Free Republic

Though the conservative Supreme Court appears poised to strike down Roe v. Wade, Democrats control slim majorities in both chambers of Congress, and they have a president in the White House supportive of abortion rights. They also have public opinion on their side. But one thing stops them from passing a federal law protecting abortion rights and codifying Roe into law: the filibuster. The filibuster is a Senate rule that requires 60 votes to pass most legislation. Most controversial legislation is passed on party-line votes these days, and it’s very rare for parties to have 60 senators. Democrats only have...

The conservative majority on the Supreme Court is potentially poised to take down one of the nation’s oldest and most restrictive gun-control laws this summer. New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen will be the court’s first major Second Amendment case in more than a decade and happens to be coming amid rising national gun violence and an uptick in gun sales in recent years. What the justices decide could unravel laws across the nation restricting who can carry guns in public. Here’s what’s happening. The case: Can New York place severe restrictions on who can carry a...

And so, rather than inform the public of a fairly common household chemical that might save your family’s lives, the hideous Amber Phillips chose to annihilate this glimmer of hope and “own” Trump by spreading the wildly fake news that isopropyl alcohol is insanely expensive — a whopping $2,375!!...... (Snip) At the bottom, highlighted in red, and something Phillips hopes you don’t notice, is the per fluid ounce price of just $0.34. I mean, wow, at that price per ounce, how can this wonderful household item cost $2,375??? The more important arrow, however, is off to the left… Deliberately cropped...

A reporter at The Washington Post learned that size does matter after trying to pin the exorbitant price of isopropyl alcohol on President Trump and his administration. The Post’s Amber Phillips posted and then deleted a tweet on Thursday announcing that the cost of isopropyl alcohol on Amazon was shockingly $2,375. Her tweet came after Trump’s coronavirus task force briefing at the White House Thursday where a Department of Homeland Security official spoke about the use of the product against the coronavirus.

Primaries in four states Tuesday — Minnesota, Connecticut, Wisconsin and Vermont — set up competitive governor’s, Senate and House races across the country this November. But even before then, these primaries identified some clear winners and losers that reinforced trends we’ve been seeing all year. Here they are: Winners Trump: At least in Republican primary politics, Tuesday once again proved he’s the king. Republican politicians on the ballot Tuesday who dissed him in 2016 raced to undo that, and those who didn’t do it convincingly enough lost their primaries. In Minnesota’s competitive governor’s race, Republican voters nominated a relative outsider,...

To the casual observer, it would seem that gay rights falls neatly on the political spectrum. Democrats champion bills that aim to protect LGBT people from discrimination, and Republicans increasingly propose and pass ones aimed to protect the religiously devout. But there's growing evidence that Republicans in Congress and across the country are sidestepping the more controversial religious protection and bathroom bills and, in some cases, embracing LGBT non-discrimination laws instead.... And more broadly, Republicans in Congress, Southern-state governors and a business community that usually aligns with the GOP seem to be eschewing some of the more controversial religious freedom...

Kentucky Democrats have a problem. They just lost the governor's mansion last month and now there's a very real chance that their control of the state House is slipping away. That's significant not just in Kentucky but nationally too; if Democrats lose control of the Kentucky state House, they will control a total of zero legislative chamber in the entire south. [Snip] "What has the Democratic Party done for poor, conservative Evangelical white people?" Farrier said. "And the answer is not much. On God, guns and gays, poor, white Evangelical conservatives would say the Democratic Party walked away from them,...

Two weeks after a video was released of a Chicago policeman shooting a black teenager 16 times, the mayor of Chicago on Wednesday apologized for it and took some measure of responsibility. "I'm sorry" for the shooting of Laquan McDonald, which "happened on my watch," Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) told the full Chicago City Council in a rare speech. For the next 40 minutes, Emanuel delivered a "genuine" and "heartfelt" speech about police brutality and city violence that seemed "real," said critics and supporters alike who heard it, according to the Chicago Tribune. But the reaction on the street was...

Kentucky's newest lieutenant governor-elect is unique in many ways. She and her running mate, Gov.-elect Matt Bevin, are some of this election cycle's first victorious political outsiders. (Bevin had been likened to Donald Trump). Jenean Hampton is also the first African American to be elected to statewide office in Kentucky. And she's just one of a handful of black women on the national level to identify with the tea party movement.

Current state of play Yes or leaning yes (34 needed to uphold veto, keep the deal): 24 No or leaning no (67 needed to override veto, kill the deal): 48 Unknown/unclear: 28 And now, the 100 senators ... Yes (1) Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) Clearly leaning yes, reserving final judgment (12) Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) Leaning...