states to restrict stridently political T-shirts and buttons, but the justices said Minnesota didn’t justify why its law needed to be so broad.

Calvin Congden posted the above picture on facebook during December of 2015. It was taken in front of the Christmas tree in his home. He is a military veteran who has had extensive firearms training. Notice the correct trigger finger placement. Notice the military medals and the American flag. He routinely volunteered as a Santa Clause for Hillsdale Foster Care Children. He had recently transferred from Michigan Department of Corrections to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.  His picture was used to denigrate him to fellow employees, his lawsuit contends. He was later "constructively terminated". From freep.com:...

Progressives in the media have no respect for the traditions and structure of the branches of the government. As soon as one issues a decision based on anything but liberal ideology, the world is over. After the Supreme Court released their decision in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop LTD. vs. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, in favor of the baker, Jack Phillips, the media went on a rampage. Liberal book publisher Haymarket Books tweeted out on its verified account almost immediately after the ruling was released, “Abolish the Supreme Court.”

hen, just weeks after taking office, Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the supreme court, the newly minted US president made good on a central promise of his campaign: to replace the late justice Antonin Scalia with a bona fide conservative. That moment foreshadowed what is shaping up to be among the most indelible of Trump’s triumphs – the reshaping of the federal judiciary with the appointment of dozens of judges with an ideological bent toward the administration’s agenda. Republicans are working with Trump to make a record-breaking number of appointments to federal courts. These new, mostly young, white men...

The New York Times never discouraged U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy from retiring during the Obama administration, but the newspaper’s editorial board is now literally begging him to stick around. Headlined “Please Stay, Justice Kennedy,” the open letter in Saturday’s edition implored him to remain on the high court amid rumors of his retirement, saying “[y]our departure right now from the Supreme Court would have dire consequences for the country.” Why? If Mr. Kennedy leaves, his seat would be filled by President Trump, which would mean “the court will have a locked-in right-wing majority for the rest of most...

As the political world obsesses over the latest sexual-harassment scandals and policy wonks scrutinize the latest tax-reform proposal, the Trump administration is quietly restoring constitutional governance. Although Congress has been unable to pass legislation and President Trump faces record-low approval rates, his hiring of “the best people” in certain key areas has enabled the transformation of the judiciary — as well as reworking the bureaucracy (often called the Fourth Branch). A president has few powers more important than picking judges. Tax deals can sunset and regulations can be rescinded — Congress has used the Congressional Review Act to eliminate 14...