Free Republic

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra admitted during a congressional hearing on Wednesday that hospitals with religious objections to transgender mutilation will lose federal funding. “Can you commit here today that your department will not withhold federal funding from hospitals or doctors who refuse to provide the gender-affirming care that you are, you know, mandating, if it violates their religious beliefs?” Republican Rep. Mary Miller, chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, asked Becerra. Becerra ignored the question and scolded Miller for asking it. “You’re going somewhere completely different. First, you started talking about how a doctor should...

Based on the latest available data and an enhanced version of a stress-tested methodology from a scholarly journal, a new study by Just Facts has found that about 10 percent to 27 percent of non-citizen adults in the U.S. are now illegally registered to vote. The U.S. Census recorded more than 19 million adult non-citizens living in the U.S. during 2022. Given their voter registration rates, this means that about two million to five million of them are illegally registered to vote. These figures are potentially high enough to overturn the will of the American people in major elections, including...

Legal experts believe Donald Trump could have flouted his court-imposed gag order by apparently manufacturing a scenario where his supporters communicated on his behalf. According to Newsweek, Trump has been penning notes for his political sympathizers to read outside the courthouse during his New York criminal trial, a move which could contravene the gag order. The purpose of the order is to prevent Trump from talking about the jury or any witnesses in the hush money case. "Those notes are not privileged documents, and if their contents mirrored some of what Trump's GOP cronies said to the press, the notes...

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of the structure used to fund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency tasked with enforcing consumer finance laws. By a vote of 7-2, the justices reversed a decision by a federal appeals court in Louisiana, which had ruled that the agency’s funding violates the Constitution because it comes from the Federal Reserve rather than through the congressional appropriations process. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority, in a decision that relied heavily on both the text of the Constitution and early English and U.S. history. Justice Samuel...

The Justice Department's Legal Counsel Office said the recording should be considered protected by executive privilege. Chairman Comer says the claim "changes nothing" and vows to continue contempt proceedings. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ President Joe Biden on Thursday claimed the recording of his interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur about his retention of classified documents should not be released due to executive privilege just hours before House Republicans were set to move toward holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for not releasing the recordings. The Justice Department's Legal Counsel Office said the recording should be considered protected by executive privilege,...

After more than three billion doses, the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine is being withdrawn. However, its reputation was dented as unusual blood clots emerged as a rare side effect of the vaccine, and the UK turned to alternatives.

More than two-thirds of Americans think the Supreme Court was right to hold Harvard's race-based admissions policy unlawful. But the minority who disagree have no doubt about their own moral authority, and there's every reason to believe that they intend to undo the Court's decision at the earliest opportunity. Which could be as soon as this year. In fact, undoing the Harvard admissions decision is the least of it. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have embraced a precooked "privacy" bill that will impose race/gender quotas not just on academic admissions but on practically every private and public decision that matters...

A stalwart in the West Virginia Republican Party for decades lost his primary race on Tuesday night due in part to his support of a controversial bill that critics say would provide healthcare for illegal immigrants, according to a group that actively campaigned against him. West Virginia GOP State Sen. Craig Blair, the president of the state senate who has served as a state senator since 2013 and in the legislature for years before that, lost to his primary challenger Tom Willis on Tuesday night, WV Metro News reported. Stand For Us PAC, a group that put $1 million into...

West Virginia voters ousted the Republican state Senate president on Tuesday, as well as a doctor who drew fire for breaking with his party over school vaccination policy. They were among at least eight incumbent GOP legislators who lost in the state's primary elections.

A voting rights lawsuit that could cost Texas Democrats seats across all levels of government received a hearing Tuesday by the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, known as the most conservative federal appellate court in the country. The Galveston County redistricting case is challenging how the appellate court has previously interpreted the Voting Rights Act, which was passed to protect individual minority groups but has been “twisted” for political advantage. At issue is whether Section 2 of the law requires the county to create a majority-minority district by grouping a “coalition” of black and Hispanic voters....

Lawyers for E. Jean Carroll have asked a federal appeals court to expedite Donald Trump’s appeal of the verdict in their first trial in which a jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages after finding Trump liable for defamation and battery in May 2023. Carroll wants to see the oral arguments for the appeal scheduled to take place by July, arguing that the former president will try to further delay the proceedings, using his ongoing criminal trial or busy campaign schedule as an excuse. The motion with the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals filed Tuesday cites Trump’s numerous attempts...

In an interview posted on on Tuesday, Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that he’s changed his position on third-trimester abortions. This came after he said in an interview that he supports a woman's right to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. Kennedy made the remarks in an interview with comedians Shane Gillis and Matt McCusker this week. "There's no way you can change my mind by calling me names or criticizing me or by marginalizing or vilifying me. But, you can always change my mind with facts,” Kennedy said. “If you […] show me I'm wrong...

A Nanny State Idiocracy: A Tale of Too Many Laws and Too Little Freedom“Whether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military.”—Simone Weil, French philosopherWe are caught in a vicious cycle of too many laws, too many cops, and too little freedom.It’s hard to say whether we’re dealing with a kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves), a kakistocracy (a government run by unprincipled career politicians, corporations and thieves that panders to the worst vices in our nature and has little regard for the rights of American...

Hawaii Supreme Court Justice Todd Eddins delivered a scathing critique of the U.S. Supreme Court, denouncing its conservative justices for what he views as an “incredibly dishonest” application of the legal philosophy of originalism

This follows a pattern of weaknesses in Bragg’s case, which has been consistently undercut by other witnesses. But if the tapes don't fit: they must acquit. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When Alvin Bragg's prosecutors opened their felony record-keeping trial, they promised to show the jurors that Donald Trump "orchestrated" a conspiracy to hide allegations from a porn star and another woman from voters in 2016 and disguise the source of the cash in his firm’s books. When their star witness Michael Cohen played a tape he secretly made of his ex-boss and client, the recording appeared to show that Trump was unaware of...

Harry Dunn — the far left Capitol Hill police officer who has cried repeatedly in public over his role in January 6th — has lost his Congressional primary campaign. It is unknown as to whether or not he cried upon hearing the news. Dunn, 40, had the endorsements of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Adam Schiff, and had out-raised all his other primary opponents. Much like on January 6th, Dunn was beaten by a girl.

Annaleine “Anne” Reynolds snapped up some vacant land in Hawaii for about $22,500 at an auction back in 2018. Reynolds planned to create a picturesque oceanview home using sustainable materials on Puna's Hawaiian Paradise Park lot to host her meditative healing women’s retreats. “There’s a sacredness to it and the one that I chose to buy had all the right qualities,” Reynolds told Hawaii News Now. But while she waited out the COVID-19 pandemic in California before getting started on construction, a real estate broker mistakenly sold the property to a developer, who bulldozed the lot and built a three-bedroom,...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal from California corrections officials who sought immunity from lawsuits claiming they acted with deliberate indifference when they caused a deadly COVID-19 outbreak at one of the world’s most famous prisons four years ago. The justices turned down the appeal without comment or dissent. The lawsuit stemmed from the botched transfer of infected inmates in May 2020 from a Southern California prison to San Quentin, which at the time had no infections. The coronavirus then quickly sickened 75% of inmates at the prison north of San Francisco, leading to the deaths of...

The Republican National Committee (RNC) appears to have little to no on-the-ground operations in key battleground states despite former President Donald Trump narrowly leading President Joe Biden, local GOP and conservative group leaders tell The Federalist. They expressed optimism, however, that the RNC will step up its efforts and suggested it’s “typical” for the RNC not to have its ground game going until about now. Grassroots organizations are targeting key states such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Texas to improve “election processes at the administrative level well before Election Day,” director Josh Findlay of the Texas Public Policy...

Every year, former Republican congressional candidate Paul Chabot hosts a welcoming ceremony at a barn in North Texas that draws hundreds of people. There, barbecue vendors, military recruiters and line dance instructors indoctrinate their new neighbors, teaching them about their new home and the Southern lifestyle. After the festivities, the county sheriff hands them a red, white and blue certificate declaring them honorary Texas citizens. When these families sign their names and recite their oaths, they must not only “swear loyalty” to the Lone Star State, but profess that “there is no finer, greater or better place on the planet.”...