Free Republic

Alliance Defending Freedom is demanding a retraction and apology from ABC News after reporters smeared one of the nation’s most respected religious liberty law firms as a ‘hate group.’ABC News reporters Pete Madden and Erin Galloway wrote a scathing report on a speech Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered behind closed doors at the Summit on Religious Liberty at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, California.“Jeff Sessions addresses ‘anti-LGBT hate group,’ but DOJ won’t release his remarks,” read the headline.“Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered a speech to an alleged hate group at an event closed to reporters on Tuesday night, but the...

The newest member of the Supreme Court already is making his mark after just three months on the job, effectively restoring a conservative tilt to the bench in decision after decision – amid mounting speculation over whether President Trump could soon have the chance to pick a second justice. Neil Gorsuch, who joined the court in April, helped the court round out its term with a rapid-fire set of decisions reinstating much of Trump’s travel ban for now, siding with a Missouri church in a dispute over state funding and more. Having officially settled into the role, Gorsuch and his...

Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- In Peruta v. California, the Ninth Circuit held that the right to carry concealed arms outside the home was not protected by the Second Amendment.The Ninth refused to consider that the ability to carry openly was prohibited by California law, thus nullifying the right to carry outside of the home. On Monday, 26 June, the Supreme Court officially denied the petition for a write of certiorari. The Ninth Circuit denial of Second Amendment rights outside the home will stand. From politico.com: The Supreme Court declined to review a case about the right to carry firearms outside the home,...

The conclusion of Justice Neil Gorsuch's abbreviated first term on the Supreme Court in April already has begun to reveal how the nine-justice court will develop. Conservatives have roundly praised Gorsuch's first two months on the high court, while liberals appear to fear that the worst is yet to come. Leah Litman, a University of California, Irvine law professor and former law clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy, said Gorsuch is exactly as the president billed him: "a firm adherent to originalism and textualism." "I think he's competent. I think he is assertive," Litman told the Washington Examiner. "He is likely...

Iowa Chief Justice Mark Cady On 14 April, 2017, Governor Terry Branson signed HF 517, a comprehensive law to reform Iowa's antique weapons restrictions. Part of the law was to require uniform firearm laws across the state. Local restrictions on the carry of weapons were eliminated. On 19 June, 2017, the Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court banned all weapons in county courthouses. The ban did not include peace officers on duty. The claimed reason for the order was to institute a comprehensive and uniform statewide policy prohibiting weapons in court houses. Iowa had a mix of counties...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declined to announce her retirement, once again, on the last day of the session on Monday. Also, Justice Anthony Kennedy declined to his announce his retirement, though he could do so over the summer. The 84-year-old Ginsburg — the “Notorious R.B.G.,” to her fans — has been on the Court since 1993, when she was appointed by President Bill Clinton. Since then, she has been a reliable liberal vote for 24 years....

The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 to hear the case on Donald Trump’s “Travel Ban”. They will hear arguments in October, but many of the provisions will be allowed to go ahead until then. The US can now halt immigration from the 6 proscribed nations except for those who have family ties within America. But a 9-0 decision raises a bigger question; what does this tell us about the 9th and 4th Circuit Judges who ruled against Trump earlier this year? Justices on the Supreme Court are not in position to make laws, that’s the job of Congress; they are there...

FULL TITLE: Supreme Court: Government Can’t Exclude Christian Groups From Programs Just Because They’re Christian In a huge victory, the Supreme Court today ruled that government programs can’t exclude Christian groups from them just because they are Christian. The specifics of the case at issue are not directly related to pro-life causes but the decision certainly could have impact on pro-life organizations. Previously, Christian-based abstinence organizations have been denied funding and pro-life organizations have been denied participation in governmental programs. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 Monday that the government cannot exclude churches and other faith-based organizations from a secular...

