Free Republic

Trenton, N.J., Mar 26, 2015 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A New Jersey law crafted to ban the Archdiocese of Newark from selling cemetery headstones might not pass muster under judicial review, according to a constitutional law expert. Matthew Franck said the law “may well be violating the freedom of religion” guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution because it “singles out religious organizations for disfavored treatment.” Franck directs the Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution at the Princeton, N.J.-based Witherspoon Institute. He characterized the law as “a direct assault on the freedom of churches to offer services to the bereaved...

The Department of Justice is preparing to charge New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez with corruption. Menendez, a Democrat, may not leave office quietly — his term isn’t up until 2018 — but if he does resign, it could present Republican Gov. Chris Christie with an opportunity to get back in the good graces of conservatives statewide and around the country. That’s because Christie would get to choose both the temporary replacement for Menendez and the date of a special election to fill the seat. Christie could choose a moderate Republican such as state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. or former Rep....

Politico reported that Chris Christie felt he exceeded expectations at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) convention. The only problem is that Christie is trending in the wrong direction with the GOP’s conservative base. Christie finished in 4th place with 8% in 2014, according to The Washington Times, which plummeted to a dismal 10th place finish with only 2.8%.

In an interview at CPAC with conservative show host Laura Ingraham, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) acknowledged why many governors likely adopted the unproven Common Core standards were dangled before them by the Obama administration: He signed onto them because his state needed the federal funds that would come in exchange for adopting the unpopular education reform. Ingraham asked Christie about his prior support for the nationalized standards, and observed that he did sign his state’s Race to the Top application for the federal funds.

There’s a lot I like about Christie, and I know there’s a lot of people across the country going ‘I can’t believe she’s saying that! Christie’s a liberal!’ First of all, Christie’s not a liberal. (Laugh-snorts), okay? For the record, since bribing and cajoling his way into the governor’s mansion in 2009, the severely conservative Chris Christie has: Signed Hitlerian anti-gun legislation Endorsed Obama’s unconstitutional police state Confessed to agreeing with Andrew Cuomo on “98%”

Wisconsin governor's NYC visit drew sizable New Jersey wallets Scott Walker spent a profitable 24 hours in town and departed with plenty of NYC cash. But perhaps even more encouraging for fans of the Wisconsin governor is that his haul included dollars from at least four prominent New Jersey contributors, the Observer has learned. *** The Observer has learned that last night’s fundraiser was attended by at least four prominent New Jersey donors, further calling into question the hold New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie can exert over his home state contributors. Mason Simpson, an attorney from Holmdel who practices law...

As the state pours billions of dollars in business tax breaks into programs aimed at strengthening New Jersey’s struggling economy, it has put the brakes on another incentive program, leaving hundreds of companies without promised payments that could total in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Seeking to balance the state budget over the last few years, the Christie administration and the Legislature have each slashed funding for the Business Employment Incentive Program, commonly referred to as BEIP, eliminating payments to companies that were promised annual income tax rebate checks in return for moving to New Jersey or expanding here....

On Feb. 3, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) re-introduced his Protect Interstate Commerce Act (PICA), which he attempted to amend into last year’s farm bill. King’s bill would prevent states and local jurisdictions from interfering with the production and distribution of agricultural products in interstate or foreign commerce. In his statement about PICA, King referenced California’s statewide ban on the sale of eggs from hens raised in battery cages. “Just within the last month in anticipation of the new law coming into effect, California experienced a 79 percent increase in egg prices,” King said. “Outside of California, the Midwest has seen...

WEST DES MOINES — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told an Iowa crowd last night he will bring blunt, straight talk to fill a leadership void in Washington and give the country hope again if he decides to seek the Republican Party’s 2016 presidential nomination. “Leadership matters,” Christie told about 100 Republicans who turned out for a Dallas County fundraiser at a suburban hotel to hear the New Jersey governor who made his third Iowa appearance within a month and his 13th trip overall. He met privately with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds before attending the...

Federal authorities have launched a criminal investigation into New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, as well as members of his administration, a man at the center of the investigation told ABC News. The U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey has interviewed former Hunterdon County Assistant Prosecutor Bennett Barlyn, who claims he was fired because he objected to Christie officials dismissing indictments against political allies of the governor. Barlyn confirmed the investigation to ABC News. It was first reported by the International Business Times. “It is true,” Barlyn told ABC News, saying he was interviewed by federal authorities at his Pennsylvania home...

This week, controversy broke out over whether state governments have the power to require parents to have their children vaccinated. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, no stranger to compelling his citizens to stay off the roads during blizzards, announced that he had some sympathy for the anti-vaccination position: "I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So that's the balance the government has to decide." Kentucky Senator Rand Paul doubled down on Christie's remarks, stating, "I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound...

Dr. Ben Carson, a likely 2016 GOP presidential contenders, believes there should be no “philosophical” or “religious” exemptions for vaccinations. “Although I strongly believe in individual rights and the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit, I also recognize that public health and public safety are extremely important in our society,” Carson told The Hill.

The Wall Street Journal’s influential editorial board rapped New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on the knuckles for “meandering” on vaccines. “The real public health problem isn’t a lack of parental choice but a lack of common sense about vaccines,” the Journal said in a late-Monday editorial. It added that lawmakers should do more to promote vaccine use.

Liberals, conservatives, and almost everybody in between are hammering New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) after he defended parents' "choice" to not vaccinate their kids against the measles. "It's more important what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official," Christie said Monday when asked about recent measles outbreaks in the US, according to The New York Times. "I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So that's the balance that the government has to decide."

As Chris Christie gears up for a possible 2016 bid for the White House, he has launched a new Political Action Committee called Leadership Matters for America.(.org)

Mike Littwin If you haven’t heard the news, let me be the one to break it to you: Hillary Clinton is definitely running for president (OK, you knew that), and the two leading contenders to be her running mate are reportedly Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Colorado’s own senator… Michael Bennet. I’m not making this up. It was right there in Politico, under the byline of Washington insider Mike Allen, who got it from people deep inside Hillaryland, where the talk is that Bennet and Kaine have the inside track. (Others mentioned: Sen. Cory Booker, HUD Secretary Julian Castro,...

With Republicans in Congress split over the best approach to Obama's executive amnesty - and with many establishment Republicans splitting form grassroots Republicans on the issue of illegal immigration more generally - it's clear that immigration will be a hot-button primary issue in 2016. ... So where do the potential candidates stand? Here's a rundown: ...

Illegal immigration jumped to the front of Iowa conservatives' minds on Saturday when a group of protesters heckled two potential presidential candidates for disagreeing with President Barack Obama's recent moves on the subject. 'If you become president, will you deport our families?' the group of eight shouted over and over from the balcony, after former Texas Gov. Rick Perry spoke about how he had mobilized his state's National Guard troops to patrol America's southern border. (SNIP) Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman in a shrinking House minority, held a small event across the street from the...

Jim VandeHei sees dead people. On today's Morning Joe, the Politico honcho agreed with Joe Scarborough's suggestion that Chris Christie is like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense: [politically] dead but doesn't know it. Ironically, Scarborough distanced himself from his own suggestion, twice saying that he didn't believe it. But when he asked his guest if the characterization was fair, Vandehei replied "I think it is. At best he's a live man stumbling." Scarborough said "you talk to people in the Republican party and they say Chris Christie is already politically dead. . . . Since everybody is saying this...