Free Republic

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A U.S. court has sided with a New Mexico ranching family in a decades-long battle over access to water on national forest land, providing more certainty that state law allows for the protection of water rights dating back more than a century. The case of the Goss family has been closely watched by thousands of ranchers who hold grazing permits across the West. Attorneys and others say the outcome could have ripple effects on ranchers and rural communities that have often complained about federal land managers trampling property rights. The Goss family claimed the federal government violated...

Video: social justice warrior spends nine minutes explaining why she stole hat from Trump supporter In this video, a social justice warrior spends nine minutes explaining why she stole a hat from a Trump supporter.The thief takes the hat to campus authorities, thinking that they will take her side.But they don’t. Instead, they take the side of the hat owner, get him his hat back, and call the campus police.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ2T4b14WbY

Thanks to a little-noticed auction sale, a South Bay couple are the proud owners of one of the most exclusive streets in San Francisco — and they’re looking for ways to make their purchase pay. Tina Lam and Michael Cheng snatched up Presidio Terrace — the block-long, private oval street lined by 35 megamillion-dollar mansions — for $90,000 and change in a city-run auction stemming from an unpaid tax bill. They outlasted several other bidders.

The Kremlin-Yukos conflict, almost a month old now, has shaken the conventional wisdom many had come to accept about the Vladimir Putin presidency. In a nutshell, the standard interpretation before this happened was the following: Putin's 2000 agreement with the oligarchs called for strengthening the state without big business getting overly involved in politics. In turn, the state would not meddle too much in the affairs of the business empires - basically, in the Russian economy. Of course, there are many nuances, but, essentially, the Yukos fracas has put this 'social contract,' as it were, into question. Eventually, most likely...

Property owners have long suffered under the Supreme Court's erratic rulings. It got worse last Friday when the court ruled against owners who wanted simply to sell their property. Both facts and law in Murr v. Wisconsin are complicated. But in a nutshell, the Murrs, four siblings, inherited adjoining lots on the St. Croix River that their parents had purchased at separate times in the 1960s, building a home on one and keeping the other as an investment. Deeded and taxed separately, the two lots remained so to the present. But in 1975 a local zoning ordinance combined the lots....

When governments issue regulations that undermine the value of property, bureaucrats don't necessarily have to compensate property holders, the Supreme Court ruled Friday. The court voted 5-3, in Murr V. Wisconsin, a closely watched Fifth Amendment property rights case. The case arose from a dispute over two tiny parcels of land along the St. Croix River in western Wisconsin and morphed into a major property rights case that drew several western states into the debate before the court. Chief Justice John Roberts, in a scathing dissent, wrote that ruling was a significant blow for property rights and would give greater...

The Supreme Court heard arguments in March and considered the principle of patent exhaustion. This idea stipulates that a patent owner’s rights over a product should vanish once the patent owner sells the product to a consumer. By attaching a post-sale restriction to its single-use cartridge, Lexmark aimed to create a zombie patent that’s never exhausted. You may have bought that cartridge, but Lexmark still controls it. The justices agreed 7-1 that Lexmark can’t do that. (Justice Neil Gorsuch was appointed after the court heard the case.) The court held that Lexmark exhausted its patent rights when it sold its...

People without college degrees, or even high school diplomas, appear to understand property rights. Why can't law school professors? Evidence of the former can be found trend can be found in the number of signs one sees that read, "This house protected by shotgun three nights a week. You guess which three." Fences and walls are other good indicators of this cognizance. Evidence of the latter phenomenon seems almost as overwhelming. "Property is just a bundle of sticks, according to law professors," Adam Macleod, a professor at Faulkner University's Jones School of Law said at the annual meeting of the...

A buy-to-let tycoon facing a public backlash over his ban on "coloured" tenants has said: "I would do it again." Fergus Wilson has banned "coloured" people from renting his homes because he claims they leave them smelling of curry, costing him thousands of pounds after they leave. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has pledged to investigate the matter. Mr Wilson insisted he was "not racist" and said his move was an "economic decision". He said his stance was no different from his ban on letting his properties to smokers and dog owners. The 69-year-old said: "There has been much...

If there is an indefensible position on property rights, count on an academic to take it. On March 20 the Supreme Court began to hear oral arguments in Murr v. Wisconsin, a property rights case it agreed to take up in January 2016. The Cato Institute previewed the case on St. Patrick's Day. "Joseph Murr and his siblings own two side-by-side lakeside lots, one with a recreational cabin and the other left vacant as an investment," the Cato Institute release noted. "Due to land-use restrictions, they allege that Wisconsin has 'taken' the vacant lot, which would require the state to...

