Free Republic

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday revived the University of Notre Dame's religious objections to the requirement for contraception coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare law, throwing out a lower court decision in favor of the federal government. The justices asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision against the South Bend, Indiana-based Roman Catholic university in light of the June 2014 Supreme Court ruling that allowed certain privately owned corporations to seek exemptions from the provision. The case is part of national litigation concerning religious objections to the contraception provision of the 2010...

WASHINGTON — Congress is sending President Obama a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security through the end of the budget year, without overturning the president’s immigration policies. The House on Tuesday voted 257-167 for the measure that Obama is expected to sign. Without action, funding for the department would have expired Friday at midnight.

The House on Tuesday admitted defeat after a month-long effort to defund President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration, and passed a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that leaves Obama’s plan intact. The vote came after dozens of House Republicans fought to the bitter end to reject the “clean” DHS bill, in an effort to oppose what they see as an unconstitutional action from Obama. The House passed the bill 257-167, and sending it to the White House for Obama’s signature into law. In the end, 167 Republicans voted against the Senate’s version of the bill. But because the...

<p>The Justice Department announced Tuesday it will not file federal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman, the Florida man who was acquitted last year of second-degree murder for shooting Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.</p> <p>“Though a comprehensive investigation found that the high standard for a federal hate crime prosecution cannot be met under the circumstances here, this young man’s premature death necessitates that we continue the dialogue and be unafraid of confronting the issues and tensions his passing brought to the surface,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in written statement. “We, as a nation, must take concrete steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future.”</p>

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it would not pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that the Department of Justice’s investigation found that the evidence available could not meet the “high standard for a federal hate crime prosecution,” though he called the death a “devastating tragedy” that “shook an entire community, drew the attention of millions across the nation, and sparked a painful but necessary dialogue.” Story Continued Below Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman on...

The White House Office of Legal Counsel knew and advised Obama from the outset an executive order was impossible. Subsequently the White House and DHS attempted to thread the needle with a claim of Presidential authority to “set priorities regarding enforcement“. However, as we previously outlined the “enforcement priority” did more than “prioritize enforcement”, it actually created an entire new category of immigration personage. A large problem relates to an intent on classifying a new category of illegal alien with eligible work status. Riddled throughout President Obama’s Executive Order speech in November was something more than prosecutorial discretion and/or non-deportation....

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Texas has temporarily blocked President Obama's executive action on illegal immigration by granting a request from 26 states to allow the courts to look at its constitutionality before it is implemented. The lawsuit is being headed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. @GregAbbott_TX BREAKING: Federal Judge just granted my request to halt Obama's Executive Amnesty Order Nationwide. More later. #txlege #tcot @TexasGOP "This case examines complex issues relating to immigration which necessarily involve questions of federalism, separation of powers, and the ability and advisability, if any, of the Judiciary to hear and resolve such a...

The new border bills drafted by Republican leaders require the actual removal of at least 66 miles of weak border fencing between laborers in Mexico and employers in the United States. The border bills also only require for the construction of 27 miles of effective double-layer fencing along the 2,000-mile border. “It is a remarkable that the direction of our progress is going backwards, from a goal of building 700 miles of double-layer border fencing [in 2006] to only 27 miles [in 2015],” said a Hill staffer who opposes the leaders’ bills. “Where the double-layer fence has been put in,...

Yemen’s powerful Shiite Houthi rebels shelled the residence of the country’s embattled president Tuesday and simultaneously swept into the presidential palace in the capital, Sanaa, as a top military commander warned that a full-fledged “coup” was underway. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was inside the residence as it came under “heavy shelling” for half an hour but he was unharmed and protected by guards, officials said. In New York, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting over the chaos in Sanaa. The shelling was a dramatic development that put the U.S.-backed Hadi into a precarious position and represented the...

Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian state energy giant Gazprom to cut supplies to and through Ukraine amid accusations, according to The Daily Mail, that its neighbor has been siphoning off and stealing Russian gas. Due to these “transit risks for European consumers in the territory of Ukraine,” Gazprom cut gas exports to Europe by 60%, plunging the continent into an energy crisis “within hours.” Perhaps explaining the explosion higher in NatGas prices (and oil) today, gas companies in Ukraine confirmed that Russia had cut off supply; and six countries reported a complete shut-off of Russian gas. The EU raged that...

