Free Republic

We have the first opinion, from Justice Jackson in Rudisill v. McDonough. 8 The vote is 7-2, with a dissent by Thomas joined by Alito. This is a case about education benefits for veterans and whether the veteran can access benefits under the Post-9/11 Veterans Act without being subject to limits imposed by the Montgomery GI Bill. The Court holds that service members who, through separate periods of service, accrue benefits under both bills, can use either one, in any order, up to a 48-month aggregate cap. Kavanaugh files a concurring opinion that Barrett joins. Decision is here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-888_1b8e.pdf The...

From Amy Howe at Scotusblog.com "We're expecting one or more opinions in argued cases this morning. As is almost always the case, we don't know how many opinions we'll get or which ones. We are only waiting on two decisions from October, and they're both significant ones: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association, and Alexander v. SC Conference of the NAACP. As our regular readers know, the parties in the SC case had originally asked the court to act by January 1, but the lower court in the case ruled late last month that the congressional district...

SCOTUS issued opinions at 10:00 this morning on the following cases: We have two opinions, apparently. The first is from Justice Jackson, in McElrath v. Georgia. It is unanimous. McElrath v. Georgia, No. 22-721 [Arg: 11.28.2023] Issue(s): Whether the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibits a second prosecution for a crime of which a defendant was previously acquitted. The court holds that the jury's verdict that McElrath was not guilty of "malice murder" by reason of insanity constituted an acquittal for double jeopardy purposes despite any inconsistency with the jury's other verdicts. The state court's decision is reversed...

Harvard University has been ranked the worst school for free speech in the U.S. - with the Ivy League institution being awarded zero points out of a possible 100. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression releases a similar list of rankings for American institutions of higher education every year. For 2023, Harvard - which has never performed well by FIRE's standards - was dubbed an 'abysmal' place for free speech. Despite being arguably the most elite academic institution in the country, Harvard's 0-point score was a full 11 points behind the next worst school on the list, fellow Ivy...

Dr. Anthony Fauci said it is not in his lane to say whether or not individuals should be “allowed” to voice opinions on social media that he believes could harm the public, claiming not to “know what the legal or other First Amendment issues are associated with that.” Fauci, during his November 23 deposition as part of the lawsuit lodged by Missouri and Louisiana over the Biden administration and federal officials allegedly colluding with social media companies to censor speech throughout the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, was pressed on his opinion of social media censorship. At one point, he was presented...

As China celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of its Communist Party last week, the Pew Research Center released a new report showing that unfavorable views of Beijing have reached historic highs in 17 advanced economies. As Statista’s Niall McCarty notes, in most places, large majorities of the public also agreed that China is not respecting the personal freedoms of its people. Views of China are broadly negative across most of the world’s advanced economies including approximately three-quarters of respondents in Japan, Sweden, Australia, South Korea and the United States. While overall views did not change significantly in most...

Yesterday a sort of running gag on alternative names for Biden took place. Like Beijing Biden, my favorite. How about we come up with bumper sticker suggestions? Not for commercial purposes of anyone here, although I don’t doubt some particularly nice ones might be filched for that purpose. No matter. But, it would be interesting to see what sort of pithy (on a bumper sticker afterall) sayings we can create expressing our opinions of what is slithering into the seats of power. I’ve one on my own car now, for several weeks now. Picked it up in a local gun...

I'm interested to know how the atmosphere in your neighborhoods is, especially since one state after another is verifying the Biden presidency. There is so much evidence that when the vote counting stopped on November 3rd, all the states suddenly went from leaning Trump to Biden by the morning. Is no one else outraged? I realize the media will not report, but I knew a lot of democrats who were going to vote for Trump this time around (in spite of the RINOs) and was wondering if all the mail in votes from democrats, who were voting for Trump, AUTOMATICALLY...

We have asked voters here (please, you must have early voted or are definitely going to vote to participate) to tell us what they think about CNN versus a reliable news source elsewhere. Comments will be unedited (by me). Just don't use profanity, which is the rule here, and try to be as coherent as possible.

