Free Republic

In recent months, at least three major newspapers have carried columns attempting to push Chief Justice John Roberts into voting to uphold a grossly unconstitutional federal law. But their cheap distortions and Chicken Little yammering will fail. The chief justice will do his job, and the country will be better off for it. On Sept. 9, the U.S. Supreme Court reheard arguments in the landmark campaign finance and free speech case, Citizens United v. FEC. At issue in this case is whether the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) could ban documentaries about candidates when Election Day is approaching. This...

The case before the Supreme Court on Wednesday sounded like a television movie, a tale of wrongful imprisonment and the slow, inexorable wheels of justice. Prosecutors under pressure to close the case of a cop killer settle on two young African Americans. They fabricate evidence, coerce perjury and bury the investigation of a white suspect.A sympathetic prison barber unearths the investigative records that eventually lead courts to free the convicted men after years behind bars. And the men seek retribution for the prosecutors who framed them. But here's the twist: The prosecutors say that they can't be sued for anything...

There's a new SCOTUS suit you want and need to know about...case 09-6777. I'll win and when I do? YOU CAN SUE SITTING OFFICERS FOR LIABILITY THUS DISSOLVE THEM AS THE US DEFAULTED VIA FAILING TO RESPOND TO A PRIOR SCOTUS SUIT ON 11/05/08, the day after the election, lol. Actual default is the 2000 election and BVG; legal default occurred on 11/05/09. I then appealed to Roberts directly on 11/20/09 and forced direct action thus I won on paper. Now all I am doing is acting to collect my award: Hearing in person aka winning in person. You can...

Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is encouraging Republican colleagues to filibuster Barack Obama’s nominee to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, David Hamilton. Hamilton has major issues against him, including stating publicly his believe that the founders intended the judiciary to routinely amend the constitution through case law. More troubling, David Hamilton has ruled that praying to Allah does not violate the Establishment of Religion clause in the First Amendment, but praying in Jesus Christ’s name does. According to Sesions’s letter, Judge Hamilton’s most determidly activists decisions might be his series of rulings in A...

This is a statement that was read over the public address system at the football game at Roane County High School, Kingston, Tenn., by school principal, Jody McLeod: "It has always been the custom at Roane County High School football games, to say a prayer and play the national anthem, to honor God and country. Due to a ruling by the Supreme Court, I am told that saying a prayer is a violation of federal law. "As I understand the law at this time, I can use this public facility to approve of sexual perversion and call it 'an alternate...

One of the most conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday his more liberal colleagues are trying to manufacture new constitutional rights that were never intended by the drafters. “The fight is about the Supreme Court inventing new rights nobody ever thought existed,” Justice Antonin Scalia said in an appearance at the University of Arizona College of Law. “Right to abortion?” he asked. “Come on. Nobody thought it violated anything in the Constitution for 200 years. It was criminal.” The same, said Scalia, is true of homosexual sodomy. Yet the nation’s high court has struck down state laws...

Once upon a time a newly elected President, supported by an adoring media, claimed powers beyond the Constitution, and the Supreme Court acted. Does that Court still sit? Some of us are asking ourselves that question these days. A week doesn't pass when some new federal infringement on the rights of a free society is enacted or promoted. Just recently, Obama's Pay Czar, Kenneth Feinberg, cut the salaries of twenty-five senior Wall Street executives. By what Constitutional authority does he do that? we ask. While the Democratic Party seems hell bent on socializing as many parts of the free market...

The “innocent until proven guilty” concept is at the very heart of our legal system. Government ought not be able to exact punishment for a crime until proof has been established, beyond a reasonable doubt, by a jury of one’s peers.But this foundational principle of justice has been tossed out the window in recent years, at least in one realm, that of civil or asset forfeiture. Civil forfeiture allows police to seize more than $1 billion worth of property each year — cash, cars, boats, etc. — that is alleged to have been used in the furtherance of a crime.The...

In fact, the 9-point drop in the most recent quarter is the largest Gallup has ever measured for an elected president between the second and third quarters of his term, dating back to 1953.

A sad reminder of what Catholics in public office still face: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito voiced frustration Tuesday over what he called persistent questions about the court's Roman Catholic majority. Alito aired the topic in a speech to an Italian-American law group in Philadelphia. "There has been so much talk lately about the number of Catholics serving on the Supreme Court," Alito said in a speech to the Justinian Society. "This is one of those questions that does not die." Alito complained about "respectable people who have seriously raised the questions in serious publications about whether these...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is voicing frustration over what he calls persistent questions about the court's Roman Catholic majority. Alito aired his concerns in a speech Tuesday to an Italian-American law group in Philadelphia. He said respectable people in serious publications have questioned whether the Catholic-raised judges could be trusted to do their jobs. He said he thought the Constitution settled the question long ago with its guarantee of religious freedom. Alito is one of six justices on the nine-member court who were raised Catholic, including new Justice Sonia Sotomayor. A dozen of the 111...

