Free Republic

Prosecutors have dropped a driving under the influence charge against the wife of former Miami Heat superstar Alonzo Mourning.

On October 8, THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported that the privacy policy of the Maryland Health Connection (MHC), the state's Obamacare insurance marketplace, included a statement that the marketplace "may share information provided in your application with the appropriate authorities for law enforcement and audit activities." An email had been sent to the MHC on October 3 requesting clarification of the policy, and included these inquires: Does that include both federal and state authorities? What type of information from the application might be of interest to law enforcement and/or state/federal auditors? However, no response was received before the story was published....

Lawsuit reform is an issue that enjoys wide-ranging bipartisan support, with demonstrated appeal to advocates of small government and progressive government alike. All Americans have an interest in the fundamental rule of law and in the fair and justified treatment of participants in our economy. As lawsuit reform aims to pursue accurate justice, so it aims to keep the economy properly functioning. Oklahoma legislators recently voted in bipartisan majorities to reinstate more than two dozen lawsuit reforms that had previously been struck down on a technicality by the state supreme court. Alabama passed a key lawsuit reform with overwhelming majorities...

In Arkansas a class of sixth graders were asked to prune the Constitution and its amendments. Glenn Beck decried the notion of an outdated Constitution in his radio program. Like a true patriot he defended it, but he was wrong. The Constitution is outdated as are many of its amendments. Here are some amendments that need instant pruning or decapitation: The 16th amendment allowing the federal government to collect income tax. If that were abolished, so would Obamacare, according to Chief Justice John Roberts. The 17th amendment establishing the direct election of United States senators. The Founders were correct in...

The Democrats are chanting that Republicans must fully fund Obamacare because it is the law of the land, passed by Congress, signed by the president, and upheld by the Supreme Court. Therefore, they say, it must be obeyed and can’t be altered by Republicans who want to defund it. That argument is both wrong and hypocritical. Any federal law can be changed, repealed, amended or defunded by our legislative branch of government, Congress. The Republican House wants to deal with the controversial huge “continuing resolution” bill in separate pieces, giving the OK to worthwhile federal spending purposes while leaving others...

LANSING, Mich., Oct. 7 (UPI) -- A proposed law in Michigan is aimed at ensuring beer drinkers who pay for a pint get at least 16 ounces. The measure was introduced in the House last week, MLive.com reported. It would ban what barflies refer to as "cheater glasses" with thick bottoms so they look like they hold a pint but actually take a few ounces less. State Rep. Jim Irwin, a Democrat from the college town of Ann Arbor, said the state regulates meat and other foodstuffs to make sure buyers get what they pay for. Irwin introduced a similar...

<p>Another lawsuit has been filed against the president’s health-care takeover strategy, this time by a Florida company complaining that Obama had no authority to simply change the law once it had been approved by Congress and signed.</p> <p>It was last July when Obama announced he was delaying the requirement for employers to provide adequate and affordable health insurance starting Jan. 1, 2014, or pay huge fines.</p>

BANGALORE: As legal help becomes exorbitantly expensive in the United States, an increasing number of middle-class Americans are reaching out over the internet to lawyers in India for advice and assistance. A growing community of Indian lawyers is finding a business opportunity in helping Americans prepare legal documents. Compared with the $150-300 ( 9,150-18,450) per hour that US lawyers typically charge, enterprising Indian counterparts with online shops are offering their services for as little as $7-20 ( 400-1,200) an hour. "This is proving to be lucrative as requests from US clients are increasing," says advocate Mitul Desai who runs a...

The statement that Obamacare is the law of the land seems to be repeatedly stated by “conservative” media personalities, such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc.. It is almost as if they are intentionally trying to beat it into our heads that Obamacare is “the law of the land”. I have yet to find one “conservative” talk show host make an attempt to challenge that comment when there is a very, very strong case to be made that Obamacare is not “the law of the land”. The truth is, Obamacare is a legislative act, H.R.3590 titled the: “Patient Protection and...

How is it that Obama gets to decide how ObamaCare will be administered? As he keeps saying, it’s the law of the land. So where does he get off unilaterally granting waivers to his supporters while forcing everyone else to abide by the rules? And how is it that the GOP hasn’t forced the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of what he’s doing? No one is going to convince me that he has the legal authority to grant waivers to big businesses while forcing individuals to toe the line. Obama reminds me of the sort of sneak who...

