Free Republic

The government must consult parliament before invoking Article 50, the High Court has ruled. The court ruled that Prime Minister Theresa May does not have the authority to use the Royal Prerogative to invoke the EU divorce process. The Lord Chief Justice has ruled that the government’s arguments are “contrary to fundamental constitutional principles of the sovereignty of parliament”. He added: “The court does not accept the argument put forward by the government. There is nothing in the text of the 1972 Act to support it.” Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas, sitting with the Master of the Rolls, Sir Terence...

A U.S. Court of Appeals on Friday blocked an effort by Alabama, Georgia and Kansas for voters to furnish proof of citizenship when registering at the polls, which opponents say disenfranchises voters, especially minorities. The decision effectively strikes down a rule that requires voters in the three states to provide proof they are United States citizens. Elsewhere, voters only need swear that they are citizens in order to cast a ballot. "With just weeks to go before a critical presidential election, we are grateful to the court of appeals for stopping this thinly veiled discrimination in its tracks," Chris Carson,...

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- A federal judge on Monday blocked North Dakota's voter identification law after a group of American Indians said it unfairly burdens them - the latest court ruling against voting laws that critics say disproportionately affect minorities. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland issued a temporary restraining order and criticized the state for its 2013 repeal of provisions that let people without valid IDs vote if someone vouched for them or if they signed an affidavit swearing they were a qualified voter.

A federal judge blocked a controversial Mississippi law that would’ve gone into effect Friday, which would’ve allowed businesses and government employees to deny services to gay and transgender people based on religious grounds. U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves issued a 60-page opinion in which he described the Mississippi law, known as House Bill 1523, as “state-sanctioned discrimination.” “There are almost endless explanations for how HB 1523 condones discrimination against the LGBT community, but in its simplest terms it denies LGBT citizens equal protection under the law,” he wrote. He cited many

A federal judge in Brooklyn, in an extraordinary opinion that calls for courts to pay closer attention to the impact of felony convictions on people’s lives, sentenced a young woman in a drug case to probation rather than prison, saying on Wednesday that the collateral consequences she would face as a felon were punishment enough. The judge, Frederic Block of Federal District Court, said that the broad range of such collateral consequences served no “useful function other than to further punish criminal defendants after they have completed their court-imposed sentences.” The judge noted that there were nearly 50,000 federal and...

Update: Hall ignored the deadline and proceeded to issue unconstitutional marriage licenses. As reported by The Denver Post: "This was not a hard decision. I'm proud to do this for my community," Hall said Tuesday afternoon, adding, "it's not about politics. This is about people who love each other." Hall's office has issued 88 marriage licenses to same-sex couples since Wednesday, when the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals struck Utah's ban on gay marriage.

If there is one overarching observation that I could make from the discussions I've seen on the internet about Kim Davis' recent imprisonment, it is that there are a powerful lot of uninformed, inarticulate, cognitively-challenged folks out there on the information superhighway. It seems like any place you go where there is an article about Kim Davis and her refusal to issue illegal marriage licenses to homosexual couples, you will quickly find yourself surrounded by mouth-breathers raucously asserting that she "deserved to go to jail" for "breaking the law" and "violating their constitutional rights." Even "conservative" establishmentarian pundits like George...

When the Supreme Court ruled by the narrowest possible margin that Kentucky's definition of marriage is unconstitutional, the court's decision was qualified by its assurance that religious freedom would not be jeopardized. "The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection," the court solemnly intoned on June 26. In the Appalachian hills of eastern Kentucky, one brave woman is testing whether Justice Anthony Kennedy really meant it when he wrote those words. But the local federal judge for eastern Kentucky, David Bunning, has wrongly sent Kim Davis to jail for her beliefs, without respecting or accommodating...

PORTLAND, Ore. – A Marion County judge has refused to perform same-sex marriages and has asked his clerks to refer couples seeking same-sex marriages to other county judges. Judge Vance Day, a circuit court judge and former chairman of the Oregon Republican Party, is now facing an ethics investigation over that decision, according to the judge’s spokesman. Spokesman Patrick Korten said Day instructed his staff to tell couples that the judge will not perform same-sex marriages. The staffers were instructed to refer same-sex couples to other Marion County judges willing to issue them a marriage license. Korten said Day took...