SEATTLE — Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has temporarily blocked Washington state officials from releasing the names of people who signed a ballot measure on gay rights. Kennedy's ruling Monday temporarily blocks a federal appeals court ruling last week that ordered the release of the names. Kennedy said his order would remain in effect while he considers a request by a pro-marriage group that asked him to reverse the appeals court ruling. The case involves Referendum 71, a ballot initiative that asks Washington voters to approve or reject the state's so-called "everything but marriage" law, which grants registered domestic partners...

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's nomination process was so controlled that the White House even approved her clothes, she told Yalies when she appeared at her 30th Yale Law School reunion on Saturday. Sotomayor described her grueling nomination process privately when she spoke to 1,800 alumni, students and faculty , the New Haven Register reports. State Sen. Ed Meyer attended the event and said Sotomayor became teary at times, but kept the crowd laughing. The Yale Law School grad talked about shopping for clothes to wear to her acceptance ceremony, but government officials took over the fashion decisions. They told...

Some things you may not know about Palin: What A Fisherman Says About Sarah Palin by Dewie Whetsell, Alaskan Fisherman As posted in comments on Greta Van Susteren’s article referencing the MoveOn.org ad about Sarah Palin. The last 45 of my 66 years I’ve spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well until this last year. Here’s the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it. It’s not about persona, style, rhetoric, it’s about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I’m about to mention...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized overnight after experiencing extreme drowsiness but was later released, a court spokeswoman said on Thursday. Spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Ginsburg, who has been treated for pancreatic cancer, was evaluated at the Washington Hospital Center and found to be in stable health after she fell from her seat on a plane before departing for London.

Report: Ginsburg Released From Hospital After Fall Reuters reports that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was taken to the hospital after experiencing drowsiness and falling. FOXNews.com Thursday, October 15, 2009 Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reportedly was released from the hospital Thursday after falling from her seat on an airplane. Reuters reports that Ginsburg was taken to the hospital after experiencing drowsiness and falling. She was later found to be in stable condition.

“Desperate” Impact? by: Brittany Fortier, October 13, 2009 As the Supreme Court begins a new session, the Cato Institute held its 8th annual Constitution Day Conference and Supreme Court Review on September 17, 2009. This day also marked the 222nd anniversary of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, and panelists discussed whether the Supreme Court decisions of the previous year were faithful to the intentions of our Founding Fathers. Roger Clegg, President and General Counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity, called the “disparate impact” approach to civil rights law used by the Court in cases such as Ricci v....

A major new report confirms the worst fears of many: Health care reform will raise the costs for most Americans—by about 18% on average. That is on top of existing inflation of health coverage. Once the plan is fully phased-in (by 2019), a typical family of four would pay an extra $4,000 each year. When combined with existing inflation, costs would rise from today’s $12,300 annual average to $25,900. Of that 111% increase, $9,600 is due to existing factors uncorrected by the legislation, and $4,000 due to additional costs created by the legislation. For single persons, the differential is projected...

Just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any worse (from The Times)... The Obama administration is considering outbidding the Taliban to persuade Afghan villagers to lay down arms as it struggles to find a new approach to a war that is fast losing public and congressional support. Didn't we send troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban? Now the Obama administration is wanting to legitimize yet another terrorist group: Apart from training more Afghan troops, the focus has shifted to accepting a political role for the Taliban, while also trying to weaken them by winning some over. Once again,...

A prominent pro-life organization has thrown down the gauntlet before a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court's fall/winter session is just gettingunder way. The challenge comes from Judie Brown, president of the American Life League (ALL). "Now that we have six people on the Supreme Court out of nine who claim to be Catholic," she notes, "we'd like for them to take the opportunity to address the reality of who it is who lives in the womb from the moment that his or her life begins, and then take action to overrule themselves so that the...

I've always believed in the existence of monsters. During my 20 years as a cop in NYC, I met quite a few of them, many of whom may still be doing time in prisons around the country. However, they were the garden-variety type of monsters; murderers, rapists, armed robbers and other assorted thugs. But there's another, even lower, level of criminal that exists in communities all across America, even in some of our churches. The creature I'm referring to is the pedophile. A few years ago, I received a 6-page letter in the mail from a woman in East Cambridge,...

