Free Republic

Randall L. Kennedy, 69, is the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard University, where he has taught courses on criminal law and the regulation of race relations for four decades. Although the black South Carolinian describes himself as a "scholar on the left committed to struggles for social justice," even he can no longer stomach his university's "DEI regime." Kennedy penned an opinion piece Tuesday for the Harvard Crimson, stressing that compulsory DEI statements pose "a profound challenge to academic freedom" and ought to be scrapped. The senior academic observed in the article, which was part of the...

Deceased Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be celebrated by Democrats and even many Republicans as a long-time progressive voice on the bench. Even President Trump reacted with kind words towards her when he heard that she had died. But the fact remains that she was arguably the most ardent promoter of abortion from the bench for the last three decades, and Congressman Doug Collins took the opportunity to remind everyone of that on Twitter. RIP to the more than 30 million innocent babies that have been murdered during the decades that Ruth Bader Ginsburg defended pro-abortion laws. With...

Seventy years ago the University of California introduced a loyalty oath, requiring employees to swear they were “not a member of the Communist Party.” After a contentious period in which 31 faculty were fired for refusing to sign, the requirement was reconsidered. An eventual consequence was the current Standing Order of the Regents 101.1(d): “No political test shall ever be considered in the appointment and promotion of any faculty member or employee.” This is a statement of principle. No one will be denied a position at the University of California based on political beliefs. No communist, no conservative, no progressive,...

FULL TITLE: Democratic Attorneys General Association to Impose ‘Abortion Litmus Test’ before Endorsing Candidates The Democratic Attorneys General Association announced Monday that it would only endorse candidates who publicly pledge to defend and expand access to abortion, becoming the first national party committee to establish such an explicit test. “Attorneys general are on the front lines of the fight for reproductive freedom,” New York attorney general Letitia James said in a video promoting the announcement. “They have the power to protect your rights.” Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum of Oregon, who is a co-chair of the committee and seeking re-election next...

Even though the President of the United States is supposed to appoint Supreme Court Justices based on their judicial philosophy and not their politics, President Bill Clinton admitted this past week that he chose Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg due to her steadfast commitment to upholding abortion. Speaking at Georgetown University Law School on Wednesday, the president said that protecting Roe v. Wade played a significant role in his selection of Ginsburg to the Supreme Court. “There is one thing that we did discuss, and I feel I should tell you, because it will illustrate why I thought I should appoint...

A former Union High School teacher who resigned nearly six years ago after posting anti-gay comments on social media has settled her long-standing lawsuit against the district for $132,500. Jenye "Viki" Knox will receive $24,500 for back wages, $63,833.33 for claims of emotional distress and $44,166.67 for attorney's fees, according to court papers. The news was first reported by NJ Civil Settlements, which compiles a partial list of settlements paid by New Jersey government agencies and their insurers to those who have sued them. Knox, a 56-year-old Union Township resident who taught special education, described homosexuality as a "perverted spirit"...

Some of President Trump’s judicial nominees have faced questioning from Democrat senators that seems more like a religious inquisition than discussion of judicial philosophy and temperament. Notre Dame law professor Amy Barrett was confirmed to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals last week, but not before having a notable exchange with Sen. Dianne Feinstein who challenged her on a number of Catholic teachings and concluded: “Dogma and law are two different things. And I think whatever a religion is, it has its own dogma. … The dogma lives loudly within you and, that is concerning.”Sen. Dick Durbin probed another fine...

RUSH: We just told you about Jody Allard, the feminist writer who compares her own sons to rapists. They’re teenagers. She says they’re not safe because they have penises, and because they have penises they are prone to rape women, and she writes about them this way. And they’ve gotten old enough now that they’re able to find out that she’s writing this way about them, and they don’t like their mother. And she thinks that’s their problem. Washington Post yesterday, Sunday edition, Kristine Phillips, headline: “Why These Professors Are Warning Against Promoting the Work of Straight, White Men.” So...

Can we just get along? This question is being asked more and more, what with the bitter polarization of the nation. The answer, right now, would appear to be a resounding no. It’s not because we can’t. We don’t want to. I had that thought the other day when I was listening to the Seattle City Council. Many council meetings of late involve left-wingers shouting at other left-wingers for not being left-wing enough. But on this day, a new purity test of left-wingedness was revealed. The council was debating the juvenile-justice issue. Not everyone agrees whether a new jail should...

The science-deniers are running the LGBTQ show over at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), and dissenters will not be tolerated. The department’s new “enhanced” policies promoting the “well-being of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) children and youth in the Department’s care” ratchet in one direction only: encouraging children towards LGBTQ identities. DCFS has drawn a rainbow-colored line in the sand, announcing it “will not tolerate exposing LGBTQ children and youth to staff/providers who are not supportive of children and youths’ right to self-determination of sexual/gender identity.”

