Free Republic

Parishioners of St. Andrew Orthodox Church in Riverside California have been treated to shouts of "Allahu Akbar" from bullhorn wielding Muslims during weekly services. Inasmuch as Allahu Akbar is what Islamic fanatics shout while murdering unbelievers, the church goers are understandably concerned. Father Josiah Trenham called the shouted slogan "intimidating. We're trying to hold weekly services. The noise is disruptive and one fears worse. Will it be safe to leave church after the service? Will men with guns or bombs invade the church? What can we do to safely practice our faith." Local police officer Ryan Railsback held out little...

Is it wiser to be alive and a coward, or risk our lives to defend the truth of liberty? THE FIRST AMENDMENT ENUMERATES the right of the people peaceably to assemble. Originally, the text combined assembly with the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. During the session of the House of Representatives on August 15, 1789 during which the representatives present discussed the proposed amendment, Mr. Sedgwick of Massachusetts questioned the connection, arguing the right to assemble must be preserved regardless of the reason for assembly. The congressional record reads: “The right is of so trivial...

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..." These opening words of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights seem perfectly clear. They were written by James Madison "in response to calls from several states for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties," and so "the Bill of Rights lists specific prohibitions on governmental power." How absolute are these prohibitions against governmental interference? According to some leading gay activists, these prohibitions are hardly absolute at all. In their view, religious institutions do not have the right to forbid homosexual practice. If...

A year ago, Mike Strickland was beaten and ended in the hospital for several months.  His cameras were stolen, then returned with the drives wiped.  He has video of the attack, but the authorities refused to prosecute.  Recently, Mike was threatened by a mob of anarchists and Black Lives Matter activists again.  This time he protected himself.  Victoria Taft has written a well researched article, with video, that shows Mike Strickland defending himself from the mob in Portland.  The link has it all. From victoriataft.com: Mike Strickland was arrested and charged in Portland for pulling a gun at a...

On January 8, 2014, Complainant filed a formal complaint in which he alleged that the Agency subjected him to discrimination on the basis of race (African American) and in reprisal for prior EEO activity when, starting in the fall of 2013, a coworker (C1) repeatedly wore a cap to work with an insignia of the Gadsden Flag, which depicts a coiled rattlesnake and the phrase “Don’t Tread on Me.” Complainant stated that he found the cap to be racially offensive to African Americans because the flag was designed by Christopher Gadsden, a “slave trader & owner of slaves.” Complainant also...

A few days ago, trying to maneuver through a “scrum” of reporters in Philadelphia, I was asked about my views regarding religious freedom and non-discrimination laws. Given the divisiveness and pain that have accompanied several state religious freedom laws, I approach attempts at legislating religious exceptions to anti-discrimination laws with great sensitivity and care.

In a hate crimes complaint, the U.S. Department of Justice has identified a criminal defendant's tattoo of the Confederate flag as "indicative of white supremacy," according to court records.

In a column In the Tampa Bay Times, a writer makes the claim that a law to protect the Second Amendment diminishes the First Amendment.  It is a stretch.  The statute, passed by the Florida legislature in 2011, makes it illegal for local governments to pass regulations and ordinances dealing with guns, gun possession, anything to  do with guns. The law was passed because politicians in large urban centers persistently ignored the previous preemption law.  Local ordinances and regulations created a patchwork of firearms law to entrap any Floridians who exercised their Second Amendment rights. The columnist referred to...

Ocean City Communications Manager Jessica Waters said on Tuesday the flap caused by the controversial political messages resulted in a quick decision to stop flying them over the crowded mid-July beach. Mayor Rick Meehan said during Monday’s council meeting resort officials had received hundreds of emails about the somewhat controversial ads, which included messages such as “Stop Mad Cow Disease-Defeat Hillary,” and “America First-Build The Wall Now,” Meehan said he reached out to Ocean Aerial Ads and owner-operator Bob Bunting about the controversial ads and the company, which has been flying over the resort skies, for decades, made the decision...

The First Amendment Defense Act has been justly promoted as a means to protect religious people, as well as other conscientious objectors, against those who might wish to retaliate against proponents of male-female marriage through the federal bureaucracy (complaints, charges, lawsuits, claims of damages, etc.; see this article by Roger Severino). As a Southern Baptist and vocal opponent of same-sex couples attempting to marry, I wholeheartedly support this legislation. My own recent experience being driven out of a tenured university position forces me to see FADA in urgent terms. There is another angle, however, that I fear will get lost...

