Free Republic

The Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform bill passed the Senate after a series of votes in June 2013. Democrats, who controlled the Senate at the time, unanimously supported the bill, while most Republicans opposed it. The four Republicans on the gang - Marco Rubio, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Jeff Flake - of course voted for it, and also agreed with Democrats on a plan to kill almost all GOP amendments.Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid allowed just a handful of amendments to reach the Senate floor. One, from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, would have prohibited the legalization of illegal...

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks with reporters before a rally Saturday in Daphne, Alabama. The Texas senator visited the town as part of a weeklong tour of nine mostly southern states. (Photo by Patrick Svitek) DAPHNE, Ala. — Ted Cruz, locked in a heated battle with Marco Rubio over their immigration records, received an assist Saturday afternoon from one of the most hardline opponents of illegal immigration in the U.S. Senate. Introducing Cruz at a rally in the Mobile area, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama offered an extended defense of the Texas senator's push to undermine support for...

You folks know what to do! Go vote

Congressional Democrats are trying to build support for an effort to bar gun purchases by terror suspects, hoping to take advantage of the same public anxieties about security that gave Republicans a ringing House victory. The Democratic push seems likely to fall victim to opposition from the National Rifle Association and congressional gun-rights backers, chiefly Republicans, who have smothered firearms curbs for years. If the Republicans who control Congress block votes on the proposal, Democrats hope to profit politically by winning sympathy from angry voters. ...

BOSTON (CBS) - President Alena Mulhern has a nice ring to it. But the little girl from Kingston can't actually be elected to our nation's highest office. Alena was adopted from China. So since she wasn't a US citizen from birth, the Constitution forbids her from becoming President. She doesn't accept that and Wednesday she took her campaign for change to the State House. "We should all have the opportunity to run for president," 10 year old Alena Mulhern says as she testifies before a State House committee. She's not going to let anyone tell her the top job is...

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — An Amish resident of central Pennsylvania is challenging the photo identification requirement to purchase a firearm, saying his religious beliefs prevent him from being photographed. Andrew Hertzler argues in a suit filed Friday in U.S. Middle District Court that the requirement violates his religious freedom and his constitutional right to possess a firearm. Hertzler said his beliefs as a member of an Amish community in Lancaster County bar photographs being taken of him, but he was prohibited from buying a gun in June for self-defense purposes.

Stabbings attacks against Jews continue in and around Israel: A series of stabbing attacks have resulted in the deaths of three alleged Palestinian attackers and resulted in several more Israelis and Palestinians being injured as violence intensifies in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Writing on Twitter, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that four apparent stabbing incidents took place in Jerusalem on Monday. The spokesman said a Palestinian assailant was shot dead on Monday night after stabbing an Israeli soldier on a bus entering Jerusalem. The soldier was lightly injured. Here’s how Slate reported it:There have been at least...

For centuries there has been debate over the Second Amendment and the scope of the right that it secures. There was sparse definitive guidance on what exactly is safeguarded under the Second Amendment until 2008, when the U.S. Supreme Court defined the core meaning of the amendment in District of Columbia v. Heller. At the time, the District had some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. Nearly all District residents were barred from owning handguns, and they were also prohibited from keeping firearms of any sort within their homes unless they were disassembled or bound by a...

One of the most lame excuses for doing nothing is that we can't do everything. Such excuses have been repeated endlessly, even by some conservatives, when it comes to illegal immigration. We can't deport millions of illegal immigrants already living in the country, some say, so the wise thing is to just learn to live with them, according to the supposedly sophisticated crowd. This completely sidesteps the plain, obvious and galling fact that we are not deporting those illegal immigrants who are arrested by the police for violating other laws -- and are then turned loose back into American society....

It's time to go on the offensive about birthright citizenship. Congress has the broadest power under the Constitution to pass a statute and put an end to birthright citizenship. Today Mark had Professor Erler who is an expert on the 14th amendment and who has the right to decide who becomes citizen. He maintains Congress has that authority. There is no basis in the constitution for birthright citizenship. Hopefully people will listen to get an authoritative perspective. I'm not really interested in hearing opinions from people who won't take the time to listen. It is very clear who gets to...

Mark Levin has done a whole show today on birthright citizenship. This would be the 8/18/2015 show. He made it very clear that birthright citizenship is not in the constitution or protected under the constitution for foreigners. He went into the history of who has the right to citizenship as defined in the jurisdiction clause of the 14th amendment . He also goes into the fact that congress has the right to define who gets citizenship under article 1,section 8. This discussion is very very specific and shows that this mess is a failure of congress to act and nothing...

