Free Republic

Kentucky Republican Rand Paul warned of a little-known federal law that allows the president of the United States to shut down the internet with a “kill switch.” Paul warned that the government’s ” emergency powers ” can remove freedoms in the name of safety and security, including an internet “kill switch” to turn off the Internet. “We’ve also looked at the emergency powers and emergency powers — you know the courts have said you don’t throw out the Constitution during emergencies — but a lot of our legislation acts as if you could throw things away,” Paul told Atlas on...

When New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued "a public health emergency order" that purportedly suspended the right to bear arms in Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County last week, her justification was seemingly straightforward. "I have emergency powers," she told The New York Times. "Gun violence is an epidemic. Therefore, it's an emergency." Grisham's stunt was widely condemned as blatantly unconstitutional, even by some leading gun control supporters. But her legal rationale also underlined the perils posed by the sweeping emergency powers that legislators in many states have granted governors -- a problem that was abundantly clear during the COVID-19...

The proposal might be the biggest attempted power grab in the history of the United Nations. If approved, the United States as we know it could cease to exist.In September 2024, less than two months before the next U.S. presidential election, the United Nations will host a landmark “Summit of the Future,” where member nations will adopt a Pact for the Future. The agreement will solidify numerous policy reforms offered by the U.N. over the past two years as part of its sweeping Our Common Agenda platform. Although there are numerous radical proposals included in the agenda, perhaps none are...

We have seen many times that when Democrats cannot achieve their agenda at the ballot box, they use the courts, or Democrat presidents use executive orders. The same holds true with the “Green New Deal.” If Democrats have their way, we will all be driving electric cars and cooking on electric stoves, whether we want to or not. But Republican lawmakers may have a way to prevent President Joe Biden from doing what Democrats have been calling for him to do for a while — namely, declaring a “national climate emergency,” thus enabling him to invoke emergency powers allowed by...

The Senate passed a resolution, 68-23, on March 29 to end the COVID-19 national emergency sooner than scheduled. The measure, which was introduced by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and passed the House on Feb. 1, now heads to President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Democrats, according to media reports. The White House planned to end both the COVID national emergency—which then-President Donald Trump enacted on March 13, 2020—on May 11. However, this bill will terminate the national emergency a month earlier than scheduled. The administration is also set to end...

Justice Paul Rouleau, who led the probe into the use of 1988 Emergencies Act, called the decision a "drastic move" but not a "dictatorial one". The act bestows the government with added powers in times of crisis. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used it on 14 February 2022... Mr Rouleau wrote in his Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) report... Mr Rouleau said he did not come to the conclusion easily... Though the report says the use of emergency powers was necessary, it also suggests that Prime Minister Trudeau inflamed the situation with comments that called the movement a "fringe minority" which...

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich) blamed their lackluster performances in two separate debates this week on the debate moderators. During her debate with Whitmer, Republican challenger Tudor Dixon argued that “I am merely trying to call attention to the gap between the Governor’s 2018 pre-election promises and her performance in office. Rather than keeping the people safe from criminals she wants to disarm law-abiding gun owners. While rioting in America’s streets over the death of George Floyd was killing people and destroying property the Governor said she supported the ‘spirit’ of the defund the police movement.”...

Critics roasted President Biden after the commander-in-chief declared the Chinese coronavirus pandemic “over,” contending that, if it is true, then emergency powers should be “voided” and all vaccine mandates should be lifted moving forward. During an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Biden stated that the “pandemic is over.”

Joe Biden is calling on seven of the top oil companies to do something to help quell surging gas prices after accusing them of intentionally exacerbating the strain on Americans' pocketbooks after the average price per gallon surpassed $5.00. The president is sending letters Wednesday to Marathon Petroleum Corp., Valero Energy Corp., ExxonMobil, Phillips 66, Chevron, BP, and Shell to demand action on lowering gas prices at the corporate level and account for the surge. In a letter to Exxon obtained by Axios, Biden wrote that the difference 'of more than 15% at the pump is the result of the...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday he is removing emergency powers police can use after authorities ended the blockades at the borders and the occupation in Ottawa by truckers and others opposed to COVID-19 restrictions.Trudeau said the “threat continues” but the acute emergency that included entrenched occupations has ended. His government invoked the powers last week and lawmakers affirmed the powers late Monday.“The situation is no longer an emergency, therefore the federal government will be ending the use of the emergencies act,” Trudeau said. “We are confident that existing laws and bylaws are sufficient.”The emergencies act allows authorities to...

