Free Republic

It is unfortunate when major media discuss constitutional issues yet exhibit zero understanding of why we have a Constitution and what it means. The latest example is the cover story in USA Today on 12 May, 2008, entitled “Reagan's influence lives on in U.S. courts.” The general premise of the article is absolutely true. The influence of judges appointed by any President extends far beyond his term and often beyond his lifetime. However, the article gets lost in discussing why that’s so, and what it means. In 1,572 words about the interpretation of the Constitution, the article never even uses...

Federal District Judge Ronald Davies opened a contempt hearing on Friday morning September 20th, 1957 with four lawyers representing Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus putting up objections. But they failed to move Judge Davies and the lawyers walked out of the hearing in the middle of the day. The chairman of the Democrat Party in Arkansas put out a statement saying that Judge Davies and other federal courts had no right to question the judgement of Governor Faubus and National Guard leaders. Governor Faubus, who was not present at the hearing, told reporters "now begins the crucifixion." Later in the day...

I don’t often write about law. It’s been one of my professions for 35 years, but I have to admit the subject is boring. I don’t often accuse anyone else of being “un-American” because there’s a lot of leeway for opinion in a free country. Today I drop both restrictions. The subject is Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and the ACLU. The ACLU filed today (Friday) a petition for Hazleton to pay it $2.4 million in fees because ACLU lawyers persuaded a US District judge to strike down a series of local ordinances. Those laws intended to make it difficult for illegal aliens...

Mention the name Charles Pickering to anyone but the most committed news junkie, and you’re apt to get a blank look or, at best, one of dim recognition. In the era of the 24-hour news cycle aimed at the ever-shortening attention span, the bitter Senate battles over the federal judiciary in which Pickering played so dramatic a part a few years back can seem like ancient history. But with the publication of A Price Too High, Pickering’s insider account of the nearly four years he spent in limbo as a nominee to the federal bench, as Democrats and their press...

U.S. District Judge James Munley, ruled Tuesday that landlords, tenants and businesses that cater to Hispanics face the prospect of “irreparable harm” from a Hazleton anti-illegal alien ordnance, issued a temporary restraining order blocking their enforcement.  “We find it in the public interest to protect residents access to homes, education, jobs and businesses,” he wrote in a 13-page opinion. Our federal judiciary has so badly deteriorated over the last 50 years that not only does it find no limitations to its jurisdiction anymore; it doesn’t even feel the need for federal laws to be pursuant to the US Constitution...

Early in U.S. District Judge Jones III's appearance on WITF-TV's "Smart Talk" program Thursday night, host Nell McCormack Abom asked him about the time that's passed since his brush with York County. "It's been a surreal experience," Jones replied. Jones rendered a decision in the Dover Area School District's "intelligent design" case in December. He ruled that former school board members were trying to introduce religious education into a public school science curriculum under the guise of teaching an alternate scientific theory. That decision brought him international fame and recognition of both the positive and negative variety, including a mention...

Despite negative criticism, political jabs, disturbing threats and a recent internet posting stating that he's star-struck and on a world tour, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones candidly discussed-for the first time in the York area......the aftermath of the "epic" Dover intelligent-design trial....... Jones said he was pleased to be at the York County Colonial Courthouse Wednesday on an invitation from the Herbert B. Cohen American Inn of Court meeting where he spoke to about 60 York attorneys and judges........ Jones said. "There are continuing attacks. I think judges and lawyers need to speak out...I've taken some incoming fire." A...

Presidential adviser Karl Rove and White House counsel Harriet Miers yesterday told conservative activists and Senate staff that the administration would soon send the names of more than 20 judicial nominees to Capitol Hill for confirmation. The undertaking to move ahead came at a 2:30 meeting at the White House that was boycotted by leading conservatives upset at the slow pace of nominations, according to people who attended the meeting. Conservatives are upset by the Senate’s slow pace on judges since the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court in February. They are frustrated that the White House has...

After the high-profile confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sam Alito, judicial nominations went into limbo. Today, we'll see the opening gambits on when and whether that will end.The reason the confirmation process came to a standstill is simple: Senate Democrats don't want additional conservatives on the bench and hope to stall votes long enough to keep them off until Democrats can reach the Holy Grail of a Senate majority. That could be a very long time coming, though Democrats always are hopeful that their day is at hand.It's less clear why Republicans let the nominations wallow in...

