Free Republic

The U.S. Supreme Court handed a stunning defeat to the enemies of the First Amendment by invalidating a California law forcing nonprofits to disclose their largest donors — and liberals are losing it. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion of the Court in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, Attorney General of California. The syllabus for the opinion reasoned that “California’s disclosure requirement imposes a widespread burden on donors’ associational rights.” It continued: “[T]his burden cannot be justified on the ground that the regime is narrowly tailored to investigating charitable wrongdoing, or that the State’s interest in administrative convenience...

Jane Mayer of The New Yorker strengthens the argument for why H.R. 1 is an awful piece of legislation.In attempting to own conservatives by leaking partial audio of a presentation to Republicans by the director of research at a conservative nonprofit, staff writer Jane Mayer at The New Yorker further illuminates why H.R. 1 is a garbage proposal. Mayer misunderstands the Republican base’s argument completely and produces a straw man.The March 29 report is based on audio from a Jan. 8 phone call in which Kyle McKenzie of Stand Together discusses the “For The People Act,” known as H.R. 1....

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer detailed the painful confrontations he had with Sen. Dianne Feinstein about taking away her leadership position on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It was like Groundhog Day, but with the pain fresh each time,” Schumer told New Yorker writer Jane Mayer about his conversations with Feinstein, age 87. “Anyone who has tried to take the car keys away from an elderly relative knows how hard it can be.”

Today's AM Joy show on MSNBC provided a virtual parody of liberal-elite condescension to Trump supporters. Joy Reid kicked things off by finding it "confusing" that Trump's populist base supports him despite supposedly not "getting anything economically out of this plutocracy." It's a recycling of the old liberal complaint of "What's the Matter with Kansas?": those poor, benighted cultural conservatives allegedly voting against their own interests (against redistributing all the wealth). Ultraliberal writer Jane Mayer of The New Yorker [infamous for co-authoring a book trashing Justice Clarence Thomas with Jill Abramson while they were reporters at The Wall Street Journal]...

Today's AM Joy show on MSNBC provided a virtual parody of liberal-elite condescension to Trump supporters. Joy Reid kicked things off by finding it "confusing" that Trump's populist base supports him despite supposedly not "getting anything economically out of this plutocracy." [snip] Ultraliberal writer Jane Mayer of The New Yorker [infamous for co-authoring a book trashing Justice Clarence Thomas with Jill Abramson while they were reporters at The Wall Street Journal] explained to the befuddled Reid that Trump's "racist and anger-laced" rhetoric "excites the lower-educated part of his base, the white-male base, particularly. And so he's saying things that make...

Ronan Farrow says Bill Clinton was 'credibly accused of rape,' calls Juanita Broaddrick's case 'overdue for revisiting' "Catch and Kill" author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow took aim at former President Bill Clinton on Friday night, saying the nation's 42nd chief executive was "credibly" accused of rape and that alleged victim Juanita Broaddrick's claim was "overdue for revisiting." Stemming from a panel discussion on "Real Time with Bill Maher" about the Katie Hill saga -- in which the California congresswoman resigned after allegations of inappropriate affairs -- host Maher posed a hypothetical about whether Clinton would have been treated...

In an attempt to smear Attorney General William Barr, NBC News framed a story about Barr’s support for due process (which shouldn’t be controversial) as him supporting rapists. It’s a typical tactic by the media these days. Ever since the Obama administration issued guidelines in 2011 warning schools that they needed to find more male students responsible for sexual assault, due process has gone out the window. In 2017, professor K.C. Johnson and scholar Stuart Taylor wrote a book about the issue. At the time, I wrote a review for RealClear Books — and my previous work on the subject...

The latest smear on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is a disaster for Democrats, and everyone seems to know it except the party’s presidential candidates. No sooner had the New York Times published a new, unsubstantiated allegation of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh, then most of the candidates demanded Kavanaugh’s impeachment. “These newest revelations are disturbing,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) wrote on Twitter, adding “Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached.” Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) declared Kavanaugh’s “place on the Court is an insult to the pursuit of truth and justice. He must be impeached.” Sen....

Just when it seems that the quality of the Democratic candidates and the ethical standards of the Democratic media might start to rebound to normal civilized levels (not a high bar since the days of JFK, LBJ, and Hubert Humphrey), they excavate new depths of inanity and unprofessionalism. I believe that the latest outburst against Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh will be seen as a significant milestone in the slide to perdition of the Democratic presidential nominating process and of that party’s lock-step media accomplices. The New York Times produced an allegation that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted a woman 30 years...

