Free Republic

There is evidence Burr unsuccessfully attempted to get the British to join in his scheme. In late 1806 after an extended stay at the home of his friend, Andrew Jackson, Burr gathered a small army in preparation for an invasion of New Orleans. When it became clear that their “secret” plan was no longer secret, one of Burr’s partners turned on him in February 1807. Burr was indicted for treason and eventually put on trial for one of the highest crimes against our nation. With the sort of political dirty trick that would become a Democrat hallmark, Burr was acquitted...

Long after the pro-union monopoly National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was adopted in 1935, even strong supporters of this statute rejected the appropriateness of attempting anything analogous in federal, state, or local government. For example, in 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who just two years earlier had publicly endorsed and signed the NLRA, wrote a letter to a government union official explaining it is “impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or bind the employer” in dealings with “Government employee organizations” because “the employer is the whole people . . . .” In the late 1950s and early 1960s, politicians...

When a federal appeals court ruled last month that a seemingly arcane wording flaw in the Affordable Care Act should invalidate a central part of the law, many of those who drafted the statute five years ago reacted with shock and anger.. In 2009, they had spent months piecing together a compromise that sought to create a national system of subsidized insurance — but one run by the states. Now, they fear their work could be undone by what some call a "drafting error" and others portray as a political miscalculation. The judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for...

<p>According to USA Today, on Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court blocked gay marriages from happening in the commonwealth, putting on hold the recent decision by the federal appeal’s court last month. That ruling ruled that the state’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.</p>

Only two possibilities, my friends. One: He’s talking out of his ass here, trying to scare the shinola out of well-heeled liberals in order to make them reach for their wallets before the midterms. (See also “impeachment.”) Two: The fix is in.Over/under on when Ginsburg calls it quits is summer 2015. “What’s preventing us from getting things done right now is you’ve got a faction within the Republican Party that thinks solely in terms of their own ideological purposes and solely in terms of how do they hang on to power. And that’s a problem,” Mr. Obama said at...

If I drive across a U.S. border, I expect to stop at a Border Patrol checkpoint. But imagine driving to the grocery store, or Mom's house, well inside America, and being stopped by the Border Patrol. Many Americans don't have to imagine it -- it's how they live. Even as the federal government fails to control the southern border, it sends the Border Patrol farther into the interior, where Americans complain that agents harass people who are already U.S. citizens. It's legal. The Supreme Court ruled that the Border Patrol can set up "inland" checkpoints anywhere up to 100...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg evolved this summer from a mere figure of authority into a liberal celebrity when she authored the dissenting opinion in the Hobby Lobby case. Ginsburg’s dissent, which has been ubiquitously dubbed “scathing” and/or “blistering” in the press, prompted the left to craft a cult of personality around her. Liberal outlets dubbed her “Notorious R.B.G.,” whiny folk artists converted her opinion into a terrible but nevertheless widely shared song, and The New Republic laughably dubbed Ginsburg “the most popular woman on the internet.” Take that, Kate Upton.All this hero worship was entirely unearned, but...

True, the Halbig case, if it makes its way to the Supreme Court, will present an opportunity for Chief Justice John Roberts to redeem himself from his abominably activist salvation of Obamacare. But more important, it will be an opportunity for the high court to reaffirm this nation's commitment to the rule of law. In Halbig v. Burwell, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that under the Affordable Care Act federal health insurance subsidies are available for policies purchased only on state exchanges and not those purchased on the federal exchange. If the Supreme Court takes the case, it...

We rely on the Supreme Court to defend the Constitution from the endless assaults on it that chip away our liberty. Too bad Supreme Court Justices don’t have a higher opinion of the document. Ruth Bader Ginsberg has denounced it, recommending instead the socialist constitution of South Africa. The odious Stephen Breyer appears to attack it at every opportunity (e.g., here, here, and here). Now we hear this from swing vote Anthony Kennedy: Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, speaking at the annual conference of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Monterey, waxed eloquent on the deficiencies of the...

Why there’s really no chance President Obama will be able to appoint another Justice to the bench, regardless of what happens in November. It’s a question that’s roiled the liberal universe for years: Why won’t 81-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg resign from the Supreme Court and give President Obama the chance to pick her successor, in case the Senate turns Republican after the mid-terms? Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, one of the left’s jurisprudential heroes, had a ready answer to that question when it was posed to him at the University of California Santa Barbara late last month....