Since federal case law pertaining to the writ of quo warranto is so scarce, research on the issue is rather simple. This is why I am shocked and confused as to why the DOJ did not cite the case UNITED STATES of America ex rel. STATE OF WISCONSIN v. FIRST FEDERAL SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION. I recenly explained the strict holding in the case – that no US District Court other than the DC District Court may entertain a quo warranto proceeding. *snip* Get ready, you are going to be hearing much more about the writ of quo warranto in...

The air was thick with hypotheticals at the Supreme Court last week as the justices considered whether a law designed to outlaw videos depicting cruelty to animals was constitutional. Because there is no floor to human decadence, so-called “crush videos” depicting women in high heels crushing small animals to death enjoyed a certain popularity. Congress outlawed them. Most of the justices appeared to think that the law ran afoul of the First Amendment and they let fly with a quiver full of theoreticals. “What if I’m an aficionado of bullfighting who wants to promote his passion about the noble...

Supreme Court Means by: Sarah Carlsruh, October 08, 2009 In honor of the Supreme Court opening its October 2009 term, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) hosted a panel of law experts on October 2nd to discuss the court’s key, upcoming business cases. “It’s shaping up to be a good term for business cases,” declared John Elwood, a partner at the Washington, D.C. office of Vinson & Elkins. Elwood specializes in appellate and Supreme Court practice. Elwood claimed that Free Enterprise Fund (FEF) v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) hinges on an issue of separation of powers and government regulation....

Respectable news outlets aren't the only ones having trouble processing the fact that a purple-eyed partisan like Andrew Breitbart is producing impactful journalism this season. The ancient Atlantic magazine–which, strangely, appears to have morphed into a sort of Blogger's Monthly–has been furrowing its brows at Breitbart & Co. both in print and online. Regular Atlantic contributor Conor Friedersdorf, writing at The Daily Beast (and earning a high-five from Andrew Sullivan), poses the question: ACORN is just the latest example of how conservative media love to blast The New York Times for its shortcomings. So why can't they live up to...

Deep in the heart of the Mojave National Preserve in California stands a five foot cross carefully disguised in a plywood box. The U.S. Park Service was forced to cover the cross until the Supreme Court decides whether the cross can remain in its place as a monument to fallen soldiers during World War I, or whether it must come down because its presence violates the Constitution. The case is the latest in a recent flurry of challenges to religious symbols placed on public property. The cross was constructed more than 70 years ago by the Veterans of Foreign Wars....

Whatever significance is attached to Chicago’s failed bid to host the 2016 Olympics, it is of small importance to the rest of the country. More far-reaching and frightening is the Supreme Court’s decision to take up a case challenging the city’s ban on handgun ownership in the court’s new term, which begins this week. The case is best considered a preview of coming attractions. The gun lobby, if it wins in the Supreme Court, is prepared to challenge every gun control law enacted at any level of government. It will usher in a scary season of assault on the common...

Two days ago, British newspaper The Independent reported that a secret cabal of oil-producing Arab states, Russia, and China had conspired to dump the dollar for oil trading, a move which would have seriously weakened our currency and influence abroad. Many publications picked up on this report, written by the notoriously unreliable Robert Fisk, and a round of denials promptly appeared from the named states. Left unexplained by Fisk and the Independent was how these same states, with massive holdings in the dollar (especially China), would benefit in the short or long term by attacking it. However, it once again...

ACORN wants people to register to vote – as long as they’re Democrats. Republican registrations go into the trash. Here is a first-hand account of how it happens. In February 2008, Fathiyyah Muhammad of Jacksonville, Florida, heard that ACORN was paying people three dollars for each voter they could register. ACORN paid her three dollars for each voter she registered, but Fatiyyah Muhammad says that the group threw out her votes and fired her when she brought them registrations of Republican voters. Fathiyyah Muhammad voted for Obama. “I’m a Republican,” she says, “and this was the first time that I...

"More ugly Jew hatred and incitement to kill Jews on Obama's website. It harks back to the Jewish blood libels. Obama's website, hub for Islamic antisemitism." by Bill Levinson Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs has accumulated quite a collection of the most vicious imaginable anti-Israel and indeed anti-Semitic hate speech, all of which was posted at Barack Obama's Web site with the full knowledge and approval of the moderators. We remind our readers that one moderator (Emily) counseled an Obama supporter to use the words "Israel Lobby" instead of "Jewish Lobby." Organizing for America as it is now known sanctioned...

