Free Republic

TOLEDO, Ohio, August 14, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Judge C. Allen McConnell is a Christian. As such, he said he could not officiate a homosexual "wedding," because it would go against the teachings of his religion. Now, the Ohio Supreme Court advisory board says McConnell's position violates judicial ethics and that all Ohio Christian judges must relinquish their religious freedom and perform same-sex "marriages." When he refused to marry two lesbians last month, the 71-year-old Toledo judge apologized to the women, and they were "married" a few minutes later by another judge. But McConnell also officially asked for the Ohio Supreme Court's...

The Connecticut Supreme Court Thursday ruled that the state's death penalty law, as it now stands, is unconstitutional and it barred the execution of the 11 state prison inmates now on death row. The law in question was enacted in 2012. It barred the "prospective" execution of those convicted of capital offenses after the date of enactment, but permitted the execution of those convicted before.

Maine’s highest court on Tuesday rejected a national anti-gay marriage group’s latest bid to shield the identities of the donors who contributed to its effort to defeat the state’s gay marriage law in 2009. The National Organization for Marriage had sought permission to delay submitting a campaign finance report that the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices ordered it to file last year when it fined the group $50,250 for its involvement in overturning the law supporting same-sex marriage six years ago. But the Maine Supreme Judicial Court said Tuesday that NOM can’t put off filing the report...

How do you know when a presidential candidate is being deceptive? No, silly, not when his or her lips are moving. Candidates often tell the truth -- like when they say they want your vote or your money. Moving lips are not a reliable clue. So what is? Any statement that envisions an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. _Politicians often act as though the Constitution is a sacred text handed down from heaven, like the Bible. Unlike the Bible, though, they have all sorts of recommendations for improving it. These proposals fall into two general categories: hopeless fantasies and pathetic...

Are the nation’s Ivy League schools giving short shrift to conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices when they confer honorary degrees? A survey by one professor suggests the answer is yes, and that the reason is ideology. Of the 14 honorary degrees bestowed by Ivy League institutions to living justices, 12 went to those on the high court’s left side, said ...legal scholar John McGinnis of Northwestern University School of Law. The two exceptions, from Brown and Yale, went to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a moderate... Ginsburg, perhaps the court’s most liberal justice, is the record holder with honorary degrees from...

Judge: Citizens United Must Disclose Donor Information to NY NEW YORK — Jul 27, 2015 A nonprofit conservative organization advocating for less government must disclose information about its major donors to New York's attorney general if it wants to solicit money in the state, a judge said Monday. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein said it appeared that Citizens United will not succeed in a lawsuit it brought on First Amendment grounds to try to block disclosures of the information to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, including names, addresses and the total contributions of major donors. The judge noted that there is...

Liberals have won a string of victories on gay marriage and health care reform this year, but a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds a large majority of Americans are unhappy with where the nation is headed on social issues. Sixty-three percent of people say they are uncomfortable with the country’s overall direction on social issues these days; four in ten feel “strongly” uncomfortable about the nation’s changes. The downbeat results in the aftermath of a series of landmark Supreme Court rulings earlier this summer runs parallel to how people see the nation’s overall direction—65 percent say it’s on the...

His remarks at the 9th Circuit Judicial Conference were his first public comments since he wrote the decision last month that put an end to same-sex marriage bans in 14 states. Kennedy said. "We spend that capital of trust, and we have to rebuild that capital. We have to put new deposits, new substance into this reservoir of trust."

A federal judge has ordered the Patent and Trademark Office to cancel registration of the Washington Redskins' trademark, ruling that the team name may be disparaging to Native Americans. The ruling Wednesday by Judge Gerald Bruce Lee affirms an earlier finding by an administrative appeal board.

WASHINGTON -- If you dutifully read the weekend newspapers and watched the Sunday morning gasbags on television, I suspect you departed the chaos with a terrible headache. Possibly you departed for the bar. Typical of the news stories was one The Washington Post headlined: "GOP Struggles For Footing As Cultural Ground Shifts Leftward." Who was doing the shifting? Well, a couple of delusional Supreme Court justices supported by a homicidal maniac seated in someone's backyard flying the Confederate flag over his puny shoulder and a narcissistic self-promoter who recently changed his/her name to Caitlyn. Such are the dynamic forces driving...

