Free Republic

"It's illegal to offend people," said the UT-Austin police officer to a Christian evangelist. The officer then proceeded to write the evangelist a citation. Yes, that actually happened in America. Thankfully, the citation was later voided and the officer received re-training. The event occurred just off campus where two evangelists were preaching against homosexuality. According to the police officer, a student complained that he was being "verbally harassed" which in fact he was not. The whiney student, if he exists at all, was simply being exposed to words and ideas that offended him. The accusation of "verbal harassment" is the...

Four remaining Presidential Candidates Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush have pledged to push for passing the First Amendment Defense Act within their first 100 days in office, while others still in the race have not. The pledge, a joint effort of the American Principles Project, Heritage Action for America and Family Research Council Action, reads "If elected, I pledge to push for the passage of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) and sign it into law during the first 100 days of my term as President." "Our future President, whoever he or she may be,...

US Congressional House Resolution 569 - Condemning violence, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims in the United StatesThis bill was introduced (12/17/2015) Sponsored by Rep. Beyer, Donald S., Jr. [D-VA-8] Beyer is on the House - Judiciary Committee. Adding insult to injury....There are 123 traitorous cosponsors of this grossly offensively unconstitutional assault against the freedom of expression ! Latest Action: 01/15/2016 Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice.

(CNSNews.com) – A couple who hosts occasional wedding ceremonies on their New York farm have lost an appeal to overturn the $13,000 in fines levied against them by the state’s human rights agency, which ruled that their refusal to host a wedding for two women was discriminatory. On Jan. 14, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, upheld the agency’s order and the fines, a decision the Alliance Defending Freedom - which represented Robert and Cynthia Gifford - said amounted to confirming, “that the government can punish the Giffords for declining to coordinate a ceremony that conflicts with...

The First and Second Amendments protect and reinforce each other.In a free society, there is always pressure to expand the power of the government to suppress freedom of speech.  Those in power, for the last 100 years, have been infringing on our right to bear arms, and claiming that those who support the Second Amendment are kooks, in an attempt to suppress our First Amendment rights. With the voice provided by the First Amendment and the Internet, brave activists have been rolling back those attacks on the First and Second Amendments, and have been winning important victories. Michael Picard...

Does anybody, anywhere, believe that the HHS Mandate was ever intended to be anything other than a deliberate attack on the Catholic Church?Anyone?The duplicitous way that the Mandate was handled from day one should have convinced most Americans that shenanigans were afoot.The Mandate was drafted in closed-door meetings of a committee of abortion industry insiders. It violated promises that the President of the United States made to Congress in order to pass Obamacare.The administration rolled it out with an orchestrated apologia from the pandering press. Equally pandering organizations such as the ACLU joined in with assurances that the Mandate...

According to a columnist for the Duke University student newspaper, America's "obsession with the First Amendment" is really just "an expression of white supremacy." "I am thinking about how an urgent and overdue conversation about racism-on our campus and across our country - has been derailed by a diversionary and duplicitous obsession with the First Amendment," graduate student Bennett Carpenter wrote in university newspaper The Chronicle. "I am thinking about how quickly the conversation has shifted from white supremacy to white fragility - and how this shift is itself an expression of white supremacy." Apparently unaware of the irony of...

Author's Note: My upcoming debate with Nadine Strossen will begin at 7 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time) on January 21st, 2016. It will be held in Austin Auditorium in LaSells Stewart Center on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. The Topic will be Roe v. Wade. Admission is free and open to the public. The live stream can be accessed here: https://plus.google.com/events/c4qg9k85cv9aljsns1mdk2bffjk?hl=enDear Chancellor Sartarelli (and UNCW Board of Trustees): In addition to wishing you a happy new year I would like to apologize for writing this long letter without having met you in person. I hope to get...

Celebrates Religious Freedom DayHOUSTON, Texas - Today in honor of Religious Freedom Day, memorializing the 230th anniversary of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, Ted Cruz released the following video. Authored by Thomas Jefferson, the statute passed in the Virginia General Assembly on January 16, 1786. The statute recognized that all individuals have the right to live in accordance with their faith, paving the way for the First Amendment and becoming a pillar of the American tradition.See the video and transcript below:Ted Cruz: Religious Liberty Is Fundamental to Our National Character (Video)"The right to freely worship the Lord God Almighty...

