Free Republic

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz on Saturday said county clerks in Texas should "absolutely" be able to opt out of issuing same-sex marriage licenses if they have religious objections. "Ours is a country that was built by men and women fleeing religious oppression," Cruz said in an interview with The Texas Tribune, "and you look at the foundation of this country — it was to seek out a new land where anyone of us could worship the Lord God Almighty with all of our hearts, minds and souls, without government getting in the way." The interview followed a major speech here...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a 2016 presidential hopeful, says GOP leaders want to divide conservative primary voters so that a moderate candidate will end up being the party’s nominee. "The last thing the Republican leaders in Washington want to see is millions of Americans across the country mobilizing and coalescing around one strong conservative candidate," he told a crowd of 200 supporters in Iowa on Saturday, according to the Sioux City Journal. Senior Republicans want the party’s various factions at each other’s throats so "once again, they run right up the middle with 24 percent and nominate an establishment moderate...

Today marks what could be considered one of the most controversial days in the history of the United States of America. If you haven’t heard, the Supreme Court has decided that same-sex marriage is now a Constitutional right and that traditional marriage between one man and one woman is no longer the definition of marriage.There is one state (and if you have read my articles before, you know which one I’m talking about) that is already leading the way, in essence combating SCOTUS and their disastrous decision. Of course, I’m talking about the Lone Star State.In a directive issued in...

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby wants a judge to order a separate trial for two of the six officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. In a motion filed Friday, Mosby asked a judge to allow two officers, William Porter and Lt. Brian Rice, to be tried separately from the four others. Porter and Rice are each charged with reckless endangerment, misconduct in office, second-degree assault and manslaughter, which is a felony. Mosby's motion does not explain her strategy for trying Porter and Rice separately from the others. Sgt. Alicia White faces the same charges as...

With the Supreme Court’s historic ruling that effectively legalizes same-sex marriage in all 50 states, the 2016 presidential candidates really have no choice today but to comment on the decision from one angle of another. Here’s what they had to say. Hillary Clinton was quick out of the gate with a personal statement, followed by a rebranding of her campaign logo that has already been retweeted more than 20,000 times:

The editorial board of PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. is taking a hardcore stance against those who disagree with the Supreme Court ruling to legalize gay marriage. “As a result of Friday’s ruling, PennLive/The Patriot-News will no longer accept, nor will it print, op-Eds and letters to the editor in opposition to same-sex marriage,” they declared. After receiving strong pushback, the newspaper’s editorial board, which is overseen by Editorial Page Editor John Micek, quickly revised its policy. Freedom of speech will be allowed — but only for a “limited” period of time. Micek explained on Twitter: “Clarification: We will not...

Louis Farrakhan stated “We need to put the American flag down. Because we’ve caught as much hell under that as the Confederate flag” in remarks before the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC on Wednesday first reported by DC’s WMAL. Farrakhan said, “White folks march with you because they don’t want you upsetting the city, they don’t give a damn about them nine.” He added that when the police took suspected shooter Dylann Roof to Burger King they were saying “You did a good job. Kill all them [bleep.]”

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, seizing the moment after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, called Friday for a Constitutional amendment that would allow the states to decide whether gay marriage should be legal. Walker’s call came shortly after the high court ruled 5-4 that same-sex couples could marry across the country, overturning a number of state same-sex marriage bans. The ruling was “a grave mistake,” the Republican governor said, touting his support for amending his state’s constitution “to protect the institution of marriage from exactly this type of judicial activism.” “As a result of this decision, the only...

Good news from the Supreme Court today: If you like your health care subsidies, you can keep them. If you like limited government and the separation of powers, you are out of luck. Now that Chief Justice Roberts and five of his colleagues found that the phrase “Exchange established by the State” means “Exchange established by the State or the Federal Government,” we should henceforth follow Justice Scalia’s suggestion that this act of Congress, which had to be passed before the People knew what was in it and then had to be rescued not once, but twice, by a complicit...

WASHINGTON—House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) jointly issued the following statements regarding the chairmanship of the Government Operations Subcommittee.“Last week I announced a change in the Government Operations sub-committee chairmanship. A number of people have asked me to reconsider that decision. Having spoken with Mark Meadows several times during the past week, I think we both better understand each other. I respect Mark and his approach. The discussions and candor have been healthy and productive. Ultimately, I believe we both want to do what is best for the country. Obviously I...

