Free Republic

On Monday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Today,” President Joe Biden responded to a question on what he would say to people whose money isn’t going as far due to inflation by saying, “we have the best economy in the world. We’ve got to make it better.” And “we’re going to find out that what happened as a consequence of the crisis we had on health is going to have a lasting effect. We’ve just got to get people to move again. We’re ready. I think the country’s ready to come together…I’m truly optimistic.” Co-host Al Roker asked, “When people are saying,...

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) renewal deadline is fast approaching as conservative lawmakers and some Democrats continue their push for ending warrantless surveillance. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including conservative and progressive legislators, have called for reforming section 702 of FISA ahead of the April 19 deadline. According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Section 702 is a "key provision of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 that permits the government to conduct targeted surveillance of foreign persons located outside the United States, with the compelled assistance of electronic communication service providers, to acquire...

The National Science Foundation is paying universities using taxpayer money to create AI tools that can be used to censor Americans on various social media platforms, according to members of the House. University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and MIT are among the universities cited in the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government interim report. It details the foundation’s “funding of AI-powered censorship and propaganda tools, and its repeated efforts to hide its actions and avoid political and media scrutiny.” “NSF has been issuing multi-million-dollar grants to university and non-profit research...

If you think free speech is under attack in the United States—and it is—you should see its besieged status in the rest of the world. Open contempt for unrestricted debate prevails in even many supposedly "free" countries and finds its expression in laws that threaten harsh penalties for those who dare to speak in ways that offend the powers that be. Contempt for Free Speech "When other communications revolutions like the printing press, radio, and television came along, they were still largely controlled by the elites. But when the internet came along, regulatory bodies like Canada's [Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications...

the Biden regime has, without Congress’s approval and in total violation of the US Constitution, established a “Red Flag Center.” This move is aimed at spying on “we the people” and infringing upon our Second Amendment rights through the use of civilian spies. It’s a ballsy step to bulldoze Americans’ constitutional freedoms and disarm us, literally and figuratively. This alarming “center” is set to be illegally run by Biden’s politicized DOJ, targeting anyone viewed as a political dissident.

We Failed the Freedom TestThe remedy is worse than the disease.-Francis BaconThe government never cedes power willingly.Neither should we.If the Covid-19 debacle taught us one thing it is that, as Justice Neil Gorsuch acknowledged, “Rule by indefinite emergency edict risks leaving all of us with a shell of a democracy and civil liberties just as hollow.”Unfortunately, we still haven’t learned.We’re still allowing ourselves to be fully distracted by circus politics and a constant barrage of bad news screaming for attention.Four years after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which gave world governments (including our own) a convenient excuse for expanding...

Red flag alert! Justice Department’s new center strikes at gun rightsThe National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center bypasses Congress to undermine the Second Amendment.The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday unveiled a brand-new entity designed to train state and local officials how to apply red flag laws to confiscate firearms from gun owners who’ve been deemed “a threat to themselves or to others.” These “red flag laws” are called extreme risk protection orders, which are “civil court orders that temporarily restrict firearm access for an individual who is behaving dangerously or presents a high risk of harm to self...

10 Times The Censorship Industry Suppressed The TruthThe era of online censorship was fueled by media-driven panics about “fake news” and “disinformation.” The focus of fear switched many times, from the spy-thriller narrative of Russian agents spreading disinformation intended to undermine U.S. elections, to “conspiracy theorists” questioning the official response to COVID-19 and undermining “election integrity” by raising concerns about mail-in ballot fraud.Eventually, these narratives led to the censorship of true information. The Foundation for Freedom Online has compiled some of the top examples:1. Targeting of Domestic “Malinformation.” There are three categories used by the censorship industry and its government...

In a significant blow to patient autonomy, informed consent has been quietly revoked just 77 years after it was codified in the Nuremberg Code. On the 21st of December 2023, as we were frantically preparing for the festive season, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final ruling to amend a provision of the 21st Century Cures Act. This allowed …an exception from the requirement to obtain informed consent when a clinical investigation poses no more than a minimal risk to the human subject…This ruling went into effect on January...

"Mayors should not be allowed to launder animus through warrants," the former city council member's lawyer told the justices.Sylvia Gonzalez, a former Castle Hills, Texas, city council member, plausibly alleges that she was driven from public life by a trumped-up, politically motivated arrest aimed at punishing her for engaging in advocacy protected by the First Amendment. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court considered what sort of "objective evidence" she needs to prove that claim. The case, Gonzalez v. Trevino, hinges on how to read the Court's 2019 decision in Nieves v. Bartlett, which added "a narrow qualification" to the general...

