Free Republic

Which is obvious to anyone not intentionally misreading it. The real news here is not that Antonin Scalia said this, but that it’s the slightest bit controversial. But that’s not something that happened overnight. The secular left and their media servants have spent decades pushing the idea that the establishment clause is about protecting the non-religious from maniacal Jesus freaks - especially the nightmare scenario in which the Jesus freaks get a job with any public entity and are guided in any decision by biblical principles. Scalia is a man who actually knows about the founding of the nation and...

Several prominent accounts suspended as social media giant tightens 'hateful conduct' rules

Some readers may have noticed that six months have passed since I wrote a column criticizing the whacky leftist administration at my university, UNC-Wilmington. I am happy to report the reason for the silence is that the wacky leftist administrators are now gone. In addition to that, on July 1st of this year our university got its first out of the closet conservative chancellor. You heard that right. UNC-Wilmington is now under the leadership of a conservative chancellor. And he makes no effort to hide it. Jose "Zito" Sartarelli is just the man we have been looking for. Unlike me,...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon bakery owners who denied service to a same-sex couple have paid $135,000 in state-ordered damages — after refusing to do so for nearly six months. The Bureau of Labor and Industries says Aaron Klein, co-owner of the Portland-area bakery, dropped off a check Monday for $136,927.07. That includes accrued interest. Klein also paid $7,000 earlier this month.

It is one of the most hallowed precepts in modern constitutional law: Freedom of speech may not be curbed unless it poses a *clear and present danger* ~ an actual, imminent threat, not the mere advocacy of harmful acts or ideas. But in response to the Islamic State*s success in grooming jihadists over the Internet, some legal scholars are asking whether it is time to reconsider that constitutional line.

Who will fact check the fact checkers?How about you and me?Take a PolitiFact story last week out of Iowa, where Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is the current Republican front-runner as the state's Feb. 1 presidential caucus approaches. Earlier this month, Sen. Cruz told a Cedar Rapids crowd, "The Democrats in the Senate last year introduced a constitutional amendment to repeal the free speech protections of the First Amendment."Is this statement true or false?It's true.The constitutional amendment proposed by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and voted for by every Democratic Party U. S. Senator states, "Congress and the States may regulate and...

The Obama administration is using the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to censor publication of information on the Internet.   The department ordered Defense Distributed to take down files for 3D printing of a simple single shot handgun on a website  owned by Defense Distributed.   Cody Wilson is widely considered to have been the inventor of the 3D printed pistol. Defense Distributed joined with the Second Amendment Foundation to file a lawsuit against the Obama administration State Department for violation of their First, Second, and Fifth Amendment rights.    The case is Defense Distributed v. U.S. Department of State.  The...

The First Amendment right to freedom of religion seems to be utterly meaningless to liberals in government today as they continue to make rulings that are the equivalent of ripping the Constitution to pieces and wiping their backsides with it. Courts in Massachusetts are now telling Catholic schools they have no choice but to hire homosexuals, despite the fact doing so goes against their beliefs. This is exactly why separation of church and state exists. Not to keep God out of government, but government out of the church. From Christian News: A state court in Massachusetts has ruled that a...

So what are well-intentioned people of faith supposed to do? How does one respond to the incessant onslaught of negativity, criticism and legal action aimed at those who choose to make their religious convictions known in the public square? Perhaps a good place to start would be the example set by the young men of the Naperville Central High School football team in suburban Chicago. After representatives from The Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a complaint against Coach Mike Stine’s voluntary practice of allowing players who want to to gather on the field and pray before games, senior player Daniel...

Yale University was nationally embarrassed earlier this week when political satirist Ami Horowitz released a video showing students happily agreeing to sign a "petition" that calls for the repeal of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.According to Horowitz, he got 60 signatures in less than an hour.Now Yale’s spokesperson has suggested the video doesn’t show what it shows."There are a number of heavily edited prank videos like this one circulating lately in which someone surreptitiously records people while pretending to support a position that they actually oppose, and trying to get the individuals they speak with to agree with...