Chilling 15 minutes of masked armored police surrounding a lunch cafe in Ottawa, presumably to arrest a Freedom Convoy participant. Police said they were there for an "inspection". Owner will not let them in.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has learned that Prime Minister Trudeau "will inform the provinces he will invoke the Emergencies Act to give the government extra powers to deal with the protests across the country. But in a meeting with the Liberal caucus, the PM said there were no plans to deploy the military." The move follows a meeting Sunday of the federal cabinet and its Incident Response Group (IRG).Trudeau tweeted late Sunday that the IRG discussed "further actions the government can take to help end the blockades and occupations."Earlier that day, Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair told CBC's Rosemary Barton Live...

Emergencies justify emergency powers, and emergency powers mean that you can push ahead with your agenda on all fronts. Last week in this space, I included a few words about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s remarkable new book, The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health. I also included a link to Kennedy’s appearance on “Tucker Carlson Today.” It was a remarkable exchange and I commend both the book and the interview to your attention. I disagree with Kennedy about various things, including the efficacy of vaccines in general, but his assessment...

‘Just the psychological pressure these kids are facing, they don’t have that ability to really fight for themselves, so that’s why we, as parents, I feel like we don’t have any other choice,’ says father Mike Bell.A group of parents in northeastern Indiana has reached their breaking point with government officials turning deaf ears to their children’s suffering under irrational and scientifically unfounded COVID rules with no clear end point.After spending months trying to work with local officials to get their kids’ lives “back to normal,” only to have their school board allegedly break its own rules to mandate masks...

THE Scottish Government wants its emergency coronavirus powers to become permanent – including the ability to order schools to close, impose lockdowns and operate virtual courts.Ministers are considering changing the law to permanently allow them to release prisoners early or permit a wider range of healthcare professionals to give vaccinations.They are seeking the public’s views on removing the planned expiry date for many of the temporary measures, with deputy first minister John Swinney arguing that some of the changes have had a “demonstrable benefit to the people of Scotland”.The majority of the Government’s current powers introduced during the pandemic are...

Tennessee State Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) said Sunday that if he and other state legislators hold a special session, then they should consider restraining the governor’s emergency powers. Griffey said legislators should take up the governor’s authority to declare and extend public health emergencies. The governor can do this without oversight by the Tennessee General Assembly. “In my opinion — and I have sent this text out to a number of folks and I’ve gotten a pretty good response — the governor should only have 30 days of emergency authorization. He ought to get the speaker and the lieutenant governor...

We’ve heard it’s the Republicans who are at fault for the return of the mask mandates and the spreading of the Delta variant. Well, liberals are saying that of course. It’s conservative media that’s fanning the flames. There’s more nuance to this problem and you all know. The least of it is not being that vaccinations have always been a sensitive topic in America. When it comes to kids, it’s even more intense. There’s also the aspect that a lot of people don’t like being told what to do and there is a limit in telling what adults can and...

New science has again prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to update its mask guidelines. The CDC recommended on Tuesday that fully vaccinated people wear masks in public indoor settings "in areas with substantial and high transmission." That includes a large swath of the US right now, including the vast majority of counties in the South. The CDC recommended that all teachers, staff, students, and visitors at K-12 schools mask up as well. The goal of these new guidelines, CDC director Rochelle Walensky said, is to "help prevent the spread of the Delta variant and protect others." The...

Health is more than influenza Luc Bonneux b & Wim Van Damme c b. Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, Postbus 11650, The Hague 2502 AR, Netherlands (e-mail: bonneux@nidi.nl). c. Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2011;89:539-540. doi: 10.2471/BLT.11.089086 The repeated pandemic health scares caused by an avian H5N1 and a new A(H1N1) human influenza virus are part of the culture of fear.1–3 Worst-case thinking replaced balanced risk assessment. Worst-case thinking is motivated by the belief that the danger we face is so overwhelmingly catastrophic that we must act immediately. Rather than wait for information, we...

The law used by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to issue emergency orders without legislative approval during the pandemic is getting repealed. On Wednesday, the Michigan House approved Unlock Michigan’s initiative to repeal the Emergency Powers of Governor Act of 1945, from which Whitmer drew authority to unilaterally extend a state of emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic until the Michigan Supreme Court determined it was unconstitutional in October 2020. The Unlock Michigan initiative does not impact another, more recent state of emergency law on the books that allows the governor to declare a state of emergency for 28 days, after which point...