NEW YORK, September 27, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An attorney in a high-profile child custody case says she is receiving death threats after asking whether abortion causes enduring stress in a case that has stirred the abortion debate in the Empire State. Eleanor Alter represents Green Bancorp CEO Manuel “John” Mehos, who is seeking custody of his two young children from ex-wife, Lisa. She had denied her ex the right to see his children over Easter weekend last year on the grounds that he is an atheist and she is a Christian. However, Alter says Lisa opted to ditch the kids...

"My daughter was raped and abducted," said a Mexican farmer. President Obama says, "What's different in America is it's easy to get your hands on a gun." First, from Aljazeera The village warriors of Guerrero AYUTLA DE LOS LIBRES, Mexico -- There on the cement town plaza, villagers led the two presumed extortionists over to government police. A band of farmers with old hunting rifles and machetes made sure the pair didn't get away Three hundred eyes watched as the detainees were led to a truck. A wind was picking up and the official overseeing the handover wanted to leave...

Glenn opened the radio program this morning with some very troubling (and bizarre) news that lead him to call for President Obama’s impeachment. Yesterday, the President waived a federal provision specifically designed to prevent the U.S. from supplying arms to terrorist groups in order to begin providing military assistance to the Syrian rebels. “Today I come to you with the news that our President actually waived the restriction on countries supplying arms to international terrorists, specifically Al‑Qaeda. And the reason why he waived that is because we’re providing arms to international terrorists, specifically Al‑Qaeda,” Glenn said. “Now, if that isn’t...

One deputy was hospitalized and another injured after a woman who refused to move her car at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport got violent Sunday, authorities said. Omolola Modupeola Dawodu, 36, was arrested on charges of battery on an officer, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting an officer with violence and resisting an officer without violence, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Above: Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Chief Doug Jordan meet in Phoenix.- Unbelievable! The Grantville, Georgia Police Chief has been suspended for a week - without pay - merely for visiting Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio during his vacation. Chief Doug Jordan and his wife planned a recent trip to Arizona to celebrate their wedding anniversary. They had honeymooned there 31 years ago. They paid for the trip and its expenses themselves. While there, Jordan thought it would be a great idea to see if he could meet with Arpaio. He was honored when Arpaio agreed to do so.“I meet with...

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, allowed on NPR this morning that American action in Syria might not be legal: ...

Few matters have initiated more litigation in the courts than the presence of Ten Commandments monuments and other displays of the Decalogue across the country located on public property. The presence of most of these is the result of a joint campaign by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, working with Hollywood Royalty and movie-magnate, the late great Cecil B. DeMille. Today the radical left has erroneously argued these displays are an unconstitutional violation of the "separation of church and state" and disparage them as nothing more than a publicity stunt by DeMille to hype his movie at the time, The...

The Russian Foreign Ministry is suggesting Russians to refrain from traveling abroad. Vacations at Turkish and Spanish resorts are not in danger. It has nothing to do with "Iron Curtain" expected by highly sensitive people either. The recommendation is addressed to those Russian citizens who have a reasonable suspicion that U.S. law enforcement agencies have something against them. The Russian Foreign Ministry made this harsh statement based on repeated incidents of detention of Russian citizens in different parts of the world at the request of the United States. The message on the site of the Foreign Ministry cited several examples,...

A bill that would criminalize "revenge porn" — nude or sexual photos, generally of former wives or girlfriends, posted online by an angry ex — could pave the way for other states to adopt similar laws, putting perpetrators in jail for six months if convicted a first time, and up to a year for repeat violations. The bill, already approved by the California Senate, is expected to go to the state Assembly as soon as this week, despite concerns from some lawmakers and experts who fear it could curtail First Amendment rights. "It's traumatized real victims; it's a growing problem,"...

An illegal immigrant's unprecedented quest to get his California law license will finally get its day in court. After years of waiting, Sergio Garcia, a Chico man who has secured his law degree but not his U.S. citizenship, on Wednesday will be at the center of closely watched legal arguments in the California Supreme Court. The justices are considering whether the state Bar can grant an illegal immigrant a card to practice law in California, a question entangled in the fast-moving, complex debate unfolding across the country.

