Free Republic

Democrats have long enabled the tea party movement to villainize the federal government, Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) said in a speech Thursday. In an address at the left-leaning Center for American Progress Action Fund, Mr. Schumer said the grassroots conservative groups won over voters by convincing them that government overreach caused their economic problems — an argument Democrats have done too little to rebut. “When the tea party elite came in and said, ‘Government is your problem,’ we didn’t say: ‘No, it isn’t. It’s part of your solution,’” said Mr. Schumer, a member of Senate Democratic leadership. Tea party...

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on January 10th that it will consider a First Amendment challenge to an Ohio law that makes it a crime to “lie” about political candidates, which a pro-life PAC says was used to censor its political speech during the 2010 mid-term congressional election. […] The lawsuit was sparked by an Ohio State Election Commission ruling that there was probable cause that four billboards SBA List planned to put up in former Congressman Steven Driehaus’ district during his reelection campaign were “malicious lies” under Ohio’s False Statement Law. Fourteen other states have similar laws on the...

Newsmax IRS Sets Sights on Secret Hollywood Conservative Group Thursday, January 23, 2014 09:28 AM By: Drew MacKenzie A conservative group in Hollywood, shrouded in secrecy for fear of a backlash from powerful movie industry liberals, is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service after applying for tax-exempt status. Friends of Abe has attempted to stay under the radar and is fiercely determined to protect the identity of its 1,500 members, The New York Times reports. But now the group has come under the scrutiny of the IRS after the federal agency requested information about its meetings with politicians including...

The owners of a Christian bakery who refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple are facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines after they were found guilty of violating the couple’s civil rights. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries said they found “substantial evidence” that Sweet Cakes by Melissa discriminated against the lesbian couple and violated the Oregon Equality Act of 2007, a law that protects the rights of the LGBT community. Last year, the bakery’s owners refused to make a wedding cake for Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman, of Portland, citing their Christian beliefs....

On Wednesday, Pres. Obama declared today “Religious Freedom Day”—even as his administration continues its court fights against those seeking religious liberty. While fighting 91 different lawsuits against his HHS mandate requiring employers to provide coverage for abortifacients and contraceptives, Obama even vowed to “remain committed to promoting religious freedom” in his proclamation. …

I couldn’t believe it. I was trying to discuss traditional marriage – and the state was trying to stop me. Incredible, in a 21st-century European country, but true. I was invited to speak at a conference on marriage last summer, to be held at the Law Society in London. The government had just launched a public consultation on changing the law to allow same-sex marriage. The conference was a chance for supporters of traditional marriage to contribute to the debate. The participants included a retired philosophy professor, a representative of the Catholic archdiocese of Westminster, the chairman of the Tory...

Long gone may the days be where the people of the United States have the right to express themselves freely under the First Amendment. Obama just signed a bill into law secretly that allows for Secret Service to arrest anyone publicly protesting within their vicinity. The bill turned law, H.R. 347, has passed through congress with little objection from either side, or the American public. This could be on account of lawmakers sneaking it through congress allowing for no real discussion on the matter until after it was passed. The law effectively allows for secret service, or anyone under secret...

NASHVILLE (BP) -- Mike Huckabee says he won't be seeking the title of "America's pastor" if he decides to run for president in 2016. Instead, he would seek to be a servant leader who is both "salt and light" in today's culture. Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas who ran for president in 2008, said he won't make any political announcements until after the midterm elections. A busy speaker and the host of "Huckabee," the Fox News channel talk show, he said his concern for the nation's direction could be the deciding factor. "I just feel like our country is...

"Many of you used a term that I’d like to see outlawed from the vernacular of the party: RINO," he said, calling it a "pejorative term" that questioned one's purity. Huckabee pointed out that he got a tweet from someone who complained that he was a RINO, which upset him. "With all due respect, I’ve fought in the trenches of Republican politics for over two decades, but I wouldn’t pretend that I’m lord over determining who the real Republicans are versus the so-called RINOs," he said.

Is this a Christian country? There are likely as many ways to answer the question as there are stripes on our flag. Yes, the country was populated at its beginning with Christians looking for a place to worship freely. But that was before we became a country. Yes, many of our founding fathers were sincere professing Christians. But many of them were not. Yes, we are Christian in the same sense as all of Europe is Christian — it is the faith tradition of the majority in our country. But no, we have rejected the faith of our fathers. Yes,...