"All Robert and I want is the freedom to peacefully live and work faithfully on our family farm and according to what God says about marriage without fear of government punishment. The America we love is one where we respect each other's differences, and the government still protects the freedom to have those differences. Others have the freedom to say or not say what they want to about marriage, and that's all we are asking for, as well." -Cynthia Gifford (New York)—[CBN News] A New York court has upheld a state decision to fine a farm couple for refusing to...

A federal judge on Tuesday certified a class action lawsuit against the IRS for its political targeting, advancing the cause of more than 200 tea party groups who said they were denied their First Amendment rights by the tax agency's actions. Edward Greim, one of the lawyers advancing the tea party groups' case, said the certification is a major step because it means the judge has agreed that the IRS did systematically target more than 200 groups for special scrutiny.

On the opening segment of Thursday night’s Kelly File with host Megyn Kelly, author and professor Alan Dershowitz took to task the political correctness culture that has pervaded American college campuses.On the heels of continuing developments from the University of Missouri — where the student Vice President today argued that the First Amendment incites a “hostile and unsafe learning environment” — Dershowitz admitted, “we’re seeing a curtain of McCarthyism descend on many college campuses.”“It was the students at universities that first started burning books… they don’t want to hear diverse views on college campuses,” Dershowitz admitted.WATCH VIDEO Dershowitz dug in, noting...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court seemed poised on Monday to deliver a severe blow to organized labor. The justices appeared divided along familiar lines during an extended argument over whether government workers who choose not to join unions may nonetheless be required to help pay for collective bargaining. The court's conservative majority appeared ready to say that such compelled financial support violates the First Amendment Collective bargaining, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said, is inherently political when the government is the employer, and issues like merit pay, promotions and classroom size are subject to negotiation. The best hope for a victory...

Overwhelming consensus' that Office for Civil Rights is treating its guidance as binding. Arne Duncan's temporary replacement isn't getting a honeymoon from the chairman of a Senate subcommittee, who is upset about the Department of Education's machinations against colleges. Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma is demanding answers from acting Secretary of Education John King about the authority of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to force colleges to strip students of their right to due process. Lankford isn't the first senator to raise the question of whether OCR's methods - issuing "Dear Colleague" letters that purport to explain existing...

Last week, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on the terrorism and visa waiver programs. Department of Homeland Security's Deputy Assistant Secretary Kelli Ann Burriesci was asked to testify. Her testimony can be found here. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) ripped into her for giving scarce and I'm being generous with that term details on what process is offered to American citizens before they're added on the terrorism watch list for mere suspicion, not conviction, of being terrorists. "What process is afforded a U.S. citizen, not someone who has overstayed a visa, not someone who crossed the border without permission, but an...

Raising the bar for other cities throughout the country, New York City announced "strong" and "bold" protections for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. The new legal guidance, issued Dec. 21 by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, came as part of an expansion of the city's 2002 Human Rights Law, which protects against discrimination in a range of categories. The updated policy specifically protects transgender and gender non-conforming individuals from discrimination in areas of employment, public accommodation, and housing.

During Wednesday's House floor debate on a reconciliation bill that would repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood, Rep. Steve Cohen (D.-Tenn.) argued that Jesus and Moses would oppose what the House was seeking to do. "We just came through Hanukkah and Christmas, and we ought to think a little bit about what Hanukkah and Christmas were about and what Moses and Jesus would be about," said Cohen. "I think they would be about saving lives and about giving everybody an opportunity to live, not patient-centric health care, but people living and getting health care like every other civilized, industrialized country...

You’d think a law professor would know that the First Amendment, by its very nature, protects speech that is deeply unpopular. But the interim vice chancellor for inclusion, diversity and equity at the University of Missouri has apparently not brushed up on the Bill of Rights since he took his position this fall.

With a view towards curbing abusive posts, Twitter has established new, stricter guidelines, stating, "We do not tolerate behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user's voice." So far, so good. I can't imagine that anyone thinks we need more incivility and hatred and incitement on social media, and I can understand why Twitter CEO Dick Costolo feels "ashamed" at how poorly his company has handled abusers. With that in mind, Twitter's guidelines are understandable, stating, "You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people...

While appearing on Alan Colmes' radio show some months ago, former presidential candidate Ron Paul expressed his belief that Trump is "almost the opposite of a libertarian" candidate. Trump, according to Paul, never expresses his desire to "give you your freedom and your liberty to run your life as you choose." Rather, he in effect assures us: "I know the answers and I'm going to do this and I've done this, I've done this, this and this."Surely, Paul is on to something. That being said, the following considerations should be borne in mind. First, that Paul rejects Trump for not being a...