Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- Dick Heller, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that overturned Washington's strict 32-year-old handgun ban, announced his candidacy on Thursday for the U.S. House of Representatives. Heller, 66, is seeking the seat currently held by Eleanor Holmes Norton. He is gathering signatures to run on the ballot as a libertarian candidate. Heller, an armed security guard, sued the District after it rejected his application to keep a handgun at his home for protection in the same Capitol Hill neighborhood as the court. "Mr. Heller's challenge to Ms. Norton is welcomed in the spirit of debate, and as...

Eleanor Holmes Norton is hoping to save nearly 2,000 city students from the dreaded federal voucher program that allows them to attend well-functioning private schools in a safe and nurturing environment. Mrs. Norton vehemently opposes the voucher program because of its imposition on the District´s public schools, which, of course, perform at levels of bad and worse. Mrs. Norton and the like-minded in the Democrat-controlled Congress want to end the $18 million program because it works, is a big hit with the parents of disadvantaged students and provides low-income families with a choice. Some of the testimonials of the parents...

A group of 11 representatives in the House want Congress to add "sexual orientation" to the list of protected characteristics used in regulating workplace discrimination in federal employment. Government employment discrimination and whistleblower-protection issues are handed by the Office of Special Counsel, which is empowered to prosecute managers believed to have violated the law. During the Clinton administration, Special Counsel Elaine Kaplan – an avowed lesbian, according to Concerned Women for America – incorporated "sexual orientation" under the "conduct unrelated to the job" portion of the regulation, thus elevating homosexuality to a protected status. Last year, Scott Bloch, who now...

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) has withdrawn her support of legislation that would reinstate the military draft, because she believes it would bolster the Bush administration’s ability to wage several wars simultaneously. Norton initially backed Rep. Charles Rangel’s (D-N.Y.) bill on the draft in January 2003. But a Norton spokeswoman said the legislator now believes the bill, if enacted, would force draftees to fight wars they might not support. The spokeswoman added that a draft would help President Bush’s “preemptive” war on terrorism. Rangel said last year that he introduced the bill to highlight the large percentage of minorities who...