Free Republic

Some senior U.S. officials involved in the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal have privately concluded that a key sanctions relief provision – a concession to Iran that will open the doors to tens of billions of dollars in U.S.-backed commerce with the Islamic regime – conflicts with existing federal statutes and cannot be implemented without violating those laws, Fox News has learned. At issue is a passage tucked away in ancillary paperwork attached to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, as the Iran nuclear deal is formally known. Specifically, Section 5.1.2 of Annex II provides that in...

President Barack Obama held a press conference today to announce signing into law a bill that prevents U.S. media outlets from naming the shooting suspect in any of their news coverage. This is is tyranny. His illegally seized power cannot usurp our first amendment and the rights of the freedom of the press. For years Islamic supremacists like Ground Zero mosque imam Feisal Rauf and others demanded that the media stop reporting on jihad terror because it might cause “islamophobia” (euphemism for opposition to jihad terror). It was unthinkable before Obama. Now that they have their stooge in the White...

For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald’s in New Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. That’s right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits Here are the Stella’s for 2015 !!!! * SEVENTH PLACE * Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store....

Carly Fiorina’s recent interview with Jan Mickelson on WHO Radio on Friday is getting some attention namely because of what she denied. “Here in Iowa when you say Supreme Court decisions are the law of the land that sets us off because Iowans got bludgeoned by court decisions here, and we went through Civics 101 and we don’t accept propositions that court decisions are the law of the land,” Mickelson said. “Actually, with all due respect Jan, I think that is a quote from someone else, not from me. I know there are many Republican candidates, Kasich among them, who...

He slammed his fist on the table in frustration and anger as he told the story of losing his house and business to eminent domain. His wife was startled as the dishes bounced on the jostled table and tears welled up. They felt violated, robbed, abandoned and fearful. “How can this happen in America?” they ask themselves in a daze of disbelief. Last week’s Language of Liberty article was about eminent domain. A practice that is all too often abused by all levels of government. However, eminent domain does have a proper use under the Constitution. As an educational organization,...

A bill to protect Michiganders from being prosecuted for unknowingly violating thousands of state laws and regulations could soon face a vote in a key committee of the Michigan House of Representatives. House Bill 4713 would restore a standard for defining what constitutes criminal liability. The move would affect numerous state statutes, especially regulatory violations. Under mens rea (Latin for ‘the guilty mind’), more than just the act of violating a law must be considered to establish criminal liability; the intent of the accused person also has to be considered. On Sept. 17 the House Oversight Committee held a hearing...

Two of the biggest global challenges of the past decade -- terrorism and the 2008 financial crisis -- have given rise to some well-intentioned legislation that has missed the mark. The U.S. Treasury Department is charged with maintaining the nation's financial health. Things like money laundering and terrorist financing jeopardize that health, but there's so much shady dealing that it's impossible for government bureaucrats to keep up. Nonetheless, rules are passed, and affected parties are expected to be able to show that they've paid some lip service to the new mandates. Compliance is accepted as a cheap substitute for due...

A Saudi businessman has donated $10 million to Yale Law School to establish what school officials hope will become the country's top center for the study of Islamic law. Abdallah S. Kamel made the award after meetings with university representatives including Yale President Peter Salovey. Kamel, chief executive of the Dallah Albaraka Group banking and real estate enterprise in Saudi Arabia, has sponsored a lecture series on Islamic law for the last three years. Yale officials say the Abdallah S. Kamel Center for the Study of Islamic Law and Civilization reflects a growing interest at Yale and other institutions in...

One Third of Americans Would Be Fine with the Military taking over. See story for details

ThereÂ’s much talk of late about Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. She actually stopped issuing all marriage licenses, to avoid the charge of discrimination. SheÂ’s now out of jail, although itÂ’s possible sheÂ’ll be sent back. Among those who are sympathetic to her plight and the religious-liberty implications of the case, many (if not most) still think her decision to refuse to issue licenses was wrong. For example, Russell Moore and Andrew Walker carefully distinguish between private actors (like bakers and florists) and agents of the...

