Free Republic

Coming up during the next administration will be 3 or possibly 4 openings to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court. If you elect, as president, someone who will appoint activist judges, who will tend to have a "progressive" interpretation of the Constitution, then you can expect to see a wholesale change to our society as we know it. -snip- If the Democrats retain the White House, you can expect potential nominees to make decisions, if confirmed, who will promote the far-left agenda as personified by the four liberal judges now sitting on the Supreme Court (i.e. Kagan, Breyer, Sotomayor, and...

An elder-care charity run by nuns asked the Supreme Court on Monday to shield them from Obamacare’s birth control mandate, arguing that the government can provide their organizations’ female employees with contraceptives if it really wants to but shouldn’t force them to facilitate the coverage. Attorneys for the Little Sisters of the Poor and three Christian colleges say the administration already has exempted a series of employers, undercutting its push to force religiously affiliated groups to formally opt out of the regulations so that a third party can step in and pay for the drugs and services. “It is

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The death of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Patrick Crooks with 10 months left on his term could set up a spring election that's as much a referendum on Gov. Scott Walker as it is on who should serve on the state's highest court. Walker is considering appointing Rebecca Bradley, a state appeals court judge he's twice named to lower court openings and who already had conservative support in her previously announced run for Supreme Court. Two other candidates for the court, who also announced their plans to run before Crooks died, have not applied to be...

Monday’s big election law news came from the Supreme Court’s penultimate decision of the term upholding Arizona’s congressional districts. But before handing down its last three decisions, the court made voting-rights advocates happy by deciding not to review a different election case. “Arizona citizens can continue to participate in voter registration drives without worrying about not having proof of citizenship documents,” Shirley Sandelands, of the League of Women Voters of Arizona, said in a statement Monday. The case, Kobach, et al. v. Election Assistance Commission, et al., was about whether Arizona and Kansas could require voters to prove their citizenship...

U.S. intelligence agencies have “harvested” the personal and private data of “hundreds of federal officials and judges, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg,” charges a legal brief filed by Larry Klayman, the attorney who has come to be known as “the NSA slayer” for his successful legal battles against the National Security Agency. Klayman, founder of FreedomWatch, successfully sued the National Security Agency in 2013 over the collection of telephone metadata from Verizon customers that was detailed in documents released by intelligence-document leaker Edward Snowden. In December 2013, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled the NSA...

**SNIP** Meredith is one of about 6 million people whose subsidized insurance hangs in the balance as the Supreme Court takes up a case that poses the most serious challenge to the Affordable Care Act since the court found the law constitutional more than two years ago. The plaintiffs in King v. Burwell insist that people who buy coverage on the federal exchange are not entitled to subsidies, noting that the law says financial help is available for those who enroll through exchanges “established by the State.” The Obama administration argues that Congress clearly intended to help everyone who qualifies...

HARTFORD — The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Windsor Locks teen is not legally mature enough to decide against life-saving chemotherapy. The unanimous decision, after a 75-minute hearing, upheld a lower court ruling that the state can force treatment for Hodgkin´s lymphoma on the girl, identified as Cassandra C. The state Department of Children and Families had been awarded custody of the child, who is "doing well" with chemotherapy at Connecticut Children´s Medical Center, a lawyer for the state told the justices. The court Thursday heard arguments from lawyers for Cassandra and her mother, Jackie Fortin, who supports

The Supreme Court’s conservatives cleared the way Monday for Ohio to restrict early voting in the state, on the eve of the day it was to start. The court granted the state’s request to stay decisions of lower courts that threw out the state’s new plan, passed by the Republican-led legislature. But the court’s four liberal justices said they would have stayed out of the case and left those decisions in place. Ohio argued that the new plan--reducing from 35 to 28 the number of days voters could cast an early ballot--could not be seen as violating the rights of

The jockeying among the titans of the Supreme Court bar for a place at the lectern when the justices hear the next same-sex marriage case is as understated as it is unmistakable. In a half-dozen briefs filed in recent weeks, some of the best lawyers in the nation spent many pages arguing that their case was the right one in which to establish a nationwide right to same-sex marriage. They pointed out the attractive features of their own cases and the shortcomings of others. In legal jargon, streamlined cases without procedural pitfalls are said to be good vehicles. That made...

On June 30, the Supreme Court released two much-awaited decisions, both involving arguments over the extent of federal power to coerce individuals. Those of us who believe that the federal government already far exceeds its constitutional (or merely proper) authority should applaud both decisions — but not too enthusiastically. I say that because both decisions were defensive victories. By narrow majorities, the Court fended off attacks on the lines holding against further erosion of the First Amendment. Be glad about that, but the forces pushing for ever-increasing political control won’t stop just because two of their offensives were repulsed. I...

e U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear an appeal by Google over whether it violated federal wiretapping law when its Street View mapping cars collected consumers' personal data. That leaves intact a federal appeals court ruling that the U.S. Wiretap Act protects the privacy of information on unencrypted in-home Wi-Fi networks and means Google can face lawsuits over the matter, according to a Bloomberg report. The issue stems from Google's Street View, a comprehensive mapping program that provides images of areas around the world. Google has admitted that its camera-equipped Street View cars inadvertently captured emails, passwords and...

