Free Republic

The Constitution gives absolutely no authority, none, to the federal government to dictate marriage policy to the states. *** *** When the Obergefell case was decided by the Supreme Court, its ruling legally applied only to the plaintiffs before it, as is true in any case before any court. The concept of “judicial review” - in which the Court, and not Congress, gets to decide what the law is - is not found in the Constitution anywhere. It was invented out of the ether by Chief Justice John Marshall in 1803 as a way for the Court to grant dictatorial...

In a nine-word per curiam decision, eight justices of the United States Supreme Court have revealed they are deadlocked in a 4 to 4 divide on the new immigration procedures of the Obama administration, with its executive decision to not deport the immigrant parents of children born in the United States (thus citizens) and give them legal status but less than citizenship in the process. The State of Texas, joined by 25 others states, filed a lawsuit to block this executive action, which affects between 4 and 5 million immigrants in the United States. The case was before the Supreme...

The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear a case challenging a Washington state law that forces a family-owned pharmacy to dispense emergency contraceptives is an “ominous sign” for those who value religious freedom, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said. “If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern,” Alito said Tuesday in a critical dissent. Alito was joined in his dissent by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Clarence Thomas, falling one justice short of the four needed for the...

ABC was the last of the “big three” networks to break in Monday morning with the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down a pro-life Texas law, but they didn’t hold back their approval as the assembled cast of smiling correspondents hailed the “fairly sweeping decision” and expressed glee at the “party right here” by abortion activists “lining up since 4:00 am. to witness this moment.” Chief anchor and Clinton Foundation donor George Stephanopoulos broke in at 10:20 a.m. Eastern to announce “breaking news from the Supreme Court closing at its term with what could be the most important abortion case in...

It started out with hints of official, United States governmental oppression of Christianity as soon as same-sex “marriage” became a bullet point for activists – little things like “discrimination” complaints that those choosing alternative sexual lifestyles somehow weren’t applauded as they thought they deserved. Then it became confrontational for Christians who were simply choosing to live by their beliefs – beliefs similar to those held by the nation’s founders. Bakers were penalized for not promoting homosexuality, ditto for photographers and venue owners. Government officials publicly vilified their Christian faith and ordered them, in some case, re-educated. Now two rulings have...

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is looking into options to challenge a Supreme Court ruling that effectively determined a lower court’s decision neutering President Obama’s executive amnesty would stand. The ruling would help to prevent Obama from ignoring U.S. laws and from allowing many illegal aliens to stay in the U.S. without deportation. The statements from Attorney General Lynch were made during an interview with Reuters. The Reuters writer appears to have confused the ruling, as SCOTUS did not make the decision to block President Obama’s executive amnesty, they simply tied in their decision–which led to the Fifth Circuit’s ruling...

It may be tempting to regard the Supreme Court’s deadlocked decision last week in United States v. Texas, the Republican lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s 2014 immigration initiatives, as something of a “non-decision” or “punt.” The Court’s one-line opinion—which, by convention, affirms the lower court’s judgment but has no further precedential effect—does not address any of the substantive issues presented in the case. Nor does the opinion itself disclose how any of the justices voted on any of the questions before them, although there seems little mystery as to which justices were likely on each side of the decision. And...

Even basic sanitary requirements are too much for the pro-aborts to accept With Anthony Kennedy joining the four Justices who are always liberal (as opposed to Kennedy’s liberal-when-he-feels-like-it approach to interpreting the law), the Supreme Court tossed out the very modest Texas abortion restrictions that simply required abortion clinics to meet the same safety requirements as every other medical clinic, including doctors who are sufficiently credentialed to be able to admit patients at local hospitals. These restrictions were put in place to prevent more Kermit Gosnell-style butcher shops from springing to life. But you can forget that. Any restriction on...

Bet the traditional media won’t show you these. In anticipation of Monday’s Supreme Court decision in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, activists from both sides assembled en masse around the highest court’s front steps. The abortion case out of Texas challenged HB 2, which required abortionists to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and mandated that those clinics adhere to the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers. The media will no doubt cover the court’s decision in favor of abortion supporters (in other words, against the safety regulations that would force abortion clinics to close). But it’s unlikely that the...

