Free Republic

ICYMI: CRUZ: We Need a Commander in Chief Who Stands Up and Doesn't Refuse to Say Radical Islamic Terrorism Spoke with The Mike Gallagher Show this morningHOUSTON, Texas - Presidential candidate Ted Cruz joined Mike Gallagher on the radio this morning regarding the fight against ISIS, that President Obama is completely out of touch with the American people, and how the USA Freedom Act strengthens our ability to target radical Islamic terrorists.Below are excerpts, listen to entire interview here:Ted Cruz on the Mike Gallagher Show (Audio)Regarding the President’s AddressMike Gallagher: I mean it's inconceivable to me that the President of...

In yet another tragic citizen shooting by police. This time a father was beat, tazed, maced and ultimately shot several times..for what crime you ask? For merely refusing to allow a deputy into his residence at 3:40 in the morning without a proper search warrant. Do our constitutional rights already mean nothing? It is beyond time to start holding these rouge officers responsible for their actions. In this and so many more just this month those actions look to be murder (at times even executions.) It is time for us to start demanding that the Sheriffs and Police Chiefs rein...

October 3, 2015 Obama's wink and nod on gun confiscation By Thomas Lifson President Obama couldn’t be more eager to change the subject of national news discussion away from the catastrophic failure of his Middle East foreign policy. So the shooting in Roseburg, OR offered an opportunity to gin up his base and re-focus his domestic opponents on playing defense against gun control. By framing his goal as the extremely vague phrase “common sense gun control legislation,” he avoids specifics. And in fact, nobody on his team has yet come up with a concrete suggestion that would have saved the...

A nice catch by Sam Stein of HuffPo from Rand’s interview with Boston Herald Radio. Skip to around 11:00 for the key bit.I … did not expect a competition between Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul over who could conjure up a better Nazi allusion for Republicans. Or rather, I didn’t expect it until the election turned to foreign policy. “There have been a lot of dumb ideas put out,” Paul said, speaking with Boston Herald Radio. “One that the Mexicans will pay for a wall, [which] was probably the dumbest of dumb ideas. But putting a wall up between...

Orem • Rand Paul brought his message of limited government and strict observance of the U.S. Constitution to Utah Saturday. A crowd of several hundred applauded his call to stand up for all 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights — not just the one protecting gun rights. "You can't support the Second Amendment unless you protect the Fourth," the GOP presidential candidate said, referring to the constitutional prohibition against unlawful search and seizure. That applause line was the Kentucky senator's segue into his intense opposition to blanket data-gathering on U.S. citizens — a key pillar of his long-shot campaign....

Debating Chris Christie is a formidable task because he's quick-witted, sharp-tongued and slightly intimidating. Those qualities helped him get the best of Rand Paul in the first Republican presidential debate. But Christie's best weapon is one that may catch up with him: He never lets the truth get in his way. Earlier this year, Paul led a successful effort to end the National Security Agency's mass collection of Americans' telephone records. During the debate, Christie was asked whether he stands by his assertion that Paul should be blamed if the United States suffers another terrorist attack. He does, of course:...

It was still dark outside when “Jonah” (not his real name) heard the pounding on his front door. As luck would have it, he was awake — or mostly awake. He’d gotten up at 4:00 a.m. on October 3, 2013, to see his parents off to the airport. They were leaving on a quick trip to raise money for the children’s charity his father runs. Jonah was 16 at the time, old enough to stay home alone for a short time, but not old enough to deal with what awaited him on the other side of the door. The pounding...

In April, three victims of Wisconsin’s long-running “John Doe” investigations broke their silence. Former Scott Walker adviser Cindy Archer spoke to National Review on the record while two other women asked for their identities to be concealed. All three, however, told remarkably similar stories — of police raids at dawn, pounding on the door, threats of battering rams, and ransacked homes. They weren’t suspected of drug crimes, violent crimes, or other crimes recognizable to the American public. Rather, they were either close associates of Scott Walker or involved in the broader conservative movement in Wisconsin — and were caught up...

MADISON, Wis. – Cindy Archer was once made to beg sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents not to shoot her dogs during an early-morning raid on her Madison home. Now the former aide to Gov. Scott Walker who has never been charged with a crime in the Democrat-launched John Doe investigation is fighting back in court. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published Tuesday evening, Archer writes that Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and his agents ransacked her house and ruined her career. “After much soul-searching, I am filing a civil-rights lawsuit on Wednesday against Milwaukee County District Attorney...

