Free Republic

“Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.” The words of the First Amendment couldn’t be plainer. Yet more than two centuries after the Bill of Rights was written, they remain the subject of fierce debate. Actually, I should amend that (no pun intended). These words would be the subject of debate if debate were permitted. But these days, apparently, we’re all so thin-skinned that we can’t bear to hear an opinion that challenges our worldview. This is even true, ironically, at our institutions of higher learning. Some colleges are far more interested in swaddling their students in...

No one, I think, would ever have denied that Maurice Bessinger was a man of faith. And he wasn’t particularly a “still, small voice” man either; he wanted everybody in earshot to know that slavery had been God’s will, that desegregation was Satan’s work, and the federal government was the Antichrist. God wanted only whites to eat at Bessinger’s six Piggie Park barbecue joints; so His servant Maurice took that fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1968 decided that his religious freedom argument was “patently frivolous.” Until the day he died, however, Bessinger insisted that...

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A judge in Washington state on Friday fined a florist $1,000 after she refused to sell flower arrangements for a gay couple's wedding, officials said. Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who along with the couple - Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed - sued florist Barronelle Stutzman in 2013, applauded the ruling in a statement.

Dina Galassini is an unexpected champion of the First Amendment. Dina lives in Fountain Hills, Arizona, a quiet suburb in the metro-Phoenix area that is made up of mostly retired residents who love golf, good weather, and great views. But a champion she is, and it all started with a simple email. In 2011, there was a bond election in the town of Fountain Hills. Dina opposed the bond measure and emailed 23 friends and acquaintances asking them to join her in opposing the measure by writing letters to the editor and forwarding her email to their friends. She also...

A wedding videographer in Ohio could face legal action after she declined to shoot a lesbian couples' wedding ceremony because it would have conflicted with her biblical understanding that marriage should only be between one man and one woman. When Jenn Moffitt and her partner Jerra Kincely were searching in February for a videographer to film their wedding, they sent an email inquiry to a local video production company called Next Door Stories in Bexley, Ohio, a town in the Columbus suburbs. CNN reports that the couple got an email back from the company's owner, Courtney Schmackers, on Feb. 4...

This column was co-authored by Congressman J. Randy Forbes.Avid Chipotle customers seeking carnitas burritos for dinner may be disappointed over the coming weeks. The restaurant giant is reportedly no longer serving pork at about a third of its locations after it dropped a pork supplier that failed to live up to the corporation’s standards of humane animal care. Despite the possibility that Chipotle’s decision to pull pork from almost a third of its restaurants will come at a cost, the corporation’s commitment to serving “food with integrity” has outweighed its quest for financial gain. “We would rather not serve pork...

WHAT DOES Massachusetts have against the First Amendment? A lawsuit filed in Superior Court by two family-owned companies — 1A Auto Inc., an auto-parts vendor in Pepperell, and 126 Self Storage Inc., a storage-unit rental firm in Ashland — challenges state campaign-finance rules so crazily lopsided they should be equipped with grab bars. Massachusetts law has long banned businesses from contributing to political candidates or parties, but under rules dating back to the 1980s, labor unions are free to spend up to $15,000 per year in direct political contributions with no disclosure required. Labor unions can also set up PACs...

Members of a fraternity at the University of Oklahoma were recently filmed chanting that they’d rather see a black student lynched than as a member of their clan. The now viral video of dapper, privileged white men shouting, “There will never be a nigger at SAE, you can hang him from a tree” reminds us of our greatest national shame. The chant has been roundly condemned as abhorrent. But after university president David Boren announced the expulsion of two students leading the chants, prominent legal scholars from the right and left have come to their defense. The university is a...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)University of Oklahoma President David Boren has expelled two students for leading a racist chant. These students’ speech was indeed quite repugnant, but for reasons I discuss here, it’s protected by the First Amendment. And here’s one reason why. Consider the president’s statement to the students: “You will be expelled because of your leadership role in leading a racist and exclusionary chant which has created a hostile educational environment for others.” Similar things could be said about a vast range of other speech. Students talking to each other about a student group event about how Hamas has it right? (The...