THE U.S. COURT of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit discovered a new constitutional right yesterday: "the right of a mentally competent, terminally ill adult patient to access potentially life-saving post-Phase I investigational new drugs, upon a doctor's advice, even where that medication carries risks for the patient" and has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. If you don't remember reading those particular words in the founding charter, don't kick yourself. An ideologically eclectic panel of the normally sober D.C. Circuit pulled this "right" out of thin air. If the full court, or the Supreme Court, doesn't take...

WASHINGTON -- The Democratic senators representing the nine Western states that make up the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals signed a letter Thursday opposing a House GOP plan to break the circuit in two. The letter was sent to GOP Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who will have a lead role in finalizing a budget-cutting bill that House Republicans hope will include a provision splitting the 9th Circuit. The bill is expected to come to a vote next week. "The Senate Judiciary Committee is working diligently to address the questions regarding the...

New Haven, Sep. 16, 2005 (CNA) - The national office of the Knights of Columbus has announced that the group plans to immediately appeal a decision, given earlier this week by a California judge, that the words “under God” render the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional.The Knights were among the defendants in the case of Newdow vs. Congress of the United States, et al--the decision of which has angered religious groups nationwide.District Judge Lawrence Karlton said in his Wednesday decision that the phrase violates a student’s right to be ``free from a coercive requirement to affirm God.'' The ruling effects three...

Wisconsin Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. has come under fire for second-guessing a federal appeals court ruling in a Chicago drug case. In a letter to the chief judge of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Sensenbrenner said a low-level drug dealer should have gotten 10 years in prison instead of just more than eight. While critics say the letter was bizarre, misguided and ethically questionable, a spokesman for Sensenbrenner says the eight-year sentence was illegal and the Menomonee Falls Republican was simply doing his job as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee The letter, the contents of which...

The Terri Schiavo case so outraged House Republican leader Tom DeLay that he has all but declared war on the judiciary. Heaven knows judicial arrogance needs discussion, but a politician under siege for alleged ethics violations who is upset over a single outcome that two-thirds of the country agrees with is not the person to get discussion going. After federal courts refused to act in the Schiavo case despite the new jurisdiction that Delay helped create, DeLay said the courts had ``run amok'' in abortion and school prayer cases. Congress, he said, ``must make sure the judges administer their responsibilities.''...

Immediate Action Needed to End Filibusters of President Bush's Judicial Nominees!Urge your senators to support majority rule on confirmations WASHINGTON (April 5, 2005) – Senate Republican leaders may take bold action in April or May to put an end to Democratic filibusters of President Bush's nominees to federal courts – but a coalition of liberal and pro-abortion pressure groups has launched a multimillion-dollar ad campaign in an attempt to block the reform. The outcome is in doubt.   The issue boils down to whether a judicial nominee should be able to achieve confirmation if he or she enjoys the...

A battle is about to open in Washington that will knock such old staples as Iraq and Social Security reform right off the nation's front pages – or at least to positions well below the fold. For President Bush has renominated to various Circuit Courts of Appeal nine conservative judges whom the Democrats managed to block in the last Congress by threatening to filibuster the debates on their confirmation. In that Congress, the Republicans had only 51 senators, which made the filibuster threat real (since they would need 60 to end a filibuster). Nor could Republicans even be sure of...

WASHINGTON — Congress is turning to more traditional means to help protect the rights of the incapacitated after failing to intervene in the Terri Schiavo (search) case by staging emergency midnight votes and summoning the brain-damaged woman to testify. The Senate Health Committee (search) will hold a hearing on April 6 with neurology and palliative care (search) experts on the issue of health care provided to non-ambulatory people. This hearing replaces one originally scheduled for Monday in which Terri Schiavo and her husband were asked to appear before the panel in Washington in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent caretakers from...

The circus we are being exposed to regarding Terri Schiavo is nothing more than an attempt to further destroy our Republican form of Government with the help of the ignorant Christians. According to Florida law if a man is living in open adultery he is committing a crime and should be arrested and go to jail. The law surrounding living wills is that there has to be 2 witness not family, and notarized in order for a feeding tube to be removed. If there is no living will the closest family member, the husband in this case, can then make...

But the congressional action alone was a clear victory for Schiavo's parents, as well as for their supporters, religious groups and the conservative wing of the Republican majority in Congress. It turned what had been a largely local and personal struggle over one woman's right to live or die into a high-stakes Washington political issue with highly charged religious and moral overtones. "We are confident this compromise addresses everyone's concerns," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who has taken the lead in championing the parents' cause. "We are confident it will provide Mrs. Schiavo a clear and appropriate avenue...