It’s not very often when one man, liable for the most destructive decision in a nation’s ideological history, is presented with an opportunity to eradicate his greatest transgression: empowering a socialist leviathan that became the greatest Trojan horse of excessive government in our history. The real question is, after an appeals court ruling struck down key components of the law and dealt John Roberts a temporary stay of stupidity, will he once again abandon 225 years of proven checks and balances, or will the Chief Justice inexplicably pardon Obamacare for a second time and reward those who lied about its...

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof … unless they really want to. That’s how Democrats interpret the First Amendment. hobby lobby scotus protest Part of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its liberal allies’ big government agenda was rejected in the Hobby Lobby decision after “several unpersuasive arguments” before the Supreme Court a couple of weeks ago, yet it appears that they never read the opinion of the court because they keep making the same sorry arguments. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) sponsored a bill last week titled the Protect Women’s...

The White House says it’s not worried about a possible retirement by Ruth Bader Ginsburg or any other Supreme Court justice. Speculation on the high court’s next vacancy has centered on the 81-year-old Ginsburg, who has had health problems. Some on the left have openly worried it could be tough for the Obama administration to fill a vacancy, especially if the GOP wins back the Senate this fall.

Spurred on by the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby ruling, Eden Foods CEO Michael Potter has revived a March 2013 case to nix coverage of all birth control from his employees’ healthcare plans. In turn, many shoppers have soured on the organic food giant and are boycotting its products. “In accordance with his Catholic faith, Potter believes that any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation, whether as an end or means -- including abortifacients and contraception -- is wrong,” Erin Mersino, Eden’s lawyer from the conservative Thomas More...

Do you know that the verdict in this case actually limited the Court’s power? Following the loss of the presidency and Congress in the election of 1800, the lame-duck Federalist Congress enacted the Judiciary Act of February 3, 1801, creating 58 new federal judgeships and new circuit courts. Two weeks later, Congress created 42 justices of the peace in the District of Columbia. Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth resigned, and President John Adams named Secretary of State John Marshall to replace him. The judicial commissions were signed by President Adams, and the Seal of the United States affixed by the Secretary...

According to a Gallup poll released today, Republican support for the Supreme Court has increased 21 percentage points since September of last year. Partisan views have flipped since the beginning of the High Court’s term last October. GOP approval has increased from a mere 30 percent to a majority of 51 percent. On the other hand, Democrats approval is down 14 points, falling from 58 percent to 44 percent. This is notable considering the majority of Democrats have viewed the Supreme Court favorably since 2012’s ruling on the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act. During this time,...

The recent Supreme Court decision on Hobby Lobby has had an impact on the approval rating for the nation’s top judicial panel, but it’s not exactly what detractors of the decision predicted. Paralleling the Economist/YouGov poll last week, Gallup’s most recent poll shows that overall approval and disapproval has stayed nearly constant over the past year or more. The profound change has taken place in the composition of both segments: Americans remain divided in their assessments of the U.S. Supreme Court, with 47% approving of the job it is doing, and 46% disapproving. These ratings are consistent with approval...

The Heritage Foundation’s annual Scholar’s and Scribes event held on July 8th discussed the Supreme Court’s 2013 – 2014 term. The discussion about the cases focused around women’s health, the First Amendment, and racial discrimination. hobby lobby scotus protest A member of the scholars’ panel, John Malcom, Director of Legal and Judicial Studies at Heritage, remarked that this was an exceptionally good year for conservatives, although the positive results were achieved through narrow victories. The most recent case, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, was the topic of an in-depth discussion. Due to the political backlash and misreporting about the decision from...

Senate and House Democrats are outraged by the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of Hobby Lobby in the firm’s lawsuit seeking exemption from the Obamacare mandate that employers provide, free of charge, contraceptives to employees. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid called the Supreme Court decision “outrageous” and Democrats have introduced bills in the Senate and the House to overturn the decision. Why exactly is it that Democrats find it so outrageous that in America religious freedom is respected? That we have law – The Religious Freedom Restoration Act under which the owners of Hobby Lobby sued the federal government...

It’s a pretty strong suggestion too, and it should give Democrat incumbents in the Senate yet another reason to question Harry Reid’s leadership. The Economist/YouGov partnership conducted two polls on approval levels for the Supreme Court. One was taken from June 28th-30th, ending the same day that the court handed down its Hobby Lobby decision (and Harris v Quinn for that matter), and after its previously-announced decisions the week before, and the other from July 5-7, at the pitch of the hysterical overreaction to the 5-4 Hobby Lobby result. While the media and Democrats seem to believe that the...