Free Republic

Defiant Oregon bakers fined $135,000 for their 2013 refusal to make a cake for a lesbian wedding reportedly vow to "fight back" against the state labor commissioner's stiff penalty – and are calling on "Christians … to take a stand." "For years, we’ve heard same-sex marriage will not affect anybody," Aaron Klein, co-owner of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, told The Blaze. "I’m here firsthand to tell everyone in America that it has already impacted people. Christians, get ready to take a stand. Get ready for civil disobedience." Oregon's Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian on Thursday issued a final ruling in the...

Leading into a key hearing in her case Tuesday, one of two Waukesha girls charged in the Slender Man stabbing case has asked a judge to declare the law that required her to be charged as an adult unconstitutional and dismiss the case. Attorneys for 13-year-old Anissa Weier filed a motion last week challenging the law as it applies to her, saying it violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and that keeping her from the juvenile court system violates her rights to equal protection and due process. Weier and Morgan Geyser, 12, are charged as adults...

Dead Men Walking Why Kennedy v. Louisiana could spell the beginning of the end of the death penalty. by Erin Sheley THERE IS MUCH TO find loathsome about Justice Kennedy's opinion in Kennedy v. Louisiana, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Louisiana statute allowing capital punishment for child rapists is unconstitutional. Most morally disgusting is the Court's conclusory recognition of "an incongruity between the crime of child rape and the harshness of the death penalty," which in this case would have been imposed on a man whose assault on his eight-year-old stepdaughter tore her internal organs away from...

When the Supreme Court ruled last week that the death penalty for raping a child was unconstitutional, the majority noted that a child rapist could face the ultimate penalty in only six states — not in any of the 30 other states that have the death penalty, and not under the jurisdiction of the federal government either. This inventory of jurisdictions was a central part of the court’s analysis, the foundation for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s conclusion in his majority opinion that capital punishment for child rape was contrary to the “evolving standards of decency” by which the court judges...

WASHINGTON — When the Supreme Court ruled last week that the death penalty for raping a child was unconstitutional, the majority noted that a child rapist could face the ultimate penalty in only six states — not in any of the 30 other states that have the death penalty, and not under the jurisdiction of the federal government either. This inventory of jurisdictions was a central part of the court’s analysis, the foundation for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s conclusion in his majority opinion that capital punishment for child rape was contrary to the “evolving standards of decency” by which the...

Thanks to the flappable Justice Anthony Kennedy the Second Amendment remains in the constitution but it is outrageous that four members of the court wanted to throw it out. (see Scalias Opinion) Justice Antonin Scalia wrote a precisely clear opinion upholding the right of the people to keep and bear arms on an individual basis. But the ink wasn’t dry before leftists of all stripes "found" language in the opinion that will allow other judges to confirm all manner of restrictions on gun owners’ rights. Unfortunately Scalia probably had to include some of these loop holes in the opinion to...

... Nunez, 14, and co-defendant Jose Diego Perez, 29 – both members of the violent 18th Street gang in Los Angeles – were arrested April 25, 2001, after they kidnapped Delfino Moreno, 34, from in front of his Santa Ana home. The kidnappers demanded $100,000 in ransom plus a kilogram of cocaine, Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh told an Orange County jury in 2003. But Moreno's family alerted Santa Ana police instead of agreeing to pay. And when the defendants spotted undercover officers, they took off in an Oldsmobile sedan. Witnesses testified that Nunez blasted away at chasing officers with...

Columbus, Ohio (AP) -- A federal judge has delayed the October execution of a death row inmate who joined a lawsuit challenging lethal injection as unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. Romell Broom, who raped and stabbed to death a 14-year-old girl, is one of 15 Ohio inmates claiming the procedure may cause prisoners to suffer. U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost on Sept. 5 ordered Broom's Oct. 18 execution halted while the lawsuit proceeds. Another death row inmate asked Frost on Friday for permission to join the lawsuit. Michael Turner, 48, killed his estranged wife and her boyfriend at her apartment...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a mandatory 55-year prison sentence, condemned as excessive by the federal judge who imposed it, for a man convicted of carrying a handgun during three marijuana deals. Record producer Weldon Angelos received the minimum sentence under the law -- a harsher sentence than a child rapist or a terrorist who detonates a bomb aboard an aircraft would receive, according to his attorneys. The justices, without comment, left the prison term undisturbed. Angelos was convicted of 16 counts of violating federal firearms, drug and money laundering laws in 2003. The charges stemmed...

In a 5-4 decision the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that executing juvenile offenders violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment - thus outlawing the executions of death row inmates who committed their crimes when they were juveniles. This ruling removes 72 inmates from death rows nationwide. After reading numerous articles regarding this decision I've put together this sampling of some of the "children" now safe from "cruel and unusual punishment" for their childhood crimes:

No. 03-1023 Status: DECIDED Title: Carl R. Howard and Steven J. Cicero, Petitioners v. Fair Political Practices Commission Docketed: January 16, 2004 Lower Ct: Court of Appeal of California, Third Appellate District   Case Nos.: (C038246)   Decision Date: May 29, 2003 Discretionary Court      Decision Date: September 10, 2003 ~~~Date~~~  ~~~~~~~Proceedings  and  Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nov 28 2003 Application (03A475) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from December 9, 2003 to February 7, 2004, submitted to Justice O'Connor. Dec 3 2003 Application (03A475) granted by Justice O'Connor extending the time to file until January 10,...

The The Bill of Rights Preamble Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine. THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the...

<p>A June 24 letter writer applauds the Supreme Court's recent decision in Atkins vs. Virginia. He says that it "was right to declare the execution of mentally retarded inmates unconstitutional" because the practice of executing the mentally retarded is "grossly inhumane and fits within even the broadest definition of 'cruel and unusual punishment,' which is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment."</p>

Doubts raised over killer's retardation 06/11/2002 Associated Press CONROE, Texas - Convicted killer Johnny Paul Penry's assertions of mental retardation are suspect because his medical records are filled with inconsistencies, prosecutors said Monday as testimony began in the punishment trial for the inmate who could get a third death sentence in a nearly 23-year-old murder case. Joe Price, who has prosecuted Mr. Penry twice, told jurors Monday in Conroe, where the trial was moved, that some institutions where Mr. Penry has been hospitalized say he was severely brain damaged while others say he has only minimal damage. In an...