A North Carolina bill that prohibits judges from considering foreign law, including Islamic Shariah, became law Monday without Gov. Pat McCrory’s signature. The bill was one of 34 passed by the legislature during the summer. McCrory signed the other 33 bills, calling the anti-Shariah bill “unnecessary,” but declined to veto it...

When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a law last week banning therapists for troubled teenagers from trying to help the teens rid themselves of unwanted homosexual attraction, he may have opened the door to the state to remove children from parents’ custody for getting them therapy the state doesn’t like. That’s what Democratic Assemblyman Tim Eustace indicated Wednesday when he likened Christian parents who enroll their children in “gay conversion therapy” or “reparative therapy” to abusers who don’t deserve custody of their own offspring. “What this [laws] does is prevent things that are harmful to people,” the openly gay...

In his dazzling revolutionary polemic, Common Sense, Thomas Paine explained in no uncertain terms that in America, the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other. John Adams put this a little more pithily a few years later, distilling into the new constitution of Massachusetts an ancient English value: This state, Adams wrote, would be “a government of laws and not of men.” Adams’s axiom has become American scripture; an impulsively recalled maxim of liberty to which all men...

Kaitlyn Hunt, the 19-year-old lesbian who faces charges of lewd and lascivious battery for having sex with a minor, is back in jail after authorities discovered that she ignored a court order to steer clear of her underage girlfriend. Hunt turned herself in to the Indian River County Jail in Vero Beach, Fla., on Monday night. The re-arrest follows revelations about Hunt’s continuing affair with her 14-year-old girlfriend. Both were students at Sebastian River High School last year.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller, former lawyer and Department of Justice whistleblower J. Christian Adams, explained how the agency charged with upholding the rule of law in America is behaving in disturbing ways.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A Republican state lawmaker says a new California law allowing transgender students to choose which restroom and locker room they use has caused his family to pull at least one son from their local public school. Assemblyman Tim Donnelly wrote in a column that his sons were "horrified" to learn they might have to share a restroom with female students. He told The Associated Press on Friday that he is pulling one son out of middle school, while another son is uncertain if he will return to his public high school.

Are any of you freepers noting any increased police enforcement in your area?

WASHINGTON — In another setback for President Obama’s health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care. The limit on out-of-pocket costs, including deductibles and co-payments, was not supposed to exceed $6,350 for an individual and $12,700 for a family. But under a little-noticed ruling, federal officials have granted a one-year grace period to some insurers, allowing them to set higher limits, or no limit at all on some costs, in 2014. The grace period has been outlined on...

You've seen the law school rants. You've heard about dropping attendance. You've read the frightening stories about criminally low-paying legal jobs for recent law graduates who are already $100K in debt. Certainly, some of the teeth-gnashing is well-founded. As a combined result of the global economic recession, new do-it-yourself legal services, and an over-saturated market of lawyers, the legal profession was due for a downturn. But does this mean that law school is dead? Should bright, legally minded college graduates automatically cross law school off their list? The answer: not necessarily. Most of these doomsday stories start with intriguing data,...

New Delhi: A Muslim man has been absolved of charges of illegally confining and raping a minor from the same religion, whom he had married later by a Delhi court. The court cited the Mohamedan Law that allows a 15-year-old girl to marry against the wishes of her parents. The accused was charged with rape and illegal confinement under the IPC. The IPC treats a girl as minor, in relation to the offence of rape, till she attains the age of 16 years and establishing physical relations with her, even with her consent, is an offence entailing life term as...

(CNSNews.com) – Co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center Morris Dees said his group’s “Hate Map” “doesn’t cause anybody to attack,” despite Floyd Lee Corkins’ admission that he targeted the Family Research Council (FRC) after going to the center’s website. As Corkins told the FBI after his arrest, he learned of the FRC online, “It was a, uh, Southern Poverty Law, lists, anti-gay groups. I found them online. I did a little bit of research, went to the website, stuff like that.” Corkins attempted a mass shooting on Aug. 15, 2012, opening fire at the Family Research Council and wounding...

