Free Republic

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (Public Law 114-328) (the “Act”), section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)) (INA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the prevalence and severity of human rights abuse and...

The National Football League is partnering with Morehouse College for a three-day social justice workshop in February inspired by Colin Kaepernick’s activism...Dr. David Wall Rice, associate professor of psychology at Morehouse, designed the curriculum for the workshop through his Identity, Art and Democracy Laboratory. Students selected to participate in the workshop will also take his winter term course Psychology, Sport and Social Justice.

Following the demand of Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, the leaders of the coalition parties on Sunday evening approved the Yisrael Beytenu party’s bill mandating the death penalty for terrorists. The bill will be brought to a preliminary vote in the Knesset plenum. MK Robert Ilatov, Yisrael Beytenu Parliamentary Group Chairman, said, "Today is a historic day in the State of Israel. After years in which the Yisrael Beytenu party has been promoting the death penalty for terrorists and after it was rejected by the Knesset and the government, today the death penalty bill for terrorists has finally been approved by...

§ 600.7 Conduct and accountability. (a) A Special Counsel shall comply with the rules, regulations, procedures, practices and policies of the Department of Justice. He or she shall consult with appropriate offices within the Department for guidance with respect to established practices, policies and procedures of the Department, including ethics and security regulations and procedures. Should the Special Counsel conclude that the extraordinary circumstances of any particular decision would render compliance with required review and approval procedures by the designated Departmental component inappropriate, he or she may consult directly with the Attorney General. (b) The Special Counsel shall not be...

Democrat Lupe Valdez will resign as Dallas County sheriff today to run for governor against incumbent Republican Greg Abbott. "Like so many hardworking Texans, I know it's tough deciding between buying food, finding a decent place to live, and setting aside money for college tuition. Opportunity in Texas ought to be as big as this great state, but it is out of reach for far too many, that's why I'm running for Texas Governor," Valdez said in a statement released by her campaign. "I'm a proud Texas Democrat. I believe good government can make people's lives better, and I intend...

Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) unveiled the Stopping Lawless Actions of Politicians (SLAP) Act on Monday to impose huge fines and jail state and local politicians who obstruct American immigration law. “The American people are rightfully infuriated watching politicians put their open-borders ideology before the rule of law, and the safety of the people they represent. Politicians don’t get to pick and choose what laws to comply with. Americans are dying because politicians sworn to uphold the law refuse to do so,” Congressman Rokita said. “It’s time the federal government gets serious about enforcing immigration laws and holding politicians accountable who...

Kate’s Law and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act continue to languish in the Senate in the wake of a California court’s verdict of “not guilty” for Kate Steinle’s illegal immigrant killer. Both bills passed through the House of Representatives in June. The House passed two immigration reform bills in June, Kate’s Law and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, which marked two of the country’s first steps towards a pro-American immigration policy despite widespread Democrat opposition.

"Petitioner Powell, who had been duly elected to serve in the House of Representatives for the 90th Congress, was denied his seat by the adoption of House Resolution No. 278 which the Speaker had ruled was on the issue of excluding Powell and could be decided by majority vote.

I am in Switzerland this week interacting with and lecturing to students and faculty at the University of Zurich. The subject of our work is the U.S. Constitution and its protections of personal liberty. In most countries, government has begrudgingly granted snippets of personal liberty to keep those who are demanding it at bay. Throughout history, kings and other tyrants have, from time to time, given in to pressures from folks to recognize their natural rights. These instances of "power granting liberty," as the practice has come to be known, usually have come about to avoid further bloodshed. In the...

Two men have become the first gay couple to marry in Germany, on the day gay marriage became legal there. Karl Kreile and Bodo Mende, a couple for 38 years, exchanged their vows at the town hall in Schöneberg, Berlin. Registry offices in several German cities were opening, unusually, on Sunday to allow couples to wed on the first day it was legally possible. Getting married will give gay couples the same tax advantages and adoption rights as heterosexual couples. Germany has allowed same-sex partners to enter into registered partnerships since 2001, but these did not give couples exactly the...

