Free Republic

State legislators in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and other disputed states should declare openly, right now, that they will only accept a Joe Biden victory after a thorough and complete investigation of all potential voter fraud in every state where the electoral outcome is contested. If these investigations are obstructed by the left, then they can and must exercise their Constitutional power to choose electors that restore the will of the people

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi denounced Republican chatter about impeaching Hillary Clinton as "a brazen attempt" to defy the results of the presidential election. "In addition to there being no grounds for impeachment to begin with, moving to impeach President Hillary Clinton for alleged activities from before the election would be a brazen attempt to nullify the vote of the American people, outside our constitutional framework and destructive to the Framers' intent," the California Democrat said in a Thursday statement. FBI Director James Comey notified lawmakers last week that investigators have reopened the investigation of Clinton's use of a private...

Thursday on MSNBC, while discussing Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) meeting with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, told members of the Republican Party that reunifying the party would mean “capitulation.”

MADISON, Wis. – A federal judge on Friday tossed out former Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson’s civil rights lawsuit and declared Wisconsin’s constitutional amendment that forced Abrahamson out of her long-standing seat of power does indeed pass “constitutional muster.” U.S. District Court Judge James Peterson said he wasn’t persuaded by Abrahamson’s case. His ruling puts to rest the liberal justice’s claims that the amendment approved by Wisconsin voters in April unfairly led to her ouster as chief justice. “This court has been asked whether the immediate implementation of an amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution concerning the structure of its court system...

The California Supreme Court ruled today that state Senate maps drawn by a citizens commission will be used in this year's elections, despite a pending referendum to overturn them. The issue came before the High Court after a Republican-backed group, Fairness and Accountability in Redistricting, filed more than 711,000 signatures with county elections offices in a referendum to overturn Senate maps drawn by a 14-member citizens commission. Californians will decide the fate of the newly drawn Senate districts in November if 504,760 of the signatures are from valid voters. Legislative candidates must file and run their campaigns before then, however,...

A Sacramento federal judge has struck down as unconstitutional the part of California's so-called Victims' Bill of Rights that governs parole revocation. The law, enacted by voter approval of a 2008 ballot initiative known as Proposition 9, was a sweeping amendment to the state constitution, conferring a long list of entitlements on crime victims. The sections dealing with parole revocation were made part of the state's Penal Code. U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton ruled Tuesday that those sections fall short of providing the minimum due process guaranteed by the Constitution and two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Morrissey v. Brewer...

The three-pronged battle over which state Senate districts will be used for this year's elections is reaching a climax that will determine whether Democrats can achieve a two-thirds majority in the upper legislative house. The state redistricting commission released maps for Senate, Assembly and congressional districts last August. It immediately became evident that with a little luck, Democrats could gain two seats in the 40-member Senate, thus reaching the two-thirds threshold and empowering them to pass tax bills without Republican support. Republicans filed suit to block the Senate maps, only to be rebuffed by the state Supreme Court, but also...

Public employee unions never liked former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to ask voters to create a "rainy day fund" that would give the state a stronger reserve. Today, on the last day of the legislative session, they showed up in force to urge lawmakers to unravel Schwarzenegger's plan to put the question to voters next year. Lobbyists for the state's largest public employee unions -- representing nurses, teachers, state workers and others -- made their case during the first public hearing on a bill that was written late last night and may run through the entire law-making process in less...

The California Supreme Court signaled today that it won't stand in the way of a showdown in federal court over the state's ban on same-sex marriage. At a hearing in San Francisco, all seven justices, including newly confirmed Justice Goodwin Liu, appeared to agree with sponsors of the voter-approved Proposition 8 that they had the right to appeal a federal judge's ruling declaring the 2008 ballot measure unconstitutional. When Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled in August 2010 that Prop. 8 violated the rights of gays and lesbians to marry their chosen partners, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- California's attorney general has asked a federal appeals court to allow gay marriages to resume while the court considers the constitutionality of the state's ban on same-sex unions. Attorney General Kamala Harris submitted a petition to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday.

SAN FRANCISCO – The federal judge who overturned California's same-sex marriage ban is set to rule Thursday on whether gay marriages should resume immediately in the state or await an appeals court's input. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker announced late Wednesday that he would issue his decision by noon on requests to impose a stay that would keep Proposition 8 in effect while its sponsors appeal his decision.

