Free Republic

Vice President Kamala Harris defended two Tennessee Democratic legislators who were expelled — and quickly reinstated — after leading a rowdy pro-gun control protest with bullhorns on the floor of the state House of Representatives last month. Harris told the National Action Network’s annual convention in Harlem Friday that a “bullhorn becomes necessary” when “extremists” won’t listen. Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, accused the Democrats of “doing an insurrection in the Capitol” and led his caucus in expelling them for the disruption, invoking terminology used by critics of former President Donald Trump to describe the violent riot by...

President Joe Biden invited the three expelled Democrats to the White House after being ousted from the state legislature for protesting against gun violence. His invitation extended to the "Tennessee Three" along with a statement praising them for "seeking to ban assault weapons and standing up for our democratic values." "Earlier today, I spoke to Reps. Jones, Pearson, and Johnson thank them for their leadership and courage in the face of a blatant disregard for our nation's democratic values. Our country needs to take action on gun violence — and to do that; we need more voices like theirs speaking...

Deputy U.S. marshals assigned to guard Supreme Court justices last year were directed to try not to make arrests, according to documents a U.S. senator revealed Tuesday, contradicting Attorney General Merrick Garland’s assurances to Congress. Sen. Katie Britt, Alabama Republican, confronted Mr. Garland with the training package used for the marshals deployed to protect justices. It said arrests were “not” to be a priority. Mr. Garland told senators earlier this month that his prosecutors couldn’t bring cases unless the marshals made arrests, and the marshals on the scene didn’t think there was a reason to do that. ‌ Ms. Britt...

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks, as delivered, at the High-Level Special Event marking the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, in New York, today:I thank Pakistan and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation for focusing attention — and calling for action — to stamp out the poison of Islamophobia. The world’s nearly 2 billion Muslims reflect humanity in all its magnificent diversity. They hail from all corners of the world. They are Arabs, Africans, Europeans, Americans and Asians. But they often face bigotry and prejudice for no other reason than their faith. This anti-Muslim hatred takes many forms. There is...

Civil justice icon Ben Crump partnered with St. Thomas University — one of the most diverse law schools in the country — to give minorities a seat at the table... ..."Having Ben Crump’s name on a Catholic university college of law, we’re building those bridges," said St. Thomas University president David Armstrong. For the mother of Trayvon Martin, it’s about representation....

ROME — Migrants leaving Africa to travel across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe are only looking for “a little well-being,” Pope Francis said Tuesday. The pope left Rome Tuesday morning on a flight for the Democratic Republic of Congo during which he exchanged a few words with the more than 70 journalists aboard the papal plane to cover the journey. “Right now we are crossing the Sahara,” the pontiff told the reporters. “Let us offer a thought, in silence, a prayer for all the people who are looking for a little well-being, a little freedom, have crossed it and have...

Critics of domestic terrorism laws, including some civil rights groups, oppose them “because of the risk of politicization, because they can be used against politically disfavored groups by the government,” Patrick Keenan, a professor of law at the University of Illinois, said. A 2017 Georgia law defines domestic terrorism as a felony intended to kill or harm people; “disable or destroy critical infrastructure, a state or government facility, or a public transportation system"; “intimidate the civil population or any of its political subdivisions”; and change or coerce state policy or affect the conduct of government “by use of destructive devices,...

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, and several of his House Republican colleagues dropped a new resolution condemning the pro-abortion "domestic terrorist violence" against churches and pro-life religious organizations. Babin led the resolution that hit the House floor on Thursday and lambasted the Justice Department (DOJ) over their prioritization of investigating parents via a teacher’s union letter comparing them to domestic terrorists instead of going after the "anarchists" attacking churches. "The DOJ’s busy likening concerned parents to domestic terrorists instead of prosecuting pro-abortion anarchists who are, by the FBI’s very definition, engaging in domestic terrorism," Babin told Fox News...

The Justice Department official who investigates attacks on reproductive health care facilities has been a staunch critic of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, dozens of which have been vandalized by abortion supporters over the past month. Civil rights division chief Kristen Clarke criticized the centers following a Supreme Court decision issued in their favor in 2018. Clarke said the centers, which counsel pregnant women on alternatives to abortion, were "harmful" and "predatory" against women of color. She also referred to them with the hashtag, "ExposeFakeClinics." Clarke’s stance on the centers offers a potential explanation for the Justice Department’s refusal to investigate...