For two years as a candidate, Senator Obama called for more resources for the war in Afghanistan and warned about the consequences of failure. As President, he announced a comprehensive new counterinsurgency strategy and handpicked the right general to execute it. Now General McChrystal is asking for additional troops to implement the strategy announced by President Obama in March. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers in harm's way in Afghanistan right now. We owe it to all those brave Americans serving in uniform to give them the tools they need to complete their...

On the first Tuesday of October, the second day of its new session, the Supreme Court will take up the case of a dog lover whose bloody pit bull fighting videos have raised questions on whether free speech protects the sale of horrific scenes of animal cruelty. ~snip~ The case has made some strange allies. The New York Times joined other media organizations and publishing groups to write a brief to the Court supporting Stevens' case. The paper is concerned the animal cruelty law is so broadly written that it "imperils the media's ability" to report on animal issues. Also...

High school teacher keeps job after handing out pornographic 'banned book' - A father of a high-school student is infuriated after he said a teacher provided "banned books" to her 11th-grade students, including at least one with explicit descriptions of homosexual sex acts, rape, masturbation, profane language and even bestiality. John Davis, father of an 11th-grade student at William Byrd High School in Vinton, Va., told WND that English teacher Kathleen Renard provided her personal copy of a book called "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky to one of her English students, and it was passed to his...

Highlights of some high-profile cases that the Supreme Court will take up in its term that begins Monday (10/5/09): _Guns: The Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms has never been held to apply to state and local laws restricting guns. The court is taking up a challenge to a handgun ban in Chicago to decide whether this right, like many others in the Bill of Rights, acts to restrict state and local laws or only federal statutes. If the court sides with gun rights supporters, lawsuits to overturn all manner of gun control laws are likely. _Animal cruelty...

As mentioned in the previous post, President Obama's "safe schools" czar Kevin Jennings addressed his former organization the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in Iowa in 2000. Mr. Jennings spoke about the promotion of homosexuality in the public school curriculum as well as the inevitability of their (GLSEN) agenda winning. In the following clip Mr. Jennings discusses why he thinks it is important to have a pro-homosexual curriculum in the public schools starting in kindergarten

At the UN, the Obama administration backs limits on free speech. Eye on the UN For Immediate Release: October 5, 2009 Contact: Anne Bayefsky info@EYEontheUN.org You Can't Say That: At the UN, the Obama administration backs limits on free speech. This article, by Anne Bayefsky, originally appeared in The Weekly Standard. The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats were...

A, California -- Driving along a pockmarked road amid rocks and Joshua trees in a lonely southern California desert, religious controversy might be the last thing you'd expect to encounter. And if you don't look too closely, you're likely to zip right past the focus of a hotly contested Supreme Court battle. A federal judge has ordered the Mojave Cross, a war memorial erected by a veterans group 75 years ago, to be covered. It's boxed in plywood. The issue is less about what the cross symbolizes and more about where it sits: In the middle of the Mojave National...

CIMA, California -- Driving along a pockmarked road amid rocks and Joshua trees in a lonely southern California desert, religious controversy might be the last thing you'd expect to encounter. And if you don't look too closely, you're likely to zip right past the focus of a hotly contested Supreme Court battle. A federal judge has ordered the Mojave Cross, a war memorial erected by a veterans group 75 years ago, to be covered. It's boxed in plywood.

With an estimated 90 million firearms owners in America and a huge margin of popular support for a right to keep and bear arms, the gun rights community is a potent political force. But until recently, it had little reason to care about judges. That's all changed with the arrival of a new Supreme Court justice and the Obama administration. As a new Supreme Court term opens today, one issue on the Court’s docket stands out, not only for its legal significance, but also for the role it will play in future High Court confirmation fights. The issue is gun...

Archbishop Donald Wuerl talks with Chief Justice John Roberts after the Red Mass Washington D.C., Oct 5, 2009 / 10:40 am (CNA).- One day before the opening of the Supreme Court's next term, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, issued a plea for the rights of the unborn at the 56th Annual "Red Mass," celebrated yesterday at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington D.C. The Mass was attended by six Supreme Court justices.The Mass is an initiative of the John Carroll Society, a group of Catholic legal professionals, and has been held at the cathedral since...

It began before dawn — a devastating, well-planned attack. About 300 insurgents swarmed out of a village and mosque and attacked a pair of isolated American outposts in a remote mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan with machineguns, rockets and grenades. They first stormed the Afghan police post at the foot of the hill in the province of Nuristan, a Taleban and al-Qaeda stronghold on the lawless Pakistan border. They then swept up to the Nato post. The battle lasted all day. American and Afghan soldiers finally repelled them, with the help of US helicopters and warplanes — but at heavy...