While there are many threats to religious liberty, few are more consequential over the long term than the state’s ever-expanding role in private life. If the government is able to vacuum up tax dollars, create programs large and small for public benefit, and then exclude religious individuals or institutions from those programs, it has functionally created two tiers of citizenship. Secular individuals and institutions enjoy full access to the government they fund, while religious individuals and institutions find themselves funding a government that overtly discriminates against them. That’s the issue the Supreme Court addressed today in Trinity Lutheran Church...

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on President Donald Trump’s ban on visitors from six Muslim-majority countries. The case will be argued in October. Within two weeks of taking office, Trump issued an executive order restricting visits from seven Muslim-majority countries for three months and suspending America’s refugee resettlement program, arguing that federal officials needed to review the vetting process in the interest of national security. The order fulfilled one of the new president’s most controversial campaign promises. But the chaotic weekend that ensued ― dozens of people detained at airports and protests nationwide ― also played...

BREAKING: Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump appeal of rulings blocking travel ban on six Muslim-majority nations

<p>WASHINGTON — A clear majority of Supreme Court justices seemed ready Wednesday to rule that the separation of church and state should not extend to swings and slides.</p> <p>In a case with implications for more than 30 states that have prohibitions against public funds going to religious institutions, the justices cast doubt on Missouri's refusal to include a Lutheran church in a grant program that reimburses non-profit groups for installing rubber playground surfaces.</p>

Supreme Court orders Arkansas to allow names of both same-sex parents on their children's birth certificates, reversing Arkansas high court

JUST IN: Supreme Court agrees to hear appeal from baker who turned away same-sex couple.

Asset forfeiture "has led to egregious and well-chronicled abuses."In March the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case filed by a Texas woman fighting for the return of over $200,000 in cash that the police seized from her family. Although neither Lisa Olivia Leonard nor any of her relatives were ever charged with any underlying crime connected to the cash, the state's sweeping asset forfeiture laws allowed the authorities to take the money. The Supreme Court offered no explanation when it refused to hear Leonard v. Texas. But one member of the Court did speak up in protest. In...

Justice Anthony Kennedy, the man who so often determines the outcome of the most controversial Supreme Court cases, is himself the center of brewing speculation. Will he stay or will he go? The rumors have swirled for months and the 80-year-old justice has done nothing either personally or though intermediaries to set the record straight on whether he will step down.

The Knesset on Wednesday approved in a preliminary hearing MK Bezalel Smotrich's (Jewish Home) proposal to mandate that suits against Israeli authorities in Judea and Samaria be dealt with like the same type of suits elsewhere in Israel: in regional courts and not in the Supreme Court. This proposal would significantly lessen the Supreme Court's involvement in property and construction cases in Judea and Samaria, allowing the problems to be dealt with in a more legal and less political fashion. It would also significantly lessen the load on the Supreme Court, shortening the wait time for other cases. In his...

With much of the media is fixated on Russia, Comey, and potential obstruction, other goings-on inside the Beltway are getting relatively scant attention.  The White House is ramping up its focus on rebuilding US infrastructure (a common Trump campaign refrain), Republican Senators may be forging ahead with some progress on desperately-needed reforms to Obamacare's failing status quo, and the president has unveiled another substantial roster of nominees to fill federal court vacancies.  Three names on the list are slated to serve on important and influent circuit courts of appeal -- including a woman Trump has tapped to assume Supreme Court...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday held that church-affiliated hospitals do not have to comply with the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which governs employee pensions. Here are five things to know about the case and the high court's ruling. 1. The Supreme Court agreed in December to take up appeals filed by religiously affiliated hospital systems that were accused of underfunding their employee pension plans. 2. In three lawsuits, which were consolidated into one case, the high court was asked to decide whether the health systems can rely on their church affiliations to avoid complying with ERISA, which...

The Supreme Court has accepted a challenge to the warrantless collection of historical cellphone location data in a case that could curtail U.S. government surveillance and expand American privacy rights. The case, Carpenter v. U.S., was granted certiorari Monday on appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which found that police did not need a warrant based on probable cause to collect 127 days of cellphone records from MetroPCS and Sprint. Timothy Carpenter was found guilty of participating in six Michigan robberies after the government said those cellphone records – which included calls made and geographic...