Free Republic

Barack Obama claims that the individual mandate to purchase health insurance is not a tax. If he is right, he may be dooming a central piece of the health care reform making its way to his desk. Critics of the Obama administration say that the individual mandate—the rule requiring individuals to purchase health insurance or face stiff penalties—is a regressive tax that will hit the middle classes on whom he promised not to raise taxes. Obama says it isn’t a tax at all. But if we accept Obama’s argument that it isn’t a tax, the individual mandate is likely to...

On Thursday, Dec. 17, Justice Ginsburg spoke at a luncheon of the Harvard Club of Washington, D.C. I was not present at the luncheon, but I have heard, third-hand, that she spoke on the value of dissenting opinions. She said that sometimes a dissent can become the majority of a “future, wiser court.” As an example, she pointed to the dissent in District of Columbia v. Heller.

Regulations: The Clean Water Act is being rewritten to give a government bureaucracy the power to regulate every body of water from the Mississippi River to a rain-flooded field. The first casualty may be American coal. With all the concern for the harm that cap-and-trade and regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant might do to the American economy and free markets, the Environmental Protection Agency is doing quite enough damage with an existing law on the books — the Clean Water Act. Congress plans to revise it to make it an even more powerful bludgeon against industry, energy producers and...

The U.S. Supreme Court Washington D.C., Dec 15, 2009 / 06:59 am (CNA).- In a case which could greatly affect organized Christian activity on college campuses, the United States Supreme Court has decided to consider whether it was constitutional for a public university to bar a Christian student group on the grounds the group’s rules against sex outside of marriage were discriminatory towards homosexuals.The Christian Legal Society (CLS) chapter at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law applied to the college for standing as a registered student organization, United Press International (UPI) reports. The national CLS requires voting...

When Justice John Paul Stevens, who is 89, retires—and he's expected to in the next year or so—there will be no Protestant left on the highest court in the land. Will President Obama be pressured to appoint one? Popular opinion once held that even one Catholic was too many on the court. Today there are six. But would anyone even notice if Obama appointed a seventh to replace Stevens? Once upon a time, there was an outright religious litmus test for Supreme Court appointees. Today religion is almost irrelevant in appointing new justices. All of which raises a question: Are...

Analysis of December 14, 2009 US Supreme Court Decision Regarding Chrysler Sale.Posted in Uncategorized on December 14, 2009 by naturalborncitizen ANALYSIS OF US SUPREME COURT’S RULING in POLICE PENSION TRUST, ET AL. V. CHRYSLER LLC, ET AL by Leo Donofrio, Esq. While today’s ruling by the US Supreme Court is bad for the Indiana Pension Fund, it does not adversely effect our clients (a group of former Chrysler dealers lead by James Anderer) in any way.  Our clients were never part of that appeal and the legal issues raised by the Indiana Pension Fund are vastly different from the issues we...

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it rejected an appeal by four former Guantanamo Bay prisoners arguing that they should be able to proceed with their lawsuit against top Pentagon officials for torture and religious abuse. The justices refused to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit by the four British citizens over their treatment at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on the grounds the officials enjoyed immunity. The four men -- Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Jamal al-Harith -- were captured in late 2001 in Afghanistan and were...

Who can forget Barack Hussein Obama’s slightly mutilated inaugural oath January 20, 2009? Fault assignment and explanations and review of the actual wording, have been analyzed ad nauseum. Some argue that it was Chief Justice Robert’s fault and even point to his history of epilepsy (which Wikipedia expounds on extensively) . Some believe Obama interrupted Roberts which tripped things up. An example of this analysis comes from Wikipedia columnist Jeffrey Toobin: Through intermediaries, Roberts and Obama had agreed how to divide the thirty-five-word oath for the swearing in. Obama was first supposed to repeat the clause “I, Barack Hussein Obama,...

He campaigned against private sector economic mismanagement, and the “harsh realities” of global capitalism. He pledged during his campaign to end corruption in both the government, and the private sector. After he took office, he claimed that he had “inherited” the worst economic situation in his country’s recent history. And then, the new President sought to consolidate his power. Once privately-owned enterprises became government-owned and operated entities, and were “restructured” so as to become, essentially, “workers’ cooperatives.” Not surprisingly, unemployment remained persistently high, even as the new was implementing his much-celebrated “reform” measures. And while private citizens had to struggle...