NORMAN — A federal judge’s ruling Wednesday in California — and a federal judge’s decision last month in Massachusetts — have made conservative Oklahoma in the middle of the country an unlikely battleground for gay marriage. Longtime Broken Arrow couple Sharon Baldwin and Mary Bishop, who are the named plaintiffs challenging Oklahoma’s Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, said California’s case does not carry any legal precedent in their own case. However, Baldwin said it shows “the tide is turning” and more judges could follow the lead of what has happened in California and Massachusetts. On the other side of the...

The California Supreme Court rules to UPHOLD Proposition 8 (which put into the California state constitution that marriage is defined as being between a man and woman) The court also ruled on the validation of the pseudo-marriages performed before passage of Prop 8.

California Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage ban nears The clock is ticking down on the California Supreme Court's imminent decision on whether to uphold Proposition 8, the voter-approved ballot measure restoring the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Based on regulations that require the justices to rule within 90 days of oral arguments in a case, the Supreme Court's decision in the legal challenge to Proposition 8 now will fall on one of three remaining days: Tuesday or next Thursday, or June 1. The high court normally only rules on Mondays and Thursdays, but will issue rulings next Tuesday because...

Another wave of legal arguments hit the California Supreme Court on Monday in the battle over Proposition 8's ban on same-sex marriage. Local governments, led by San Francisco and Santa Clara County, filed their latest opposition papers to Proposition 8, describing the voter-approved initiative as a "dark moment'' in California history. The brief is an attempt to refute the legal arguments of Proposition 8 backers as the Supreme Court weighs a challenge from government officials, civil rights groups and same-sex couples who are seeking the right to marry. The San Francisco brief sides with the unique argument raised in December...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top water policy advisers have recommended construction begin in 2011 on an aqueduct to carry water around the Delta, a version of the Peripheral Canal that California voters rejected in 1982. In a report released late Friday, the Delta Vision Committee largely embraced the broad outlines of a report from a task force in October. But the committee of mostly cabinet-level officials stopped short of embracing how the goals of protecting the environment and improving water reliability should be met. For example, the committee did not take a firm stance on the first concrete recommendation in the...

San Francisco Catholic Archbishop George Niederauer, in his first extensive explanation about his role in the passage of Proposition 8, on Wednesday defended the church's actions in the successful ballot initiative. "Religious leaders in America have the constitutional right to speak out on issues of public policy," Niederauer wrote in a statement posted on the archdiocese's Web site. "Catholic bishops, specifically, also have a responsibility to teach the faith, and our beliefs about marriage and family are part of this faith." Niederauer, who has declined interview requests, wrote that "to insist that citizens be silent about their religious beliefs" would...

State Attorney General Jerry Brown today urged the California Supreme Court to review legal challenges to Proposition 8, but steered clear of taking a position on the gay marriage ban measure approved by voters. In a written responses to three lawsuits seeking to overturn the initiative, Brown's office said the state's highest court should allow the measure to remain in effect during the review period because of the confusion that a stay of the measure would cause. "Due to the potential uncertainty that may be caused in important legal relationships by a temporary stay, the public interest would be better...

Supporters of same-sex marriage rights are fuming over California voters' approval of Proposition 8, which would place a ban on such marriages in the state constitution – especially since in other respects voters showed a somewhat left-of-center bent, including a massive victory by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Ironically, however, a mathematical analysis of voting and exit poll data indicates very strongly that it was exactly that pro-Obama surge that spelled victory for Proposition 8. When Proposition 8's passage first became apparent, it was widely assumed that hundreds of thousands of first-time or occasional voters had turned out to vote...

The California Supreme Court could rule as early as this week on a lawsuit that seeks to invalidate Proposition 8, court spokeswoman Lynn Holton said today. Meanwhile, more than 40 Democratic state legislators filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of opponents of the gay marriage ban approved last week by California voters. The lawmakers -- including Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, Senate President pro Tem Don Perata and incoming Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg -- maintain the initiative process was improperly used. They say only the Legislature can place a measure before voters that radically revises the...