Free Republic

DID YOU KNOW SOUTH AFRICA HAS A CONSTITUTION THAT'S FAR SUPERIOR TO OUR OWN? THAT'S WHAT ONE U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE, AS WELL AS SHADOWY ACTIVITIST GROUPS WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES TO EFFECT CHANGE, BELIEVE. “I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the Constitution of South Africa … a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights …” -Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jan. 30, 2012. That stunning disavowal—by an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court—of the Constitution she has sworn...

Free Speech: The former speaker, echoing the president, says the Supreme Court got it wrong in ruling we have the right to pool our money for purposes of political speech. Leave it to Nancy Pelosi, who said we had to pass ObamaCare in order to find out what's in it, to suggest that a document we had well over two centuries to read was misinterpreted by the court in its Citizens United decision wherein it held that corporations and unions can spend unlimited amounts on political advocacy as long as they do not coordinate with candidates or campaigns. Pelosi, at...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday endorsed a movement announced by other congressional Democrats on Wednesday to ratify an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would allow Congress to regulate political speech when it is engaged in by corporations as opposed to individuals.

Columbus, Ohio – Ohio State University Police detained and drew their weapons on student-activist Mike Newbern for demonstrating his support for gun rights by wearing an empty holster to a candlelight vigil for Trayvon Martin on Wednesday. Newbern, the president of Buckeyes for Concealed Carry, was taken forcibly into police custody just after 8:30 p.m., while he was standing at the front of the crowd wearing an empty holster, which was clearly visible on his belt, and with his hands crossed in front of his chest. A police report released on Thursday indicates two officers drew their firearms before approaching...

---- Snip ---- U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts granted requests for acquittal on the most serious charges: conspiring to commit sedition, or rebellion, against the U.S. and conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. Other weapons crimes tied to the alleged conspiracies also were dismissed. ---- Snip ----

Today tens of thousands of Americans gathered in 140 cities to peacefully protest the "HHS Mandate". This recent mandate of the US Department of Health and Human Services requires religious institutions and faithful employers to provide insurance coverage of contraceptive drugs and devices, sterilization services, and abortion-producing drugs, even if this coverage is anathema to them. The mandate levies crushing fines on any institution that attempts to opt out of paying for such coverage. Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, and Muslims are all strongly opposed to providing coverage of such services, and since HHS and the Obama Administration have been absolutely...

The First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from infringing upon the freedom of speech, the freedom of association and the freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Speech is language and other forms of expression; and association and petition connote physical presence in reasonable proximity to those of like mind and to government officials, so as to make your opinions known to them. The Declaration of Independence recognizes all three freedoms as stemming from our humanity. So, what happens if you can speak freely, but the government officials at whom your speech is aimed...

The simple answer is no, the Citizens United decision was not an activist Supreme Court decision. The Citizens United decision upheld the principle that organized groups, whether they are corporations, unions, or for that matter groups such as the National Organization of Women, a corporation, have the right to engage in political speech and political activism in the form of supporting candidates and causes with money and in-kind support. Citizens United upheld the Constitutional principle of the right to assemble and to seek redress of grievances. By rendering their decision, the Supreme Court upheld the right of any group, which...

Rush Limbaugh has drawn the ire of celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who sent a letter to the Palm Beach County state attorney requesting an investigation into whether the popular radio host should be prosecuted for calling a law student a “slut” and “prostitute” last week. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73829.html#ixzz1oflKsUnV

March 8, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) White House staff members have told U.S. bishops that the administration will not consider further revision of the mandate forcing religious employers to pay for birth control, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs, and that the religious leaders should listen to “enlightened” Catholics who accept the president’s terms, reports Cardinal Timothy Dolan. In a letter sent to fellow Bishops last week, the New York archbishop revealed some of what had transpired in a recent meeting involving staff members from the White House and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). “Our staff members asked directly whether the...

Sandra Fluke said Rush Limbaugh has not called her personally to apologize for referring to her as a “slut” and a “prostitute” last week. Fluke, a Georgetown law student who testified last month to Democrats about the new contraception mandate in the healthcare reform law, also said she wouldn’t welcome a personal call from Limbaugh. “No [he has not called],” she said during a Monday appearance on “The View.” “And let me be clear that I think his statements on the air have been personal enough about me so I'd rather not have a personal phone call from him,” she...