Murthy v. Missouri perfectly illustrates the dangers of censorship, but Justice Jackson still thinks the government’s ‘perspective’ of ‘threatening circumstances’ should matter.. Following Monday’s Supreme Court oral argument in the social media censorship case Murthy v. Missouri, outraged free-speech advocates rightfully excoriated Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson for worrying that the First Amendment will “hamstring[] the government in significant ways in the most important time periods.” Given that “hamstringing” the federal government was precisely the purpose of the Bill of Rights, Justice Jackson’s comment laid bare the fundamental disdain she and other politically liberal justices hold for the classically liberal freedoms...

Free speech is the last exit ramp before political violence. During oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri — a dispute that Senator Rand Paul rightly calls “the most consequential free speech case in U.S. history” — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed concern that the First Amendment is “hamstringing the government in significant ways, in the most important time periods.” As with so much of the U.S. Constitution — and specifically the Bill of Rights — that has gotten in the way of the federal government’s march toward absolute power, a foundational American right is now in...

Four years ago, government officials told us, "Stay home!" We have "15 days to slow the spread." Days turned into months and then years, while officials chipped away at our freedoms. I have long been wary of politicians, but even I was surprised at how authoritarian many were eager to be. Some demanded police to go after people surfing. They took down the rims of basketball hoops. Children's playgrounds were taped up like crime scenes. They told people in rural Utah and Wyoming to stay in their homes. In the name of safety, politicians did many things that diminished our...

Not to downplay the damage done by COVID, but we’re still dealing with a far worse disease and will be for some time. It has no medical name but if it did, we’d call it the tyrannococcus. From the top we acknowledge that the novel coronavirus killed millions around the world. This is not a statistic but a procession of tragedies, and they happened despite the policy responses from those who claimed to be our guardians. Now, four years later, the experts are telling us to treat the disease similar to the way we treat the flu. The much-feared “long...

In an effort to stem a flood of requests by J6ers serving time for 1512c2, the obstruction count pending before SCOTUS, DOJ and DC US Atty Matthew Graves now warn if it’s reversed and those convicted seek reduced or vacated prison sentence, the govt will ask for MORE time This is why exuberance over recent appellate court ruling overturning a sentencing enhancement for 1512c2 was unwarranted. DOJ and judges have plenty of options to extend prison time—either based on offense or “upward departures.”Make no mistake—this is Graves’ way of threatening J6ers sentenced for DOJ unlawful use of 1512c2: if you...

This morning the Supreme Court held oral argument in the case that is now styled Murthy v. Missouri. C-SPAN has posted audio of the oral argument here. The case arises from the government’s “encouragement” of censorship by the social media platforms, as documented in the Twitter Files. We have followed the case as it has wended its way through the district court to the Fifth Circuit and then to the Supreme Court. We (I) have been pulling for the plaintiffs. The Supreme Court has already entered an order staying the narrowed preliminary injunction that had been fashioned by the Fifth...

This afternoon, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) tweeted about today’s US Supreme Court case (Murthy v. Missouri) that involves several plaintiffs, including The Gateway Pundit, who have been harmed by censorship by the government and big tech. In his tweet, Senator Rand Paul wrote: Today, SCOTUS heard Murthy v. Missouri, the most consequential free speech case in U.S. history. This isn’t just about social media companies; it’s a critical examination of government overreach. The Biden administration and FBI’s efforts to influence Big Tech into silencing dissent tramples on the 1st Amendment. Our focus must be on preventing government censorship, not compelling...

the appeals panel agreed that several federal offices and agencies, including the White House .. violated the First Amendment by coercing the platforms’ content moderation decisions. ... A federal appeals court ... finding that several agencies likely violated the First Amendment. ... The original case was brought by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, who alleged that federal officials unduly pressured social media firms to limit speech on their platforms, as they communicated concerns about posts related to the Covid pandemic or elections. ... The decision had an immediate impact. Following the district court’s order in July, the State...

Twenty-three Democrat run states and the District of Columbia, the home of our nation’s capital, filed amicus briefs in support of government censorship and banning of free speech in the United States. These 23 states and the District of Columbia filed amicus briefs in support of the Biden administration in the SCOTUS case is Murthy, et al v. Missouri, et al, 23-411 (Missouri v. Biden) case. The states essentially argue that they have an interest in collaborating with tech companies to “encourage” the public to behave themselves and “discourage” the public from believing alleged “disinformation” or engaging in online predatory...

A Belgian court has sentenced an activist to one year in prison for running an organization that allegedly spreads “racist, hateful, Nazi and negationist speech.” According to POLITICO, a judge said 30-year-old Dries Van Langenhove “revelled in Nazi ideas that cause much suffering.” “Dries Van Langenhove, a political activist and leader of a Flemish-nationalist youth movement called Schild & Vrienden, was convicted of inciting violence and denying the Holocaust, the Ghent criminal court ruled Tuesday morning,” the outlet reports. “Former Flemish parliamentarian Dries Van Langenhove has just been sentenced to 1 year IN PRISON because supposedly ‘racist memes’ were shared...