Free Republic

A black man carrying an American flag asked why the Portland mob was ripping down the fence in front of the Federal Courthouse. “If you stand for justice come here and stand with me.” the man said. “Stand with me because I’m here for justice. I’m not here to tear down this f***ing fence; I’m not here to spray-paint. It’s going on every day. If you don’t want to get gassed, stop! If you don’t want to get gassed, stop! It has to stop! None of you guys represent black lives. Sit and protest. Sit and protest.”

Portland Oregon has become the epicenter of anarchist rioting in the United States. The rioters have attacked federal law enforcement officers and agents who have tried to protect federal buildings from being ransacked or burnt down. Not surprisingly, the American Civil Liberties Union has rushed to the rioters’ defense. Meanwhile, prominent black leaders in Portland have complained that their message is being drowned out by the mostly white “fringe” elements engaging in violence. Vera Eidelman, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, praised what she called a “beautiful uprising.” She described the determined efforts to restore...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)and other Democrats have gone on a tirade over apparent federal agents sweeping alleged rioters away in unmarked vehicles. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has joined the bandwagon of sanctimonious anger over the criminal suspects being apprehended in an unconventional way, highlighting the suspicion by patriotic Americans nationwide the left is not interested in quelling any civil unrest unless it happens to directly affect them. Earlier we reported that Nancy Pelosi was calling the agents “Stormtroopers” for President Trump. Now Chuck Schumer has this to say about the situation, using the word abomination for the...

Militarized federal agents wearing camouflaged outfits took to the streets of Portland, Oregon on Friday in unmarked vans, grabbing and detaining protesters while unleashing tear gas in what state Governor Kate Brown described as “a blatant abuse of power.” The Democratic governor of Oregon said President Donald Trump was seeking confrontation as a way of winning political points while also trying to distract citizens from his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Oregon has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases recently, while a number of other states across the US have also reported significant rises in infections. Brown’s spokesman, Charles Boyle,...

Justin Timberlake is calling for the removal of Confederate monuments across the country. The singer, who is from Tennessee, posted his comments on Instagram on Monday along with a video on the subject from the American Civil Liberties Union. “America was built by men who believed in and benefitted from racism. Plain and simple,” Timberlake said in the caption. “...those men who proudly owned and abused Black people are STILL celebrated all over the country.” Timberlake cited a statistic that there are about 1,848 Confederate statues in the country. “More than half are in The South, and it’s not acceptable,”...

Police officers attacked and officers gun was taken away briefly

Lincoln County, Oregon, has exempted non-white people from a new order requiring that face coverings be worn in public — to prevent racial profiling. Health officials announced last week residents must wear face coverings in public settings where they may come within six feet of another individual who is not from the same household. But people of color do not have to follow the new rule if they have “heightened concerns about racial profiling and harassment” over wearing the masks, officials said. “No person shall intimidate or harass people who do not comply,” health officials said. With mask requirements becoming...

Opposition to proposed hate crimes legislation in Georgia is building from lawmakers and civil rights groups previously in favor of it after Republicans in the state Senate added police as a protected class. The ACLU and NAACP, as well as the state House and Senate Democratic caucuses, are among those now standing against the hate crimes measure. The Rev. James Woodall, state president of the Georgia NAACP, said in an interview Monday that the addition of language protecting law enforcement is “toxic and a poison pill.” “We are demanding that the legislature amend this bill to take out the first...

Abortions are expected to be prohibited in Tennessee after an unborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected under legislation passed early on Thursday. The bill, which passed the Senate 23-5 on a party line shortly after 12:30 a.m. Friday, according to the Tennessean, bans abortions after an unborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected and prohibits abortions if the doctors know that the mother is seeking an abortion based on sex, race or a diagnosis of Down Syndrome. ... The American Civil Liberties Union has promised to take the law to court. “As promised, we will see them in court,” said executive...

Over the Christmas weekend, Chicago surpassed the 750-murder mark for 2016. But as blacks lay dying on the streets of Chicago’s South and West Sides, a Black Lives Matter offshoot is more interested in traveling overseas to learn “resistance” from terrorists. The Dream Defenders bills itself as “an uprising of communities in struggle, shifting culture through transformational organizing.” But an investigation conducted by the Haym Salomon Center reveals the group’s embrace of anti-Semitism and collaboration with a State Department-designated terror group. In August, Black Lives Matter singled out Israel for condemnation, declaring it an “apartheid” state engaged in “genocide.” These...

In an initiative led by the ACLU and backed by hundreds of non-governmental organizations, the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, and Michael Brown are calling on the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) to convene an emergency session “on the escalating situation of police violence and the repression of protests in the United States.”

After months of silence, the ACLU has finally taken a stand to protect civil liberties during the COVID-19 pandemic.Their stand, however, is not against the draconian lockdowns of society which have destroyed millions of jobs and ruined millions of lives. No, instead of supporting freedom-loving, law-abiding people who want to work, eat out, travel, and educate their children, the ACLU is standing up for violent rioters and anarchists who want to burn down American cities.Thus, on Wednesday, ACLU senior counsel Ahilan Arulanantham sent a letter to Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger urging her to lift the curfews that county...

The Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) casts itself as a spontaneous uprising born of inner city frustration, but is, in fact, the latest and most dangerous face of a web of well-funded communist/socialist organizations that have been agitating against America for decades. The Black Lives Matter movement claims that only whites can be racists. And while justifying violence to achieve “social justice,” the movement’s goal is to overthrow our society to replace it with a Marxist one. Many members of the black community would be shocked to learn that the intellectual godfathers of this movement are mostly white Communists, “queers”...

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Trump administration, alleging that White House officials “unlawfully conspired to violate” protesters’ rights when US security forces forcefully cleared Lafayette Park earlier this week. Police fired smoke bombs and pepper balls at peaceful protesters in order to make way for US President Donald Trump’s walk to a photo-op at a historic church. The lawsuit accuses US Attorney General William Barr and other senior officials of wrongful action, describing the dispersal as a “coordinated and unprovoked charge into the crowd of demonstrators.” “The President’s shameless, unconstitutional, unprovoked and frankly...

The ACLU and its Texas chapter have withdrawn their lawsuit against seven Texas towns that had declared themselves sanctuaries for the unborn and adopted ordinances outlawing abortion within their city limits. In February, the ACLU filed suit in East Texas against the cities of Waskom, Naples, Joaquin, Tenaha, Rusk, Gary, and Wells on behalf of two pro-abortion plaintiffs: the Texas Equal Access Fund and the Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity. Now, three months later, the groups are dropping their suit, and pro-life groups across Texas are claiming it as a victory for the unborn. In a post on their website,...

Five Central American asylum seekers ordered to remain in Mexico by federal authorities will be able to reunite with their families in Massachusetts until their immigration cases are decided, a federal judge in Boston ruled Thursday. . . . American authorities have said the “Remain in Mexico” policy has helped significantly reduce illegal border crossings. Civil rights groups complain it violates constitutional rights.

Many on the left have accused originalism of being nothing but a cover for conservatives’ preferred policy outcomes, but Vermeule’s proposal illustrates how restrained originalists have been. “The Republic” often alarms first-time readers. Not only is Plato’s dialogic style foreign to us, the character of Socrates makes bizarre and even wicked proposals as he outlines a supposed ideal polity, such as a communism not only of property, but also of wives and children. Many readers, including some philosophers, have taken Plato literally and seriously, and therefore condemned him as a proto-totalitarian. Something similar seems to have happened in response to...

For centuries, Americans have taken to the streets when they’ve had grievances to share. We’ve taken to the streets to make our voices heard, to effect change, and to feel and display the power and solidarity of mass gatherings. But with physical distancing and shelter in place orders prevalent throughout the U.S. and the world, how do we responsibly exercise our First Amendment right to protest, which remains as essential as ever? Undoubtedly, there is a medical imperative to keep ourselves and our neighbors safe, and our hospitals from becoming overwhelmed. At the same time, public debate about urgent political...

In January, former vice president Joe Biden was right there on the frontlines to call President Trump a racist and a xenophobe for closing off travel to and from China once he learned of the novel coronavirus's origins in Wuhan. A couple months later, and we clearly see how much worse the outbreak in the U.S. could have been had he not given that order. Biden sees it too. That's why he did an about-face and came out in support of Trump's China travel ban a few weeks ago. Then Biden suggested Trump hasn't done enough in holding China accountable....

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Commonwealth of Virginia over a law that requires someone to sign the envelope of another person's absentee ballot if that ballot is submitted by mail. Under Virginia law, any voter who submits an absentee ballot by mail must open the envelope containing the ballot in front of another person, fill out the ballot, and then have that other person sign the outside of the ballot envelope before it is mailed back. "In the midst of the pandemic and during a stay-at-home mandate, the witness requirement amounts to an unconstitutional burden on the...