Free Republic

Most Americans believe that the federal government stands absolutely supreme. Nobody can question its dictates. Nobody can refuse its edicts. Nobody can resist its commands. This is simply not true. Laws passed in pursuance of the Constitution do stand as the supreme law of the land. But that doesn’t in any way imply the federal government lords over everything and everybody in America.

Everybody has an opinion about whether the Confederate flag is good or bad. They’re all dug in. Some are certain it’s racist and the very signature of evil. Others say it’s purely an expression of Southern pride and reverence for ancestors who fought and died a long time ago. Some of them have devoted careers and personal reputations to these propositions. A newspaper column is not going to change any minds. The Civil War is a big bagful of ironies and paradoxes, and not a recommended study for folks who like to keep things simple. It would be a particular...

While dissenting from the recent Supreme Court decision rubber-stamping same-sex “marriage,” Justice Antonin Scalia warned his colleagues that with “each decision ... unabashedly based not on law” the Court moves “one step closer to being reminded of [its] impotence.” And a new poll shows that another such step has in fact been taken, with more Americans supporting the idea that states should have the right to ignore federal court rulings. Writes Rasmussen Reports, “A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 33% of Likely U.S. Voters now believe that states should have the right to ignore federal court rulings...

“I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools. By imposing its own views on the entire country, the majority facilitates the marginalization of the many Americans who have traditional ideas.” – Justice Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court decision that forced gay marriage on the country The dilemma Christians and conservatives face after the Supreme Court's made-up-from-whole-cloth-instead-of-the-Constitution ruling on gay marriage is...

A gay El Paso couple contacted ABC-7 to report an Upper Valley wedding venue that won't let them get married there. The owner of Grace Gardens says she is exercising her religious freedom in denying same-sex marriages.

Many people are looking at the recent Supreme Court decisions about ObamaCare and same-sex marriage in terms of whether they think these are good or bad policies. That is certainly a legitimate concern, for both those who favor those policies and those who oppose them. But there is a deeper and more long-lasting impact of these decisions that raise the question whether we are still living in America, where "we the people" are supposed to decide what kind of society we want, not have our betters impose their notions on us. The Constitution of the United States says that the...

I thought Scott Walker was a pretty cool guy when I saw him pull up on a Harley at Joni Ernst’s Roast & Ride a few weeks ago in Boone, Iowa. But he just did something that wasn’t so cool in reacting to the SCOTUS decision on same-sex marriage — that is if you care about the Republicans winning the 2016 general election. Walker called for a Constitutional amendment to let states define marriage. Now I’m sure the Wisconsin governor has strong feelings about traditional marriage and, although I’m on the other side on this one, I completely respect his...

Hi I don't post on here much anymore but in the wake of this decision I thought I might as well. Civil partnership is not a religious marriage, and a religious marriage is not a civil contract. They are not, and never EVER should've been, merged and confused in the first place. Half the mess the world is in now, and the reason marriage is so under threat, is because even on the freedom loving Christian right of politics, too many people don't seem to grasp that ANY regulation of marriage at ANY level (states or federal) is an intrusion...

THE SOLUTION Now it is clear more than ever that the Federal Government needs to be checked BY THE PEOPLE AND THE STATES. Neither morality nor common sense can be 'legislated' via Congress ***effectively***. It just cannot be done adequately. We need our states to assert AS SOON AS POSSIBLE their Article V constitutional right to AMEND OUR US CONSTITUTION, Article VThe Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments,...

NCBA will engage EPA in lawsuit alleging overreach in Waters of the U.S. rule, group says. Concerns of cattlemen regarding the U.S. EPA and Army Corps of Engineers Waters of the U.S. rule released last month are coming true, National Cattlemen's Beef Association Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall said Tuesday, but that's actually generating more support for repeal efforts. We just got some more feedback this last weekend that it's the determination of the EPA that any stock tank or pond that runs around in a flooding type event would be considered a 'water of the United States,'"...

The Small Business Committee, under the chairmanship of Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), today conducted a hearing about how small businesses would be affected by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) and United States Army Corps of Engineers' proposed rule to expand the Clean Water Act. Last week, Graves and Members of the Committee wrote to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy, who oversees the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to urge withdrawal of the pending rule. Among the witnesses' and Members' concerns, the EPA and Corps of Engineers did not adequately assess the impact of...

Grand Junction, COLO. It's a hot debate that's sparked a lot of controversy in Mesa County. The updating of the Resource Management Plan has been in the works for years. It was announced a few months back, but not everyone's happy about the proposal. The Mesa County Commissioners and the Bureau of Land Management took turns speaking at the town hall meeting. The public listened to what happened in a meeting with representatives from the governor's office, in regards to the Resource Management Plan, and had the chance to share their concerns and suggestions. At last week's meeting with the...

Here is a recording of a guy calling Amazon and asking them why they stopped carrying the Confederate flag. At the end she admits the Gov't told them to.

<p>Gone With the Wind is Birth of a Nation with less horses. The movie, and its position among the American cinematic pantheon, has done more to further the ahistoric Lost Cause bullshit than any other single production. Because that's the fundamental problem with the Lost Cause narrative: it's not true.</p>

Jefferson, a member of the gentry of Old Virginia, was always regarded as one of the best and brightest of his generation, a gentleman of the finest intellect, taste, and manners. Although Jefferson loved and was loyal to the Union, he was a Virginian first and an American second; Virginia, Jefferson avowed, was his “country.” This order of allegiance – State over Union, or “Society” over “the State” – was firmly rooted in the Old South. Accordingly, in the emerging conflict between the North and the South, Jefferson sided with his own country. “It is true that we are completely...

Texas is larger than most countries in the United Nations, some not much bigger than the postage stamps they print for collectors, but each with a vote that can cancel ours out. Texas is about to a vote against the U.N.’s sovereignty-destroying Agenda 21, so named because it claims to be setting a “sustainable growth” agenda for the 21st century. Agenda 21 is in fact a global power grab similar to climate-change treaties like the Kyoto Protocol. It uses the imaginary threat of unsustainable growth which allegedly threatens to plunder the planet’s finite resources, like climate change allegedly threatens planetary...

NORMAN, Okla. -- By the end of June, same-sex marriage will likely be legal across the United States. As has been the case in many of the important questions brought before the Roberts Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy holds the swing vote in what will presumably be another 5-4 decision. Two years ago this question was sidestepped in Hollingsworth v. Perry when the Supreme Court ruled that the petitioners lacked standing, and thus did not rule on the merits of the case. However, under the current circumstances, with no procedural hurdles to prevent a ruling on the merits, Kennedy seems poised...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey's top court weighed the budget repercussions of ruling on a pension dispute between Gov. Chris Christie and public workers' unions on Wednesday while one justice wondered if the state had engaged in a "bait and switch." The state Supreme Court probed whether the state has a contractual obligation to pay what it agreed to in a 2011 pension overhaul law and tried to get lawyers from both sides to explore whether such a finding would represent an overstepping of the courts' role and put it in the middle of the state budget process every...

WAUKEE, Iowa — When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took the stage at 9:30 p.m. Saturday night, the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition's spring summit was an hour behind schedule. He promised the crowd of more than 1,000 at the evangelical Point of Grace Church he would keep his remarks brief so everyone could get home, get to bed and get up for church in the morning. He'd be doing just that, he added, back home in Wauwatosa. Wearing a suit — with no mention of whether it was from Kohl's — and pacing the stage, Walker was at ease, peppering...