Free Republic

President Donald Trump said he’d promote commonsense policies that would “Make America Great Again” and would stand up to politically correct bullying from the left.So why isn’t he doing that in the case of religious freedom?Twice now, he has failed to stand up for commonsense policy on religious liberty when liberal opponents lashed out against it.Back in February, he caved to the protests of liberal special interest groups as he declined to issue an executive order on religious liberty that had been leaked to hostile press.And earlier today, he issued an executive order on “free speech and religious liberty” that...

“Liberal censorship” is technically an oxymoron. But today liberal censorship is a common reality.Where once free speech reigned on college campuses and in other secular institutions (or at least it was so thought), today you have the totalitarianism of political correctness. Say the wrong thing, and you may be fired.Dissenting Justice Samuel Alito said after the Supreme Court same-sex marriage decision in June 2015: “I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as...

WASHINGTON -- Well, she did not show up. I am talking about Ann Coulter, the svelte conservative firebrand who was invited to speak at the University of California, Berkeley, and, inadvertently, to show the assembled coeds how a stylish blond dresses. But then, she was disinvited. Hold on -- she was, of a sudden, re-invited but only under certain university conditions. Confusion ensued. Then the speech was lost in the swelling controversy. According to Coulter, "I looked over my shoulder, and my allies had joined the other team." Her allies were presumably members of the Young Americas Foundation. Honestly, I...

A group of students at American University labeling themselves the “AU Justice League” have taken credit for ripping down anti-abortion flyers on campus. The campus’s College Republicans put the flyers up Wednesday night, and called for the defunding of Planned Parenthood. But by Thursday morning, the vast majority of the flyers had disappeared. It didn’t take long to figure out why. At 12:30 a.m., the Twitter account @AUJusticeLeague tweeted a photo of dozens of crumpled-up flyers with the caption “We had some fun with the college republican posters tonight. Let us know if we missed any guys!” The incident was...

After wrapping up his first 100 days in the White House on Saturday, President Donald Trump plans to hit a new set of issues, including religious liberty, tax reform, and school choice, a White House official told The Daily Signal.“We want to have legislation that has a profound impact on religious liberty, one that has profound impact on education, that has profound impact on health care,” Helen Aguirre Ferré, White House media affairs director, said in an interview Friday.Ferré added: These are just some of the issues we are working on that’s going to be absolutely critical going forward, not...

The totalitarian left is emboldened by its selective suppression of speech. Just as scary is the deluded thought process that inspires its Stalinism. Recognizing its inability to compete in the marketplace of ideas, the left has been chipping away for years at the concept of free speech. You have to give leftists points for cleverness, not to mention persistence, because they don't openly advocate censoring conservative speech as such. They pretend to be protecting some greater good or preventing imminent harm to certain groups. When they failed in talk radio, they resurrected the Fairness Doctrine, which is euphemistically disguised as...

Demosthenes, the Athenian rhetorician and champion of liberty, pointed out around 355 B.C. that residents of Athens were free to praise Sparta's regime, but Spartans were banned from praising Athens. In 1689, the British passed a law guaranteeing freedom of speech in Parliament. A century later, French revolutionaries incorporated into law the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which established free speech as a universal right. Two years later, the Americans ratified the First Amendment, which guarantees that the state shall not infringe on the right to free speech. Roughly a century and half later, in 1948, the United Nations...

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There is a clear and present danger to conservative students at the University of California Berkeley. The birthplace of the so-called free speech movement is now the epicenter of a nefarious movement to silence freedom-loving young people. Conservative commentator Ann Coulter had been scheduled to speak today, but she canceled. Leftwing groups had threatened to silence Ms. Coulter by any means necessary. But the university refused to guarantee the safety of Ms. Coulter or the students who invited her to speak – the Young America’s Foundation. I know these students. I know this organization. They are good people – patriots...

A Beaverton man who has a bachelor of science degree in engineering and has repeatedly challenged Oregon's timing of yellow traffic lights as too short was investigated by a state board for "unlicensed practice of engineering'' and fined $500. Now, Mats Järlström has joined with the national Institute for Justice to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against members of the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying.

Fox News is facing renewed legal claims that it mistreated non-white employees, including a television anchor who said he was depicted as "the racist caricature of a black entertainer." Eleven current and former Fox employees, including anchor Kelly Wright, filed an amended lawsuit in New York state court on Tuesday claiming they were demeaned, humiliated, paid less than white coworkers, and passed over for promotions. The lawsuit was originally filed last month by two Fox News payroll employees. Tuesday's complaint added class action racial discrimination claims to the case.