The California State Senate voted Thursday to end a requirement that students who threaten violence against school officials be reported. Before the California law was passed, existing law stated that whenever a school official is “attacked, assaulted, or physically threatened by any pupil,” staff was “required to promptly report the incident to specified law enforcement authorities.” The new bill repealed this requirement. The law was endorsed by ACLU California Action. The organization called it a win for racial equality. “Once students make contact with law enforcement, they are less likely to graduate high school and more likely to wind up...

Nancy Pelosi also claimed that 'once Republicans have dispensed with precedent and privacy in overturning Roe, they will take aim at additional basic human rights.'WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Monday extolled the “righteous anger” of pro-abortion activists protesting a potential Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade despite the fact that those protests include descending on the private homes of sitting justices. Last week, Politico published a leaked draft of a majority opinion by conservative Justice Samuel Alito for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which concerns Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. The draft...

America was supposedly founded on the principle that power must be accountable if it is not to be tyrannical. Yet, the recent debate over abortion rights has illustrated once again that too many Americans in positions of power would prefer a populace that acquiesced silently to even monstrous abuses. Over the weekend, protesters organized a vigil outside Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to protest the threatened repeal of Roe v. Wade.

The White House condemned Monday the vandalism of a Catholic church by what appeared to be supporters of legal abortion, but indicated sympathy for their cause. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that protests should be peaceful, criticizing reports of angry protesters vandalizing a Catholic church and a pro-life organization. “We have seen it at Catholic churches, that’s unacceptable,” she said. “The president does not support that.” The headquarters of the pro-life group Wisconsin Family Action in Madison, Wisconsin was vandalized and set on fire Sunday, and remnants of a Molotov cocktail were discovered. Last week, a Catholic church...

Wisconsin Family Action allegedly targeted by Molotov cocktailSeveral House Democrats in Wisconsin have been slow to condemn the apparent arson attack on a pro-life group’s building in the Cheese State. SNIP Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of several Wisconsin Democratic lawmakers – Reps. Ron Kind, Gwen Moore and Mark Pocan – asking if they had any thoughts on the attack and if they believed the alleged arson to be an acceptable form of protest to a likely court ruling. None of the offices responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment, and none of the three representatives...

The White House on Thursday resisted asking angry pro-abortion protesters not to descend on the homes of Supreme Court Justices after a draft judicial decision on Roe v. Wade was leaked to the press. “I don’t have an official U.S. government position on where people protest,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied when asked if the president condoned the actions of protesters sharing information on the home addresses of originalist Supreme Court justices.

The Wisconsin city of Kenosha is reportedly weighing if it should build a memorial to one of the men who was shot dead by Kyle Rittenhouse during the August 2020 riots. Aldermen late Monday began considering a proposal to memorialize Anthony Huber with a tree and plaque in the city’s Anderson Park, according to The Daily Mail. The news outlet reported that Huber’s girlfriend, Hannah Gitting, put forward a motion for the memorial and that she would be responsible for the upkeep of the memorial if the city moves forward. Huber, a 26-year-old who had a prison record and reportedly...

Wednesday on CNN’s “At This Hour,” network national security analyst Juliette Kayyem argued against referring to the New York City subway station shooting as an act of terrorism. Frank James was taken into custody for the shooting that injured more than two dozen people and is expected to be facing a terrorism-related charge.

A judge in Washington D.C. denied on Tuesday federal prosecutors' motion to detain the two men impersonating federal agents because he says he isn't convinced that there are links to Pakistan intelligence. He also claimed that deleting social media posts wasn't proof that the other defendant would tamper with evidence, as federal lawyers argued. I am going to 'deny the government's request that the two defendants be held pending trial,' Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey said during proceedings Tuesday. The decision comes after it was revealed in proceedings earlier Tuesday that Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Sher-Ali, 35, were 'inadvertently...

During a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jamie Harrison railed against Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) over his opposition to U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in part because she represented Guantanamo Bay detainees as a federal public defender. Harrison deemed Cotton “the lowest of the low” and called him a “little, maggot-infested man” who “doesn’t deserve to be in the United States Senate” because he suggested Jackson would have represented the Nazis in the Nuremberg trials. “In a Senate where there is Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton is the lowest of...

As PJM’s Matt Margolis noted Thursday, “During her confirmation hearings, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s despicable record on sentencing child porn offenders became a key issue. Republicans pointed out that she had a pattern of giving these perverts lenient sentences, while Democrats made excuses for her and kept gushing over her status as a black woman.” And it’s even worse than we thought: investigative journalist Paul Sperry revealed Saturday that Jackson “heard horrifying details of ‘sadomasochistic’ torture of young kids — including ‘infants and toddlers’ — yet challenged the disturbing evidence presented by prosecutors and disregarded their prison recommendations to give...