Free Republic

On January 6, Arizona's governor Doug Ducey announced that he was appointing Clint Bolick to a vacancy on the state's supreme court. I think this is a splendid development, but it also has statists in a tizzy. Bolick, you see, is not your typical Republican judicial appointment. Bolick graduated from law school (UC-Davis) in 1982 and soon took a job with Mountain States Legal Foundation. But he did not stay long because he found it to be more interested in protecting business interests than advancing economic liberty for all. In 1991, he co-founded the Institute for Justice with William Mellor...

Weighing on the controversy over whether Canadian-born Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is eligible to be president, his fellow senator Rand Paul said Sunday that it would be "extraordinary" to have a president born outside of the U.S. "He would be the first president not born in the United States. And so that alone would be extraordinary. And so people have to decide for their own minds whether it makes a difference where someone is born," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. ... Paul predicted Sunday that Democrats would challenge Cruz's eligibility and that it would ultimately have...

Five and a half years after Senator John McCain killed off what was left of The Maverick - the independent-thinking, "not afraid to tell it like it is" character he'd been LARPing since the 2000 Republican primary - in order to win a contentious primary against Tea Party challenger J.D. Hayworth, he's facing the prospect of the end of his career once again. This time, it's against a state senator who's perfectly content with grifting votes at a Donald Trump rally. McCain's seat has been targeted by conservative groups for years now to no avail, but this time, it's a...

The former state senator challenging Sen. John McCain in Arizona's Republican primary criticized the senator on Thursday for questioning Ted Cruz's eligibility to be president. "I was stunned when I heard what John McCain said," Kelli Ward, McCain's tea party-backed challenger, told BuzzFeed News in a statement. "I couldn't believe my ears - he was questioning Ted Cruz's citizenship when he was in a similar situation himself!" McCain was born on a military base in Panama. Ward continued, "This is just one more reason that our next conservative president needs strong reinforcements in Congress. Can you imagine what a President...

The Arizona senator says he’s just asking questions.Arizona Sen. John McCain on Thursday walked back comments that he made earlier in the week when he said he wasn't sure if Canadian-born Ted Cruz is eligible to be president and that the Supreme Court may have to make the decision. In a radio appearance on the Michael Medved Show, McCain said that he assumes the Texas senator is eligible to run for president until proven otherwise. "This is something constitutional scholars should make a decision on. I assume that he is eligible, that's my assumption, and I will continue to assume...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Friday defended Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) from those questioning the GOP candidate's eligibility to be president. Romney tweeted that Cruz "is a 'natural born citizen.' Obama too. Even George Romney," he said, referencing his father who was born to American parents in Mexico and ran for president. "This isn't the issue you're looking for," Romney added of the Cruz citizenship debate. Romney has weighed in on other controversies during the 2016 GOP primary in his effort to help shape dialogue in the race and become a mentor in the party. The 2012 Republican presidential...

On Laura Ingraham's radio show today, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said he's not surprised by John McCain's dishonest birther attacks. For those who missed it, McCain said yesterday that Cruz may not be eligible because he was born in Canada. Of the course the Arizona senator -- who himself was born in the Panama Canal Zone -- knows full well that Cruz is a natural-born citizen, but that doesn't matter; he hates Cruz, which is why he does everything in his power to derail the Texan's presidential campaign. If he has to lie to do so, so be it....

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested Thursday that, when it comes to questions of U.S. citizenship, not all foreign births are the same. The House minority leader cited "a distinction" between Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was born on a U.S. military base in Panama, and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who was born in Canada to a U.S.- citizen mother. "I do think there is a distinction between John McCain being born to a family and serving our country in Panama than someone born in another country," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. "But, again, this is a constitutional issue that will...

Well, so far complaints involving the ineligibility for Cruz, Rubio and Jindal to run for president have been filed in three states. Florida, Vermont, and MD. It appears all these people have to do is show proof of the eligibility requirements to run for president as stated in the constitution. So far none have, however Jindal has dropped out so it is moot for him. (Citizenship is not the same as the naturalization requirements for citizenship to run for President as stated in the constitution.) For some odd reason, Cruz has had his birth records sealed. He’ll have to answer...

MESA, Ariz. (KSAZ) - A woman has been arrested after telling police she beat a 16-year-old teen after finding him in bed with her teenage daughter inside her Mesa home on Thanksgiving.According to court documents, Jeanette Woods found the boy in her 16-year-old daughter's bed after the two had consensual sex. The two teens had fallen asleep when the boy says he awoke to Woods yelling at him and punching him in the face just after 1 a.m.The boy says Woods was straddling him and repeatedly punching him in the face and body. The boy eventually broke free, but Woods...

