Free Republic

A legislative counsel member from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has issued a rebuke after Facebook and Twitter decided to suspend American President Donald Trump from their platforms. Kate Ruane, a senior legislative counsel at the ACLU, released a statement condemning Facebook and Twitter’s decision to suspend Trump, warning against “unchecked power” and the precedent it sets for other activists.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is rarely, if ever, on the side of conservatives. In fact, they usually favor Democrats' policies and decisions. But now the civil rights organization is speaking out about Big Tech's decision to permanently ban President Donald Trump from their platforms. According to the ACLU, Americans should be concerned about the "unchecked power" that social media platforms have. "For months, President Trump has been using social media platforms to seed doubt about the results of the election and to undermine the will of voters," ACLU Senior Legal Counsel Kate Ruane said in a statement. "We...

The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday is raising concerns about social media platforms banning users, in the aftermath of Twitter’s decision to permanently suspend President Trump. While the ACLU has repeatedly locked horns with Mr. Trump and his administration over issues such as the president’s travel ban, the ACLU is worried about the ramifications of tech companies diminishing online speech. “We understand the desire to permanently suspend him now, but it should concern everyone when companies like Facebook and Twitter wield the unchecked power to remove people from platforms that have become indispensable for the speech of billions —...

If as rumored that Biden is going to go after the First Amendment with new "domestic terrorist" laws will the ACLU and the 'Left' do anything? Or will they cheer on a clamp down on conservatives even if it blatantly violates the Constitution as the USA PATRIOT Act did in 2001? I strongly suspect they will go after sites like FreeRepublic under any new laws. At the moment they can ban conservatives from social media but that doesn't take them offline. I might not be able to get the Parler app off the Google store but I can still visit...

Petitioners including ACLU say passcodes are protected by the Fifth Amendment; prosecutors disagree Two civil-liberties groups are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on an increasingly relevant digital-privacy question: Do Americans have a constitutional right to keep their passwords and passcodes secret?It’s a thorny legal issue, and one that is unsettled in the U.S., according to lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who on Thursday filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking it to decide the matter once and for all.The initiative is the latest twist in a tug of war between...

Trans activists keep bullying businesses into removing content through fear tactics rather than by countering the message with their own better one.It seems the battle about the rights and privileges of transgender Americans has come down to what other people are allowed to say about them. The controversy over Abigail Shrier’s book, “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” demonstrates how far this battle has come. Shrier’s book, which explores the phenomenon of many teenage girls suddenly and impulsively insisting they are now boys and how this affects their families and futures, has come under fire from transgender activists....

This week, Abigail Shrier, author of the new book "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters," found herself at the center of a firestorm. Her great crime: writing an assessment of the psychological phenomenon known as rapid onset gender dysphoria, where groups of psychologically vulnerable young girls begin to self-diagnose as transgender after one member of a peer group does so. The book is sober and evenhanded. Nonetheless, all hell broke loose after one person on Twitter -- one! -- tweeted at Target, prompting the retailer to pledge not to make Shrier's book available (a decision it later reversed)....

BREAKING: We are joining a lawsuit to stop the Trump campaign from trying to illegally throw out votes in Pennsylvania. Every vote counts. Voters decide the winner. We’ll see him in court.

HOUSTON — Harris County's drive-thru votes will not be thrown out, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled on Monday morning. It was a waiting game over the weekend for the fate of nearly 127,000 votes cast at drive-thru polling locations in the Houston area during early voting. A federal hearing was scheduled for Monday morning to rule on those votes with less than 24 hours until the polls open for Election Day. A conference call was set up for reporters to be able to listen in to what's being discussed at the federal courthouse, but many reported technical issues as...

Lawyers appointed by a federal judge to identify migrant families who were separated by the Trump administration say that they have yet to track down the parents of 545 children and that about two-thirds of those parents were deported to Central America without their children, according to a filing Tuesday from the American Civil Liberties Union. The Trump administration instituted a "zero tolerance" policy in 2018 that separated migrant children and parents at the southern U.S. border. The administration later confirmed that it had actually begun separating families in 2017 along some parts of the border under a pilot program....