MADISON, Wis. – Kelly Rindfleisch’s roller-coaster ride to justice got rougher Tuesday. Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman withdrew the motion he filed late last week asking the court to reconsider its denial of Rindfleisch’s Fourth Amendment appeal. In a brief letter filed in the court Tuesday, Gableman said Rindlfleisch will nevertheless “have the benefit of review by the entire Court” because she has also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review her case. Sources close to the case tell Wisconsin Watchdog that Gableman was concerned he would not have the votes to win reconsideration because Justice David Prosser would...

The FBI is operating a small air force to spy on Americans Associated Press Jack Gillum, Eileen Sullivan and Eric Tucker, Associated Press Jun. 2, 2015, WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology — all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned. The planes' surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge's approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. In a recent 30-day period, the agency...

Key provisions of the PATRIOT Act -- the controversial law that allows the NSA to collect Americans' phone records and secretly track suspected terrorists – will likely expire tonight, a former White House counterterrorism official told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week.""What I think will likely happen tonight is the law will expire," Richard Clarke said Sunday morning. "And then later in the week, the USA Freedom Act, which is essentially the same as the PATRIOT Act with the exception of the telephony metadata program, that act will pass and most of the authorities will be restored." Though the White...

Sunday, I will continue my fight to end the illegal collection of American phone records. The Second Appeals court has ruled the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records illegal. We should not be debating modifying an illegal program. We should simply end this illegal program. How will we defend ourselves if the Patriot Act expires? Well, perhaps we could just rely on the Constitution and demonstrate exactly how traditional judicial warrants can gather all the info we need—and how bulk collection really hasn’t worked. We have all the tools we need to preserve both security and liberty. What we now...

The forgotten history of the Fourth Amendment, and its relevance for reforming the Patriot Act The authorization for the Patriot Act will soon expire, and elected officials in Washington have been debating whether it should be renewed. There are those who believe this law, which was passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks, should be renewed with no changes. Since the last time it was authorized, Americans have learned that certain provisions of this Act were being interpreted by the National Security Agency to give this agency authority to collect bulk metadata on the phone calls of every...

Rand is still standing. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the libertarian firebrand and GOP presidential hopeful, isn’t showing any sign he’ll relent and allow speedier votes in the Senate on controversial government surveillance programs, as weary and recess-hungry senators trudged through a rare Friday session with a packed to-do list. Paul said Friday that he hasn’t yet agreed to accelerate procedural votes — currently set for Saturday — on dueling proposals to renew expiring provisions in the PATRIOT Act. He had signaled that he might relent if he secured votes on privacy amendments, but shortly before 10 p.m. he said...

Rand Paul is filibustering the Patriot Act right now, because it continues the unlimited NSA spying on all Americans.

“Here in front of Independence Hall, I call for the president to obey the law,” Paul said when he took the microphone, as hundreds of his supporters shouted “President Paul! President Paul! President Paul!” outside Independence Hall after a separate event inside the Constitution Center across the street. The crowd went wild. “The court said last week that it is illegal to collect all of your phone records all of the time without a warrant with your name on it,” Paul said. “I call on the president today to immediately end the bulk collection of our phone records.”

From the Sixth Circuit federal court of appeals decision today in Northrup v. Toledo Police Dept.: On a midsummer evening, Shawn and Denise Northrup went for a neighborhood walk with their daughter, grandson, and dog. Apparently in a happy-go-lucky mood, Shawn wore a t-shirt reading, “This Is The Shirt I Wear When I Don’t Care.” Shawn carried a cell phone, which he holstered on his hip — next to a black semiautomatic handgun. A passing motorcyclist stopped to complain about Shawn’s visible firearm. The stranger, Alan Rose, yelled, “[Y]ou can’t walk around with a gun like that!” But “[O]pen carry...

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Tuesday that the Constitution forbids police from holding a suspect without probable cause, even for fewer than 10 extra minutes. Writing on behalf of the court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declared that the constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure prevent police from extending an otherwise completed traffic stop to allow for a drug-sniffing dog to arrive. “We hold that a police stop exceeding the time needed to handle the matter for which the stop was made violates the Constitution’s shield against unreasonable seizures,” she ruled. The case, Rodriguez v. United States, was brought...

The Supreme Court told the police Tuesday they may not turn routine traffic stops into drug searches using trained dogs. The 6-3 decision ends the increasingly common practice whereby officers stop a car for a traffic violation and then call for a drug-sniffing dog to inspect the vehicle. The justices, both liberal and conservative, agreed that it was an unconstitutional "search and seizure" to hold a motorist in such cases. "Police may not prolong detention of a car and driver beyond the time reasonably required to address the traffic violation," said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking for the court. [snip]...