Free Republic

A woman who hit three teenage boys on bikes while driving, killing one and injuring the other two, is suing the dead teen for the emotional trauma she suffered. Mother-of-three Sharlene Simon, 42, is also suing the other two boys and the dead boy’s family for $1.35 million in damages due to her psychological suffering, including depression, anxiety, irritability and post-traumatic stress.

....Thousands and thousands of people like [the woman described above].are serving punishingly long sentences in federal prison based on draconian policies that were a relic of the "tough on crime" antidrug laws of the '80s and '90s. Thirty years after skyrocketing urban violence and drug use sparked politicians to impose longer and longer sentences for drug crimes, America now incarcerates a higher rate of its population than any other country in the world. This dubious record has finally provoked a bipartisan backlash against such stiff penalties. The old laws are slowly being repealed. Now, in his final years in office,...

by John Urban | Top Right News Advocates for illegal aliens were stunned this week as the Florida Supreme Court barred an illegal alien from joining the Florida bar to practice law. The La Raza lobby was especially stunned after the California Supreme Court, just months ago, did the exact opposite, as we noted at the time, admitting all qualified applicants as attorneys, including “an applicant who is not lawfully present in the United States” — illegal aliens. And they were convinced this was a wave that would sweep other states, as in-state tuition has done. Not so fast, said Florida's top...

When the Teamsters Local 214, which represents public workers in the city of Dearborn, instituted a new policy that penalized employees who resigned from the union, the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation was there. Three employees, Shawn Koskyn, Maria Santiago-Powell and Greg Andrews, risked retaliation for taking a stand against this blatantly illegal policy. The policy forced non-union members to pay fees starting at $150 to file a workplace grievance, while union members were exempt from the new fees. The policy flew in the face of seven decades of Supreme Court precedent and five decades of Michigan labor law. Unions are...

A public petition asking to broaden the legislative limits of self-defense has been rejected by the Interior and Justice Ministries, but activists intend to continue the campaign and promise pickets near the government HQ and rallies across the country. The petition entitled “My home is my fortress” has collected over 100,000 signatures of Russian citizens on a dedicated web-site which officially gave it legislative legs. If the draft was passed any action of a citizen inside his or her home against an intruder would be qualified as necessary self-defense, which, in turn, could lead to the withdrawal of murder charges...

On 8 April at Birmingham Magistrates' Court, District Judge Ian Strongman heard a trial of racially aggravated harassment against Tim Burton, 61, a computing consultant from Birmingham and the Radio Officer of the British party Liberty GB. The reason for the charge was three tweets he sent over a period of a month from early June to early July 2013 to Tell Mama UK, a helpline organisation for victims of anti-Muslim attacks that also serves to monitor and collect data on them, whose director is prominent Muslim Fiyaz Mughal. Investigations by The Telegraph’s Andrew Gilligan discovered that, in the...

The nation has a new state law that goes both ways, it seems. And the interesting thing about the law is that even its supporters think it doesn’t go all the way. Last week, Mississippi governor Phil Bryant signed the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act (http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2014/pdf/history/SB/SB2681.xml) that lets the state’s citizens and businesses challenge laws they believe substantially conflict with their religious beliefs. If this sounds familiar, it should. Several states have considered similar bills recently. In February, Arizona governor Jan Brewer vetoed a bill (http://legiscan.com/AZ/text/SB1062/id/912244) that raised a ruckus across the land because it would have let business owners...

How many people are actually locked up in the United States? Well, as it turns out, it’s hard to say. Inconsistent and fragmentary data has made piecing together the “whole pie” of U.S. federal, state, local and other types of confinement data difficult. Lucky for us, the Prison Policy Initiative has released a comprehensive graphic that aggregates the available information and helps to explain the complicated and expansive U.S. correctional system. From the collected data, the Initiative found that the incarceration system in this country “hold[s] more than 2.4 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2,259 juvenile...

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that he has a “vast amount” of discretion in how the Justice Department prosecutes the laws that are on the books.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says illegal immigrants endure “heartbreaking” conditions, but wouldn’t agree with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush that they aren’t committing a felony. “We’re a nation of immigrants, we need to celebrate that, but at the same time, rule of law matters,” Cruz said Monday on CNN’s “The Lead.”