Bolick is a veteran litigator whose long record includes arguing and winning cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Arizona Supreme Court, and various state and federal courts. In 1991, along with William H. "Chip" Mellor, Bolick co-founded the Institute for Justice, a national public interest law firm. In 2007 Bolick joined the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, where he most recently served as vice president for strategic litigation. It's no exaggeration to describe Clint Bolick as one of the central figures behind the rise and success of today's libertarian legal movement. Bolick's legal theories and litigation strategies—some of which...

Police said they obtained an arrest warrant for Cpl. Eric Jamal Johnson, 20, in connection with the shooting death of Sara Mutschlechner on Jan. 1. U.S. Marshals found Johnson at the north gate of the Marine Corps air station in Yuma, Arizona on Tuesday morning and took him into custody. The U.S. Marine Corps released a statement that said Johnson is a Marine. He is currently being held on a murder warrant in Arizona.

Tucson Federal District Court Judge David Bury issued a decision on December 30 denying a retrial for imprisoned former Congressman Rick Renzi of Arizona, developments which I've been tracking over the last six months. Bizarrely, at the same time, Bury admitted in his nine-page opinion that virtually everything factual Renzi had asserted in his motion for a retrial regarding the prosecution's misconduct was true. The prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence from Renzi's defense — which likely would have changed the jury's mind — not just once, but multiple times. Some of it was not discovered until after the trial was over,...

The ex-ASU football players who allegedly broke into multiple apartments on campus have been charged with multiple felonies, TMZ Sports has learned.We broke the story. Jayme Otomewo and Deonte Reynolds were busted earlier this month after a resident in an apartment building called police and said there were two strangers in her entryway.When cops showed up, the two athletes confessed to going into a few rooms but said they were doing it because they were looking to borrow a vacuum.Cops called BS on the story because Otomewo was in a possession of a bent butter knife which they believed was...

Ammon Bundy emerged from a small brick building at the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge shortly after 11am. He wouldn't say how many protestors were present at the site of the occupied federal complex, but fewer than 20 people were visible Sunday afternoon. The leader of the occupation spoke in cool, calm tones as he explained why and other self-described militiamen broke into and took over the complex Saturday...... Protestor LaVoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher, said they're being careful not to damage the buildings or property. He claimed the protestors accessed the buildings after they found a set...

It was a packed house Saturday at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show at the Pima County Fairgrounds, the Tucson area's first gun show of 2016. "I have never seen so many people in there. You can barely even look at a gun," said attendee Alex Aszelay. People in attendance said it may be because folks want to buy a firearm before President Barack Obama issues an executive order requiring background checks for more gun sales and increasing reporting requirements for lost or stolen guns....

The results are in for one Illinois university's famous mock presidential election, but the clear winner may surprise some. Western Illinois University's mock election predicted a landslide victory for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, with running mate Martin O'Malley, in 2016. The predicted Sanders-O'Malley ticket garnered 404 electoral votes to Jeb Bush-Marco Rubio's 114 votes. In the popular vote, Sanders earned 741 votes (49 percent) to Bush's 577 (38 percent). The famously accurate mock election correctly predicted the outcomes of the 2008 and 2012 elections, and the university claims it's the "largest and most elaborate mock presidential simulation in the nation."...

An Arizona couple planning to marry in Las Vegas on New Year's Day probably didn't expect what transpired on New Year's Eve. That's because Ronald Bauman and Dumitru Alexeev on Thursday became the 5,000th same sex couple to receive a marriage license from Clark County since it began issuing them in October 2014. Plenty of perks came with the "milestone" figure, the county said.

He was supposed to win the GOP nomination easily and just six months ago, it appeared he would do just that. He had tens of millions of donor dollars at the ready, the approval of the GOP Establishment, and a successful stint as governor of one of the most important swing states in the country. Nothing went as planned. SNIP A D.C. Whispers source painted the Bush campaign with the following colors: "He just doesn't have it and he's not a good enough politician to fake it. He's also suffering from eight years of Barack Obama faking it and voters...

Conservative Republican Senate candidate Dr. Kelli Ward seeks to liberate Arizonans and America from entrenched faux Republican Sen. John McCain. If you're like me, your heart cries out for GOP candidates who are who they say they are: morally straight people who will do what they say they will do when elected. That's the bottom line, folks. People (candidates) make all kind of promises when they want something from you (your vote). GOP voters hunger for conservative candidates who are real. Dr. Kelli Ward is a cool, refreshing drink of water in the desert, a ray of sunshine – a...