Despite claims by Hillary Rodham Clinton that she provided the State Department with all of her work-related emails from the personal account she used exclusively when she was in office, the department has received several related to Libya that she had not handed over, according to officials at the agency. The emails that Mrs. Clinton did not give to the State Department were between her and her longtime confidant and adviser Sidney Blumenthal. He did not work for the department at the time, but was routinely sending her intelligence memos on Libya. There are 15 emails that Mr. Blumenthal gave...

According to PBS, Bernie Sanders is "gaining against Clinton in early polls." Salon's Bill Curry believes "Hillary Clinton is going lose," primarily because millions of voters longing for a truly progressive candidate will nominate Sanders. POLITICO explained recently that Early-state polls hint at a Bernie Sanders surge, a headline that was unthinkable only several months earlier. Yahoo's Meredith Shiner calls Sanders a "progressive social media star and pragmatic legislator" and states that "Sanders also has a much more substantial legislative history" than any GOP challenger. In Iowa, 1,100 people packed a gym to hear Bernie Sanders speak in May. In...

While Chief Justice John Roberts delivered a blow to ObamaCare foes with a majority opinion upholding subsidies, he backed up the law's opponents on one point: The language in the Affordable Care Act was kind of a mess. "The Affordable Care Act contains more than a few examples of inartful drafting," he wrote.

A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday embraced a broad interpretation of discrimination claims allowed under the landmark Fair Housing Act, handing a victory to civil rights activists who had feared the justices would rein in such lawsuits. On a 5-4 vote in a major civil rights case, the court decided that the law allows for discrimination claims based on seemingly neutral practices that may have a discriminatory effect. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who often casts the deciding vote in close cases, joined the court's four liberals in the majority. The ruling also was a triumph for President Barack...

Republican presidential candidate and real estate magnate Donald Trump tells Breitbart News exclusively that he has no plans whatsoever to back down in the face of Univision—on behalf of the Mexican government—targeting him after he’s exposed trade deals and immigration problems that benefit Mexico and harm the United States. “The Mexican government is putting tremendous pressure on Univision and there are plenty of others—lobbyists and special interests—putting tremendous pressure on Univision to break their fully signed and fully effective contract with the Miss Universe Organization because I’ve exposed the tremendously bad trade deals that the United States is so incompetently...

No excerpt. It's a PDF. Scalia's dissenting opinion begins on page 27.

WASHINGTON (AP) — His health care legacy secure, President Barack Obama cast Thursday's Supreme Court ruling upholding Obamacare as a historic and emphatic declaration that the law has now been "woven into the fabric of America." "This is reality," Obama said in a celebratory statement in the Rose Garden. "We can see how it is working."

Releases statement on King v. BurwellHOUSTON, Texas — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, released the following statement regarding the Supreme Court’s decision on King v. Burwell:“Today’s decision in King v. Burwell is judicial activism, plain and simple. For the second time in just a few years, a handful of unelected judges has rewritten the text of Obamacare in order to impose this failed law on millions of Americans. The first time, the Court ignored federal law and magically transformed a statutory ‘penalty’ into a ‘tax.’ Today, these robed Houdinis transmogrified a ‘federal exchange’ into an exchange ‘established by the State.’“As...

“We should just start calling this law SCOTUScare,” Scalia wrote, referring to the several times the high court has ruled on controversial parts of ObamaCare. Scalia blasted that reading. “The court holds that when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act says ‘Exchange established by the State’ it means ‘Exchange established by the State or the Federal Government,’ Scalia wrote. “That is of course quite absurd, and the court’s 21 pages of explanation make it no less so.”

On Thursday, the Supreme Court released its long-awaited decision on Obamacare’s IRS subsidies under federal health insurance exchanges. And, as expected, the Court rewrote the statute to help President Obama’s signature law. With each passing day of Supreme Court decisions, conservative principles begin to feel more and more like the survivors of the Scream films: it’s only a matter of time before you are next for the knife. In King v. Burwell, four citizens sued over Obamacare, alleging that they had been forced to purchase health insurance; they said that the federal health exchange set up in Virigina in absence...