Free Republic

The First Amendment, I think I’ll keep it. Not so for 44 sitting U.S. Senators — all Democrats. They’re proposing Senate Joint Resolution 19, which would amend the U.S. Constitution by scratching out a sorta important part of the Bill of Rights. Senate Joint Resolution 19 would repeal the First Amendment. Well, not all of it, actually: just our right to speak out politically, to engage in political action and campaign for or against those in power. The new amendment would remove all protections against Congress regulating our speech, at least insofar as we have to spend even a plug...

Did you know the Obama administration’s position has been defeated in at least 13 – thirteen — cases before the Supreme Court since January 2012 that were unanimous decisions? It continued its abysmal record before the Supreme Court today with the announcement of two unanimous opinions against arguments the administration had supported. First, the Court rejected the administration’s power grab on recess appointments by making clear it could not decide when the Senate was in recess. Then it unanimously tossed out a law establishing abortion-clinic “buffer zones” against pro-life protests that the administration supported (though the case was argued by...

College campuses are becoming increasingly hostile towards certain forms of speech. One of the main reasons for the hostility is the admission of students who are too emotionally immature to tolerate dissenting opinions. In addition to lacking emotional maturity, many of these students lack humility. They believe that their emotions trump the ideas of others. Obviously, I disagree. In fact, I think that these students need to be weeded out early in the college application process. I think I have a specific plan that can help make that a reality. We already ask students a lot of questions in the...

The Obama Administration apparently doesn’t approve of Freedom of the Press. Historically, U.S. journalists have reported all over the world during wars and conflict. Our brave journalists were at the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq reporting but according to federal agents the border is not safe enough to report from. Journalists are being told to leave the Anzalduas International Bridge which connects the city of Mission, Texas, with Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. This area has always been open to media to report on illegal crossings from Central America.

Colorado Christian University has won an important case against the Department of Health and Human Services contraception mandate. Instead of CCU being forced to provide employees and students abortifacients, a federal judge in Denver has ruled that the school can retain its religious freedom. It's a significant decision, and one that the Supreme Court will surely keep in mind as it prepares to decide on the high profile Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius case. The Becket Fund, a non-profit, public interest law firm who represented CCU in its lawsuit, emailed LifeNews the good news: In a carefully reasoned opinion, the court...

I gave a cursory read to the Code of Conduct in the updated Microsoft Services Agreement, which, among other things, states under Prohibited Uses states, You will not upload, post, transmit, transfer, distribute, or facilitate distribution of any content (including text, images, sound, video, data, information, or software) or otherwise use the service in a way that: ...Threatens...defames...degrades, victimizes, or intimidates an individual or group of individuals for any reason, including on the basis of age...sexual orientation, race or religion, or incites or encourages anyone else to do so. Obviously, this is purposely ambiguous and broad ("for any reason"!), but...

Brooks Hamby never wanted to be a rabble-rouser. He just wanted to thank Jesus in his high school graduation speech. But the Brawley Union School District in Brawley, Calif., said the references to Jesus and prayer in Brooks’ graduation speech were “inappropriate” and violated “prevailing legal standards.” School officials rejected three versions of the young man’s graduation address, and one administrator went so far as to redact every religious reference with a black marker – as if it were some sort of top secret government document. “The first and second draft speeches proposed oppose government case law and are a...

This young man, Brooks Hamby, was the salutatorian for his High School’s graduating class. When he submitted his speech to the school for approval, they told him that he would not be able to mention God. This is what he says in his speech:

Benghazi’s biggest whistleblower just came forward. Her name is Cindy Lee Garcia and she has revealed that the producer of the video the Obama administration blamed for the Benghazi attacks admitted to her that he is a Muslim. This is a game changer. It means that the narrative we’ve been fed – that filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was a Coptic Christian is not only false but also a blood libel against Christians. ... what Benghazi was all about. It was agitprop (agitation / propaganda to push communism), a vehicle to be used by the Obama administration to launch an all...

Homosexual couples in Denmark have won the right to get married in any church they choose, even though nearly one third of the country's priests have said they will refuse to carry out the ceremonies. The country's parliament voted through the new law on same-sex marriage by a large majority, making it mandatory for all churches to conduct gay marriages. Denmark's church minister, Manu Sareen, called the vote "historic". "I think it's very important to give all members of the church the possibility to get married. Today, it's only heterosexual couples." Under the law, individual priests can refuse to carry...