Having had his omnipotence chipped away at last week, President Obama has - seemingly - been pushed too far by the Supreme Court's decision on contraception and Obamacare this morning: The White House stated... SUPREME COURT DECISION ON CONTRACEPTION COVERAGE JEOPARDIZES HEALTH OF WOMEN EMPLOYED BY THESE COMPANIESWILL WORK WITH CONGRESS TO MAKE SURE WOMEN AFFECTED BY RULING WILL HAVE SAME ACCESS TO CONTRACEPTIONWILL CONSIDER WHETHER PRESIDENT CAN ACT ON HIS OWN TO MITIGATE EFFECT OF SUPREME COURT RULING Totalitarian? You decide... One wonders if the phrase "do you know who I am?" was uttered this morning? As The Hill adds,...

If the most disturbing, if underreported, news from yesterday, was Obama's "modification" of NSA capabilities, which contrary to his earlier promises, was just granted even greater powers as phone recording will now be stored for even longer than previously, then this latest development from the Supreme Court - one which some could argue just voided the Fourth amendment - is even more shocking. RT reports that the US Supreme Court has ruled that police may search a home without obtaining a warrant despite the objection of one occupant if that occupant has been removed from the premises. With its 6...

You might think the question would be settled by now, but the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to opine on whether the Second Amendment right to “bear” arms for self-defense extends outside the home. We may soon get an answer. Lyle Denniston, writing for the Constitution Daily, reports about two gun rights cases that may get a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court. Both cases, dealing with restrictions on the ability of minors to possess weapons in public, hinge on the difference between the right to “keep” a gun and a right “bear” one. The National Rifle Association thinks the...

Nothing less than the boundaries of executive power are at stake Monday as the Supreme Court considers whether President Obama violated the Constitution during his first term. Oral arguments slated for Monday will center on a trio of recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that were deemed unconstitutional by lower courts. If they uphold the decision, experts say the justices could endanger hundreds of NLRB decisions. Even more significant are the ramifications for future presidents, with the court poised either to bolster or blunt the chief executive’s appointment powers. “Rulings like this have implications that last for...

Above: Perennial traitor John Kerry's new mission: save the life of ghoulish illegal alien cop-killer Edgar Arias Tamayo.- by John UrbanTop Right NewsWhen John Kerry isn't busy trying to help Iran obtain nuclear weapons or stabbing Israel in the back, he is doing the bidding of the United Nations -- and Mexico -- trying to save the life of an illegal alien cop-killer.You heard that right. Edgar Arias Tamayo, a 46-year old Mexican man, was in the country illegally when he killed Houston police officer Guy Gaddis. Tamayo was arrested by Gaddis outside a nightclub in 1994 for robbery. While...

The US Supreme Court issued a mealy mouth ruling today on California's Constitutional Amendment that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Californians voted twice to protect traditional marriage. First on Mar 7, 2000 and then again on Nov. 4, 2008 with Proposition 8 which after its passage became a part of the California Constitution - § 7.5 to Article I. Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/06/the_supreme_courts_punt_on_prop_8.html#ixzz2XQSKUJrr Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

Rabbi Yoel Schoenfeld, Rabbi of the Young Israel of Kew Garden Hills in Queens, New York, told Arutz Sheva that the decision Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court striking down key parts of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), paving the way for greater acceptance of gay marriage, was a major step backwards for humanity that goes all the back to the Biblical Bila'am, whose donkey spoke to him.

7-2 decision practically invites Arizona to try again using proper administrative procedures Most of what you have heard in the media about the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona is incomplete to the point of misleading. It is true that the Court held that Arizona’s Proposition 200 (passed in 2004) requiring documentary proof of citizenship was invalid as contrary to the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) requirement that states “accept and use” the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) voter registration form which merely requires that a registrant affirm citizenship. But, this ruling essentially was...

(CNSNews.com) – Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts’ cousin, a lesbian seeking to get married in California who will have reserved seating for relatives at two upcoming cases, wrote that she believes her cousin will rule in favor of same-sex marriage in an op-ed posted on the National Council for Lesbian Rights. A spokesperson for the court did not respond to questions about a potential conflict for Roberts. “I know that my cousin is a good man,” Jean Podrasky, 48, of San Francisco wrote. “I feel confident that John is wise enough to see that society is becoming more...