Yesterday, Michael Dreeben, the attorney representing the U.S. government, tried to defend the controversial “honest services” statute from a constitutional challenge in front of the Supreme Court. When Dreeben informed the Court that the feds have essentially criminalized any ethical lapse in the workplace, Justice Breyer exclaimed, [T]here are 150 million workers in the United States. I think possibly 140 [million] of them flunk your test. There it is. Some of us have been trying to draw more attention to the dangerous trend of overcriminalization. Judge Alex Kozinski co-authored an article in my book entitled “You’re (Probably) a Federal Criminal.”...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A lawyer for former media baron Conrad Black urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to overturn his fraud conviction, and several justices asked whether the federal law at issue was too vague. The Canadian-born Black, a member of Britain's House of Lords, has been in prison since March 2008, when he began serving a 6 1/2-year sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice. Attorney Miguel Estrada, representing Black and two ex-colleagues who were found guilty of defrauding shareholders of one-time newspaper publishing giant Hollinger International Inc, argued before the Supreme Court that all convictions in the...

In 1937, U.S. Senator Josiah Bailey of North Carolina was concerned that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal programs were leading America and North Carolina down the road to collectivism. Although he did not oppose every attempt at government intervention, Senator Bailey believed that limitations should be placed on government growth. In 1937, the nation experienced an economic recession, and partisan lines blurred as Republicans and conservative Democrats formed a coalition to protest Roosevelt’s attempt to “pack the court.” That year, FDR placed the “responsibility for pulling the nation out of economic recession on business interests,” writes historian...

Christian legal fellowship groups provide a vital spiritual lifeline for law students trying to survive the rigors of law school with faith intact. Most of the more than 150 such student groups at U.S. law schools (see my lower sidebar list of links) are sponsored by the Christian Legal Society (CLS). But the ability of these groups to continue functioning at public universities has been in doubt since the University of California Hastings College of the Law's recent refusal to recognize its CLS chapter. The law school objects to the group's requirement that officers and voting members subscribe to Christian beliefs. In Christian Legal...

Washington - The Supreme Court agreed today to hear an appeal from a Christian student group in San Francisco which refused to admit gays and lesbians and decide whether the group's right to religious liberty and freedom of association can trump a university's ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation. The case, to be heard next year, could set new rules for campus groups across the nation. The University of California's Hastings College of Law says its officially recognized student groups must be open to all of its students. The law school also has a general non-discrimination policy which applies...

Are you a “Tenther?” No, that’s not someone who lives in a tent to remain off the grid -- although that may be something we Tenthers will soon consider. No, “the Tenthers are the ones who keep citing the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution every time there is a proposed bill they don’t like, claiming the Constitution prohibits it,” as liberal commentator Alan Colmes explains on his Web site. Well, get ready, because if the health insurance reform legislation now under consideration in the Senate passes, the Tenth Amendment could be all that stands between Americans and the road to...

Eminent Domain: Four years after the Supreme Court told a Connecticut homeowner that no one's house is safe from developers, Brooklyn homeowners may lose their homes to a pro basketball team. On June 3, 2005, by a 5-4 margin, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively repealed the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, deciding that your constitutional right to be secure in your home didn't matter if your state or community decided your property could produce more revenue as a shopping mall or condominium development. Pfizer coveted Susette Kelo's working-class neighborhood for an office park and condominium complex. The city fathers...

The emails and computer files from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in Great Britain may prove to be of some importance to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current attempts to control greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. This is because the EPA — perhaps at the urging of others in the Obama administration — has proposed to regulate GHG emissions on the basis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports … and reports primarily based on the IPCC reports. This is highly unusual for the EPA. I cannot think of any instance where the EPA depended so...

Prisoner-Abuse Photos: Supremes Reverse Disclosure Order [Andy McCarthy] The Supreme Court issued a brief order today vacating the Second Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling that photos said to depict abuse of detainees must be disclosed. The high court remanded the case (Dept. of Defense v. ACLU) to the appellate court to reconsider its ruling in light of the Lieberman/Graham amendment in the 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Act. Lieberman/Graham empowers the Secretary of Defense to issue a certification preventing the release of photographs that "would endanger citizens of the United States, members of the United States Armed Forces, or employees of...

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry........ The data suggests that the level of anger is growing. The 71% who are angry at federal government policies today is up five percentage points since September. Even more stunning, the 46% who are Very Angry is up 10 percentage points from September.

So Congress ignores the polls on specific legislation, ignores the polls on increased government spending in general, and ignores the polls on their own impending retirements in the 2010 general. They ignore the tea-party marches, the thousands of letters and calls, and the revelations about ACORN and falsified climate data. They allow the Administration to fail to prosecute voter intimidation and to investigate ACORN. Congress is, quite clearly, acting wholly outside the interests of the voters. The liberals in charge of Congress and the White House are marching to their own drummer. They refuse to acknowledge our words and refuse...