FN Manufacturing rented advertising space in the Columbia, SC Airport. The Richland-Lexington Airport District approved the billboard. It didn't see anything inappropriate about the ad. Twenty percent of the travelers through the airport are soldiers. Then the political pressure started.From thestate.com: Columbia Metropolitan Airport has removed a billboard-sized advertisement of a firearms manufacturer from its concourse.The decision comes a day after The State newspaper reported the ad, featuring eight firearms from FN Manufacturing, upset some travelers. It touted, “Yeah, we carry.” “I pulled in the commission, and really, they felt that given the negative feedback that it’d probably be...

Recently, I have made some pretty charged statements about Black Lives Matter. In a nutshell, I have argued that the organization is not a pro-black civil rights group. Instead, it is an anti-white anti-free speech mob. Evidence of my contention isn’t very hard to gather. In fact, you have to have your head buried pretty deep in the ground in order to miss it. Consider the following examples: -In August of 2015, Black Lives Matter protestors overtook a Bernie Sanders event in Seattle. They physically stormed the stage and demanded that they be heard lest they shut the event down...

A federal judge temporarily blocked Chicago election officials Tuesday from removing a Republican Congressional candidate from the ballot in a case that poses an intriguing question: When is a Republican not a Republican? (An) ousted GOP committeemen, Frances Sapone, challenged the party’s selection of Jeffrey Leef to run against U.S. Rep Danny K. Davis in the 7th Congressional District. Sapone contended a vote of GOP committeemen to nominate Leef (after no candidate ran in the primary) was invalid because she and another of the ousted committeemen were not notified of the meeting in which Leef was selected. A Chicago Board...

Donald Trump reacts to the police shootings in Dallas in a speech on veterans issues in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

An Iowa pastor, saying the government needs to stop “meddling in religious affairs,” is at odds with the state over a law focused on sexual orientation and gender identity that he says hinders his First Amendment right to teach on matters of sexuality. “The state of Iowa is not the self-appointed pope of all churches,” Cary Gordon, pastor of Cornerstone World Outreach, a nondenominational church with around 900 members in Sioux City, Iowa, told The Daily Signal.

Paul Gascoigne to stand trial over alleged racist joke during show Former footballer pleads not guilty to racially aggravated offence after appearing before magistrates [snip] He is alleged to have made a joke about a black security guard whom he spotted in a darkened corner of the stage, saying he could not tell “if he is smiling or not”. [snip]

A federal judge on Monday ruled that clerks in Mississippi may not recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples based on religious beliefs, despite a bill passed by the state legislature intended to carve out that exception for them.

Pittsburgh news anchor fired after racist Facebook post says it was because she is white A Pittsburgh news anchor fired for a Facebook post stereotyping black people as criminals is suing, saying she was let go because she is white. Wendy Bell, then a presenter at WTAE, caused a social-media firestorm with a March post, where she wrote that still-unidentified shooting suspects were probably black. “You needn’t be a criminal profiler to draw a mental sketch of the killers who broke so many hearts two weeks ago Wednesday ... They are young black men, likely in their teens or in...

My friend Kathy Shaidle has recently posted a no-holds-barred article on the disaster of “hate speech” legislation, focussing on a proposed Liberal bill to punish “anti-transgender speech” by up to two years in prison. She reminds us that such totalitarian interventions into a presumably democratic society are by no means unique to Canada. As she writes, “bear in mind that New York state, for one, already has similar laws on the books, and they carry fines of up to $250,000. And [an] Oregon 'transmasculine' teacher got $60,000 because her colleagues wouldn’t refer to ‘it’ as ‘they.’”The notion of “hate speech”...

House Republicans are pressing efforts to safeguard the First Amendment rights of scientific skeptics who dissent from what they consider the Obama administration’s alarmist position on climate change, according to letters to 17 state attorneys general. The series of letters, sent Friday and signed by 19 of the 22 Republican members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, renew an earlier request to the state attorneys general for information detailing their communications with environmental organizations. They also ask for communications between employees for the state attorneys general and the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, or the White House.