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) called for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to be impeached on Sunday after the New York Times ran a piece Saturday alleging that an eyewitness saw friends of Kavanaugh push “his penis into the hand of” a female student at a college party. The Times later added to its piece on Sunday evening that the female student did not recall the incident, according to friends, and declined to comment:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Monday that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh won't be impeached amid a new allegation of sexual misconduct. Graham defended Kavanaugh during a string of tweets, accusing Democrats of being "willing to ruin Justice Kavanagh's life for political gain." "As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I promise you Justice Kavanaugh will not be impeached over these scurrilous accusations," Graham tweeted. Republicans have rushed to defend Kavanaugh after The New York Times reported over the weekend that Max Stier, a classmate of Kavanaugh's at Yale University, alleged that Kavanaugh exposed himself at a party and...

“Brett Kavanaugh should never have been confirmed to the Supreme Court. It was plain to me and many others at the time that the FBI ‘investigation’ into the serious, corroborated allegations of sexual assault by Justice Kavanaugh was a sham. New reporting from the New York Times further proves it. “In normal times, I would call on the Department of Justice’s Inspector General to fully investigate the FBI’s failures in this matter. But these are not normal times. The House Judiciary Committee should immediately begin an impeachment inquiry to determine whether Justice Kavanaugh lied to Congress and why the FBI...

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who oversaw Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court hearing, said on Monday that a former classmate accusing the justice of sexual misconduct didn't contact the Senate Judiciary Committee last year. "That person, Mr. Stier, didn't reach out or provide information to the committee majority. ...My office never received anything from Mr. Stier or his unnamed friends," Grassley said during a Senate floor speech. Grassley served as Judiciary Committee chairman during Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing before the panel last year. His staff also conducted its own investigations into allegations made against the then-Supreme Court nominee. Grassley argued on Monday that...

The symptoms of age-related cognitive decline include being unable to remember whether you’re in Vermont or New Hampshire, and what the talking points of your own presidential campaign are, but recalling exactly what you said nearly 60 years ago when you had a summer job as a lifeguard at a pool in Wilmington, Del. and a ‘bad dude’ called Corn Pop took umbrage when you ordered him to put on a shower cap so he looked like an old lady and then, to further emasculate him in front of his ‘boys’, called him ‘Esther’. The symptoms of gross partisanship and...

You gotta see this. I don't know how Charlie keeps his cool.

My favorite newspaper correction was published in the UK’s Times several years ago. ‘Is The Pope a Catholic?’ has been a long-used rhetorical question to infer a statement of the bleeding obvious. Yet the Times inadvertently managed to cast doubt over this apparently incontrovertible fact in a reference to Pope John Paul II, and had to print the following comical clarification: ‘Karol Wojtyla was referred to in Saturday’s Credo column as the “the first non-Catholic pope for 450 years.” This should, of course, have read “non-Italian”.’ As a former newspaper editor myself, these sort of excruciatingly embarrassing mea culpas make...

Trump (and the American people) still have not forgotten about the Congressional slush fund used to pay off sexual harassment claims against lawmakers, and on Monday the president called for the slush fund to be investigated.

ANKENY, Iowa -- As many presidential candidates call for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanuagh, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard focused on other issues during her campaign stop in Ankeny. Gabbard opened up the town hall by referencing a CNN article and criticizing President Donald Trump for “bending the knee to the wishes of Saudi Arabia” and for using American military to “carry out that country’s wishes.” “People like Mike Pompeo and the Trump administration, they’ve been trying to go to war with Iran for a really long time and they are really taking action and laying down the...

The short-lived new "allegations" against Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh were so weak that Senate investigators didn't follow up on them during the confirmation process, author Carrie Severino said Monday. "This is the weakest of the weak type of allegations. It's really a shameful attempt to reignite these smears against Judge Kavanaugh that are utterly baseless," said Severino, the founder of the Judicial Crisis Network, on "Fox & Friends." Late Sunday, the New York Times walked back an explosive report about a resurfaced allegation of sexual assault by Kavanaugh from his college days. The Times piece by Robin Pogrebin...

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's newly appointed executive director wants to cancel male political candidates. Lucinda Guinn, a former executive at pro-abortion fundraising giant EMILY's List, was named executive director of the embattled Democratic elections organization. The news comes as a blow to male Democrats, as Guinn has indicated on social media that she does not want men to run for office. In a February tweet, Guinn appeared to agree with another user's proposal that "we shouldn't let boys run for office anymore." The idea was initially raised by liberal think tank Third Way's senior vice president, Lanae Erickson, who...