If one examines the Courts opinion in the 1962 case and cross-references it with modern arguments by groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation, they will find an argument for implied compulsion where no actual compulsion exists. As articulated by Justice Douglas in his 1962 opinion, “It is said that the element of coercion is inherent in the giving of this prayer… [students in a classroom are] in a sense a “captive” audience.” This view resonates rhetorically with the contrived idea the First Amendment is intended to protect people from religion, rather than its explicit intent to protect the free...

A lawsuit has been filed against the California Science Center by the American Freedom Alliance (AFA) for cancelling the AFA’s contract to screen the Darwin’s Dilemma documentary on October 25th. According to AFA’s press release: American Freedom Alliance (AFA), a non-profit group, has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles against a popular science museum for cancelling an event exploring the topic of intelligent design. The group says its free speech rights were violated when the California Science Center (CSC) abruptly reversed a decision to allow the showing of a pro-intelligent design documentary at the museum’s IMAX Theater. The program was...

Today, November 24, it is exactly 150 years since Charles Darwin published his On the Origin of Species. The world has been gearing up for this “second echelon” of celebrations for this international “Year of Darwin”, following on from the 200th anniversary of his birth this last February. Atheists and humanist groups in particular have seemed to be relishing the thought of giving further prominence to the ideas of their patron saint. Their adulation is heightened by their knowledge that...

Our interest in a single Supreme Court case has perhaps never been as high as it is in a case currently being briefed. The issues are fascinating on several levels, and the potential impact of a ruling is big. The case is McDonald v. City of Chicago, for which the court granted cert on Sept. 30. The petitioners in the case, a group challenging a gun-control ordinance in Chicago, filed their brief with the court earlier this week. Were the court to adopt their position — something well within the realm of possibility — we could be looking at a...

The Senate voted 59 to 39 to confirm Judge David F. Hamilton to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Judge Hamilton, who sits on the Federal District Court in Indiana, was President Obama’s first judicial nominee. Republicans opposed the nomination, announced March 19, because of decisions Judge Hamilton made relating to abortion and prayers in the Indiana Legislature. Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana was the only Republican to vote for his confirmation.

David Michaels, a left-wing ideologue who supports junk science and seeks to restrict gun possession, has been approved by the Senate Health Committee to head the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Only two Senators -- both Republicans -- voted against Michaels, who was nominated by President Obama. The vote occurred with no discussion, and no hearing was even held on his nomination, although hearings have consistently been held on nominees in the past, even for far less controversial picks. Gun-law expert David Kopel explains how Michaels wants to ban guns in and near workplaces, and could use his...

In 2006, long before there was an Obama administra tion determined to impose a command-and-control federal health-care system, a young orthopedic surgeon walked into the Goldwater Institute here with an idea. The institute, America's most potent advocate of limited government, embraced Eric Novack's idea for protecting Arizonans from health-care coercion. In 2008, Arizonans voted on Novack's proposed amendment to the state's Constitution: "No law shall be passed that restricts a person's freedom of choice of private health-care systems or private plans of any type. No law shall interfere with a person's or entity's right to pay directly for lawful medical...

Application of Second Amendment to be decided by Supreme Court Journal Photo by Lauren Carroll Lawyer Alan Gura says that owning semi-automatic guns is constitutional. The man who successfully challenged a prohibition against handguns in the District of Columbia before the Supreme Court said last night during a local debate about the Second Amendment that some states have gone too far. That's what happened in the District of Columbia, which required that firearms either be equipped with trigger locks or kept disassembled, said Alan Gura, a lawyer from Alexandria, Va., who argued the Supreme Court case. "If you have a...

Abstract: This paper questions criminal law's strong presumption of free will. Part I assesses the ways in which environment, nurture, and society influence human action. Part II briefly surveys studies from the fields of genetics and neuroscience which call into question strong assumptions of free will and suggest explanations for propensities toward criminal activity. Part III discusses other "causes" of criminal activity including addiction, economic deprivation, gender, and culture. In light of Parts I through III, Part IV assesses criminal responsibility and the legitimacy of punishment. Part V considers the the possibility of determining propensity from criminal activity based on...