How do you know when a presidential candidate is being deceptive? No, silly, not when his or her lips are moving. Candidates often tell the truth -- like when they say they want your vote or your money. Moving lips are not a reliable clue. So what is? Any statement that envisions an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. _Politicians often act as though the Constitution is a sacred text handed down from heaven, like the Bible. Unlike the Bible, though, they have all sorts of recommendations for improving it. These proposals fall into two general categories: hopeless fantasies and pathetic...

MADISON, Wis. – A federal judge on Friday tossed out former Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson’s civil rights lawsuit and declared Wisconsin’s constitutional amendment that forced Abrahamson out of her long-standing seat of power does indeed pass “constitutional muster.” U.S. District Court Judge James Peterson said he wasn’t persuaded by Abrahamson’s case. His ruling puts to rest the liberal justice’s claims that the amendment approved by Wisconsin voters in April unfairly led to her ouster as chief justice. “This court has been asked whether the immediate implementation of an amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution concerning the structure of its court system...

On Wednesday, abortion advocates introduced a bill to pay for elective abortions with federal taxpayer funds. The bill “targets the Hyde Amendment, a 1976 provision that blocks federal money from going to pay for abortions, with exceptions for cases of rape or incest or when a pregnant woman’s life is in danger. Hyde Amendment language is frequently included on spending legislation and is attached to the annual bill paying for Medicaid.” According to a 2010 statement from the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights, the Hyde Amendment has prevented over a million abortions. Five years have passed since that statement, making...

Is there any way to delouse America—to rid it of the parasitic infestation that is sucking America’s life blood away—killing the host while feeding on it? By “parasitic infestation” I mean the myriad parasites who feed off of America’s largesse and blessings without any thought of gratitude or recompense. Across the board I see arrogant entitlement attitudes exhibited among the very poor through the very rich—a supercilious self-centered gimme-gimme-gimme narcissistic moral squalor that affects all economic levels. “Is there anything that can be done to salvage the USA?” In addition I see much social injustice. It is socially unjust that...

Back in 2011, a dust-up between several Wisconsin Supreme Court justices led to a series of headlines revealing a long history of Wisconsin’s highest court not playing nice together. In response to this disclosure, the State Legislature offered a constitutional amendment changing the way the Supreme Court chooses its chief justice, by electing one instead of giving the title to the longest serving member. This spring voters approved this constitutional amendment by a 53-47 margin. This new constitutional provision allows the seven justices to vote for a chief justice they believe will be best to lead the court. Less than...

MADISON, Wis. – Shirley Abrahamson may be trying all she can to hold on to the reins of power, but the former state Supreme Court Justice doesn’t have the votes. On Wednesday, the four conservative members of the seven-person court took up a motion by Justice Michael Gableman to elect Justice Patience Roggensack as the court’s new chief justice. The legal reading is that Abrahamson’s nearly 20-year term as chief justice is over. “As of yesterday (there are) four votes in favor of the motion, all by email,” a source close to the court told Wisconsin Watchdog. The vote was...

"............“I am concerned because I think, you know, we should have been alerted,” Cummings said. “I’m telling you whenever anything happens around here, I get about 20 alerts, but I didn’t see anything on this, which is amazing.” Whether the Oversight committee will hold a hearing on the incident remains unclear. A spokeswoman for Chairman Jason Chaffetz told CQ Roll Call staff is in the process of putting together a letter to the Secret Service to try and understand the circumstances surrounding the incident. At least one public official was warning against overreaction. “The gyrocopter incident yesterday was not a...

MADISON, Wis. — The Washington, D.C., attorney representing Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson in her civil rights case against her peers serves on the board of directors of a George Soros-backed judicial group. Robert S. Peck is founder and president of the Center for Constitutional Litigation, which bills itself as “among the most sought-after appellate litigators within the plaintiffs’ bar.” Abrahamson tapped the constitutional law expert to represent her in a civil rights case that aims to save her powerful chief justice position from a voter-backed, state constitutional amendment approved at the polls last week. The amendment allows...

Madison— A federal judge declined Thursday to put an immediate halt on an amendment to the state constitution adopted by voters this week that would allow the members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court to choose the chief justice. The job of chief justice has automatically gone to the most senior member of the Supreme Court for the last 126 years. Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and her supporters sued to keep her position as the court's leader on Wednesday, a day after voters approved changing how the chief justice is selected. She argues the provision can't go into effect until her...