Free Republic

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...

WASHINGTON — Paul Ryan is under pressure to drop his support for revising U.S. immigration laws: His adversaries are running television attack ads against him and warning of a primary challenge to the Wisconsin Republican congressman. Ryan is risking a "showdown with the tea party," said Bob Dane, an opposition leader, in reference to the anti-tax movement that backs primary challenges to some incumbents. The effort to make him switch his position isn't working: Ryan says he is committed to passing a law to allow 11 million undocumented immigrants to eventually become U.S. citizens. His conviction — dating to his...

Janet Murguia, the president of the National Council of La Raza, used her speech to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech on Saturday to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. Speaking at the Realize the Dream March and Rally days before the 50th anniversary of King's speech, Murguia said, "We march so that everyone knows that true justice must include enacting comprehensive immigration reform." She also said Americans should march for illegal immigrants who live "in the shadows" and who "live in fear every day of their lives because they are undocumented." Murguia also...

Thousands are expected to gather for several events in Washington, D.C., over the next week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, but remembering and honoring the past isn’t the only objective on the agenda. Immigrant rights advocates are planning to use the commemoration as an opportunity to rally for changes to immigration law that offer a pathway to citizenship for those living in the country illegally. Groups such as The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the National Council...

Who cares if jurors have no idea what's going on? The wave of politically-correct "progress" must roll on. And discrimination against people who don't speak English simply won't be tolerated. CBS Las Vegas reports: The New Mexico Supreme Court is cautioning trial courts and lawyers that citizens who don’t speak English have the right to serve on juries.The court issued the admonition in a ruling that upholds an Albuquerque man’s convictions for murder and other crimes in the bludgeoning death of his girlfriend and a subsequent armed robbery and stabbing. Michael Samora’s appeal argued that his convictions should be reversed because...

President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder met with top civil rights leaders Monday at the White House to hash out a path forward on voting rights after the Supreme Court struck down a central provision of the Voting Rights Act. Activists emerging from the meeting said they were encouraged by the comments made by the president and administration officials in the "candid" meeting. "We were assured by the president and the attorney general they will aggressively fight to protect the right of all Americans to vote," said Rev. Al Sharpton. He said there was a "wound in the Voting...

Rep. Paul D. Ryan might have just given away the road map for House consideration of immigration reform. “Tentatively, in October, we’re going to vote on a border security bill, an interior enforcement bill, a bill for legal immigration,” the Wisconsin Republican and Budget Committee chairman told constituents at a district town hall event Friday, according to a report by the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. Ryan also reportedly said negotiations were underway for the chamber to vote on legislation that would provide undocumented immigrants with “probationary” visas while they waited a minimum of 15 years to attain citizenship.

(CNSNews.com) – If food is love, then first lady Michelle Obama says we are “loving ourselves and our kids to death.” In remarks to the National Council of La Raza in New Orleans on Tuesday, Mrs. Obama remarked that healthy eating is first and foremost a “community issue.” “And see, that’s where it gets complicated, because that's where it gets personal and emotional,” she said. “Because the truth is, for so many of us, food is love. I mean, it is no coincidence. Applause for food is love.” “It is no coincidence that the kitchen is the central gathering place...

NEW ORLEANS — Latinos gathered here this week for a major annual convention said they would use their new political influence to press the House of Representatives for a vote this year on a broad immigration bill and mobilize support for House Republicans who take the risk of backing it. More than 5,000 Latinos from community groups came to the conference of NCLR, the nation’s largest Hispanic organization, which is also known as the National Council of La Raza. Facing fading momentum in Washington on immigration, the leaders said they were heading to the fight this fall with their rank...

Illinois Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez, one of the seven House members working on a bipartisan immigration reform proposal, spoke before the National Council of La Raza’s (NCLR‘s) immigration town hall during the organization’s annual convention, saying he believes the House has enough legislators to support a reform bill. “We found the 50 Republicans needed to pass immigration reform, now we need to get it done,” said Gutierrez. The Congressman urged Boehner to let this group of Republicans join Democrats and not insist on a majority support for reform, like he is insisting on.