AirAsia has confirmed that debris from Flight QZ8501 has been discovered in the Karimata Strait, south west of Pangkalan Bun in the Borneo province of Central Kalimantan. At least 40 bodies from the 162 passenger list have already been recovered, leaving grieving family members devastated. "The warship Bung Tomo has retrieved 40 bodies and the number is growing. They are very busy now," an Indonesia navy spokesman said, according to Fox News. AirAsia confirmed that the debris and the bodies, found six miles from the flight's last point of contact, are from the missing aircraft. Surabaya, Indonesia, Mayor Tri Rismaharini...

The House on Thursday voted to bar the executive branch from deferring the deportation of undocumented workers, taking its first direct action against President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. The 219-197 vote was largely symbolic as the measure is headed for certain death in the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he won't take up the legislation. The White House has also threatened to veto the measure. The vote on legislation sponsored by Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) is intended to help Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) move a bill next week that would fund most of the...

The Yoho bill is not designed to block Obama's use of federal monies to carry out his unlawful amnesty. The Yoho bill is designed to dupe Republicans into thinking Boehner has attempted to block Obama's use of federal monies to carry out his unlawful amnesty. It is designed to trick the Stupid American Voter. As usual. This has court implications as well. Boehner supposedly will sue the Administration over its power-grabs. However, Congress has the power itself to delimit executive overrreach -- through its power of the purse, of course. The Supreme Court may very well decline to hear any...

Authorities in St. Louis County, Mo. continued preparations ahead of an expected grand jury decision on whether to charge a white police officer for the fatal August 9 shooting of a black teen in Ferguson.

On Friday, the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reported to several Congressional committees that many of the allegedly “missing” emails to and from former IRS official Lois Lerner have been recovered.Lois Lerner remains at the heart of the IRS scandal for her having overseen the IRS’ tax-exempt division that designated nonprofit statuses. Between the approximate years of 2010 to 2013, Lerner’s division harassed and suppressed the political activities of blossoming Tea Party and conservative nonprofit groups that sought to make a difference. The IRS spent years denying nonprofit statuses for conservative nonprofits while allowing left-leaning nonprofits no...

UPDATE: Three of the four worshippers killed in a Jerusalem synagogue attack are Americans, according to multiple media reports. Earlier: Two Palestinians stormed a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday, attacking worshippers praying inside with knives, axes and guns, and killing four people before they were killed in a shootout with police, officials said. The attack, the deadliest in Jerusalem in years, is bound to ratchet up fears of sustained violence in the city, already on edge amid soaring tensions over a contested holy site.

Parliament Hill is in under lockdown after reports of shots being fired from inside the halls of the centre block. Nearby, at the National War Memorial, a man believed to be a soldier was shot by an unknown gunman. CTV News' Katie Simpson was at the War Memorial in Ottawa on Wednesday morning, and witnessed passersby attending to someone who had been shot. Police said a man believed to be a member of the Canadian Forces was shot at the memorial. Police said a man believed to be a member of the Canadian Forces was shot at the memorial. Jason...

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services plans to seek a vendor to produce as many as 34 million blank work permits and 'green cards' – the paperwork that authorizes illegal immigrants to live and work in the United States – as the White House prepares to issue an executive order after the Nov. 4 midterm elections. According to a draft solicitation published online, the government agency will look for a company that can produce a minimum 4 million cards per year for five years, and 9 million in the early stages. President Barack Obama has pledged that he will make a...

The second health-care worker diagnosed with Ebola had a fever of 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit before boarding a passenger jet on Monday, a day before she reported symptoms of the virus and was tested, according to public health officials. Even though there appeared to be little risk for the other people on that flight, she should not have traveled that way, Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a news conference Wednesday.

The second health-care worker diagnosed with Ebola flew on a passenger jet with more than 130 other passengers on Monday, a day before she reported symptoms of the virus and was tested, according to authorities.