Free Republic

Vice President Joe Biden told people at a conference on Friday that freedom of the press includes allowing journalists to “tell people the truth, and even tell people what is not the truth.” Biden was the featured speaker on Friday at the Motion Picture Association of America, a lobbying group headed by former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), which held its second annual Creativity Conference at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. […] “Of course, each society is different and some are fundamentally different,” said Biden. “But there’s certain common ingredients that make up success: Basic liberties so citizens can think and...

Bill Killian, a US attorney, claims that anti-Muslim speech violates Muslim’s Constitutional rights. Therefore, he argues, it should be illegal and punishable by law. Killian said, “We need to educate people about Muslims and their civil rights, and as long as we’re here, they’re going to be protected.” At this time, Obama’s DOJ is working to determine what, exactly, is considered illegal speech against Muslims. Guidelines and specific laws are expected to come soon. Currently, the government is not allowed to prevent speech that is hateful towards a religion, unless a specific threat is made. To prevent speech that is...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — With concealed weapons now legal in all 50 states, the National Rifle Association's focus at this week's annual meeting is less about enacting additional state protections than on making sure the permits already issued still apply when the gun owners travel across the country. "Right now it takes some legal research to find out where you are or are not legal depending on where you are," said Guy Relford, an attorney who has sued communities for violating an Indiana law that bars local gun regulation. "I don't think that's right."

Liberal heads begin to explode in 5..4…3…2…1During an interview this past Friday with CBN’s David Brody, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) stressed that gay marriage could put our 1st Amendment protections at risk.“If you look at other nations that have gone down the road towards gay marriage, that’s the next step of where it gets enforced.“It gets enforced against Christian pastors who decline to perform gay marriages, who speak out and preach biblical truths on marriage and that has been defined elsewhere as hate speech — as inconsistent with the enlightened view of government.“I think there is no doubt that...

On a sunny weekday morning just east of downtown Los Angeles, a crowd of about 75 people rallied outside the LA County/USC Medical Center. They toted signs with slogans like “Healthcare is a Human Right” and “Salud Para Todos” (“Health for All”). “How can we say we live in a just and humane society,” said one speaker, “without providing for the sickest and most vulnerable among us?” Los Angeles, with its massive low-income population and largest concentration of immigrants anywhere in the country, may be the epicenter of the continuing uninsured crisis in America. Somewhere around one million county residents...

When I wrote about Adam Weinstein of Gawker and his proposal to literally imprison people for their political views, most of the pushback from the left and from David Frum, America’s Hall Monitor™, consisted of hand-waving, e.g. “You can’t generalize from the position of one crank with a blog, etc.” And while I am sympathetic to the emerging bipartisan consensus that no sentient being could possibly take Adam Weinstein seriously, the fact is that Gawker has a larger readership than The Nation and The New Republic combined. Sure, it’s 99.44 percent pure riff-raff, but the damnable thing about democracy is...

OREGON CITY, Ore. – Students wearing anti-gay T-shirts to class disrupted Oregon City High School's celebration of unity Friday. Friday was National Day of Silence. It's where students take some form of silence to call attention to the bullying of the LGBT community in schools. Two students told KATU News that if the school is supporting Day of Silence, then they have the right to speak out against it. They wore T-shirts to school that said, "Gay Is Not Ok" and "Gay Day Is Not OK," which is a reference to Day of Silence. They sought out a KATU reporter...

<p>A Connecticut community college suspended a student veteran for his aggressive questioning of Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy during a public forum, prompting a First Amendment advocacy group to condemn the college for its flagrant disrespect for free speech and due process.</p>

PORTLAND, OR, April 8, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A soon-to-be opened natural foods store in Oregon is in danger of never opening its doors after homosexual activists publicized remarks its Mormon owner made online supporting true marriage and organized a boycott targeting not just the store, but its suppliers. Chauncy Childs had planned to open Moreland Farmers Pantry, an organic, locally-sourced grocery store, in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland. But because of comments she made under a pseudonym during a discussion on Facebook last year in which she defended true marriage and said business owners should have the right to refuse...