When the left savages the right, it's OK. When America's top conservative questions why taxpayers must subsidize the sex life of a coed, the sky falls in. Bill Maher, call your office. When the late, great Andrew Breitbart was asked in a Twitter conversation whether he'd apologize for his website's posting of a video of a speech by Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod that led to her forced resignation, Breitbart replied, "Apologize for what?" Breitbart knew the sensitivities and the hypocrisy of the left when their sacred cows and double standards were under attack. Hell hath no fury, he knew,...

[...] in a phone interview, Martin told CBN News he's a life-long Lutheran, not a Muslim. "The victim claims that I said that I was a Muslim, and he portrayed incorrectly that I was a Muslim, and that I showed biased toward Muslims in my ruling, and really that's ridiculous," Martin told CBN News. But critics, like Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, say the judge stepped out of bounds of the First Amendment. [...] "It sounds like he's Sharia compliant, not constitutionally compliant," the Texas lawmaker said. Martin, however, stands by his ruling, saying there wasn't enough evidence to find the...

VIDEO at link, 1.30 min. (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) said Wednesday that President Barack Obama is acting like the U.S. is the Soviet Union in ordering that all health-care plans must cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that cause abortions, but that when those plans are provided by religious institutions that have a religious objection to those things the insurance company must offer them for free. “The president has said he offered an accommodation," said Johann's in a speech on the Senate floor. "The accommodation is that: Whoa! Lo, and behold, this is going to be...

“Organized labor” brings to mind railroads, factories, and government offices, but the labor movement’s biggest recent gains have been in the home. Led by SEIU, unions and their political allies have pushed through executive orders and legislation in a dozen states to “organize” home-care workers, such as personal assistants and sitters, by deeming them state employees for collective-bargaining purposes alone. California was the trailblazer in this campaign, with SEIU first trying to convince the state courts to designate Los Angeles County home-care workers as county employees. Having lost the battle in the courtroom, SEIU commenced lobbying the California legislature to...

WMATA issued a statement saying its advertising has been ruled by the courts as protected under the First Amendment, and the Authority does not decline ads based on their political content. "WMATA does not endorse the advertising on our system, and ads to not reflect the position of the Authority," says the statement. In response to their statement, Congressman Jim Moran says, "I am disappointed by WMATA's defense of this inappropriate advertisement. If their current advertising guidelines do not prohibit profane advertisements on taxpayer-funded property, then WMATA should take the initiative and update them. Profanity has no place in the...

First Amendment: The ex-head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops compares the administration take on freedom of worship to the Soviet Union's and says its contraceptive mandate will force church hospitals to close. On the first Sunday of Lent, Chicago's Francis Cardinal George issued his version of the letter issued by the USCCB he recently led. It shredded assurances by the administration that things could be worked out so that religious freedom would not be impaired and painted a bleak future that just might be the administration's intent. Going a bit further than his peers, Cardinal George essentially rejected...

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (WHTM) - It almost sounds like the makings of a joke: an atheist, a Muslim and the Mechanicsburg Halloween parade. But non-believers aren't laughing about an attack and insist what's really frightening is the way a district judge ruled on it. The Atheists of Central Pennsylvania decided to walk in the Mechanicsburg Halloween parade. There was a zombie Pope and a zombie Muhammed. On YouTube, you can catch a scary moment. It's dark and distorted, but a Muslim man comes off the curb extremely offended at Muhammed being depicted in this way. "He grabbed me, choked me from...

In the months leading up to the Federal Communications Commission’s December 21, 2010 “net neutrality” vote, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s appointment book contained two key meetings not listed in Commission’s legal filings, The Daily Caller has learned. Genachowski’s appointment book, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and provided to TheDC by the National Legal and Policy Center, showed two meetings that were not listed in the Commission’s ex parte filings in the month prior to the “net neutrality vote.” “Net neutrality” is where Internet traffic management policies of Internet service providers (ISPs) are governed by the FCC....

Yesterday, Family Research Council (FRC) Pres. Tony Perkins led an event announcing the release a letter signed by over 2,500 religious leaders from a range of faiths opposing Pres. Obama’s contraception and abortifacient mandate. In a newsletter to FRC’s membership recapping the announcement (emphasis added), Perkins says: “Together with our good friends Bishop Harry Jackson, Dr. Richard Land, Pastor Gary Simons, and Star Parker, we made it clear that this isn't about contraception. It's about conscience and the freedom of every American and God-fearing organization to exercise their moral convictions.” “No church should be forced to concede their faith...