This is a great Ted Cruz clip where he lectures his fellow Senators on the Judiciary Committee on free speech while destroying their liberal canards. He also calls out Democrats in the Senate for wanting to repeal the First Amendment.

Two recent incidents -- the US Supreme Court's decision to uphold Michigan's ban on affirmative action and LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling's bigoted comments - underscore what the left so badly wants us to believe: that white America is inherently, hopelessly racist. Unfortunately it seems the left - which ignores racism committed by non-whites -- wants to use racism to impose draconian control measures on private citizens, while convincing minorities the left is their only hope for justice. The Court's ruling on Michigan's affirmative action ban, for instance, should be considered a victory to anyone claiming to want a color-blind...

From the Nazis to the Stalinists, tyrants have always started out supporting free speech, and why is easy to understand. Speech is vital for the realization of their goals of command, control and confiscation. Basic to their agenda are the tools of indoctrination, propagandizing, proselytization. Once they gain power, as leftists have at many universities, free speech becomes a liability and must be suppressed. This is increasingly the case on university campuses. Back in 1964, it was Mario Savio, a campus leftist, who led the free speech movement at the Berkeley campus of the University of California, a movement that...

A New York City cab driver insisted Friday that it is his right, hands down, to wear a Nazi armband – even if the Taxi and Limousine Commission says otherwise. As CBS 2’s Lou Young reported Friday evening, Gabriel Diaz, 26, spoke outside of his family’s home in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx, after he was suspended for wearing a swastika while driving the cab. “I am. I’m a National Socialist – what you guys call a Nazi. I am. I’m a believer of it,” Diaz said. Diaz was suspended for wearing the armband while driving his cab....

I have argued since I first began writing and speaking on this issue that the First Amendment restrains only the actions of Congress. The first word in the First Amendment, after all, is the word "Congress." "Congress shall make no law..." The Founders quite intentionally were not imposing restraints on what a state could do in offering prayers before legislative assemblies, or what a city could do in erecting Ten Commandments monuments, or what a school could do in offering prayer and Bible reading over the intercom or at graduation. Congress and Congress alone is bound down by the chains...

The First Amendment won one this week before the Supreme Court of the United States -- by one vote. The close vote in the case brought to mind the old story about the corporate board of directors that approved a resolution wishing its CEO a speedy and complete recovery from his heart attack -- by a vote of 9 to 8. This should have been a simple case and the outcome obvious from the start. But before the justices could do the right thing in a free country, they had to go through an intense and protracted debate. Only then...

After the marshal on Monday spoke the traditional “God save the United States and this honorable court,” the Supreme Court ruled that the upstate New York town of Greece does not violate the First Amendment’s prohibition of “establishment of religion” by opening its board of supervisors’ meetings with a prayer. This ruling would not scandalize James Madison and other members of the First Congress, which drafted and sent to the states for ratification the First Amendment and the rest of the Bill of Rights. The Congress did this after hiring a chaplain. Three decades have passed since the court last...

Whichever way the United States Supreme Court rules on Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, one fact has become abundantly clear. We are belatedly realizing that different forms of freedom are more dependent on each other than many have hitherto supposed. Who would have thought that the welfare state’s expansion in the guise of Obamacare—which, by definition, significantly reduces economic freedom—would directly impact the ability of individuals and groups to conduct their affairs in accordance with their deeply held religious beliefs? This, however, is precisely the reality confronting us. Most people are used to thinking of religious liberty as a prerequisite...

I appreciate that there is a link to a Gun Watch article in the New York Times.  It is in the opinionator piece linked to here and below.   The link to Gun Watch is at the phrase this Michigan lawsuit:  According to open carry advocates, their presence in public space represents more than just an expression of their Second Amendment rights, it’s a statement, an “educational,” communicative act  — in short, an exercise of their First Amendment freedom of speech. (See this, from the group Ohio Carry, and this Michigan lawsuit.)  Could the New York Times be dragged into...

Today, several dozen adults protested in front of Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, California. The protest was mostly silent and instead of signs, most of the protesters simply held American flags. This display was deemed "racist" by numerous onlookers and commentators. Georgine Scott-Codiga, president of the Gilroy Morgan Hill Patriots group stated, "We're just here to support the First Amendment's right to free speech. Cinco de Mayo is a circumstance of the issue. The issue is free speech." Tonight, some Latinos living in Morgan Hill plan a counter-protest. They allege that the display of American flags "implies Mexican...