Kim Davis, pictured here with Mike Huckabee and Mat Staver, was freed on Tuesday. Kentucky's Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis—a Democrat—was ordered released from jail today by the federal judge who locked her up for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Judge David Bunning—a Republican—ordered her jailed last week, although no law was passed by Congress and signed by the President of the United States that would force her to issue marriage licenses to individuals and proponents of same-sex intercourse and marriage. Mrs. Davis has broken no law. Basic civics: the Supreme Court cannot make law, only the...

Do you remember Lewis "Scooter" Libby? In 2003, the Department of Justice appointed a special counsel to investigate allegations that Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, unlawfully disclosed the covert status of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Yet Plame may not have been a covert undercover agent, based on the formal government definition of that role. And even if she were, it was widely known at the time that Secretary of State Colin Powell's subordinate, Richard Armitage, had most likely disclosed her status earlier. In other words, Libby was in an Orwellian position of being accused of a crime...

I suspected that there was something inherent in the roots of the word "Matrimony" which would establish it's meaning as being between a man and a woman. I believe a word can be better understood by looking up how it came to us from older languages, and so I consulted an online etymology dictionary. It said the word "Matrimony" is derived from the word "Mater", which means "Mother" in Latin. This is a clear indication that the intended purpose is to begat children.

Opinions are sometimes right, and sometimes wrong. But they aren't law. In the early days of our government, Supreme Court opinions were so insignificant that Congress didn't bother preserving them. Opinions were left to individuals to keep track of, and were not congressionally-funded into official records until 1874, almost a century after our independence. Before Congress stepped in, Court records were printed and kept under copyright by private citizens and reporters, who sold them for profit. Opinions of the Court were kept "loosey-goosey" for decades, and not preserved with certified integrity. Actual statute was held officially and carefully, in order...

The distinctive mark of the American political experiment is that we are a nation of laws, not men. And what we mean by a “law” is something enacted by the elected representatives of the people or by the people themselves, whether at the state level or federal level. A corollary to the maxim that we are a nation of laws is that we are decidedly NOT a nation of “rulings.” A court ruling is not a “law,” it is a “ruling.” It may have the force of law due to the abject acquiescence of a meekly compliant people, but it...

At a time when other states in the US are backing away from the death penalty, Missouri has done the opposite. It is currently executing its death row inmates faster than any other state in the country, at a rate of about one per month. At 21:09 local time on Tuesday evening, Roderick Nunley became the sixth death row inmate executed by the state of Missouri in 2015. He was convicted of the 1989 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Kansas City. His was the latest in a string of executions by the state since 2013. In...

Did our founders, after drafting a Declaration of Independence, fighting a war with England, and then sitting down to pen a national governing document (the Constitution) put in that document the right of a majority of federal judges to make laws for the entire nation? Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk Kim Davis is testing the claim that five unelected Supreme Justices have the authority to overrule a state constitution that she took an oath to uphold and a federal Constitution that says nothing about same-sex marriage. Robert Gagnon, Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and author of The...

Traitors in Government It is time to take a look at both sides of the aisle. Political corruption is at an all time high, and it’s dismissed by the media. It starts at the top with Obama who has pushed an anti-American agenda, and forced the United States towards Third World status. The Cloward-Piven strategy is working to perfection combined with the Saul Alinsky tactics now being used by both sides, The citizens of this once great country are confused, tense and coming to a point where our national pride is seriously at stake. It is my opinion that our...

Relevant to the Kentucky county clerk being put into jail

“How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government”, wrote Henry David Thoreau in his essay on Civil Disobedience. The government we find ourselves living under today is no different than that in which Thoreau described in 1849. Our government solely endeavors to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, while at the same time it looses some of its integrity with every breach of the public’s trust. What has become truly perplexing to those...