Over all, there are some really valid points here. Not one politician has died from the virus, lost their job, or had their business looted. Or, missed a haircut. Or wears a mask unless on camera Y’all know you’re being played right? ***************************** Remember how we panicked when we couldn’t find any toilet paper? What are we going to do when we can’t find a cop? ***************************** NYC just defunded the very people that ran into the burning Towers on 9/11. Think about it!!!! ***************************** If we all started wearing masks with “Trump 2020” on them, how long before experts...

An old Cold War joke reports an international poll that asks the same question in every country: “Excuse me, what’s your opinion of the meat shortage?” The Poles say, “What’s meat?” The Chinese say, “What’s opinion?” The Americans say, “What’s shortage?” The Israelis say, “What’s excuse me?” No Chinese has ever run a community school board, a Little League association, or a volunteer fire brigade. For the past 2,500 years, and probably the past 5,000, orders in China have flowed downward from the top, through a vertical hierarchy. Everyone in the U.S. has an opinion about politics–we have to choose...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to visit President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.

Students at the University of Chicago have been warned not to expect safe spaces or trigger warnings in the wake of several disrupted events at the institution at the hands of protesters. University officials are said to have told first-year students starting in the fall of its commitment to freedom of expression, saying it wanted civility and mutual respect but that it would still seek out ideas or opinions that were unpopular. The move comes after three high-profile incidents this year in which speakers invited to the university were interrupted or shut down and amid a trend of increasing political...

Donald Trump is doing Harry Houdini’s act. In the 1890s, Houdini was famous for performing a trick he called “Metamorphosis.” The magician’s hands would be tied securely behind his back and he’d climb into a sack that was tied at the top with a knotted rope. Then the bag with Houdini inside was placed in a wooden trunk, which was locked and secured with leather straps. Houdini’s wife, Bess, his assistant, would draw a curtain around the locked trunk and step inside. The audience heard her clap her hands once, twice, three times — and on the third clap Houdini...

The week that was supposed to see multiple candidates drop out of the race for the Republican nomination saw none drop as all 15 candidates qualified for the South Carolina ballot by the September 30, 2015 deadline. For the first time in a long time, the media isn’t talking about a candidate that has dropped out. Donald Trump appeared on “60 Minutes” in a wide-ranging interview. During that interview Trump came out with new policy positions, many of which raised eyebrows. Will Lindsey Graham be the only U.S. Senator not on the stage at the CNBC debate at the end...

Here is yet more information, for those who miss the Rapture and are here after the event. This is for people, not any particular congregation of people. Please, think about it ...

1.“Catholics worship statues.” This stereotype is painful to hear. Not only is this completely false, but it is ludicrous. Despite the fact that there are 801 millions Protestants world-wide, according to the Pew Research Center, my rant will be geared towards our brothers and sisters in the United States. In this country, approximately 51.5% of people are Protestant Christians. Realistically, most of these families have pictures in their home, which is completely normal, right? Right. They have pictures of their loved ones, both living and deceased. Is it not hypocritical then to say that Catholics are idol worshipers, when these...

Within Roman Catholicism (and within some other churches as well) there are prayers that are made for, through, and to the dead. We, as Reformed believers, reject all three of these categories but on different grounds. In discussing these issues with Roman Catholics it may be useful to be able to understand the different categories and to explain why it is that we reject each. We should pray for the living, to the living and true God, through the merits and intercession of Christ alone. 1. Prayers For the Dead In Roman Catholicism, there is a belief in Purgatory. Although...

As hoosiermama requested, these are the opinions in the Halbig v. Burwell case. http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/10125254D91F8BAC85257D1D004E6176/$file/14-5018-1503850.pdf

In the book "Public Opinion", Walter Lippmann writes the following: (Page 355) It is a problem of provoking feeling in the reader, of inducing him to feel a sense of personal identification with the stories he is reading. News which does not offer this opportunity to introduce oneself into the struggle which it depicts cannot appeal to a wide audience. The audience must participate in the news, much as it participates in the drama, by personal identification. Just as everyone holds his breath when the heroine is in danger, as he helps Babe Ruth swing his bat, so in subtler...