Free Republic

Judge Robert J. Shelby, whom President Barack Obama appointed to the U.S. District Court in Utah last year, issued an opinion on Friday declaring that a right to same-sex marriage is "deeply rooted in the nation’s history and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty." Shelby was confirmed to the federal bench by a voice vote of the Senate on Sept. 21, 2012. There was no debate over his nomination, and no senator objected to his confirmation. He has now issued an opinion that could fundamentally alter American law and culture. “The State’s second argument is that the Plaintiffs are...

The federal judge who recently issued a vitriolic 79-page ruling against Pastor Scott Lively has a disturbing background revealing prejudices and improprieties that under federal law should certainly have disqualified him from presiding over the case, MassResistance has discovered. Presiding Federal Judge Michael Ponsor issued the ruling back in August. The homosexual movement is infamous for its success at shrewd "judge shopping" to push their agenda in the US court system. Ponsor was clearly a perfect choice. Ponsor is openly liberal and a protégé of pro-homosexual Judge Joseph Tauro, who recently ruled to strike down DOMA in the federal court....

Starting Monday, Illinois same-sex couples facing terminal illness can marry — nearly six months ahead of the state’s new marriage equality law taking effect, a federal judge in Chicago ruled. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman has ordered the Cook County Clerk’s office to immediately issue marriage licenses to all Illinois same-sex couples who can provide a doctor’s declaration stating that one or both of them has a life-threatening illness that would prevent them from marrying after the marriage equality law takes effect June 1. “When you have a terminal illness, every day is significant,” Camilla Taylor, Marriage Project...

Retired Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Frank Barbaro wants a white man he convicted in 1999 of killing a black man to be freed — claiming Wednesday he based the verdict on his own reverse racism. The 86-year-old former jurist convicted Donald Kagan, now 39, of fatally shooting Wavell Wint, 22, during a struggle over Kagan’s chain outside an East New York movie theater in 1998. But Barbaro told a court that, because of his viewpoint as a civil-rights activist, he didn’t consider a justification defense by Kagan in the nonjury trial. “Mr. Kagan had no intent to kill that man...

The owners of a Christian guesthouse who were ordered to pay damages for turning away a gay couple have lost their UK Supreme Court fight. Hazelmary and Peter Bull refused to let civil partners Steven Preddy and Martyn Hall stay in a double room at Chymorvah House in Marazion in Cornwall in 2008. The couple, who had already lost cases at Bristol County Court and the Court of Appeal, said they were "saddened". Mr and Mrs Bull have said they regard any sex outside marriage as a "sin". Steven Preddy (l) and Martyn Hall Steven Preddy (l) and Martyn Hall...

Washington, D.C. - The Federal Election Commission on Thursday denied the request of a prominent Tea Party organization that argued it should not have to disclose its political donors because they might face harassment from the government or the public. The Tea Party Leadership Fund, which recently announced that it is seeking challengers for the 87 Republicans who voted to end last month's government shutdown, told the FEC that an exemption from public disclosure would be justified by part of the Supreme Court's decision in Buckley v. Valeo. The group's lawyers noted the decision lets organizations like the Socialist Workers...

Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned retail chain, has largely become the corporate face of ObamaCare opposition. After initially speaking out against mandates in the healthcare law that would force individuals to violate their faith, the company sought legal protection against its implementation. The dispute centered around a requirement the retailer fund birth control and abortifacient drugs for its employees. Though a federal court upheld the business’ position in a recent decision, the case now appears to be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court. Earlier this week, the chain initiated paperwork requesting the high court to review the case, indicating that abiding...

Kaitlyn Hunt will stay in jail until mid-December.A Florida teen accused of having sex with her underage girlfriend accepted a plea deal Thursday that her attorney says is in her best interest. Kaitlyn Hunt, 19, pleaded no contest to battery, interference with child custody and contributing to the dependency of a child. Hunt was charged in February with having sex with a 14-year-old female schoolmate. Hunt was 18 at the time. A previous plea deal was withdrawn in August following allegations that Hunt exchanged thousands of texts with the girl and sent her nude photos. A judge revoked her bond,...

Florida prosecutors offered Kaitlyn Hunt, 19, a third plea deal Wednesday after she'd refused or lost the previous ones in her ongoing legal saga over her sexual relationship with a 14-year-old female classmate. Hunt has been in jail ever since and is expected to accept this newest offer, which requires her to remain in jail until December 20 and serve two years house arrest. The deal would see Hunt remain in jail until December 20. She would then begin two years of electronically monitored house arrest. Nine months of probation would follow. According to CNN, ff she has no violations,...

