Free Republic

The frustration for 2A supporters of late has been “why won’t the Court take any 2A cases to enforce Heller?” The short answer has been that the Court was in a classic Mexican standoff, with four justices (Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch) being strongly pro-2A and four (Ginsburg, Breyer, Karen, and Sotomayor) prepared to gut Heller . . . and a notoriously unpredictable Anthony Kennedy with the swing vote. Neither side could be sure which way he’d go, and thus neither side wanted to risk losing. And so lower courts learned that they could defy Heller with impunity. Assuming that...

Liberal justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer are 85 and 79-years-old, respectively, so it’s not unforeseeable that Trump could get to fill two more seats before he leaves the White House, potentially guaranteeing a conservative majority on the court for decades to come. Now some liberals argue Democrats should simply expand the number of court seats — and then immediately fill the new ones with left-wing jurists — as soon as they take back control of Congress and the White House. The Constitution doesn’t require a set number of seats on the court and leaves that power to Congress,...

h California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris said there would be the “destruction of the Constitution” if President Donald Trump got to pick the Supreme Court justice to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews.” “We’re looking at a destruction of the Constitution of the United States as far as I can tell based on all the folks he’s been appointing thus far for lifetime appointments,” Harris told Matthews on Wednesday night. “He’s been appointing ideologues, he’s been appoint people who have refused to agree that Brown v. Board of Education is settled law.” Harris’s comment was...

Has anyone one read, "The Framer's Coup. The making of the United States Constitution," by Michael Klarman. Thoughts? Comments?

THOMAS, J., concurring. I join the Court’s opinion, which highlights just a few of the many problems with the plaintiffs’ claims. There are several more. Section 1182(f) does not set forth any judicially enforceable limits that constrain the President. See Webster v. Doe, 486 U. S. 592, 600 (1988). Nor could it, since the President has inherent authority to exclude aliens from the country. See United States ex rel. Knauff v. Shaughnessy, 338 U. S. 537, 542–543 (1950); accord, Sessions v. Dimaya, 584 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2018) (THOMAS, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 13–14). Further, the Establishment Clause does...

Numerous international groups are trying to influence Ireland into legalising abortionThe great and the good internationally have a big interest in the outcome of Ireland’s looming abortion referendum, planned for next year. They want Irish voters to erase from their constitution the so-called Eighth Amendment, which gives the unborn child the same right to life as every other human being. Abortion is only permitted in Ireland when the life of the mother is at real and substantial risk. This amendment was inserted into the constitution following a referendum in 1983 which passed by a two-to-one margin. Ever since then secular...

.... town hall included David Hogg, the young man whose been one of the leaders of the movement following the Parkland shooting. Hogg was one of the panelist at the town hall meeting that in other students from Parkland and St. Louis students. Before arriving at Cardinal Ritter, Parkland students went to Ferguson to meet and speak with Michael Brown, Sr. the father of Michael Brown, Jr.

The logic that decades ago led the John Birch Society to condemn communism, big government and the welfare state mysteriously ends when it comes to the slow strangulation of liberty in post-17th Amendment America. Sad to say, but a soft relativism seeped into an organization known for stalwart defense of the republic. [snip] Relativism of a soft yet noticeable sort has, unfortunately, beset the patriots at the JBS. To the JBS, the material differences between the governing structure of the 21st century Constitution and the Framers’ 1787 Constitution are insignificant. Just enforce the Constitution we have.1 It is said the...

The American Medical Association has formally — and overwhelmingly — endorsed a slate of gun control measures, calling gun violence a public health crisis. Why it matters: The AMA isn’t as powerful as it once was. But in the uphill climb to frame gun violence as a public health issue, having the AMA on board certainly can’t hurt.

The president is actually strengthening the constitutional checks and balances undermined by the previous administration. If your contention is that President Donald Trump has the propensity to sound like a bully and an authoritarian, I’m with you. If you’re arguing that Trump’s rhetoric is sometimes coarse and unpresidential, I can’t disagree. I’m often turned off by the aesthetic and tonal quality of his presidency. And, yes, Trump has an unhealthy tendency to push theories that exaggerate and embellish small truths to galvanize his fans for political gain. Those are all legitimate political concerns. Yet the ubiquitous claim that Trump acts...

