Free Republic

"Apart from the fact that judges do not sign bills into law, pro-life attorney Matt Bowman of Alliance Defending Freedom indicates Trump is wrong on the point and that Justice Alito, when he was a lower court justice, not only did not agree with Judge Maryanne Trump Barry on opposing a bill to ban partial-birth abortions he went out of his way to indicate how he disagreed with her. While some pro-life voters were shocked that Trump continued to defend Planned Parenthood others are shocked that Trump would defend his sister's support for partial-birth abortions by falsely maligning a pro-life...

The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House is vetting Nevada’s Republican governor Brian Sandoval for the Supreme Court. On Sunday night, Governor Sandoval sat at the president’s head table at a White House dinner in Washington. The next day, the governor requested and secured a meeting with Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate minority leader from his home state. Reid has put Sandoval on the short list of recommended candidates he has sent to the White House. The fix may be in, and it would be horrific news for conservatives: Sandoval is the most liberal of the country’s 29...

The sudden death of conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has added new, crisis-level urgency to an already tense presidential race. Almost as quickly as he announced that he will not attend Justice Scalia's funeral, Obama declared that he will, as a lame-duck president, nominate Scalia's replacement. If his appointments of justices Elena Kagan and Sonya Sotomayor are any guide, he will base his appointment on gender, ethnicity, and most of all on dependable liberalism. Obama's nominee is highly unlikely to be a supporter of free speech, free markets, religious freedom, gun rights, strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, family...

(CNN) -- To hear Jackie Barden and David Wheeler describe their lives today is a master class in hope. On December 14, 2012, Barden's youngest son, 7-year-old Daniel, and Wheeler's son, 6-year-old Ben, were among those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. "(My husband) Mark and I still have a great life, and we really have to remember that," Barden said, adding that their two children bring the family an enormous amount of love and strength. "We are fortunate with what we have with the two of them." .... "Our families deserve that day in court," said...

The inconveniently timed death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia last weekend has set the stage for a major confrontation over the appointment of his successor. On the one hand, President Obama has asserted his determination to fill the position as soon as possible and denounced any opposition as "irresponsible." On the other hand key Republicans have proposed that the vacancy be filled after the November elections, arguing that voters should be allowed to elect the person they feel the most confidence in to make the appointment. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ken) pointed to "an 80-year Senate tradition of...

President Obama headed up Pennsylvania Avenue Friday afternoon to pay his respects to the-late Justice Antonin Scalia, who is lying in repose at the Supreme Court. Obama and first lady Michelle are attending an event organized by court officials to honor Scalia, who was the longest-serving judge on the court when he died Saturday at a ranch in Texas. The public can also pay their respects to the conservative icon until Friday evening.

The problem: the meaning of "natural-born citizen" Here is what the Constitution says about who can be president: No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. The problem is the Constitution doesn't define "natural born Citizen." Neither does any current law. And no one has...

Birtherism is now officially a legal issue, as the eligibility of Sen. Ted Cruz to run for president will have a hearing Friday in Chicago, according to multiple news outlets. According to CNN and ABC, a Cook County Circuit Court judge will hear a lawsuit brought by an Illinois voter who says Mr. Cruz is not a natural-born citizen, as the Constitution requires, because he was born in Canada. Mr. Cruz has never denied being born in Canada, but maintains that the issue is ridiculous because under longstanding U.S. statutory law, he was automatically a U.S. citizen at birth because...

On a hot day in June, the grandson of a bank president took to the floor of the Senate to denounce the daughter of sharecroppers. "I feel compelled to rise on this issue to express, in the strongest terms, my opposition to the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown to the DC Circuit," Senator Obama said. Born in segregated Alabama, Janice Rogers Brown had been a leftist like Obama before becoming conservative. When Obama rose to denounce the respected African-American jurist for her political views it had been almost a full two years since President Bush had nominated her in the...

I predict the President will nominate DOJ AG Loretta Lynch for Scalia's chair. If the Republican Congress or presidential candidates resist this choice, the President is giving Hillary fodder for rallying the black vote and bashing the Republicans as 'THE RACIST PARTY' and this would be a continuous media feeding frenzy throughout the election!

