Free Republic

Ted Lieu accidentally revealed the truth during the impeachment trial Thursday: Democrats are using the military to enforce political speech. Washington, D.C. looks like East Germany because President Trump won’t submit and say the words “the election wasn’t stolen.” They are “using the power of the state to change what you think,” said Stephen K. Bannon. “They are the authority and they don’t want you to challenge the authority,” he said. Raheem Kassam says the National guard is being “deployed for political ends” as if this was Beijing. CLICK ABOVE ARTICLE LINK FOR THE VIDEO...

Complete Headline: San Francisco board rebrands 'convicted felon' as 'justice-involved person,' sanitizes other crime lingo Crime-ridden San Francisco has introduced new sanitized language for criminals, getting rid of words such as "offender" and "addict" while changing "convicted felon" to "justice-involved person." [Snip] The local officials say the new language will help change people's views about those who commit crimes. [Snip] [F]rom now on a convicted felon or an offender released from custody will be known as a "formerly incarcerated person," or a "justice-involved" person or just a "returning resident." A juvenile "delinquent" will now be called a "young person with...

How is the divide between truth and authenticity affecting this presidential cycle? So we have this culture where you understandably value the people you perceive to be truth-tellers in order to avoid liars and manipulators—and then what? The best way to manipulate a crowd very quickly becomes explicitly arguing that everyone who disagrees with you is a lying manipulator. I call this hyper-sincerity. There were versions of it in ancient Athens and we have our own version now. We see it most clearly in speakers who claim their opponents are full of rhetoric and that they alone can be trusted...

The University of Michigan is one of our nation’s premier institutions of higher learning. Young people from all over the country move to Ann Arbor every year to obtain an education, and to have their ideas challenged by exposure to fellow students from many walks of life. Or maybe not. Last Thursday afternoon a number of anonymous chalk messages appeared on campus. But because these chalk messages read “#Stop Islam” and “Trump 2016,” these innocuous messages elicited 911 calls and apology from the president of the university. Apparently such statements constitute “hate speech.”

They used to be called juvenile delinquents. But not any more. The new term is "justice-involved youth," a non-disparaging, government-speak phrase that fits with the Obama administration's recent push to give people with criminal convictions a second chance to become productive citizens. "The Department of Justice is committed to giving justice-involved youth the tools they need to become productive members of society," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a news release on Monday.

The issue of whether political speech is more important than religious speech was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in oral arguments Monday in a case involving a small church that is suing an Arizona town over a sign display code they believe violates their rights. Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to favor Good News Community Church and its pastor Clyde Reed over the town of Gilbert's restrictions on religious roadside signs. During the arguments, a couple attorneys wondered if Gilbert's code on roadside signs placed political speech above religious speech. Reed and his congregation were represented by...

MADISON, Wis. – Frustrated by one federal court, conservative activists in the crosshairs of a partisan Wisconsin prosecutor say they’ll take their First Amendment case to the Supreme Court. Andrew Grossman, an attorney for veteran political activist Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, said he hopes the high court will settle questions tied to political speech and Wisconsin’s politically charged John Doe investigation. The petition of certiorari, as it’s called, is due by Jan. 21. It’s been a long and winding road to the high court. U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Randa had argued the conservatives showed that...

Not content with the total bias and domination of the news networks, CNN, and the nation's leading newspapers, the Democrats on the Federal Election Commission have moved to assert federal control over Internet political speech. Claiming the authority to regulate political postings and blogs as independent campaign expenditures, they want to apply federal campaign finance laws to online voices. According to the Washington Examiner, the three Democrats on the FEC moved at the Oct. 24 meeting to impose "burdensome new rules on Internet-based campaigning." The three Republican members on the commission beat back the measure, warning the proposal would regulate...

Democrats have been salivating for some time with their desire to control internet political speech The desire to kill political speech on the internet is nothing new, when it comes to the liberal left progressive Democrats. Their goal is not to win in the arena of ideas, but to eliminate any voice that dares to speak out against them in the arena of ideas. In the battle to silence dissent online, an attack is being launched by the FEC (Federal Elections Commission). Regardless of Congress, regardless of the First Amendment which tells the Federal Government to keep its hands off...

