Free Republic

Most of the media is blaming the current chaos in Alabama over whether same-sex couples will or will not be issued marriage licenses on Judge Roy Moore, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. However, it really should be laid at the feet of U.S. District Court Judge Callie V. S. Granade (pronounced, according to National Public Radio, like “grenade”). It was Granade’s January 23 decision to blow up Alabama’s one-man-one-woman definition of marriage which set events in motion. The decision by Granade (a George W. Bush appointee) is startling to read. For one thing, it is extraordinarily short—only 10...

Using a Loudon County case as a backdrop, the Tennessee Supreme Court on Friday upheld for the first time a parent’s right to choose faith over medicine — even if a child dies as a result. “This is a case of first impression,” Justice Gary R. Wade wrote in the court’s decision upholding the constitutionality of Tennessee’s Spiritual Treatment Exemption Act.

The state will pay the plaintiffs who successfully challenged the state’s ban on same-sex marriage $520,000 for their legal costs under a settlement the Attorney General’s Office announced Thursday. The law entitles the plaintiffs to recover their legal costs because they prevailed in the case. The plaintiffs’ claim for approximately $1.74 million in legal fees has been settled for a 70 percent reduction from their original claim, according to the Attorney General’s Office. The settlement lists four plaintiffs: Timothy B. Bostic and his partner Tony C. London and married couple Carol Schall and Mary Townley.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama became the latest state to see its ban on gay marriage fall to a federal court ruling Friday, as the issue of same-sex marriage heads to the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. District Callie V.S. Granade ruled in favor of two Mobile women who sued to challenge Alabama's refusal to recognize their 2008 marriage performed in California. The ruling is the latest in a string of wins for advocates of marriage rights. Judges have also struck down bans in several other Southern states, including the Carolinas, Florida, Mississippi and Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court announced this...

Federal Judge Strikes Down Alabama's Ban on Same-Sex Marriage BY PETE WILLIAMS A federal judge in Mobile, Alabama, on Friday struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, bringing the number of states that allow same-sex couples to marry to 37. "There has been no evidence presented that these marriage laws have any effect on the choices of couples to have or raise children, whether they are same-sex couples or opposite-sex couples. In sum, the laws in question are an irrational way of promoting biological relationships in Alabama," wrote Federal District Court Judge Callie V.S. Granade.

North Carolina City Ordered to Remove Memorial Featuring Soldier Kneeling before Cross Carrie Dedrick | Editor, ChristianHeadlines.com | Monday, January 12, 2015 A city in North Carolina has removed a war memorial featuring the silhouette of a soldier kneeling before a cross after a group complained that the sculpture promoted Christianity. According to Fox News, a public park in King, North Carolina housed the statue which had been paid for privately. Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued the city on behalf of Afghanistan War veteran Steven Hewett who said that the memorial was not representative to others...

Huge news just broke which is a major defeat for the political correctness crowd. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rejected a petition which was seeking to stop the Washington Redskins from using their team name or face major fines. The 1st Amendment won! Sen. Harry Reid and 50 Senate Democrats have worked on a major campaign to stop the Redskins, even though their fans love the name and a vast majority of Native Americans (90%) don’t find the name to be offensive. This is awesome: The FCC on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by a professor claiming the Washington Redskins...

In a decision issued this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the police in a case arising from an officer’s “mistake of law.” At issue in Heien v. North Carolina was a 2009 traffic stop for a single busted brake light that led to the discovery of illegal drugs inside the vehicle. According to state law at the time, however, motor vehicles were required only to have “a stop lamp,” meaning that the officer did not have a lawful reason for the initial traffic stop because it was not a crime to drive around with a single busted brake...

A city ordinance in Fayetteville, Ark, dubbed the transgender bathroom bill because it allows biological males who claim they are females to use restroom facilities for women, was overturned on Tuesday, Dec. 9, largely because of the intense lobbying efforts of Michelle Duggar, the matriarch of the reality-TV show 19 Kids & Counting, carried by The Learning Channel.In Tuesday’s special election the rule, also called the Civil Rights Ordinance, was defeated: 7,523 votes to 7,040 votes, a 52% to 48% victory. In criticizing the ordinance, Mrs. Duggar had said that it affected “the safety of Northwest Arkansas women and children”...