When America's borders cease to exist as divisions of sovereignty, and become undefended and unprotected gateways allowing millions of poor, unskilled laborers to cross illegally and without apparent consequence, the rule of law and our country's stability are threatened. Beyond that, however, are the very real costs of such an invasion...

And although they have contrasting personal styles and differing legal interests, both Judge James Harvie Wilkinson III and J. Michael Luttig are on many short lists of appointees to the Supreme Court should a vacancy occur during President Bush's second term.

This morning . . . at home, not in this post . . . I pick up Robert Bork's The Tempting of America.  I tend to think rereading his book is good background preparation for the coming war to confirm President Bush's future conservative nominations to the Supreme Court and his present nominations for unfilled vacancies on the lower federal courts.  I expect the news and conversation on FreeRepublic will be equally provocative.From the 1990 dust jacket to Bork's book:At the time of the acrimonious campaign to defeat Judge Robert H. Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court, few members of...

Opponents of the law say the decision is likely to result in a prompt return to military recruiting bans at many law schools. Twenty-five schools belong to the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, or FAIR, the group that brought the lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Richard Casey became the second federal judge to call the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional.NEW YORK - A federal judge declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional Thursday in the second such ruling in three months -- even though he called the procedure ``gruesome, brutal, barbaric and uncivilized.'' U.S. District Judge Richard Casey -- one of three federal judges across the country to hear simultaneous challenges to the law earlier this year -- faulted the ban for not containing an exception to protect a woman's health, something the Supreme Court has made clear is required in laws...

Kerry on abortion Posted: July 8, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com John Kerry says he believes life begins at conception, but he still does not believe in legislation protecting that innocent life. I would have more respect for Kerry if he hadn't said that. If Kerry had said he doesn't believe unborn babies are truly human, therefore, they don't deserve legal protection, his argument would have some intellectual merit – if not scientific or moral merit. But he didn't say that. Instead, he said in a campaign stop last week: "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion....

Just permanently overturned by a federal court....

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal courts are swamped, partly because of Bush administration get-tough-on-crime policies that lead to more trials, the head of a federal judges' group said Tuesday.</p> <p>Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Carolyn Dineen King singled out drug and immigration prosecutions along the U.S.-Mexican border and Attorney General John Ashcroft's order last year that federal prosecutors should seek the severest charges and penalties.</p>

DemocRATS BUSTED In a unanimous decision issued February 10, a three-judge federal panel struck down as unconstitutional the DemocRAT-drawn redistricting plans for Georgia following the 2000 Census. The case, Larios v. Cox, involved challenges to DemocRAT plans that the composition of the DemocRAT drawn districts violated the CONSTITUTIONAL principle of one person, one vote. The plans systematically packed Republican voters into districts with nearly 5% more constituents than the average district and systematically spread Democratic voters into districts with nearly 5% fewer constituents than the average district, resulting in a total “deviation” between districts of 9.98% and a proportionate dillution...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For Monday, February 16, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archives: Mon.2.16.2004 Fri.2.13.2004 Wed.2.11.2004 Mon.2.9.2004 Fri.2.6.2004 Wed.2.4.2004 Mon.2.2.2004 Fri.1.30.2004 Wed.1.28.2004 Mon.1.26.2004 Fri.1.23.2004 Wed.1.21.2004 Mon.1.19.2004 Bad Courts Years ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court in effect legalized pornography, I predicted that the decision would result in the corruption of the whole culture. And so it has. The reasoning is obvious. If pornography is legal, then everything short of pornography is also legal. As I wrote at the time, the problem would not be the porno shop in a sleazy part of town. The problem would be the profanity and vulgarity that would find its...

Ciro surprised, disappointed by Cuellar's bid for Congress BY TRICIA CORTEZ Times staff writer If the federal courts and U.S. Department of Justice approve the new Texas redistricting map, half of Laredo will fall under the congressional district represented by Ciro Rodriguez (D-San Antonio). Rodriguez, a six-year member of Congress and chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, spoke with the Laredo Morning Times this past week about his current and future legislative priorities. He also spoke about the current political mood in Washington and what he described as the difficulties of working with the Republican administration and Republican-held Congress on...