Heavy hitters in U.S. media joined prominent First Amendment scholars to file two amicus briefs challenging last summer’s jury verdict that favored former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in his defamation trial in St. Paul. The friend-of-the-court media brief, filed with the 8th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals, characterizes the $1.3 million jury award to Ventura as unprecedented, with no basis in common law. The scholars’ filing faults U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle’s instructions to the jury. The briefs support Taya Kyle, widow of Chris Kyle, author of the best-selling memoir “American Sniper.” Ventura’s lawyers convinced the jury in a 10-2...

It is a matter of record that the Constitution was ratified as a strict, narrowly-defined enumeration of federal powers. Anything not specifically spelled out in it as a federal power is a federal power that does not exist, and that must be left to the state and local levels. The Framers identified each Congressional power in Article I, Section 8 (why would they do this if the General Welfare and Commerce clauses granted Congress a blank check to do whatever it wants?), and even added the 10th Amendment to further clarify that this is all it is authorized to do...

A Florida city’s code-enforcement division, which was subject in 2013 to a scathing audit for falsifying inspections, employing unqualified inspectors and failing to clean up nuisance properties, has now decided to go after churches. City-code enforcement officer, Gerard A. Coscia – wearing a hoodie – was sent to the Common Ground Church on Feb. 9 to clandestinely film the worship service, reported the Examiner. The following Sunday, Coscia returned to the church, which meets in the Coffee Grounds Coffee Bar, handed his business card to pastor Mike Olive and told him, “This Sunday is your last Sunday.” “I inspected the...

My pastor shared this article today. It's about a Lake Worth, Florida church that meets in a coffee house. ***snip*** The church owns and operates a coffee house in downtown Lake Worth. For the past three months, it has used the coffee house for a weekly worship service. Prior to that the congregation rented space in other buildings in the community. Pastor Mike Olive told me there had not been any problems until early last month, when he had an encounter with Andy Amoroso, a city commissioner. “After we opened up the coffee bar and started doing services, I heard...

n what sounds like a chapter out of Orwell’s 1984, the city of Lake Worth in Florida has been involved in some disgusting deals of late. The city started down a dark and unconstitutional road when they began demanding that any church operating in their town acquire a business license to operate. The fact that this requirement quite obviously violates the First Amendment in multiple ways (freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly) did not deter the city from pushing forward in their persecution. The city didn’t stop with their draconian regulations though… they went much further. The...

An Indianapolis bakery that drew national media attention a year ago after refusing to make a cake for a same-sex “wedding” has closed its doors. Randy and Trish McGath, the owners of the former 111 Cakery, said they closed the business down because Trish, the shop’s primary baker, was tired and wanted to spend more time with her grandchildren. The work was “wearing [Trish] out,” said Randy, who has since transitioned to a job selling recreational vehicles. Last March, the McGaths endured a campaign of internet harassment by homosexual activists after a local television station reported that the couple had...

A federal court on Tuesday blocked efforts by officials in California to force a conservative group to hand over the names of its donors, saying the order could violate those donors’ First Amendment rights. Kamala Harris, California’s attorney general and a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, demanded last year that the Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) turn over its donor rolls. The court enjoined that demand pending the outcome of AFPF’s suit attempting to invalidate the order. AFPF claims that the disclosure would subject its donors to “grotesque threats” similar to the routine attacks against Charles and David Koch,...

At a “Defeat Jihad Summit” hosted by the Center for Security Policy, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) noted Wednesday that former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who is Mormon, did not travel to New York launch a terrorist attack on “The Book of Mormon."“Right now on Broadway, a play is showing, the Book of Mormon, that is ridiculing and making fun of the Mormon faith," said Cruz. "Last I checked, Mitt Romney didn’t show up on Broadway trying to blow up the stage." (VIDEO-AT-LINK)"It is not a permissible response for anyone of any faith to say if you disagree with or...

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Muslim Day at the Capitol will be held at the end of the month for members of the religion to learn more about state government and become more familiar with their lawmakers. The Oklahoma chapter for the Council on American-Islamic Relations organized the event for the first time this year. News of the event did encounter backlash on social media, however. “It’s kind of depressing to see such hatred and negativity, especially about practicing a right that’s fundamentally American,” said CAIR Executive Director Adam Soltani. Comments were made on social media such as “I’m sick of...

According to the Washington Times, President Barack Obama made statements at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, 2015 that establish that Obama has a fundamental misunderstanding of the United States Constitution's First Amendment, which among other things protects freedom of speech. The Times reported: