Free Republic

One of the great liberal (in the true sense of the word) decisions by the Supreme Court is West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, the 1943 case where the justices struck down a law that forced school children of the Jehovah’s Witness faith to salute the flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance or face punishment for declining to do so. [...] Today’s “liberals” have forgotten the wisdom of Barnette. They care little about liberty and instead desire to impose their ideas by force. We see their authoritarianism popping up all around, and one place is mandatory speech. A...

...President Donald Trump has recommended a cut of some 30% to the State Department’s budget, which includes the funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development and most of America’s investments in global health. Congress is unlikely to go along with such large cuts, but our best guess is that, by the time the dust settles, key foreign-aid programs will be scaled back. Even modest cuts would represent the reversal of a long-term trend of increasing U.S. support for foreign aid, and a similar mood of retrenchment has taken hold elsewhere. In the U.K., the world’s second-largest aid donor, there...

Vermont Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for All Act" has been gaining support from a growing number of Democrats. His bill would establish a single-payer health care system and outlaw private medical practice. "The current system is too complicated and confusing," Sanders contends. "My bill would simplify everything by placing all the responsibility and control in the hands of the government. Disputes over what care is warranted would be eliminated. The decisions regarding who can be treated will be consolidated in a single authority. Everyone would get the care that best serves the collective needs of society. No individual would...

On Valentine’s Day, the WhiteBox art gallery in New York City hosted a runway show with a political twist. The diverse group of models featured in “Illegal Fashion” wore dresses made of canvas, linen, burlap, and recycled paper. Painted with splotches of bold colors, the garments bore provocative phrases like “I am illegal,” “deport me,” and “ICE me.” Artist Maria de Los Angeles curated the show with Juan Puntes de Los Angeles also designed the dresses modeled. The 29-year-old has a personal connection to the garments, as well as to the messages painted on them. “I’m undocumented,” she says. “So...

It’s not just crazy places like the University of California at Berkeley where surprisingly large numbers of U.S. college students believe that violence and shouting are acceptable methods to prevent people from saying things. Fifty-one percent of all U.S. college students believe shouting is an acceptable response to free speech, and one in five (19 percent) believe violence is an acceptable response, according to results from a national survey of 1,500 students in 49 states and DC. Fifty-three percent of survey respondents said colleges should “create a positive learning environment for all students by prohibiting certain speech or expression of...

California's attorney general plans to file a lawsuit on Wednesday challenging President Donald Trump's plan to construct a wall along the border with Mexico, the state AG's office said, adding to the obstacles facing a key Trump campaign promise. The border wall lawsuit set to be filed on Wednesday will allege that Trump's wall violates federal environmental standards, as well as constitutional provisions regarding the separation of powers and states' rights.

Though the administration has begun to put supports in place for undocumented students affected by President Donald Trump’s decision to end a program that shielded them from deportation, some say SIU is lagging behind other Illinois universities. “Since the undocumented body of students is smaller [here], the urgency is lower,” said Martha Osornio, an undocumented student and a senior studying cinema and photography from Chicago. “Other universities are all doing workshops and things to help their larger populations of undocumented students.” The University of Illinois system’s flagship campus has a website dedicated to providing resources for undocumented students, open.illinois.edu. Here,...

In Minnesota, more than 6,200 individuals have been granted DACA status. A similar number might have qualified for the program but never applied. And some, like 29-year-old Alejandra Cruz, were never eligible. She was 20 when she entered the United States, and DACA covers only those who arrived before reaching age 16. The vulnerability that DACA recipients are feeling is familiar territory to her, though she insists she is not afraid. "This country depends on the immigrant community," she said. "And this country needs to recognize that." She doesn't usually volunteer that she's undocumented and not enrolled in DACA, but...

Washington (CNN)US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election, sources tell CNN, an extraordinary step involving a high-ranking campaign official now at the center of the Russia meddling probe. The government snooping continued into early this year, including a period when Manafort was known to talk to President Donald Trump. Some of the intelligence collected includes communications that sparked concerns among investigators that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign, according to three sources familiar with the investigation. Two of these sources, however, cautioned that the evidence...

In 2001, Colorado electricity consumers enjoyed some of the lowest electric rates in the country. The 15 years since haven’t been so kind to ratepayers. For more than a decade, elected officials, PUC commissioners, industry and advocates have told Colorado ratepayers that they could transform the state’s electricity generation away from coal and toward industrial wind, solar and natural gas with little cost to ratepayers. However, the actual numbers tell a much different story. Colorado electricity rates have risen sharply – 62.1 percent – across residential, commercial and industrial sectors, despite a slight decrease in recent years. Colorado electricity rates...

Federal immigration authorities said Friday that they were tracking a young immigrant when San Francisco police allege he shot and killed a popular community activist last month. Erick Garcia-Pineda, 18, was detained in December and released from custody in April pending deportation. ICE says the sheriff's department ignored a request to block his release from jail. San Francisco's "sanctuary city" policy bars the sheriff from cooperating with immigration officials unless they are seeking suspects convicted or charged with violent crimes.

A year ago Luis Alberto Mendez was an able-bodied immigrant from Mexico who worked as a carpenter. He had suffered from depression, but his lawyer said he had gotten the symptoms under control with medication. He was also undocumented. Today Mendez is a quadriplegic who is confined to his brother’s home in San Jose. He needs constant care and has no money. He blames Sacramento County and the U.S. government, and he’s suing them both. Mendez, 37, is a native of Mexico who does not dispute that he was in the United States illegally in 2016. When agents detained him,...

Back in 2013, Barronelle Stutzman, the owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Washington, refused to provide flowers for a gay friend’s same-sex wedding. The legal battle that ensued has now ended: The Washington State Supreme Court just unanimously ruled that the florist violated the state’s anti-discrimination law. The case has given rise to some misconceptions about discrimination. Here is the back story. In 2012, the state of Washington enacted Senate Bill 6239, which recognized same-sex marriage. Gay men Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed, who had been a couple since 2004, decided to get married in September of 2013. At the...

Nancy Pelosi said she trusted President Donald Trump’s sincerity in working to protect so-called Dreamers. “When we’re talking about this legislation to protect the Dreamers, yes I do trust that the president is sincere in understanding that the public supports that overwhelmingly, the public supports not sending these young people back,” Pelosi told reporters.

Schools and state-owned buildings would be off-limits to federal immigration agents under a California bill that would force officers to get warrants before they visit public sites for surveillance or arrests. SB 183 asserts that the presence of immigration agents at public buildings deters residents from paying fines, reporting crimes or cooperating with state investigations. The bill follows steps three state leaders have taken to keep agents from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement stay away from their offices. California Superintendent Tom Torlakson has encouraged schools to declares themselves as “safe havens” from immigration enforcement. Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye wrote a letter...

Perhaps it is too much West Coast air, or perhaps because the vast wealth of their owners keeps them insulated from the working class, but with few exceptions (such as Pay Pal founder Peter Theil), tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon all share a left-leaning, Kumbaya-like corporate culture; one that will protect itself with all the vengeful vigor of any social justice warrior on a college campus. This corporate culture war has pushed many conservatives to view these companies and their enormous clout as a threat in the market place and in politics. This is, of course, much the...

U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to end protections and benefits for children brought into the United States illegally faces a legal challenge from New York and other states. New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman will announce a multistate lawsuit to protect beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program at a news conference on Wednesday, his office said in a statement. Schneiderman and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday promised to challenge any decision by Trump to end DACA. Cuomo said the move would affect roughly 42,000 New Yorkers, upending their lives and ripping families apart. “Ending...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions today announced a plan to rescind the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which defers deportation for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children. Here's a look at who makes up the 799,077 immigrants protected under the program:

Young people aspire to overturn their wonderful country built by capitalism and replace it with the tyrannical and egalitarian notion of communism Huffing and puffing, I lug the large package of toilet paper from our local Costco into the house. It’s not that the price is better; I just don’t want to go to the store more often than I have to. I stood in lines enough during my twenty years of living under the boot of communism. I am always tempted to ask the cashier if that’s enough toilet paper for the average food intake. I never do it...

A video was sent in showing a high school teacher who has been identified as Lyn Orletsky from River Ridge High School in Georgia by Turning Point News. The incident happened Thursday according to sources. Lyn Orletsky via Facebook In this video the teacher appears to order her students wearing Trump shirts to turn them inside out. She didn’t want her students wearing these shirts for the same reason ‘you cannot wear a swastika to school’.