<p>Could Barack Obama's great week mark a turning point in his poll numbers?</p> <p>After months of stagnant approval ratings, a new CNN/ORC poll finds that for the first time in more than two years, 50% of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling the presidency. And his overall ratings are bolstered by increasingly positive reviews of his treatment of race relations and the economy.</p>

A court ruling striking down a Pennsylvania law that made it easier for gun-rights advocates like the National Rifle Association to challenge local gun ordinances is drawing strong reaction from both sides of the issue. A spokesman for Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter says Thursday’s Commonwealth Court ruling that the law is unconstitutional will allow municipalities to pursue common-sense gun safety requirements. Sen. Daylin Leach is one of five Democrats who joined in the challenge of the law. He says municipalities that repealed their gun ordinances because of the law can now restore them. An attorney for four pro-gun groups dismisses...

Judges have taken advantage of European and human rights laws to take power over democratically-elected politicians, one of the heads of the judiciary has said. A rebellious generation of lawyers who grew up in the “disrespectful” 1960s and 70s has exploited the weakness of politicians to build up its own influence, Lord Neuberger argued. In a speech made public yesterday, Lord Neuberger, president of the Supreme Court, highlighted the role of unelected judges in taking political decisions when elected politicians are too scared to act. In the speech, given to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, Lord Neuberger said...

“Keep up the great work,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch told LGBT activists at a Lambda Legal reception in Washington on Thursday. “We are finally witnessing the cascade of equality…that will forever reshape this country,” she said in her prepared remarks. She told the activists that they have the “enthusiastic partnership” of both the Justice Department and the president: “President Obama and I are both passionate about this cause and deeply devoted to this mission, and this administration is committed to invigorating the values of equality and opportunity that you have long demanded for all Americans.” Lynch noted that many LGBT...

Gay "marriage" has been playing a huge, huge part in this destruction of liberty Sometime later this month, possibly as early as next week, the Supreme Court of the United States of America is going to impose gay “marriage” onto every state in the union. They will not do so because there are any sound or convincing moral, ethical, legal, or (especially) constitutional arguments in favor of gay “marriage.” Rather, they will do so because the political class in America wants it, and as recent experience has shown, the political class nearly always gets what it wants, regardless of what...

Guam has become the first U.S. territory to recognize gay marriage after a federal judge struck down the prohibition. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances M. Tydingco-Gatewood issued the decision after a hearing Friday morning local time. It goes into effect at 8 a.m. Tuesday, when gay couples can begin applying for marriage licenses, the Pacific Daily News reported. Attorneys representing the government of Guam said in a May 18 court document that “should a court strike current Guam law, they would respect and follow such a decision.” Loretta M. Pangelinan and Kathleen M. Aguero filed the lawsuit in April...

Wisconsin voters last month approved a constitutional amendment giving justices the power to select the chief justice. Conservative-leaning justices then elected Justice Patience Roggensack as chief justice. But Abrahamson contends she remains chief justice and is suing in federal court.

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says the United States should rethink the notion that a president must enforce laws the Supreme Court declares constitutional. Carson said Sunday “we need to discuss” the court’s long-held power to review laws passed by Congress. That authority was established in the 1803 landmark case Marbury v. Madison. […] Carson has said a president is obliged to carry out laws passed by Congress, but not what he called “judicial laws” that emanate from courts. …

The Irish Catholic boy who came of age in Sacramento after World War II is an unlikely candidate to be the author of the Supreme Court’s major gay rights rulings. But those who have known Justice Anthony Kennedy for decades and scholars who have studied his work say he has long stressed the importance of valuing people as individuals. And he seems likely also to have been influenced in this regard by a pillar of the Sacramento legal community, a closeted gay man who hired Kennedy as a law school instructor and testified on his behalf at his high court...

Talk about blaming the victims! Outrage is growing over a Kentucky judge who let a home invader who robbed a family at gunpoint off with probation after a openly criticizing the victims for letting their child be afraid of black men because of the crime. Judge Olu Stevens of the Jefferson Circuit Court appeared even more offended by the victim impact statements offered by the family who was robbed than he was by the fact that a crime had been committed at all.