Free Republic

A measure to ban the Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma has been launched through an online petition. The petition, powered through the Aavaaz website, was created by a person only identified as "Nikolas T." and posted on Sunday. On the petition itself, the creator writes "The Ku Klux Klan is a hate group and should be labeled as such. The Black Panther Party actually provided practical and useful help for their community, yet they were labeled a hate group and systematically dismantled by the CIA and FBI. The KKK has and will always be a hate group and still exists...

Rutherford Institute founder responds to rally violence By Courteney Stuart Posted: Tue 7:01 PM, Aug 15, 2017 CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (NEWSPLEX) -- In the days since the violence of the Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally, anger has mounted, some of it directed at the civil rights organizations that represented rally organizer Jason Kessler in his legal fight to keep the rally in Emancipation Park. The Rutherford Institute founder John Whitehead said he doesn't regret taking the case and notes that it's about defending the First Amendment, not supporting the mission of the rally. "If you're going to believe in the...

ACLU fires back at Gov. McAuliffe after comments on violence at Charlottesville rally Posted 9:35 pm, August 14, 2017, by Vernon Freeman Jr., Updated at 11:25PM, August 14, 2017 ACLU fires back at Gov. McAuliffe after comments on violence at Charlottesville rally RICHMOND, Va. -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia is responding to Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe after they say he blamed the organization for the violence in Charlottesville Saturday. The remarks in question came when the governor spoke on NPR’s Morning Edition on Monday morning. “The City of Charlottesville asked for that to be moved out of...

The driver of the Charlottesville vehicle, which killed Heather Heyer and injured 19 others, was Alex James Fields. He was a supporter of Hillary Clinton and a member of Antifa funded by George Soros. He was only 20 years of age and lived in Maumee, Ohio. George Soros used him to further his movement to destroy the United States. Al Americans, Left and Right, need to understand exactly what this evil man is doing to this Country. He is using two political parties to divide the US; ultimately starting a civil war that will crush the United States of America....

The ACLU filed a class action lawsuit Friday charging that the Trump administration is wrongly accusing young illegal immigrants of gang affiliations as a way to short-circuit their rights and force them into speedy deportations. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in California, opens yet another legal front against President Trump’s goal of stepped-up immigration enforcement, with advocates hoping to blunt a new effort by Homeland Security to find and deport some of the Central Americans who jumped the border during the Obama era. Immigrant-rights advocates said the government has started to fabricate broad accusations of gang membership or...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) – Groups whose ads for buses and trains were rejected by a District of Columbia transit agency are suing.</p> <p>The groups that sued the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority on Wednesday are the American Civil Liberties Union, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a women’s health care group, and conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos’ company. The groups say parts of WMATA’s ad policies violate the First Amendment.</p>

Chelsea Clinton says she is donating to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in the wake of Attorney General Jeff Sessions's announcement on Friday of a government-wide effort to crackdown on leaks. Part of the crackdown involves a Justice Department review of its policies on subpoenaing media organizations that publish leaked sensitive information. The former first daughter quickly weighed in: @ChelseaClinton Just donated to @ACLU

The American Civil Liberties Union has uncovered memos that show the National Security Agency (NSA) and FBI “violated specific civil liberty protections during the Obama administration by improperly searching and disseminating raw intelligence on Americans or failing to promptly delete unauthorized intercepts,” as reported by The Hill on Tuesday. The memos, which The Hill was able to review, were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the ACLU. They cover compliance with privacy rules between 2009 and 2016. Equivalent assessments of the Trump administration’s first year will not be prepared until next spring. NSA spokesman Michael Halbig...

Despite the massive media attention given to the claim that Russia attempted to influence last year’s election, the greatest threat to American democracy is vote fraud at home. Counties across the country have more people registered to vote than they have residents eligible to do so. Some jurisdictions have on their rolls voters who’ve reached their 200th birthday and beyond. Thousands of non-citizens have been found to be registered to vote and across the nation that number may well reach into the millions. No wonder President Donald Trump established the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, on which I serve....

WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) - The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday said it had filed a lawsuit against U.S. President Donald Trump's election commission, saying it had failed to follow federal law governing public access and transparency for such advisory groups. The ACLU said in a statement that the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity had already held its first meeting without giving any notice or opening it to the public, and that its upcoming meeting would only be available via webcast. The commission last week said it would meet on July 19 in Washington near the White House....

Even though the bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records has ended, calls and emails are still being swept up by U.S. surveillance work targeting foreigners. Congress is making a renewed push to find out how many. Six Republicans and eight Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have asked the nation’s top intelligence official for the number of Americans’ emails and phone calls collected under programs authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. […] Intelligence officials have tried to assuage concerns of Congress and others by saying that any domestic communications collected are “incidental” to the targeting of...

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked portions of a new Indiana law that would make it tougher for girls under age 18 to get an abortion without their parents’ knowledge. U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker wrote in approving a temporary injunction that “when it comes to our children, while parents or others entrusted with their care and wellbeing have the lawful and moral obligation always to act in their best interests, children are not bereft of separate identities, interests, and legal standing.” Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana sued the state...

The American Civil Liberties Union launched a vocal opposition this week against a Maine bill criminalizing female genital mutilation (FGM), Mainely Media reports. Republican Rep. Heather Sirocki is sponsoring the bill, saying that it would classify performing FGM as a Class B crime in the state, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The bill would also punish the parent or guardian of the victim. However, the Maine ACLU staunchly opposes the protection.

The protester was apparently blocking a car leaving the fundraiser... ... The driver left the scene, but police say they are not treating the incident as a hit-and-run. The protest apparently involved members of a local chapter of the ACLU.

Three of the four media outlets that received and published large numbers of secret NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden — The Guardian, the New York Times, and The Intercept –– have called for the U.S. government to allow the NSA whistleblower to return to the U.S. with no charges. That’s the normal course for a news organization, which owes its sources duties of protection, and which — by virtue of accepting the source’s materials and then publishing them — implicitly declares the source’s information to be in the public interest. But not the Washington Post. In the face of...

When Olivia Alsip travelled to the capital to protest against the inauguration of right-wing US President Donald Trump, she didn't imagine she would end the day behind bars and later face up to 80 years in prison. Thousands of people journeyed from across the US to Washington, DC, to protest on the first day of Trump's presidency, January 20. During the swearing-in, Alsip was among the more than 230 protesters arrested when officers from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) blocked off a large area and hauled off nearly everyone. "I am wondering if my 24th birthday next week will be...

June 1, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has instituted sweeping changes to its policies and procedures in caring for children who experience gender dysphoria that essentially weed out all employees and volunteers who cannot in good conscience support and promote transgender ideology.    Illinois now "requires that all LGBTQ children and youth be placed in an affirming safe housing, receive LGBTQ competent medical and mental health services, and have equal opportunity and access to care." However, in order to assure consistent achievement of that goal, the new policy requires "any person who is involved with...

The American Civil Liberties Union launched a vocal opposition this week against a Maine bill criminalizing female genital mutilation (FGM), Mainely Media reports.Republican Rep. Heather Sirocki is sponsoring the bill, saying that it would classify performing FGM as a Class B crime in the state, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The bill would also punish the parent or guardian of the victim.However, the Maine ACLU staunchly opposes the protection. ACLU spokesman Oamshri Amarasingham said that the risk of mutilation isn’t worth expanding Maine’s criminal code. The Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault also supported the ACLU, arguing...

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has urged the federal government to revoke a permit for a “free speech” rally and to refuse a permit for an anti-Muslim march planned for Portland next week. Wheeler made the request in light of a gruesome stabbing on a MAX light-rail train Friday, May 26. Two men died and another was seriously injured when they intervened to defend two teenage girls from a man’s bigoted tirade. In a series of posts on Twitter, Wheeler said the events should be canceled.

A federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit challenging the National Security Agency's collection of emails, texts and other online communications that privacy experts have long argued violates constitutional protections of Americans' privacy. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond on Tuesday reversed a lower court decision and declared that Wikimedia Foundation has the legal standing to pursue the case against the NSA, America's primary foreign spy surveillance agency. Wikimedia alleges in its suit, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, that the NSA's upstream collection practices violate the 4th Amendment because they gather...