MILITARY anger boiled over last night after Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth rebuffed a plea from front-line soldiers for immediate reinforcements in Afghanistan. Mr Ainsworth had asked soldiers who have just endured a gruelling and bloody six-month tour what they needed. Without hesitation he was told: “More troops”. But the Defence Secretary – in Afghanistan with Home Secretary Alan Johnson, ironically to boost morale – merely replied that reinforcements would “take time”. Staff Sgt Kim Hughes, who will shortly return to his family in Shropshire, said: “It’s been a ridiculously busy, ridiculously hard tour. We have lost two guys. “Clearly more...

Breaking: Obama's White House ACORN Operative Fined $775,000 For Election Violations- Used Rapists & Burglars in Door-to-Door Registration Drives So where does a far left political operative land after his organization is fined $775,000 for election violations that included hiring rapists and burglars to register voters? Inside the Obama White House, of course. Obama's ACORN operative in the White House Patrick Gaspard is helping shape domestic policy-- From left: CECILIA MUÑOZ, director, intergovernmental affairs; MICHAEL STRAUTMANIS, public liaison; CHRISTOPHER LU, Cabinet secretary; HEATHER HIGGINBOTTOM, deputy director, Domestic Policy Council; PATRICK GASPARD, political director; PHIL SCHILIRO, director of legislative affairs; MELODY...

Last year, we covered some of the problems in the counting of military absentee ballots in Virginia, as did others. This problem has not gone away. It has just moved. The day before election day 2008, the McCain campaign filed a complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia to force Virginia to count military absentee ballots that came in after election day. McCain lost Virginia by more than enough votes, but the case went on with the Department of Justice replacing the McCain campaign.There were filings last month and will likely be a hearing this month. So what? The Virginia...

There is a troubling pattern of capriciousness that has emerged from our current government. No one can take for granted that our government will do as it says. The word of the US government used to be something that world leaders, companies, employees, and the citizens of this great land could bank on. The breadth of the current administration's instability is unprecedented. From CIA interrogators to the Eastern European missile shield, keeping up with the number of on-again-off-again promises requires a full time staff to keep count. The latest example of this destructive behavior has been among the amendments and...

Fronting the pews at this morning's Red Mass in DC's St Matthew's Cathedral: the nation's First Catholic -- Vice-President Joe Biden -- joined by six Supreme Court Justices, including the bench's Chief John Roberts and newest member Sonia Sotomayor, both likewise of the fold. While the fulltext has yet to emerge, the wire's running a snip from the day's visiting preacher: The specialized, formal knowledge of the law "frequently becomes semi-mechanical, even distancing," [Cardinal Daniel] DiNardo [of Galveston-Houston] told the congregation. "The law and lawyers are around because justice among human beings will always be an issue." "Even sophisticated,...

With three new members in the past four years and the prospect of more change ahead, the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. commences this week what could be a transformative term. New Justice Sonia Sotomayor will receive the most attention, as President Obama's historic choice begins to reveal the judicial philosophy that remained largely cloaked during her confirmation hearings. And speculation will build about whether a retirement by one of the aging liberal justices will give Obama another opportunity to make his mark.

Does the Second Amendment give one the right to keep and bear arms (even allowing one to invoke that right against the government itself), or is it a freedom only as it concerns the federal government? As Amy Goodman reported on her Democracy Now! program, that question will now be taken up by the United States Supreme Court, and the Court’s decision could have nationwide ramifications. Said Goodman yesterday: The Supreme Court has decided to rule on whether state and local handgun laws violate the Second Amendment right to gun ownership, which it recognized last year, when the Court struck...

WE'RE N0. 4! As I stood with the shell-shocked citizens in Daley Center Plaza before noon Friday, the sickly orange fountain bubbling like toxic waste before us on this gray, miserable day, I halfway expected that cheer to break out.

THE EGO HAS LANDED During his campaign, Barack Obama took a moment while walking to his jet to stop and answer a couple of questions, off-the-cuff and ad-lib, for a gaggle of paparazzi swooning and fawning behind a rope-line en-route from the terminal. As an affable Hussein smiled congenially at his biggest fans, a reporter went badly rogue and asked the candidate a tough question regarding his birth certificate; something along the lines of, “Why won’t you just show it?” The smile, which had never quite reached his eyes anyway, twisted into a thin-lipped snarl, as those eyes went steely...