We have heard a lot about the new immigration bill that has cleared the Senate and is now with the House of Representatives. I have written some about the bill, but not nearly as extensive as other bloggers and reporters. Having said that, it seems clear to me that we are in the process of having another massive piece of legislation shoved down our throats. The most notable time that happened was with Obamacare and we can all see how that is working out. Layer upon layer of bureaucratic regulation that does nothing but add burdens of cost to the...

A former senior policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza supervised the drafting of a U.S. Senate bill, passed on June 27, that would give an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship if the House of Representatives goes along. And La Raza figures to enlarge its budget significantly, thanks to slush funds buried deep in the legislation. A bombshell report published Thursday by Investor's Business Daily shows that the immigration reform bill would set aside hundreds of millions of dollars for La Raza and other liberal immigrants' rights groups, which the federal government would contract...

But buried deep within the immigration bill are hidden multimillion-dollar slush funds for left-wing nonprofit groups to provide services to the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants now in the U.S.

The following dreck appeared in the opinion section of the July 2nd, 2013 edition of The Miami Herald : *** "With the Supreme Court’s historic rulings on DOMA and Proposition 8, as well as the generational shift on civil marriage equality, it is clear that same-sex marriage will one day be a reality in Florida and the rest of the nation. It’s just a question of time. Until then, religious justifications and definitions of marriage will continue to be used in opposition to civil same-sex marriage. Less than 50 years ago, similar religious and moral justifications for prohibiting civil interracial...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Connor in Norwood, Massachusetts. Connor, I'm glad you waited. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hi. CALLER: Thanks, Rush. You're nice to have me on. RUSH: You bet, sir. CALLER: Excellent. So there's press release yesterday. La Raza is joining up with the NAALCP saying they want the DOJ to take action on this case, which I presume is probably civil rights charges, though, they don't say it. I was wondering what you think of La Raza and why they're not standing up for Zimmerman. RUSH: Well, that's not all that hard to understand. La Raza is a...

Reaction following the verdict of George Zimmerman, who was acquitted on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges on Saturday in last year’s killing of Trayvon Martin, was swift.... But Latino groups have been largely silent on the matter – choosing to remain in the sidelines of an issue that has gripped the nation. The groups were in a tricky spot, some said. Zimmerman, who is Latino and white, killed an unarmed black teenager – sparking racial tension throughout the country. If the Latino groups attacked the verdict, experts said, they would be taking a stand against one of their own. If...

Rick Perry has announced that he will not seek reelection in 2014. When he leaves office, Perry will have served as governor of Texas for 13 years (the longest such tenure ever, I believe) and, as John Fund notes, he has a fine record. Perry kept taxes low and business regulation reasonable, and it is no coincidence that approximately 30 percent of new private-sector job creation during the last decade occurred in Texas. Perry will also be remembered for his extremely weak run for the presidency. His lack of fluency and failure to remember his own talking points cost him...

The Talk Shows July 7th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Jack Reed, D-R.I.; Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Egyptian reform leader Mohammed ElBaradei; Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.; Janet Murguia, president and CEO, National Council of La Raza; Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.THIS WEEK (ABC): President George W. Bush and Laura Bush; Egypt's ambassador to the United States, Mohamed...

In the winter of 2010, Virginia national Republican committeeman Morton Blackwell, president of the Leadership Institute and key conservative power broker, stared down 50 of his friends on behalf of Marco Rubio. “I asked them to raise their hands,” Blackwell recounts. Did they think Rubio’s primary campaign against the liberal Republican Charlie Crist was one of the most important Senate races of the year? Yes. Were they impressed by Rubio? Definitely, yes. Would they join Blackwell in contributing $1,000 to Rubio’s campaign? A lot of hands raised, but Blackwell peered into the eyes of those who wouldn’t, until many of...

On Andrea Tantaros radio show last week, conservative columnist and author Pat Buchanan warned of an unintended consequence of the immigration reform bill, a bill which doesn’t place a high priority on assimilation. According to Tantaros, her previous guest, former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, said that the immigration legislation funnels money to so-called community organizing groups like La Raza with the idea of teaching immigrants “American history, the Constitution and civic participation.” That leaves open the possibility of activist groups teaching with a partisan slant — and impedes assimilation. Buchanan, author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America...