Lawmakers and staff can breathe easy — their health care tab is not going to soar next year. The Office of Personnel Management, under heavy pressure from Capitol Hill, will issue a ruling that says the government can continue to make a contribution to the health care premiums of members of Congress and their aides, according to several Hill sources. **SNIP** The problem was rooted in the original text of the Affordable Care Act. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) inserted a provision which said members of Congress and their aides must be covered by plans “created” by the law or “offered...

The 5-4 opinion by the Supreme Court on the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) raises questions about the Court’s authority. The debate should focus on the role of the Supreme Court within the Republic and its duty to interpret the Constitution. The debate should not be over marriage. In the DOMA case, the five-member majority ignored long-accepted Equal Protection law. The decision is neither grounded in the constitutional text nor in prior precedent. It is contrary to the Western legal tradition, natural law, and the created order. Marriage was not invented by religion or civil authorities and predates both.

The family rescued by George Zimmerman when they were trapped in an overturned SUV canceled a scheduled news conference today and is pleading for privacy.

This flitted by on my Twitter feed, and really gave me pause, from the Association of American Law Schools: The AALS Section on Defamation and Privacy invites papers for its program on “Children’s Privacy Rights Against their Parents” for the Annual Meeting, to be held on January 2-5, 2014.Topic Description: Electronic surveillance technology and social media have significantly changed childhood in the Twenty-First Century. The digitization and electronic monitoring of children have altered the parent-child relationship and have significant ramifications for children’s privacy. At the same time, privacy scholars’ discussion of children’s privacy has focused mainly on the privacy of...

As you watch this self-important phony keep this in mind that just during the trial of George Zimmerman 16 Black males 19 or under were shot and killed most likely by other Black males in Chicago alone. Does anyone believe she could name a single one of them? Yet she is rationalizing her demand that a proved Black criminal who had a violent history and was a drug user should be allowed at least the first punch before a “White Hispanic” like George Zimmerman should be allowed to fight back to save his own life.

Barack Obama has never been clear on the distinction between sovereign and servant, between the American people and those, including himself, elected to do the people’s business. We saw that yet again this week with the president’s unilateral rewrite of the Bataan Death March known as the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare. For this president, laws are not binding expressions of the popular will, but trifling recommendations to be ignored when expedient. The collapse of law — not just Obamacare but law in general — is the Obama administration’s most egregious scandal. With the IRS here, Benghazi there, and Eric...

Okay, so let's say what happened to Zimmerman happened to a cop. The cop was not trying to enforce the law, he was not using professional training to surveil a suspect (I know Zimmerman was, but bear with me here, it's a thought experiment). The only thing the cop was doing was getting jumped, under exactly the same circumstances as Zimmerman was jumped. It seems to me that the ONLY thing the cop would have to say is that he feared for his life. Right? There would be no inquiry as to whether the cop's head got beat into the...

Honolulu -- An Hawaii Island minister in jail for three years on drug charges is treated more like a terrorist than a free-spirited minister whose religious beliefs include the cultivation and use of marijuana, some lawmakers and civil rights advocates say. The minister, Roger Christie, is being held in Honolulu's Federal Detention Center, without bail and, as of yet, without a trial. Roger, his wife, Share Christie, and 12 others -- the "Green 14" -- in 2010 were charged with the sale and possession of cannabis, but only Roger Christie has been held at the jail since July 8, 2010....

New Jersey --(Ammoland.com)- Obamacare has been showing signs of being so unenforceable, so expensive, and so utterly stupid that Obama’s administration has had to engage in all manner of patently illegal waivers and delays to maintain theirs lies about it. In the words of the late Chinese Communist dictator, Mao Zedong, Obamacare has been “a great leap forward” to reform healthcare in America. In China, the Great Leap killed an estimated forty million people between 1958 and 1961. There is no way of knowing how many Obamacare would kill when (and if) it is fully implemented. Presidents are not allowed...

Could the boondoggle we call "Obamacare" be a bigger disaster? Is there any better example of the arrogance, incompetence and remorselessness of top-down central planning? The very name of the law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is a deceptive euphemism, as it neither protects patients nor makes health care more affordable. The law was born in hell. The premises upon which the bill was based, the promises its proponents made and the corruption and high-handedness in its legislative process tainted it from the outset. Remember how the administration sent a threatening letter to Humana and other companies, threatening...