<p>WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has thrown out, for the third time, a federal appeals court ruling favorable to a convicted murderer in California whose case has bounced around the courts for a quarter-century.</p> <p>The justices, in an unsigned opinion today, moved to reinstate the death penalty for Fernando Belmontes in the beating death of a 19-year-old woman in 1981.</p>

Some of he facts for this article, and some of the legal conclusions, come from an article on 13 November, 2009, on Frontpage,com by David Horowitz, entitled “The Worst Decision by a US President in History.” The title alone makes clear that Mr. Horowitz sharply opposes President Obama’s decision to have alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammad and his confederates tried in federal court in New York City rather than before a military tribunal. The ACLU, and its ally, the pro-Castro, Center for Constitutional Rights, have praised Obama’s decision as “presenting American justice to the world.” Since the ACLU is...

Rehnquist’s Portrait Allie Winegar Duzett, November 12, 2009 William Rehnquist was by all accounts a fascinating man. His work in the judiciary was unparalleled: he served on the Supreme Court as a justice for over three decades, and led the court as Chief Justice for nineteen years. He was a justice voting on the controversial Roe v. Wade case (Rehnquist wrote the dissent), the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton, and for the dispute over 2000 presidential election. As a justice for the Supreme Court, Rehnquist lived his life under public scrutiny—but only a very few got to know the man...

The phrase “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” sounds innocent enough. Who could be against such an agreement? But in fact it appears to be a pretext for a massive invasion of privacy, motivated in part by the entertainment industry seeking to maintain copyrights. But once unleashed, such an assault on freedom will know no bounds. What if Big Brother finds on your laptop that you think ID supports certain traditional moral views, and what if any articulation of such views comes to be regarded as a hate crime? (Click excerpt link for MUST SEE VIDEO!)

John J. O'Connor III, 79, an Arizona lawyer and civic leader who became active in Washington's social and charitable circles after his wife, Sandra Day O'Connor, became the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, died Nov. 11 in Phoenix. He had Alzheimer's disease. As a lawyer, Mr. O'Connor specialized in business and real estate law and commercial litigation. He represented leading companies in industries including mining, manufacturing, real estate and financial services. He was a partner at one of Phoenix's largest firms, Fennemore, Craig, von Ammon & Udall, before moving to Washington when his wife was confirmed to...

Stories like this just make me weep for my country. In September local Connecticut news station WTNH reported: Weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters have replaced the knot of aging homes at the site of the nation’s most notorious eminent domain project.There are a few signs of life: Feral cats glare at visitors from a miniature jungle of Queen Anne’s lace, thistle and goldenrod. Gulls swoop between the lot’s towering trees and the adjacent sewage treatment plant.But what of the promised building boom that was supposed to come wrapped and ribboned with up to 3,169 new jobs...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to block the execution of John A. Muhammad, the sniper who terrorized the Washington area seven years ago. The step cleared the way for Mr. Muhammad to be put to death on Tuesday unless Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia intervenes. The court did not comment in refusing to hear Mr. Muhammad’s appeal, but three justices objected to the relative haste accompanying the execution. Justice John Paul Stevens complained that “under our normal practice,” Mr. Muhammad’s petition for the court to take his case would have been discussed at the justices’ conference scheduled...

The private homes New London, Conn., took through eminent domain from Suzette Kelo and others, are torn down now, but Pfizer has just announced that it closing up shop at the research facility that led to the condemnation. Leading drugmakers Pfizer and Wyeth have merged, and as a result, are trimming some jobs. That includes axing the 1,400 jobs at their sparkling new research & development facility in New London, and moving some across the river to Groton. To lure those jobs to New London a decade ago, the local government promised to demolish the older residential neighborhood adjacent to...

The Supreme Court Monday denied John Allen Muhammad's request to stay his execution, clearing the way for Virginia to put to death the man who terrorized the Washington region as the Beltway Sniper. Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor objected to the court's haste, saying it "highlights once again the perversity of executing inmates before their appeals process have been fully concluded." Stevens, writing for the three, said Virginia had short-circuited the process by scheduling Muhammad's execution for Tuesday night, earlier than the court would normally have reviewed his petition for the court to take his...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to block Tuesday's scheduled execution of sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad. The Court did not comment Monday on why it refused to consider his appeal. Muhammad is scheduled to die by injection at a Virginia prison for the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station during a three-week spree in October 2002 across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Hello – is there anybody out there who still believes our leaders in Washington care about what the Constitution of the United States says? Or what it was intended to mean? Or even that it exists? If there actually is anybody out there who still believes this, recent discussions on Capitol Hill about proposed federal legislation should dispel such thought from the minds of even the most die-hard optimists. Legislation dealing with the delivery and cost of health care in the United States is nearing votes in both houses of the Congress. Although differing significantly in their details, the primary...