The Federal Election Commission deadlocked in a crucial Internet campaign speech vote announced late last week, leaving online political blogging and videos free of many of the reporting requirements attached to broadcast ads — for now. All three Republican-backed members voted against restrictions, but they were opposed by the three Democrat-backed panel members, including Vice Chairwoman Ann M. Ravel, who said she will lead a push next year to come up with rules for government political speech on the Internet. It would mark a major reversal for the commission, which for nearly a decade has protected the

In a surprise move late Friday, a key Democrat on the Federal Election Commission called for burdensome new rules on internet-based campaigning, prompting the Republican chairman to warn that the left wants to regulate conservative political sites and even news outlets like the Drudge Report. Democratic FEC Vice Chair Ann M. Ravel announced plans to begin the process to win regulations on internet-based campaigns and videos, currently free from most of the FEC’s rules. “A reexamination of the commission’s approach to the internet and other emerging technologies is long over due,” she said. The powerplay followed a deadlocked 3-3 vote...

A new law will come into effect in Sweden after Christmas 2014, that will allow people to be prosecuted for criticizing immigration or politician’s unwillingness to tackle the issue. The Constitutional Committee’s report has been voted for in parliament, seen in a letter from the Parliamentary Offices. Member of Parliament Andrew Norlén, member of the Constitutional Committee, has been pushing the issue and he says it will rapidly become a deterrent. ... Without freedom of speech there can be no democracy. If you are not allowed to say certain things then parties that support your ideas cannot exist and Sweden...

This is a great Ted Cruz clip where he lectures his fellow Senators on the Judiciary Committee on free speech while destroying their liberal canards. He also calls out Democrats in the Senate for wanting to repeal the First Amendment.

Until this morning, the federal government could limit the amount of money you contribute for political speech. Today in McCutcheon vs. FEC, the Supreme Court invalidated overall contribution limits. The federal government limited individual campaign contributions to $48,000 overall and $123,200 to everything (PACs, candidates, national parties) each cycle. The Supreme Court struck down the limits, holding that the government’s justification for limiting free speech rights – to keep money out of politics and the avoid the appearance of impropriety – failed. This decision cuts at the heart of the leftist narrative on free speech attacks. The heart of the...

Conservative donors in America, be wary. Remember how the IRS targeted conservative groups asking for tax exempt status? They did so by requiring information from these groups that was not pertinent to the status they requested. Specifically, they asked for a list of who was donating money to the organization. The groups were not required by law to submit such information, but that didn't keep the IRS from asking. The media attention over this scandal has died down, but make no mistake. Liberals are continuing their attacks on the conservative donor base, this time from the state of Wisconsin. Honestly,...

Missouri officials say they will look into whether school district employees engaged in "offensive conduct or remarks" in a controversial state fair rodeo skit. Missouri State Fair officials have banned a rodeo clown for life from the fair for the skit in which he wore a Barack Obama mask and taunted a bull. The state fair commission apologized Sunday for the clown's performance at the taxpayer-funded state fair in Sedalia. Mark Ficken resigned Tuesday as president of the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association after fair officials fired the clown for what it called "disrespectful" treatment of the president. Ficken, who was...

Obama Calls for Amendment Limiting Free-Speech Rights By Matt Cover August 30, 2012 (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama endorsed a constitutional amendment that would restrict the free-speech rights of political activist groups by overturning the Supreme Court decision in the landmark Citizens United v FEC case that granted First Amendment rights to corporations. “Over the longer term, I think we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United,” Obama wrote during a question and answer session on the website Reddit on Wednesday. “Even if the amendment process falls short, it can shine a spotlight of...

Today marks an anniversary of true bravery for the cause of liberty. On February 22, 1943, Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans, and Christoph Probst were executed by guillotine in Munich, Germany. Their crimes? Anonymously distributing leaflets criticizing the German government at the University of Munich. They were members of the White Rose, an underground student group that should inspire every American who loves the cause of liberty. The three who were executed on February 22, 1943 The White Rose was comprised of a dozen or so University of Munich students, including Probst and the Scholls. They were active when...

According to the political class, the right response for conservatives is none at all. In the wake of the attempted murder of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, and the murders of six of her constituents who went to see her at a local Safeway grocery store, the American people have been hearing a lot about the need to return to “civility” in our political discourse.What exactly does that mean? It depends upon whom you ask.Within hours after the horrific event perpetrated by Jared Lee Loughner, left-wing pundits accused Sarah Palin of being behind his lunacy — because she (or her...

When the first Congress passed the Bill of Rights, it left no ambiguity about whether future Congresses could enact laws prohibiting Americans from speaking. "Congress," says the First Amendment, "shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." But the basic meaning of the First Amendment was very much at issue last March, when the Supreme Court initially heard arguments in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The immediate question in that case was whether the FEC had been correct in preventing Citizens United, a nonprofit corporation, from using cable Video on Demand to distribute...