Score another one for free political speech. On Tuesday, Federal District Judge Rudolph Randa soundly rejected a motion to dismiss a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Wisconsin prosecutors who are investigating the political activities of conservative groups (but not liberals). In a 19-page ruling, Judge Randa wrote that Wisconsin Club for Growth Director Eric O'Keefe's claim that the unlawful investigation violates his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights may proceed. Mr. O'Keefe has standing to bring the lawsuit because "chilled speech is, unquestionably, an injury supporting standing" and that claim doesn't depend on whether he is charged with a crime; "the threat...

<p>‘as time goes on, weirdly, I’m growing less liberal. I’m more like, ‘No, religion is ruining the world, you need to stop!’.</p>

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from a studio that refused to photograph a lesbian couple’s commitment ceremony, letting stand a New Mexico high court ruling that helped spur a national debate over gay rights and religious freedom. The justices left in place a unanimous state Supreme Court ruling last year that said Elane Photography violated New Mexico’s Human Rights Act by refusing to photograph the same-sex ceremony “in the same way as if it had refused to photograph a wedding between people of different races.” …

It is actually illegal for two or more people to get together to do what they did to Brendan Eich. Title 18, Section 241 of the United States Code states as follows: If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on...

As we enter this golden age of tolerance and diversity, the nation’s gay rights community is sending a warning message to Americans: If you don’t support gay marriage, you don’t deserve a job. Apparently, Brendan Eich did not get that message. He’s the former chief executive officer at Mozilla, the technology group that gave us the Firefox Web browser. Eich resigned under a firestorm of controversy after it was revealed he had donated $1,000 in support of California’s Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that protected traditional marriage. It’s unclear who outed Eich. But that really doesn’t matter. Once his donation...

In the latest chapter of a long-running legal fight over separation of church and state, a federal appeals court again ruled on Thursday that New York City school officials can ban a small Christian congregation from holding weekend services in a grade school. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that a city Department of Education policy that prohibits church services in public schools is constitutional. The policy allows religious and other community organizations to use classrooms and other facilities for after-hours programs, but denies access to those seeking to use the space as a “house of worship.” …

Possible Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz said Wednesday that religious Americans have a duty to take a stand against policies, such as President Barack Obama’s health care law, that could threaten their liberties. “As believers, we are called to action; not just sitting quietly and hiding our faith under a bushel but to stand and speak no matter what the consequence,” the Texas senator told students at Liberty University. “Religious liberty has never been more under attack.” …

17-year-old Gregory Vied was suspended for flying a confederate flag atop his pickup truck, "which was parked in the student lot at Steinert High School in Hamilton Township." According to News 12 New Jersey, Vied said he was suspended on March 25th after being repeatedly told he could not fly the flag.

It is quite hard to take the claims by Hobby Lobby seriously. The main drugs in question in the case brought before the Supreme Court are the emergency contraceptives Plan-B and Ella. One huge problem with this situation is that up until 2012, Hobby Lobby provided them as part of their insurance plan. Only when they realized that Obamacare was going to mandate this coverage did they suddenly become interested in not providing these drugs. In their initial complaint to the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, Hobby Lobby stated, “After learning about the current HHS...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker believes he can do all things through Christ, but an atheist group charges that he cannot do all things through Christ on his official social media platforms. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has demanded Walker remove posts from his official Facebook and Twitter feeds that read, “Philippians 4:13.” “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” the verse reads. “This braggadocio verse coming from a public official is rather disturbing,” FFRF co-presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Baker wrote in a letter to the governor. “To say, ‘I can do all things through Christ,...

The U.S. Justice Department is telling the Supreme Court that killing a human embryo by preventing the embryo from implanting in his or her mother’s uterus is not an “abortion” and, thus, drugs that kill embryos this way are not “abortion-inducing” drugs. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby. The crux of the administration’s argument in this case is that when Christians form a corporation they give up the right to freely exercise their religion—n.b. live according to their Christian beliefs—in the way they run their business. It is in...