President Obama celebrated the Supreme Court’s decisions Wednesday on gay marriage, but overall it has been a rocky term before the court for his administration, winning just more than a third of the cases in which it was involved.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, a conservative Republican who vied for the GOP nomination for president last year, said on Wednesday that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will face negative “consequences” for being a part of the “Gang of Eight” pushing the 1,200-page senate immigration bill. Santorum’s comments about Rubio came the radio show hosted by Fox News's Andrea Tantaros. Tantaros asked Santorum if he thinks Rubio “maybe has ruined his chances to run for president with this immigration bill.” “Well, you know, my feeling on that is that we got a long way between now and 2016,” Santorum responded. “Yeah,...

Since the start and now closure of the Iraq war and soon to follow Afghanistan—the dumbing of the rules of engagement by liberal lawyers with complete support from their corrupt cohorts in government are the sole responsible parties for the deaths of thousands of U.S. troops. Under Obama the new "rules of engagement" effectively make them sitting ducks with their hands tied. Since taking office and handing the Department of Defense, Pentagon and corrupt liberal lawyers his new rules, our casualties have increased 500 percent. Destructive rules of engagement as such have come at the detriment of U.S. troops as...

C onsider two towns, of about the same population.
 One is named Coventry, the other Chester.
 Coventry hasn’t had a murder this year. Neither has Chester.
Coventry hasn’t had a break-in this year. Neither has Chester.
No felonies have been committed in Coventry this year. None in Chester, either. There were drunken and disorderly incidents in both towns. In Coventry, a couple of teenagers threw a rock through a drug store window, apparently on a dare. In Chester, a couple of teenagers were rounded up for setting up a corn-mash still up by the dam.  
     So far, we could say that Coventry is a...

The PIL, filed by a former Dean of Law Faculty of Delhi University Professor S N Singh, alleged such largescale spying by the USA authorities is detrimental to national security and urged the apex court to intervene in the matter. The issue of the US National Security Agency monitoring internet data of India today reached the Supreme Court with a PIL filed seeking its direction to the Centre to initiate action against internet companies for sharing information with foreign authority in "breach" of contract and violation of right to privacy. The PIL, filed by a former Dean of Law Faculty...

Full Title - "People worry that rather than catching bad guys, the Obama administration will use the info it gathers to create bad guys" One of the things that characterizes the rule of law is that it applies equally to all citizens. The rich man’s son who vandalizes a shop is prosecuted as vigorously as the poor man’s son who does the same. That the rich man’s son can afford a good lawyer is the random luck of life. America can provide equality of opportunity, but nothing, not even socialism, can guarantee equality of outcome. The important thing for purposes...

Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 - May 2008, Cruz was the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas, the youngest Solicitor General in the entire country, and had the longest tenure in Texas history.  Partner at the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he led the firm’s U.S. Supreme Court and national appellate litigation practice.  Cruz has authored 80+ SCOTUS briefs and presented 40+ oral arguments before The Court Cruz served as a law clerk to Chief JusticeWilliam Rehnquist. Cruz was the first Hispanic ever to clerk for a Chief Justice of the United States Described as a 'superb' constitutional lawyer, the man's considerable skills and laser-like focus were on display for...

Barron County (Press Release) - On Saturday, June 15, 2013 at 4:33 a.m., the Barron County Sheriff's Department received a report of a semi vs. pedestrian accident on Highway 8 west of Cameron in the Town of Stanley. Upon arrival, it was discovered that a semi driven by Duane E. Nelson, 51, of Almena was traveling east on Highway 8 when he saw a male running east in the west bound lane of Highway 8. Nelson attempted to stop and move over but the running man turned towards the semi and into the path of it. The man, identified as...

Honolulu (HawaiiNewsNow) - A military jury has found a Schofield Barracks officer guilty of illegally possessing and passing classified national defense information. Military prosecutors say Army Maj. Seivirak Inson, 43, attempted to hand over a number of military secrets to members connected to the Cambodian government between 2009 and 2012. Prosecutors say that Inson -- who is of Cambodian ancestry -- took classified U.S. intelligence reports about the Cambodian military and gave it to unauthorized personnel. The military jury on Friday evening sentenced Maj. Inson to 10 years in prison, forfeiture of pay and dismissal from the Army. The jury...