An Obama-appointed federal judge has handed the administration a major victory, ruling that a Muslim woman’s civil rights were violated by an American clothing retailer that didn’t allow her to wear a head scarf as required by her religion. The lawsuit was filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces the nation’s workplace discrimination laws. In 2011 the agency sued the retail giant, Abercrombie & Fitch, accusing it of religious discrimination for firing 19-year-old Umme-Hani Khan for wearing a hijab at a northern California store. The company, which focuses on hip casual wear for consumers...

Officials said Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan was shaved after his move to death row and Texas legislators proposed a new compensation bill for shooting victims. Hasan, who was convicted in the 2009 shooting deaths of 13 people and injury of 31 others at the Texas military base, grew a beard for what he said were religious regions prior to the start of his court-martial. The move drew the ire of the judge, who found Hasan in contempt of court, causing a one-year delay of his trial. After Hasan, 42, was flown to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Friday to be put...

A lesbian couple became the first same-sex couple to get a marriage license in Bernalillo County. The clerk’s office issued more than 100 marriage licenses before the day was over.

In a 5-0 decision, the New Mexico Supreme Court upheld a lower court determination that it is illegal for a photography business owned by Christians to refuse to photograph a same-sex wedding ceremony--even though New Mexico law does not permit same-sex marriage. The courts based their decisions on the text of the New Mexico Human Rights Act (NMHRA), which makes it illegal for “any person in any public accommodation to make a distinction, directly or indirectly, in offering or refusing to offer its services . . . to any person because of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual...

FULL TITLE: Lesbian high school cheerleader offered plea deal on her 19th birthday to avoid jail for having sex with classmate, 14, after thousands sign petition to support her A high school cheerleader arrested on felony sexual assault charges for her relationship with a 14-year-old female classmate has been offered a plea deal on her 19th birthday. Kaitlyn Hunt is being urged to accept the new deal which would keep her out of jail and prevent her from being registered as a sex offender - if she pleads no contest to two misdemeanor battery counts and one felony count for...

VANCOUVER, B.C., August 12, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – When homosexual news service Daily Xtra reported last week that both Vancouver police and city officials “confirmed they had no issues with public nudity” at the city’s annual gay Pride Parade, LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) deemed necessary a fact check with the guardians of law and order. Canada’s Criminal Code makes it illegal to be nude in a “public place.” Section 174 states that a person who is “so clad as to offend against public decency or order” is “guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.” While reports about this year’s August 4 gay...

Even in his official license photo Newser) – A Czech Republic court has struck a blow for religious freedom—ridiculous, ridiculous religious freedom. Lukás Novy, 29, successfully argued that he should be allowed to wear a pasta strainer on his head in his official, government-issued ID photo, because he was required to do so by his "Pastafarian" faith, the Daily Mail reports. Novy belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a parody religion whose followers "believe" that a giant invisible monstrosity made of spaghetti and meatballs created the universe after "drinking heavily." Novy said the faith required him...

<p>A federal judge in Ohio ordered state officials Monday to recognize the marriage of two men that was performed in Maryland on the death certificate of an Ohio resident in hospice care who the judge says “is certain to die soon.”</p>

SANFORD, Fla. — There’s so much that still isn’t known about what happened on that dark, rainy night in February 2012, George Zimmerman’s defense attorney told jurors Friday in a hushed courtroom here. Speaking in a soothing, conversational tone, attorney Mark O’Mara urged jurors not to make assumptions about the defendant accused of killing an unarmed teenager named Trayvon Martin and not to try to “fill in blanks” or “connect dots.” The only conclusion jurors could reach about his client after hearing testimony for three weeks, O’Mara said, is “innocence. Pure, unadulterated innocence.” Minutes into his closing argument, O’Mara walked...

At age 80, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, leader of the Supreme Court's liberal wing, says she is in excellent health, even lifting weights despite having cracked a pair of ribs again, and plans to stay several more years on the bench. In a Reuters interview late on Tuesday, she vowed to resist any pressure to retire that might come from liberals who want to ensure that Democratic President Barack Obama can pick her successor before the November 2016 presidential election.

A judge is allowing a San Diego-area school district to teach yoga, rejecting the claims of disgruntled parents who called it an effort to promote Eastern religion. Yoga is a religious practice, but not the way that it is taught by the Encinitas Union School District at its nine campuses, San Diego Superior Court Judge John S. Meyer said in Monday’s ruling. Meyer said the school district stripped classes of all cultural references including the Sanskrit language. He noted that the lotus position was renamed the “crisscross applesauce” pose.