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Pro-life pregnancy centers went to court Friday to try to overturn a new law that they argue requires them to publicly post abortion referrals. During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, attorneys for Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor and the Aloha Pregnancy Care and Counseling Center argued that the law violates their right to free speech and religion because it forces them to post signs that interfere with their faith. "It compels even non-medical pregnancy centers to recite what amounts to a government-scripted advertisement for abortion," said Kevin Connelly, Calvary's attorney. "It forces a church, Calvary...

A Christian man in Pakistan was sentenced to death for blasphemy after he sent a WhatsApp message to a friend that insulted Islam, his lawyer said on Friday. His trial continued for more than a year at the Gujrat Jail, about 200 kilometres from the provincial capital Lahore. Lahore -- A Christian man in Pakistan was sentenced to death for blasphemy after he sent a WhatsApp message to a friend that insulted Islam, his lawyer said on Friday. Nadeem James Masih was charged in July after his friend Yasir Bashir told the police that he sent him a poem on...

For decades, a debate over lifetime appointments in the federal judiciary have pitted those who value freedom from political influence against those who see a need for accountability. The former want to continue the tradition, and the latter want either term limits, retention elections, or a combination of both, as many states have in place now. No serious effort has been made to propose such a system, but perhaps an “exit interview” by the New York Times’ Adam Liptak of retired appellate jurist Richard Posner will prompt one. And it should, as Posner inadvertently makes the best possible case for...

The history of academic criminology is one of grand pronouncements that don’t often prove out in the real world. In the 1960s and 1970s, for example, criminologists demanded that public policy attack the “root causes” of crime, such as poverty and racism. Without solving these problems, they argued, we could not expect to fight crime effectively. On this thinking, billions of taxpayer dollars poured into ambitious social programs—yet crime went up, not down. In the 1970s and 1980s and into the 1990s, as crime rates continued to spike, criminologists proceeded to tell us that the police could do little to...

A federal district judge in San Antonio blocked significant portions of Texas' sanctuary cities ban Wednesday, two days before the law was set to go into effect — a significant blow to Gov. Greg Abbott, who said the state would appeal. In a 94-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia blocked provisions in the law that required local law enforcement departments to comply with federal requests to hold unauthorized immigrants in their custody. He also blocked a part of the law that said local departments couldn't implement policies that would "materially limit" the enforcement of immigration laws.

A federal judge blocked enforcement of much of a “sanctuary cities” law in Texas on Wednesday night, just days before it was set to go into effect. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia blocked portions of Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) requiring local law enforcement departments to comply with federal requests to hold unauthorized immigrants in custody. Also blocked: a provision that stopped local departments from implementing policies that would “materially limit” enforcement of immigration laws, the Dallas News reported.

The Ninth Amendment, also known as the “silent” Amendment, says “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” What does this mean? What makes the Ninth Amendment unique is that it guarantees protection of all our rights even though they may not be specifically mentioned in the Constitution. Just because the document is silent on some natural rights does not mean they do not exist. The Ninth Amendment closes the loophole. James Madison was concerned that any attempt to enumerate fundamental liberties would be incomplete and might...

Paul Shanley, a priest convicted of multiple counts of child rape, has walked free, as reported by FOX8. Shanley, 86, has spent the last 12 years behind bars after being convicted in 2005 of two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child and two counts of rape and abuse of a child, according to the sex offender registry. The Massachusetts man now begins 10 years of supervised probation, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement. Shanley was one of a number of Catholic priests convicted of child rape, the fallout from an infamous Boston Globe investigation...

President Trump drew a round of applause from law enforcement officials on Friday after he took a swipe at mayors who don't let police "do their job." "I've met police that are great police that aren't allowed to do their job because they have a pathetic mayor or a mayor that doesn't know what's going on," Trump said in a speech in Long Island, N.Y., eliciting applause from a crowd of police officers standing behind him. "Were you applauding for someone in particular?" Trump asked with a smile, shaking his head. The jab was interpreted by some as a veiled...

Cook County judges will soon be explicitly required to set affordable bond amounts for defendants who do not pose a danger to the public. Beginning Sept. 18, judges will be prohibited from setting a higher bond than felony defendants can afford to pay. The same rule will apply to misdemeanor cases starting in January. Advocates of bond reform, including Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, applauded the decision. "There is often no clear relationship between the posting of a cash bond and securing the safety of the community or the appearance of a defendant," Foxx said in a statement Monday....