Nearly two months after awarding a $100,000 life insurance policy to a Fort Worth mega church and not the deceased man's children, Denton County judge Robert Ramirez has had a change of heart — sort of. In a breathless order fraught with typos, Ramirez said he was "premature in granting a summary judgment" in favor of Birchman Baptist Church. Scarlette Rafferty Elliot and Sean Rafferty were the designated beneficiaries of their father's life insurance up until just 24 hours before his death. After meeting with Birchman senior pastor Bob Pearle on June 24, 2013, Sean C. Rafferty signed over his...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court said Wednesday that same-sex marriages can go ahead in Kansas. The nation's highest court denied the state's request to prevent gay and lesbian couples from marrying while Kansas fights the issue in court. The state constitution includes a provision banning gay marriage, approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2005.

Same-sex couples in Florida will have to wait until next year to wed in the state after U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle on Wednesday ruled he would keep his stay in place until Jan. 5. (That day also happens to be the day the state's top opponents to lifting the ban, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Gov. Rick Scott, are inaugurated to their second terms.) “We are disappointed that the day in which all Florida families are treated with fairness and dignity under the law is not happening sooner, but that day is still coming,” said Daniel Tilley, an...

No news article to post-- the only article so far is in the Clarion-Ledger, which we can't post. But the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the lower court ruling that Chris McDaniel's challenge to Thad Cochran's primary win was filed too late. The Court's decision is here.

Puerto Rico’s ban on same-sex marriage remains in place after a federal judge dismissed a challenge to the ban Tuesday, saying the U.S. Supreme Court established a precedent four decades ago. U.S. District Judge Juan M. Pérez-Giménez said in his decision that by dismissing an appeal in Baker vs. Nelson, a 1971 case in which two men sought to marry in Minnesota, the Supreme Court bound all lower courts to assume bans on same-sex marriage do not violate the Constitution. The high court could choose to overrule itself but has not, he said. Pérez-Giménez went on to say that legalizing...

President Barack Obama says the Supreme Court’s recent gay marriage orders may have the biggest impact of any ruling of his presidency. Obama told The New Yorker that the court’s Oct. 6 rejection of appeals from states seeking to preserve gay marriage bans is the best of his tenure. …

The Supreme Court is allowing California to continue enforcing a law that bans the sale of foie gras. The justices on Tuesday rejected a challenge to the law from producers of the delicacy in New York and Canada. …

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has temporarily blocked an appeals court ruling that declared gay marriage legal in Idaho and Nevada. The order came minutes after Idaho on Wednesday filed an emergency request for an immediate stay. The state's request said that without a stay, state and county officials would have been required to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples at 10 a.m. EDT. Kennedy's order requested a response from the plaintiffs involved in Idaho's gay marriage lawsuit by the end of day Thursday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared gay marriage legal in Idaho and Nevada...

The Supreme Court appears likely to side with an Arkansas prison inmate who says his Muslim beliefs require him to grow a half-inch beard. The justices on Tuesday took up their first religious liberty case since the Hobby Lobby case bitterly divided them in June over whether family-owned corporations could mount religious objections to paying for women's contraceptives under the health care overhaul. There was no such division evident in the courtroom Tuesday as several justices were openly skeptical of arguments made by a lawyer for Arkansas in defense of a policy that allows mustaches for all inmates and a...

The case was brought by 10 same-sex couples who are represented by the ACLU. Missouri must recognize the marriages of same-sex couples that were granted elsewhere, state Judge Dale Youngs ruled on Friday. “[T]o the extent these laws prohibit plaintiffs’ legally contracted marriages from other states from being recognized here, they are wholly irrational, do not rest upon any reasonable basis, and are purely arbitrary,” Youngs wrote. The ruling followed a hearing in September on the case, which was brought by 10 same-sex couples represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. “Missouri has finally recognized our couples’ marriages as being...

A federal jury Thursday found former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, guilty of public corruption — sending a message that they believed the couple sold the office once occupied by Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson to a free spending Richmond businessman for golf outings, lavish vacations and $120,000 in sweetheart loans.