No beer in the Rose Garden is going to calm things down. The “Duck Dynasty” guys are standing by their man. And sadly the A&E gang is standing with the politically correct cult of denial, which wants to muzzle the free speech of those with whom it disagrees. This is all the result of one of the “Duck Dynasty” guys, Phil Robertson, stating what he and many millions of Americans believe about the Bible and homosexuals in a GQ magazine interview. Welcome to the culture-war party, Phil. State a commonly held belief and watch the other side go ballistic. You...

Is someone really violating your right of “free speech” if they’re not using the power of the state to censor you? What if they’re “only” trying to get you fired, shamed out of public life, universally reviled, and left as a laughingstock — all without taking even a moment to address the conservative’s underlying argument? To some, that’s just a battle of free speech (conservative comment) versus free speech (lefty efforts to ruin your life), and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to be reminded of the law, thank you very much. The other side of the argument – the Mark...

Health Reform: In yet another legal blow to the president's signature law, a federal judge rules that its contraceptive mandate does not trump Catholic groups' right to exercise their religious liberty and conscience. Religious liberty advocates and First Amendment defenders are cheering the stunning decision by U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan in New York that promises to speed up the unraveling of ObamaCare. Cogan not only found that the Health and Human Services (HHS) regulation that requires health insurance to include contraceptive coverage was constitutionally questionable, he actually forbade HHS from enforcing it. As the New York Post details, in...

(CNSNews.com) - Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a liberal Democrat, says decisions about health care should rest with the federal government, not with individual employers who pay for their workers' health insurance. "So, you know, this is one country," Dean told CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley on Sunday. "We all have to live by a set of things that are passed in Washington and agreed to by the court. We'll see what the court does, but I don't think a particular employer has a right to decide what kind of health care their employees are going to...

Rights: The Supreme Court will hear a challenge by a Christian-owned store chain against the HHS birth-control mandate that requires businesses to provide contraception coverage, a violation of religious conscience. Some 16 months after the Supreme Court upheld ObamaCare as a constitutional form of taxation, some 40 for-profit companies are about to find out its constitutionality on another front — whether they must cover some or all forms of birth control if doing so would violate their religious beliefs. The nation's highest court has agreed to hear the federal government's appeal of a June decision by the U.S. 10th Circuit...

HUNTINGTON BEACH (CBSLA.com) — Veterans are rallying around a local bar whose owners say they have been ordered to removed a sign that salutes their service. “Thank a veteran for your freedom!” says a large sign perched above Johnny’s Booze and Pool. Vets love it and make up a significant part of the establishment’s clientele. “I love this place. The sign gives me the pride back that I lost … I struggled a lot when I first came back,” an Army vet told CBS2′s Stacey Butler. But someone complained to the city about the sign, and now the bar’s owners...

Newspaper accuses feds of unlawful search and seizure The Washington Times and one of its former journalists have sued the Department of Homeland Security, accusing federal agents of illegally seizing the newspaper’s reporting materials during the execution of a search warrant in an unrelated case. In a motion filed in federal court in Greenbelt, Md., The Times and reporter Audrey Hudson asked a judge to force the federal agency to return all reporting files and documents it seized from Ms. Hudson’s home office during a raid in early August. • Click here to view a PDF file of the motion...

There is no free speech when it comes to advertising raw milk products in Oregon. In fact, those who violate this law may face possible jail time. Most states in the country have significant restrictions on the sale of raw milk, and at first glance, Oregon's seem like some of the less extreme ones.  Sales are outright illegal in 20 states, and though Oregon does not allow the retail sale of raw milk, it does allow small organic dairies – with three cows or fewer, only two of which can be lactating at any given time – to sell their product...

Hate speech is code word for speech I do not agree with; speech I want stopped. In the United States of America and any previous English colony, the term “hate speech” should be considered with grave skepticism. What brought me to write about this topic today are several items that came up via electronic media. First, was an Ann Curry accusation of hate speech leveled at Kirk Cameron. I will not address this directly because it is too predictable, but I will argue Cameron’s point of view shortly. Second, there were numerous articles citing Dan Savage making statements that tended...

If Signorile and other "LGBT" activists get their way, this would mean that churches, mosques, synagogues, religious schools, Bible bookstores, as well as any and every other business in America with 15 or more employees, would be forced, under penalty of law, to abandon the biblical and traditional-values viewpoint on human sexuality, and hire (and otherwise not offend) those who openly flaunt expressly sinful and demonstrably self-destructive sexual behaviors.