Hillary Clinton has no problem calling abortion a “constitutional right,” but when it comes to the Second Amendment, she has refused to take a position. On Friday, Clinton thanked Planned Parenthood for providing abortions when she said that it was a “constitutional right” for women to get an abortion. However, last Sunday, Clinton refused to say whether or not the right to bear arms was a constitutional right. Instead, Clinton criticized late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. “I think that for most of our history there was a nuanced reading of the Second Amendment until the decision by the late...

The Supreme Court momentarily impeded President Obama's attempt to "fundamentally transform America" last week with its 4-4 vote on his executive amnesty action plan. When the court is deadlocked, previous decisions by lower courts are allowed to stand. In this case, Obama lost because the lower court found that his plan exceeded his executive authority, which is actually what Obama himself said before he decided to do it. The evenly divided court apparently couldn't make up its mind as to whether the president is permitted to act like a dictator and suspend laws he doesn't like. That's a tough question,...

Last week the Supreme Court of the United States voted that President Obama exceeded his authority when he granted exemptions from the immigration laws passed by Congress. But the Supreme Court also exceeded its own authority by granting the University of Texas an exemption from the Constitution's requirement of "equal protection of the laws," by voting that racial preferences for student admissions were legal. Supreme Court decisions in affirmative action cases are the longest running fraud since the 1896 decision upholding racial segregation laws in the Jim Crow South, on grounds that "separate but equal" facilities were consistent with the...

See link for opinion which is void of good-faith constitutionally-based reasoning.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The Supreme Court's gone. Even at eight members in a case like this, you can count on Justice Kennedy to join 'em, the four libs. So you essentially have a 5-3 leftist court now. But it's not a court. It is a partisan echo chamber of the Democrat Party or leftist agenda. We have a Democrat nominee, Hillary, who's wiped away -- just erased -- all objections to corruption as a disqualifying factor for Democrats. Democrats are making it clear they don't care how corrupt their leaders are. In fact, the more corrupt their leaders are --...

On Monday, in the case of Voisine v. the United States, the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision that prohibits people convicted of domestic violence from purchasing guns in a 6-2 vote, according to SCOTUSBlog. This was the case of two Maine men who were convicted on state domestic violence charges and then found with firearms and charged with violating a federal law that prohibits domestic abusers from having firearms," reads the live blog. "The question was whether their convictions qualified under the statute."

The U.S. Supreme Court vacated former Gov. Bob McDonnell's conviction on corruption charges Monday morning. The decision was unanimous, according to SCOTUSblog, which is tracking opinion releases this morning in Washington, D.C. The court overturned a decsion that rose out of the U.S. District Court in Richmond, then was affirmed by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. The nut of the government's case against McDonnell, and his wife Maureen, was this: In taking some $177,000 in gifts and loans from businessman Jonnie Williams, and then setting meetings Williams sought to gain legitimacy for a controversial dietary supplement, the McDonnells engaged...

The Supreme Court struck down Texas abortion restrictions that had caused more than half of the state’s abortion clinics to close.

The Supreme Court on Monday is poised to once again enter the fray on the abortion issue, an already divisive subject complicated by election-year politics and a split bench that may lack the votes to rule definitively. The high court will wrap up its work for the summer by issuing a judgment on how far Texas can go to regulate abortion clinics in the state, and whether those provisions have the effect of limiting first-trimester abortions guaranteed by the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. Texas reproductive clinics are asking the justices to keep their facilities open in the face of...

In a strongly worded statement, the chairman of the Committee on Migration of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has denounced Thursday’s Supreme Court decision that blocked the Obama administration’s executive action to shield more than 4 million illegal immigrants from deportation, calling it a “huge disappointment.”

(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama said Thursday that despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s tie vote, which essentially blocks his immigration plan, the millions of illegal immigrants that he sought to make legal with his executive action will remain a low priority for deportation by his administration. “Enforcement priorities developed by my administration are not affected by this ruling. This means that the people who might have benefited from the expanded deferred action policies – long-term residents raising children who are Americans or legal residents – they will remain low priorities for enforcement. As long as you have not committed a...