Russian lawmakers approve bill making Holocaust denial illegal Russian lawmakers approved a bill that would make Holocaust denial illegal. The lower house of the Russian Parliament, or Duma, passed the measure Friday on its first reading, the Voice of Russia reported Monday, making it illegal to deny the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal and punishing the “rehabilitation of Nazism.” Those found guilty of the crime could be fined up to $8,300 or imprisoned up to three years. Public officials or media personalities would be fined nearly double or face up to five years in prison. The bill also needs the...

Can the Supreme Court duck the central issue in the Hobby Lobby case? By Phil Lawler - March 28, 2014 6:18 PM In the the Hobby Lobby case, a key question facing the Supreme Court is whether a corporate enterprise qualifies for the same religious-freedom protections as an individual. At first glance that seems a very simple question. It is a long-established principle of Anglo-American law, set forth clearly in Blackstone’s Commentaries even before the American Revolution, that for legal purposes, a corporation is a person. For purposes of affirmative-action programs, the US government recognizes certain corporations as “minority” contractors,...

Is All Taxation Equal Under the Law Does the US Tax Code treats healthcare insurance premiums differently between employer paid premiums and individual paid premiums? Manufactures began offering free healthcare insurance as a way to attract employees and avoid violating World War Two Wage and Price Controls. Free always guarantees a demand. Later, perhaps 1948, the courts declared that employer paid healthcare insurance premiums were not taxable income.

“I’ve had two years to think about this,” Judge Cynthia Brim said Friday downtown before the seven-member Illinois Courts Commission. “I have a different understanding and perspective of my condition.” The commission is considering a complaint filed by the state’s Judicial Inquiry Board. A board attorney argued Friday that Brim remains “mentally unable to perform her duties.” But Brim — who has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type and has been hospitalized multiple times for mental illness since 1993 — said she now knows she must carefully monitor her condition and keep taking medication regularly. “You’re not expecting to...

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday from opposing legal counsel on the HHS contraception mandate cases. The media consensus appears to be that the justices were hard on the mandate and appear likely to issue a narrow ruling exempting “closely-held” corporations, which both of the plaintiffs are, while leaving open the question of whether or not publicly-traded corporations have First Amendment rights. The distinction is relevant since closely-held corporations are directly operated by their owners and are fairly limited in the number of shareholders they typically have, while public corporations have hundreds or thousands of shareholders. The...

Honolulu police officers have urged lawmakers to keep an exemption in state law that allows undercover officers to have sex with prostitutes during investigations, touching off a heated debate. Authorities say they need the legal protection to catch lawbreakers in the act. Critics, including human trafficking experts and other police, say it's unnecessary and can further victimize sex workers, many of whom have been forced into the trade.

A few weeks back, I was able to give a message at my church on Wed. night. The Spirit had been working on me for weeks and I couldn't even sleep thinking God had given me a warning about our country. The image was so vivid, It actually frightened me about a man walking a tightrope, shaking his fist at God. I decided to write this down from recollection of my notes. I was sick of being told I couldn't judge or I would be judged, and politics have no place in church. I think many preachers keep quiet to...

"I need money". Greedy illegal alien Roy Ortiz is suing those who saved his life.- by Brian Hayes | Top Right NewsLast month we profiled an illegal alien felon who made nearly $200,000 by mass-filing frivolous lawsuits against L.A. restaurants. But that was just a creep trying to game the system, and the system (shamefully) letting him. This is truly disgusting. An illegal alien in Colorado is suing several first responders who took part in rescuing him last September, when he became trapped in his car during a flash flood. You heard that right. They saved Roy Ortiz' life --...

President Obama is threatening to veto a law that would allowCongress to sue him in federal courts for arbitrarily changing or refusing to enforce federal laws because it “violates the separation of powers” by encroaching on his presidential authority.“The power the bill purports to assign to Congress to sue the President over whether he has properly discharged his constitutional obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed exceeds constitutional limitations,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said Wednesday in a statement of administration policy. “Congress may not assign such power to itself, nor may it assign...

A lawyers group has called on Malaysian Airlines to introduce Muslim rules on all flights amidst the current crisis the airline is facing over the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370. The Muslim Lawyers Association of Malaysia has urged for Muslim prayer standards to be put into place before flights, as well as for all female flight attendants to be dressed according to Islamic law.