The New York Times published an op-ed Monday by New York University comparative literature professor Ulrich Baer, who argued that those young protesters derided as campus "snowflakes" who violently oppose speakers who offend leftist sensibilities are actually getting it right about free speech. Indeed, Baer concludes, "We should thank the student protestors, the activists in Black Lives Matter and other 'overly sensitive' souls for keeping watch over the soul of our republic." No we shouldn't. We must be vigilant against those totalitarian students, activists, and snowflakes in defense of our republic's soul.

Six anti-free speech Democrats have done the unthinkable in the State of North Carolina. They have voted to prevent HB 527 from passing through the higher education committee and onto the house floor for a full vote. Dubbed as a bill to “Restore and Preserve Campus Free Speech,” it is difficult to understand how anyone could be opposed, regardless of his political persuasion. (For more details on HB 527, click here). The need for HB 527 is clear given that only one UNC campus, UNC-Chapel Hill, has been rated by the non-partisan Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) as...

Understand that if America is stupid enough to let liberals take power again, they will persecute and prosecute normal Americans like us who dare to dissent. That’s not a guess or a prediction – that’s a commitment they have made to their fascist followers. They’ve seen what the truth can do to their schemes. After 2016, there’s no way they are going to take a chance on another electoral rejection by us normals, so they don’t even pretend to support free speech anymore. It will be one gender neutral being-one vote, one more time, and then never again.Hold on. That’s...

The former Federal Election Commission chairwoman Ann M. Ravel says that political speech must be controlled on social media. She presented her remarks in a speech at UC Berkeley, calling for regulations against “fake news.” Speaking at an event called “Future of Democracy,” Ravel argued the proliferation of “fake news” and political advertising on platforms like Facebook influenced elections. She warned that the lack of disclosure by the creators of these campaigns was becoming a huge problem. “We know that there’s a lot of campaigning that’s moved to the internet, whether it’s through fake news or just outright advertising and...

Full title: Judicial Watch Victory: Court Finds Federal Photography Charges against 75-Year Old Los Angeles Veteran Robert Rosebrock Violate First Amendment ... (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today announced that a California U.S. District Court has ruled that 75-year-old veteran Robert Rosebrock cannot be prosecuted for taking photographs at the “Great Lawn Gate” entrance to the Los Angeles National Veterans Park. The court also ruled, however, that Rosebrock must stand trial on Tuesday, April 18, for purportedly displaying two four-by-six inch American Flags above a Veterans Affairs (VA) fence on Memorial Day, May 30, 2016. The rulings were handed down...

Many of you have asked for the status of my computer intrusion lawsuit against the federal government. On March 19, 2017, a federal judge denied the government’s motion to dismiss my computer intrusion lawsuit, and transferred the case from Washington D.C. to the Eastern District of Virginia. Below are excerpts from the judge’s opinion, which provides a good summary.

Members of the North Carolina General Assembly introduced a bill on Tuesday, citing the 10th Amendment, which affirms that the U.S. Supreme Court exceeded its authority under the Constitution and in relation to the “decree of Almighty God” by legalizing same-sex marriage, and contends that the Obergefell v. Hodges decision “is null and void” in North Carolina and that the Tar Heel state shall only recognize marriages between one man and one woman. The legislation explains that North Carolina seeks to follow the 2012 law that was established in Section 6 of Article XIV of the North Carolina Constitution, which...

Is there any way to minimize Russia’s ability to spread fake news on social media and legitimate news outlets? Sen Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) asked a counter-terrorism expert on Thursday. The witness, Clinton Watts, proposed a rating system for news reports, to be developed by an independent agency. The ratings would act like nutrition labels on food, he said, so “you know what you’re consuming.” The Russians aren’t the only ones pushing fake news, Watts told the Senate Intelligence committee. Watts, a senior fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University, said profiteers, political groups and...

For the past two weeks, Reason, a magazine dedicated to "Free Minds and Free Markets," has been barred by an order from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from speaking publicly about a grand jury subpoena that court sent to Reason.com. The subpoena demanded the records of six people who left hyperbolic comments at the website about the federal judge who oversaw the controversial conviction of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. Shortly after the subpoena was issued, the government issued a gag order prohibiting Reason not only from discussing the matter but even acknowledging the...