'There's a huge disconnect here'! Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez says all Democrats should line up in favor of abortion, and he calls the position “not negotiable,” a clarification for which pro-life groups are exceedingly grateful. The issue arose after Perez publicly backed the pro-life Democratic Party nominee in the race for mayor of Omaha, Nebraska. After criticism from pro-choice forces, Perez released a statement insisting he and the party were not straying from their stance on abortion. “Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,”...

By now we’ve all heard how the contentious election, and the surprising result, has frayed friendships — especially on social media. Hillary Clinton supporters, angry and dismayed at the result, have chopped Trump-loving friends off their friend lists. But the culling seems to be progressing beyond just active Trump supporters. Now, some people who are insufficiently anti-Trump, even if they didn’t vote for him, are getting the boot. Dorian Davis, an adjunct professor of media in Washington, DC, has noticed a slide in his friend count because, he suspects, he’s not “critical enough of Trump.” “If you post anything even...

Let Us Litmus: Judicial nominees must be held to standards by Daniel Clark To the dismay of conservatives everywhere, President Obama will appoint a successor to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Just as surely, there will be calls from the Democrats and therefore from the news media that Republican senators refrain from applying a "litmus test" to the nominee. It's an absurd expectation, with which the Jellyphants of the GOP often absurdly comply. You might remember conducting a litmus test in middle school science class, by applying a substance to a piece of litmus paper, and discovering from...

Well this is a bit of troubling news on the Carly Fiorina front: POLITICO – California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina told a group of conservative journalists yesterday that she probably would have voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, handing conservatives an issue to use against her in the primary against state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore: In what would turn out to be the biggest news emerging from the breakfast, Fiorina said that, while she did not study Sonia Sotomayor in great deal (“I was battling cancer at the time”), she probably would have “voted for her” confirmation to...

The 2016 presidential campaign is already upon us and the debate is heating up over an unexpected issue -- the theory of evolution. Of course, in an ideal world, evolution would never really become a campaign issue. But the anti-science wing of the Republican Party continues to voice skepticism. Apologists for this wing would dearly like to distract the media and the voting public from what is, frankly, a national if not a global embarrassment. In truth, the President of the United States needs to be scientifically literate. For the federal government has an important role to play and it...

For the most part, the gay marriage debate now falls along partisan lines: Democrats support it, But within the crowded field of likely 2016 presidential contenders, there’s a lot of room for nuance. The would-be candidates have made much different arguments and have varying records on the issue. Meantime, the issue continues to change. On Jan. 6, Florida became the second-largest state to recognize gay marriage, bringing the total to 36. And on Friday, the Supreme Court will meet privately to decide whether to consider cases that could lead to a more definitive ruling in favor of same-sex marriage. Here’s...

Rush Limbaugh - radio host, conservative firebrand and... children's book author of the year? The Children’s Book Council and its Every Child a Reader program released on Thursday their author-of-the-year finalists for their annual Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards. Limbaugh is one of the four finalists, and his nomination has prompted outrage on social media, given the host’s often-incendiary nature. Limbaugh's book is titled, "Rush Revere and The Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans" – a time-traveling tale of colonial America and the latest of two books in the "Rush Revere Series" published last year by Simon &...

Episcopal Church gays and lesbians are weighing a resolution to be put forward at the next General Convention making it illegal for straight white males to be admitted to the priesthood. LA Bishop Mary Glasspool, an avowed lesbian and one of many lesbians and gays supporting the "no white males resolution", crafted her resolution after hearing a straight white male preaching a sermon condemning homosexual behavior last month. "I was shocked, stunned, blown away and mortified. I have never heard such homophobia coming from a pulpit. That was my moment to say enough is enough. "This comes down to a...

Rick's guest on today's broadcast, 2009 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Jim Garrow shockingly claims he was told by a top military veteran that the Obama administration's "litmus test" for new military leaders is whether or not they will obey an order to fire on U.S. citizens. "I have just been informed by a former senior military leader that Obama is using a new "litmus test" in determining who will stay and who must go in his military leaders." You need to hear this interview folks! Streaming audio linkMP3 file download

[Emphasis added...] 2009 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Jim Garrow shockingly claims he was told by a top military veteran that the Obama administration’s “litmus test” for new military leaders is whether or not they will obey an order to fire on U.S. citizens. Garrow was nominated three years ago for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize and is the founder of The Pink Pagoda Girls, an organization dedicated to rescuing baby girls from “gendercide” in China. Garrow has been personally involved in “helping rescue more than 36,000 Chinese baby girls from death.” He is a public figure, not an anonymous voice...