Bill Clinton finally weighed in on the Senate Democrats' filibuster of Bush's judicial nominees: "I simply ask the United States Senate to heed this plea, and vote on the highly qualified judicial nominees before you, up or down." Bill Clinton has come out swinging against Tom Daschle's filibuster of President Bush's judicial nominees:I simply ask the United States Senate to heed this plea, and vote on the highly qualified judicial nominees before you, up or down. The only problem is, Clinton made that argument during his 1998 State of the Union speech. Now that George W. Bush is in...

Phyllis Schlafly Aug. 27, 2003 Federal court decisions about the Pledge of Allegiance and the Ten Commandments, and the specter raised in Lawrence v. Texas that marriage may no longer be defined as the union of a man and a woman, show that the time has come to curb the Imperial Judiciary. Not only did one federal judge overturn a nearly 60 percent majority of California voters who passed Proposition 187 in 1994, but another single federal judge in Sacramento is at this moment threatening to cancel the California recall election! Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers 78, 81...

Groups like the ACLU claim they are filing lawsuits against the appearance of religion in society in order to prevent violations of the Constitution's Establishment Clause. In reality, their lawsuits are taking away the right to the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment.The ACLU and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State assert that they filed lawsuits against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore out of concern that a monument of the Ten Commandments located in the Alabama state courthouse violated the First Amendment’s prohibition against any law respecting the establishment of religion. But the monument...

Groups like the ACLU claim they are filing lawsuits against the appearance of religion in society in order to prevent violations of the Constitution's Establishment Clause. In reality, their lawsuits are taking away the right to the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment. The ACLU and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State assert that they filed lawsuits against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore out of concern that a monument of the Ten Commandments located in the Alabama state courthouse violated the First Amendment’s prohibition against any law respecting the establishment of religion. But...

Some say that it is because of what he took away from the Left when he won the presidency. Their anger at that is, indeed, fiery. But, that is not what is going on, here. The key to what is going on here lies in the results of the mid-term election. But, the first thing you have to understand is not why they're doing it, but rather why they can. -- LL We're talking about the Mainstream Media here. The American press mega-structure that is owned and staffed by the American Left. The Oregonian, the Seattle Times, the New York...

AYREVILLE, N.J., June 21 — The Sayreville school district did not violate the civil rights of a kindergartner it suspended three years ago for pretending his hand was a gun and threatening to shoot his friends as they played during recess, a federal appeals court has ruled.The ruling, issued Thursday by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia and first reported in The Home News Tribune of East Brunswick, affirmed a federal court decision last year. In that decision, a Federal District Court in Newark had dismissed a lawsuit filed by the boy's parents.The parents,...

In no particular order: Ronald Dworkin Cass Sunstein Laurence Tribe Lani Guinier Eric Holder Jack Quinn Steven Carter Catharine MacKinnon

Instead of winning the Powerball lotto, I just won the federal grand jury lotto. In case you are unaware, the term of a FGJ(Federal Grand Juror) is 18 MONTHS! Sure they "pay" you for your public service: $40/ a day and 36.5 per mile. They are sure not paying the per diem rate for federal workers! Essentially, you are required to take a 20% pay cut for a year and a half of "public" service! Well, I am not willing to go into "indentured servitude" for the feds. I have a family and a mortage with a demanding job that...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryNovember 2, 2002 Radio Address by the President to the Nation      Audio THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. The federal courts play a central role in American justice -- protecting the innocent, punishing the guilty and upholding the rule of law. Yet, our federal courts today are in crisis. The judicial confirmation process does not work as it should. Nominees are too often mistreated. Votes are delayed, hearings are denied and dozens of federal judgeships sit empty, endangering the quality of justice in America. Since coming into office, I have sent to the Senate 32 nominees...

I have several things in this article, but first I wanted to let you know what I learned at church this morning. The town I attend church in will be putting up "In God We Trust" posters paid for by the ministerial alliance in all classrooms in reaction to the ruling against the Pledge of Allegiance. The school board voted in favor of the idea. The Wichita school board also approved of privately-funded posters to be allowed in all Wichita public schools. I located the website that contains the posters here: http://www.ingodwetrustposter.com/ I think it is a good idea and...

<p>Since several national groups mounted an attempt to quash U.S. District Judge D. Brooks Smith's promotion, a growing chorus of supporters have rallied around the judge, calling the attacks a "smear campaign" against a jurist praised by both major political parties.</p>