A lawsuit in Seattle pits some fundamental rights against each other — it’s civil rights that ban discrimination, and property rights that allow owners to decide what to do with their homes and land. The issue is with a new law that requires landlords to rent to tenants on a “first come, first served” basis. The goal is to make sure all renters are treated equally. But the landlords who are suing say the program is a bureaucratic nightmare and unconstitutional. Critics say it’s all about the survival of the fastest, but supporters say it levels the playing field for...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today released the following statement upon the 6th Circuit’s stay on the “Waters of the United States” rule, which allows litigation over the legality of the rule to proceed before implementation:“The 6th Circuit’s order to halt implementation of the EPA’s new ‘Waters of the United States’ rule is a win for all Americans, but especially for farmers, ranchers, and landowners in the state of Texas. Today’s order is also an important step toward curbing the federal government’s relentless intrusion on the states—power grabs that have become standard practice for President Obama’s EPA....

Socialism USA Author: Gus Hall (1910-2000), former National Chair First published: Jan 1, 1996 by the Communist Party, USA We Communists believe that socialism is the very best replacement for a capitalist system that has served its purpose, but no longer meets the needs and requirements of the great majority of our people. We believe that socialism USA will be built according to the traditions, history, culture and conditions of the United States. Thus, it will be different from any other socialist society in the world. It will be uniquely American.What will be the goals of our socialist society? A...

Throughout thousands of years of history, governments have never changed. Whether ancient Egypt, European Union, or the Obama presidency, those in power want more. For over 100 years, our government has sought to trivialize God’s role When our Founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, they knew that property rights were essential to freedom and prosperity. Under the feudal system, Kings granted property to workers in turn for outstanding service. But the crown never completely surrendered its ownership

County officials in western Colorado have regularly lambasted Planning 2.0 and this week, Garfield County joined in with five other counties in the western United States considering suing to halt the rule, which they have criticized as a central-planning measure. The BLM this month announced that the rule was final and on Monday, Garfield County agreed to spend as much as $40,000 with the Texas-based property-rights organization, the American Stewards of Liberty, to halt it. While Garfield County is taking an active role, Mesa County officials are looking to Congress and a Republican administration under President-elect Donald Trump to deal...

Tomorrow, as you celebrate the meal the Pilgrims ate with Indians, pause a moment to thank private property. I know that seems weird, but before that first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims nearly starved to death because they didn't respect private property. When they first arrived in Massachusetts, they acted like Bernie Sanders wants us to act. They farmed "collectively." Pilgrims said, "We'll grow food together and divide the harvest equally." Bad idea. Economists call this the "tragedy of the commons." When everyone works "together," some people don't work very hard. Likewise, when the crops were ready to eat, some grabbed extra...

The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution reads, in part, as follows:“No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”Meaning if you own property - government can’t arbitrarily take it from you. In whole, or in part. Sadly, taking private property is something at which the government is becoming expert:“Most property rights scholars would probably tell you that property is sort of the redheaded stepchild of constitutional law….(T)he (Supreme) Court says something like, ‘The Government could hardly go on if to some extent the...

Pedro Luca has lived in a cave in northern Argentina for 40 years The 79-year-old survives without running water or electricity When he gets hungry he picks up his rifle and goes hunting

The United States Forest Service severely damaged a forest road and trail in Northwestern Idaho earlier this month, raising serious questions about the agency’s ability to care for federally-managed lands. During the first weekend in June, several members of Northwestern Gold Prospectors Association (NWGPA) planned to attend a gathering to prospect private claims in the Bedrock Gulch and Eagle Creek areas. When the prospectors arrived, Forest Road 152 was blocked with cement barricades and hundreds of felled trees. ... Photographs from that day show large logs laid crosswise and laterally on the trail, covered with hundreds of large pine branches...

If freedom holds any value, we must educate our neighbors to the link between property and human rights, and the dangers of a government that can peel off either on a whim President Obama is successfully executing the most dangerous seizure of individual choice in our history because Americans are growing blind to the bond between property rights and human rights. While farm owners surrender their land development rights to governments, federal agencies relocate affordable housing next to million dollar homes, and declare entire neighborhoods discriminatory.