The two young daughters of the pizza guy grabbed up by immigration officers when he made a delivery to a Brooklyn military base still don’t know why their daddy hasn’t come home. “I haven’t told them anything. It is hard for a 3-year-old girl to understand,” mom Sandra Chica told The Post. “They only know that their Daddy isn’t here.” Chica said she’s been trying to convince the girls — Luciana, 3, and Antonia, 2 — that their father, illegal immigrant Pablo Villavicencio, is “out working.” “The older one, she always asks me why daddy’s in the news, and I...

If your contention is that President Donald Trump has the propensity to sound like a bully and an authoritarian, I'm with you. If you're arguing that Trump's rhetoric is sometimes coarse and unpresidential, I can't disagree. I'm often turned off by the aesthetic and tonal quality of his presidency. And, yes, Trump has an unhealthy tendency to push theories that exaggerate and embellish small truths to galvanize his fans for political gain. Those are all legitimate political concerns. Yet the ubiquitous claim that Trump acts in a way that uniquely undermines the rule of law is, to this point,...

Senator Rand Paul held a hearing on Wednesday afternoon exploring the financial and constitutional implications of open-ended war under the existing Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) and the potential ramifications if Congress adopts the revised authorization proposed by Senators Bob Corker and Tim Kaine. The hearing was entitled, “War Powers and the Effects of Unauthorized Military Engagements on Federal Spending” and featured testimonies from Judge Andrew Napolitano, Deputy Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office Christopher Anders, and Georgetown Professor Jonathan Turley. The line to get into the hearing was so long that wrapped around the corner of...

The Supreme Court has ruled on the Masterpiece Cake case — and on the surface, it would appear to be a loss for L.G.B.T.Q. Americans. The justices ruled 7 to 2 that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission violated the religious freedom of a baker, Jack Phillips, when it sanctioned him for refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, Charlie Craig and David Mullins, in 2012. “The commission’s hostility was inconsistent with the First Amendment’s guarantee that our laws be applied in a manner that is neutral toward religion,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.

If America is badly divided today, then what once united it? The Constitution. The Constitution is not just an abstraction. It’s a real, living commitment by the actual citizens of a country to a democratic form of government with an absolute commitment to individual rights. The most important rights are the top two in the Bill of Rights — the First and Second Amendments. It’s no accident they’re the top two. America’s founders understood that without these two, we’re all sunk. Democracy is meaningless without individual rights. If we did not have a Bill of Rights, and uphold it, then...

A Response to the Idea of Removing the Natural Born Citizen Clause From Our Constitution Thursday, May 17, 2018 University of Richmond School of Law Professor Kevin C. Walsh proposes ridding our Constitution of its “natural born Citizen” clause.  See his article, “The ‘Irish Born’ One American Citizenship Amendment,” here https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3165238 . Professor Walsh writes that the original Constitution is not perfect and it is time to change its actual text.  In that connection, he advocates that naturalized American citizens should be eligible to be President.  He states: “There are not two classes of American citizenship, just one. It is...

In his book "Progressive Democracy" (1914), Herbert Croly wrote the following: (page 29) As in the case of every great political edifice, the materials composing the American system are derived from many different sources, and are characterized by unequal values, both as to endurance and as to latent possibilities. The appearance of definiteness and finality which it derives from its embodiment in specific constitutional documents and other authoritative words is to a large extent illusory. Its real origin and meaning are very much more doubtful and complex than these words intimate. Historians are no more agreed as to the former...

Six brave state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit correctly arguing that the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that grants work permits and legal status to illegal aliens who came to America as children is unconstitutional. President Donald Trump should agree and order the Department of Justice to settle the case in order to restore the Constitution. The lawsuit is nearly identical to a successful lawsuit these same attorneys general filed that ended the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability program. The AGs won their DAPA case in the 5th Circuit and the Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 (the late...

Full title should read: LEVIN DROPS A MOAB: New Revelation Mueller’s Lawyers Obtained ‘Special Status’ Show Probe is Unconstitutional Under Article II (VIDEO) Constitutional expert Mark Levin dropped a MOAB on Mueller’s witch hunt Tuesday evening, arguing the ‘special status’ obtained by the special counsel’s lawyers show the probe is unconstitutional under Article II. Snip~~ This bombshell revelation may be the key to dismantling Mueller’s entire operation, says Mark Levin.

Kicking off the week on the radio Monday, LevinTV host Mark Levin raised a crucial point about the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller that no one is currently discussing — it was unconstitutional. “The appointment of Robert Mueller violates the United States Constitution,” Levin said. “And every subpoena, indictment, and plea agreement should be null and void.”