Joe Sullivan was sent away for life for raping an elderly woman and judged incorrigible though he was only 13 at the time of the attack. Terrance Graham, implicated in armed robberies when he was 16 and 17, was given a life sentence by a judge who told the teenager he threw his life away. They didn't kill anyone, but they effectively were sentenced to die in prison. Life sentences with no chance of parole are rare and harsh for juveniles tried as adults and convicted of crimes less serious than killing. Just over 100 prison inmates in the United...

In recent months, at least three major newspapers have carried columns attempting to push Chief Justice John Roberts into voting to uphold a grossly unconstitutional federal law. But their cheap distortions and Chicken Little yammering will fail. The chief justice will do his job, and the country will be better off for it. On Sept. 9, the U.S. Supreme Court reheard arguments in the landmark campaign finance and free speech case, Citizens United v. FEC. At issue in this case is whether the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) could ban documentaries about candidates when Election Day is approaching. This...

The case before the Supreme Court on Wednesday sounded like a television movie, a tale of wrongful imprisonment and the slow, inexorable wheels of justice. Prosecutors under pressure to close the case of a cop killer settle on two young African Americans. They fabricate evidence, coerce perjury and bury the investigation of a white suspect.A sympathetic prison barber unearths the investigative records that eventually lead courts to free the convicted men after years behind bars. And the men seek retribution for the prosecutors who framed them. But here's the twist: The prosecutors say that they can't be sued for anything...

There's a new SCOTUS suit you want and need to know about...case 09-6777. I'll win and when I do? YOU CAN SUE SITTING OFFICERS FOR LIABILITY THUS DISSOLVE THEM AS THE US DEFAULTED VIA FAILING TO RESPOND TO A PRIOR SCOTUS SUIT ON 11/05/08, the day after the election, lol. Actual default is the 2000 election and BVG; legal default occurred on 11/05/09. I then appealed to Roberts directly on 11/20/09 and forced direct action thus I won on paper. Now all I am doing is acting to collect my award: Hearing in person aka winning in person. You can...

Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is encouraging Republican colleagues to filibuster Barack Obama’s nominee to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, David Hamilton. Hamilton has major issues against him, including stating publicly his believe that the founders intended the judiciary to routinely amend the constitution through case law. More troubling, David Hamilton has ruled that praying to Allah does not violate the Establishment of Religion clause in the First Amendment, but praying in Jesus Christ’s name does. According to Sesions’s letter, Judge Hamilton’s most determidly activists decisions might be his series of rulings in A...

This is a statement that was read over the public address system at the football game at Roane County High School, Kingston, Tenn., by school principal, Jody McLeod: "It has always been the custom at Roane County High School football games, to say a prayer and play the national anthem, to honor God and country. Due to a ruling by the Supreme Court, I am told that saying a prayer is a violation of federal law. "As I understand the law at this time, I can use this public facility to approve of sexual perversion and call it 'an alternate...

One of the most conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday his more liberal colleagues are trying to manufacture new constitutional rights that were never intended by the drafters. “The fight is about the Supreme Court inventing new rights nobody ever thought existed,” Justice Antonin Scalia said in an appearance at the University of Arizona College of Law. “Right to abortion?” he asked. “Come on. Nobody thought it violated anything in the Constitution for 200 years. It was criminal.” The same, said Scalia, is true of homosexual sodomy. Yet the nation’s high court has struck down state laws...

Once upon a time a newly elected President, supported by an adoring media, claimed powers beyond the Constitution, and the Supreme Court acted. Does that Court still sit? Some of us are asking ourselves that question these days. A week doesn't pass when some new federal infringement on the rights of a free society is enacted or promoted. Just recently, Obama's Pay Czar, Kenneth Feinberg, cut the salaries of twenty-five senior Wall Street executives. By what Constitutional authority does he do that? we ask. While the Democratic Party seems hell bent on socializing as many parts of the free market...

The “innocent until proven guilty” concept is at the very heart of our legal system. Government ought not be able to exact punishment for a crime until proof has been established, beyond a reasonable doubt, by a jury of one’s peers.But this foundational principle of justice has been tossed out the window in recent years, at least in one realm, that of civil or asset forfeiture. Civil forfeiture allows police to seize more than $1 billion worth of property each year — cash, cars, boats, etc. — that is alleged to have been used in the furtherance of a crime.The...

In fact, the 9-point drop in the most recent quarter is the largest Gallup has ever measured for an elected president between the second and third quarters of his term, dating back to 1953.