Free Republic

ech companies and commenters at public hearings got diametrically opposed rulings last week in First Amendment challenges to the discretion of governments to police, restrain and chill speech. U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter issued a preliminary injunction against New York's "hateful conduct" law, passed in the aftermath of the livestreamed Buffalo mass shooting to punish broadly defined "social media network[s]" for letting such content spread. It compels networks to "speak about the contours of hate speech" and chills their users' protected speech "without articulating a compelling governmental interest or ensuring that the law is narrowly tailored to that goal," Carter...

A newly leaked internal memo from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shows just how authorities under the Biden administration want to revise the First Amendment and make changes to religious liberty protections under its rights. The leaked memo showed the government’s plans to “sign delegation of authority on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and religion clause of the First Amendment” to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford showed displeasure on these new developments, claiming that it would endanger Americans’ religious liberty protections and disregard the First Amendment. “I am an outspoken...

In the wake of the Virginia gun rights rally on Monday, Democrats in the Capitol are not slowing down their push for tyranny. They are moving a bill through the legislature that would effectively criminalize dissent against Governor Blackface Northam and other state government officials. House Bill 1627 was introduced by Delegate Jeffrey M. Bourne last week. The legislation “provides that certain crimes relating to threats and harassment may be prosecuted in the City of Richmond if the victim is the Governor, Governor-elect, Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant Governor-elect, Attorney General, or Attorney General-elect, a member or employee of the General Assembly,...

Man Wears Sign Supporting Suspected Cop Killer Outside Florida Sheriff's Office: 'God Bless the Shooter' As Orlando police remain embroiled in a manhunt for a suspect wanted for the murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend and an officer in Orlando, a man [stood] to show support for that alleged cop killer, donning a sign celebrating the death of police outside a Florida sheriff’s office. ... Ian McGuire, 26, ... outside the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, ... three hours southwest of Orlando, wearing a sign that read: "2 cops dead in Orlando. God bless the shooter." ... he posted to YouTube showing...

The White House mocked GOP nominee Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz for trying to prevent the Commerce Department from transferring technical oversight of the Internet to an international body. "It doesn't withstand scrutiny," President Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday. "It also strikes me as a curious position for a self-described small government conservative to shut down the government to ensure that the federal government can continue to control the Internet," Earnest said of Cruz. "It doesn't make any sense." Cruz is trying to stop the multi-year transition that will leave the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and...

More reining in of freedom.Oh those New York Democrats! First we have Hillary (OK, only a New Yorker in a carpetbagging sort of way, but still . . .) wanting to "rein in" our notions that we have real Second Amendment rights. But that's the Second Amendment. That's not as important as the First, right? So for that one, we need Chuck Schumer, Hillary's senior as a senator before and after her tenure, to launch the attack.And he is: The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision allowing unions and corporations to donate to independent political groups has driven liberals to such fits that...

Gerald Molen, the producer of Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary film “2016: Obama’s America,” says he never feared his government before he learned that D’Souza is under federal investigation for election fraud. […] “I’m a little bit taken aback by the whole thing because he’s such a great American,” Molen said of D’Souza on Newmax TV’s “Steve Malzberg Show.” The conservative writer and commentator understands the process in America and how it works, Molen said. […] Asked by Malzberg if he ever felt threatened or had any feelings they should not have been making the film, Molen answered, “No. This is America....