Grayson, KY – Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, will join supporters at a rally outside the Carter County Detention Center on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. ET.  The “I’m with Kim” Rally is organized by Gov. Mike Huckabee. Liberty Counsel is willing to join any group that stands in support of Kim Davis. “Not long ago 75 percent of Kentuckians passed the state’s marriage amendment. Today a Christian is imprisoned for believing what the voters affirmed, that marriage is between a man and a woman,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “Five people on the...

Kim Davis released the following statement a few days ago: I have worked in the Rowan County Clerk’s office for 27 years as a Deputy Clerk and was honored to be elected as the Clerk in November 2014, and took office in January 2015. I love my job and the people of Rowan County. I have never lived any place other than Rowan County. Some people have said I should resign, but I have done my job well. This year we are on track to generate a surplus for the county of 1.5 million dollars. In addition to my desire...

There was no halftime show under the Friday night lights at Mississippi’s Brandon High School — the marching band had been benched. The band was ordered off the field because the Christian hymn “How Great Thou Art” was a part of their halftime show — in violation of a federal court order.“The Rankin County School Board and District Office are very saddened students will not be able to perform their halftime show they have worked so hard on this summer,” the district wrote in a statement to the Clarion Ledger newspaper. In 2013 a student sued the district over a...

A temporary restraining order has been issued preventing an anti-abortion group from releasing any video of leaders of a California company that provides fetal tissue to researchers. The group is the same one that previously shot viral covert video of a Planned Parenthood leader discussing the sale of aborted fetuses for research. The Los Angeles Superior Court order issued Tuesday prohibits the Center for Medical Progress from releasing any video of three high-ranking StemExpress officials taken at a restaurant in May. It appears to be the first legal action prohibiting the release of a video from the organization.

In Justice Scalia’s dissenting opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges he said, “It is of no special importance to me what the law says about marriage. It is of overwhelming importance, however, who it is that rules me. Today’s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of nine lawyers on the Supreme Court.” Whatever one’s views on marriage, our Founders made it clear that the federal government is a child of the states -- not the other way around. The Supreme Court’s decision to legislate from the bench on a matter rightly...

Michigan Same-Sex Couples Celebrate As They Wed Among Activists And Lawyers Amanda Holpuch and Ryan Felton 27 June 2015 Shortly after 10am on Friday, Chris Berghuis was barraged by texts from his partner, Derek Davis, asking: “Are you here yet?” The destination was the Washtenaw County Clerk’s office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where marriage licenses were being issued to both same-sex and heterosexual couples after the state’s marriage ban had been struck down in a pivotal supreme court ruling that brought marriage equality to the entire United States. Davis filled out the forms while his soon-to-be-husband drove from work, ecstatic...

In his weekly presidential report card, pollster John Zogby found that President Obama's legacy was greatly improved by two key Supreme Court decisions, endorsing same sex marriage and Obamacare, and passage of controversial trade agreements. "There have been some bad weeks and some less than stellar ones. This one was the kind of week that most presidents can only dream about." A GOP Congress passed the largest free trade pact with the largest market in the world. "The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold 'state' subsidies under Obamacare." "A combination of major southern states and retailers vowed to stop manufacturing, selling,...

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...

At any other time, this statement would be wholly unremarkable. In the thick of a GOP presidential primary, though? Right after the the hottest hot-button social issue of ‘em all has gone nuclear? When Mike Huckabee’s vowing some sort of second American revolution in defiance of the Court’s ruling? Kinda newsy. “I believe that marriage, as the key to strong family life, is the most important institution in our society and should be between one man and one woman. People who disagree with the traditional definition of marriage have the right to change their state laws. That is the right...

(snip) “The Court has long held the right to marry is protected by the Constitution,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the opinion. “For example, Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 12, invalidated bans on interracial unions, and Turner v. Safley, 482 U. S. 78, 95, held that prisoners could not be denied the right to marry.” Kennedy wrote that four principles “demonstrate that the reasons marriage is fundamental under the Constitution apply with equal force to same-sex couples.” “The first premise of this Court’s relevant precedents is that the right to personal choice regarding marriage is inherent in the concept...

The Supreme Court has struck down state bans on gay marriage and has ruled 5-4 same sex marriage is a constitutional right. Same sex couples can now marry in all 50 states and states. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion and Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the dissent, joined by Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas. From the opinion: Held: The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State. (4) The...