Under a Trump presidency, Americans would lose their gun rights and religious liberty and see abortion rights dramatically expanded, Cruz said Monday morning on Fox News.

in August 1960, the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a resolution, S.RES. 334, “Expressing the sense of the Senate that the president should not make recess appointments to the Supreme Court, except to prevent or end a breakdown in the administration of the Court’s business.” Each of President Eisenhower’s SCOTUS appointments had initially been a recess appointment who was later confirmed by the Senate, and the Democrats were apparently concerned that Ike would try to fill any last-minute vacancy that might arise with a recess appointment. Not surprisingly, the Republicans objected, insisting that the Court should have a full complement of Justices...

Although rare, 4-4 ties are hardly unheard-of—justices do recuse themselves from time to time. A split decision effectively upholds the ruling of the lower court (presumably a state supreme court). In the event of such a tie, the court typically issues what's known as a per curiam decision. The opinion in such a decision is issued under the court's name, as opposed to consisting of a majority and a minority opinion. Justices, however, may attach dissenting opinions to the per curiam decision if they like—as happened in Bush v. Gore. When a 4-4 deadlock does occur, the case is not...

Last summer, we noted a crazy case in which the famous Hollywood actor James Woods sued a random Twitter troll who had been making fun of Woods. The anonymous troll.., mocked some of Woods' own nonsensical tweets about Caitlyn Jenner and Planned Parenthood by saying: "@RealJamesWoods @benshapiro cocaine addict James Woods still sniffing and spouting." -- Abe List (@abelist) July 15, 2015 Then, earlier this month, there was a hearing, and LA Superior Court judge Mel Recana, appeared to side with Abe List, issuing a 10-page tentative ruling dismissing the case. In that tentative ruling, Judge Recana noted: The court...

**SNIP** Jackson, a 36-year-old from Dallas, was ultimately arrested and charged with property theft, a Class B misdemeanor - because he had taken his daughter's iPhone and refused to give it back. Following a long legal battle, a Dallas County Criminal Court judge ruled last week that the state did not have enough evidence to continue the case and ordered a jury to find him not guilty. Jackson spoke with The Washington Post at length following the verdict but then recanted, saying he had signed an exclusivity agreement with a TV program a day earlier. He said he could not...

A district judge in Columbia County wants people to stop wearing pajama bottoms when showing up to court. In order to remind people not to wear the bottoms, he even put up a sign in the lobby of his courtroom. Magisterial District Judge Craig Long told us he's seen more and more people come into his courtroom dressed in pajama bottoms. He doesn't think that kind of attire is appropriate and hopes the new sign in his office will get people to think twice before wearing pajamas in the courtroom.

A hunger-striking Palestinian security prisoner is to remain in Israeli jail despite warnings over his deteriorating health, the country's top court ruled Wednesday. The Supreme Court said it would not release Mohammed al-Qiq immediately but would follow his health on a daily basis. Qiq has been on hunger strike for 63 days over his detention under Israel's administrative detention law and his organs are at risk of failure any day, his legal team claims. The European Union on Wednesday said it was "especially concerned" about his deteriorating health. His lawyer Jawad Boulus asked the Supreme Court to release him but...

Liberals won't like it. If Ted Cruz is elected president, he has big plans for the Supreme Court -- namely, picking extremely conservative candidates to fill any vacancies among the nine justices. In an interview with Bloomberg, the Senator and former solicitor general from Texas said that Republicans are generally bad at picking nominees for the high court, and that he'd be different. "Unlike many of the other candidates, I will be willing to spend the capital to ensure that every Supreme Court nominee that I put on the court is a principled judicial conservative," Cruz said. As solicitor general,...

Coming up during the next administration will be 3 or possibly 4 openings to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court. If you elect, as president, someone who will appoint activist judges, who will tend to have a "progressive" interpretation of the Constitution, then you can expect to see a wholesale change to our society as we know it. -snip- If the Democrats retain the White House, you can expect potential nominees to make decisions, if confirmed, who will promote the far-left agenda as personified by the four liberal judges now sitting on the Supreme Court (i.e. Kagan, Breyer, Sotomayor, and...

A group of California teachers fighting mandatory union fees at the U.S. Supreme Court had, by all appearances, a good day Monday. Supreme Court justices seemed receptive to the arguments brought by teachers in the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case. If the case is successful, Rebecca Friedrichs and other government workers across the nation will gain the ability to opt out of agency fees unions charge to nonmembers. Remarks from several of the justices indicated they agree with Friedrichs on a central point, that public sector union negotiations are inherently political because they involve taxpayer money, public employees, and...