If this were a joke, it would have to start out: “So, three censors walk into a bar….” Except that it’s no joking matter when the trio calling for private or public censoring of the Internet include the two leading candidates (at this moment) for leader of the Free World, and the head of the largest search engine and information company on the planet. The free flow of information and communication of ideas – even repugnant ones – is a hallmark of American democracy. Even “hate speech” has constitutional protection when it offends, insults or attacks. Only when speakers cross...

Trigger warning! This story and video may be unsuitable viewing for the “safe space” crowd. Looking to understand just how controversial the debate over free speech on our college campuses really is, filmmaker and satirist Ami Horowitz recently traveled to Yale University, one of our nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning, to speak directly to students. “I decided to take this campus free speech debate to its logical conclusion,” said Horowitz, who asked students if they’d sign a petition calling for an outright repeal of the First Amendment. “The result was this unbelievable display of total stupidity.” In fact,...

Part 305 of 305 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wis. - Ding dong, the witch-hunter is dead. More than a month after the Republican-led Legislature passed a bill dismantling the state Government Accountability Board, Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday finally signed the bill into law - with a partial veto. The bill's supporters, including conservatives targeted by the GAB and Milwaukee County prosecutors in the unconstitutional and politically driven John Doe probe, rejoiced while the left prophesied biblical-proportion campaign finance and election law disasters. "Reform to this broken agency was long overdue and I'm proud of today's accomplishment,"...

Trigger warning! This story and video may be unsuitable viewing for the "safe space" crowd. Looking to understand just how controversial the debate over free speech on our college campuses really is, filmmaker and satirist Ami Horowitz recently traveled to Yale University, one of our nation's most prestigious institutions of higher learning, to speak directly to students. "I decided to take this campus free speech debate to its logical conclusion," said Horowitz,...

Former military intelligence officer and author Steven Coughlin predicts more jihadi violence in America based on what radicals and international elites are saying and doing. Coughlin explains in this video interview that both political parties appear increasingly more worried about not being called "a bigot" than in protecting American citizens from emerging threats. Asked here to comment on the disregard by the Obama administration for keeping Americans safe from terror with inadequate immigrant vetting, open borders and the release of Guantanamo Bay prisoners, this author focuses on the cultural and political narratives that demonstrate a form of information warfare.

Former military intelligence officer and author Steven Coughlin predicts more jihadi violence in America based on what radicals and international elites are saying and doing. Snip A September Reuters/Ipsos poll showed increasing numbers of Americans feel they are unable to recognize their country. Yet when asked about this poll, Coughlin believes the profound American political and cultural transformation relates to the ideological and intentional hollowing out of rights manifested in our founding documents, and this dominant political correctness that elevates other cultures while obfuscating the truth. On explaining why some supporters of Donald Trump may disagree with some aspects of...

I don't know how much time you have spent on university campuses. I have spent my whole life in academia and I can tell you I have witnessed the deterioration over the course of time. It is no longer to be assumed that freedom of speech prevails on a university campus. Instead, there are codes of speech. I would say codes of conduct except that the conduct that is most restricted is speech on our campuses and it is not because the speech is of the outrageously obscene variety which we might be perhaps sympathetic trying to control. After all,...

If this was "about your First Amendment rights, would you still have the same opinion that we don't need that any more either?"

Peggy Noonan is worried about the future of the First Amendment. She writes in The Wall Street Journal the First Amendment is in perilous condition, especially after some on the Left went ape over politicians saying they were praying for the San Bernardino victims. Journalists, bloggers, contrarians and citizens jumped into the fray. Then the U.S. senator, Chris Murphy, came forward rather menacingly. "Your 'thoughts' should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your 'prayers' should be for forgiveness if you do nothing again."Wow. You might think he was aiming this at President Obama, who when he was...

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is assuring Muslims of her support, threatening action against any "anti-Muslim rhetoric" that "edges toward violence." Lynch, speaking at a dinner held by the Muslim Advocates, a national legal advocacy group, announced Thursday night the Justice Department will investigate the police department in Texas that arrested a 14-year-old Muslim boy who brought a device that looked like a bomb to school. Ahmed "Clock Boy" Mohamed was never charged, but several congressmen asked Lynch for the civil-rights investigation she promised Thursday. ... "When we are ruled by fear, we are not making ourselves safe," Lynch said....