The American Medical Association (AMA) has joined with Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block a Trump administration rule that marks a clear boundary between abortion and family planning. The groups filed the petition Thursday following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and before Senate confirmation hearings begin for President Donald Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, to fill the vacancy. The abortion rights groups are asking the Supreme Court to “correct” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s decision to uphold the Trump administration rule. According to...

We already have an inside look at what it would be like if social workers showed up at police calls. It's called CPS (Child Protective Services). Most CPS caseworkers don't investigate REAL child abuse because it's far too dangerous and politically incorrect. Instead CPS is merely a tool for divorced soccer moms to persecute their ex spouses (fathers) while on visitation with their children. How many times have you read an article about ACTUAL child abuse and how it is too late because the child is dead. Then it comes out that CPS had been called many times but nothing...

Nick Sandmann, who earned the left’s wrath for wearing a MAGA while listening politely as a crazed leftist beat a drum in his face at a Right to Life event, is in the left’s crosshairs again. This time it’s because he decided to attend university. Both an ACLU staffer and a professor at the university promptly collapsed into censorious, anti-Sandmann puddles of hatred. Sandmann, who we hope has enough CNN and Washington Post settlement money to buy and sell Harvard, has decided to attend Transylvania University, a small private liberal arts university in Lexington, Kentucky. Sane people will wish him...

The exchange began after a left-wing activist wished that Transylvania University, the small Kentucky college that the former Covington Catholic student is now attending, would discriminate against Sandmann because of his conservative beliefs. “Does anyone else think it’s a bit of a stain on Transylvania University for accepting Nick Sandman? I’m sure it’s a “both sides” defense, but it’s pretty counter to their mission and another instance of there not actually being equal sides to an issue. I think TU should accept anyone willing to have an open mind and engage in debate, regardless of their views. That’s how we...

An ACLU Kentucky communications associate criticized Transylvania University on Saturday for accepting Nick Sandmann, the high school student who sued major news outlets for their coverage of a controversial interaction he and several of his classmates had with a Native American activist. “Does anyone else think it’s a bit of a stain on Transylvania University for accepting Nick Sandman [sic]? I’m sure it’s a “both sides” defense, but it’s pretty counter to their mission and another instance of there not actually being equal sides to an issue,” ACLU’s Samuel Crankshaw said in a Facebook post first uncovered by Jonathan Turley....

A super PAC founded by Clinton aides invited the thugs who harassed Senator Rand Paul and his wife after the Republican National Convention at the White House on August 27, 2020. Other prominent Republicans exiting the RNC were also confronted by a leftist rage mob organized by the Party Majority PAC, as well as the Revolutionary Communist Party‘s front group “Refuse Fascism,” whose cult-like leader Bob Avakian endorsed Joe Biden earlier this month, and a Democratic Socialists of America-aligned group called Shut Down DC. Party Majority PAC An individual holding a sign that says “Good Trouble” with the hashtag #ThePeoplesHouse...

'The short history of DHS has been filled with violence, the stoking of fear and a lack of oversight,' the ACLU said The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is calling for an end to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), describing the post-9/11 agency on Monday as a "loaded weapon that sits on the proverbial coffee table in the Oval Office." "The short history of DHS has been filled with violence, the stoking of fear and a lack of oversight. The department’s horrific tactics are being used in cities across the country," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a...

Under the NCAA’s current rules, I’m concerned that we will soon effectively have men’s sports and co-ed sports — without any dedicated category for females,' said Madison Kenyon, a college athlete who's lost to transgender athletes. More than 300 high-profile female athletes signed a letter released Wednesday asking the National College Athletic Association Board of Governors to preserve a “fair and level playing field” for women’s sports.“True athletic parity for women demands that women’s sports be protected for biological females,” the letter said. “Protecting the integrity of women’s sports has, for decades, played an integral role in remedying past discrimination...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the city of Portland for the Portland Police Bureau’s use of livestreaming the ongoing demonstrations in downtown Portland. The ACLU of Oregon’s lawsuit states that PPB has used its video livestreams as a form of surveillance over Portland demonstrators who are continuing to protest police brutality and racial injustice. ... The ACLU of Oregon filed the lawsuit on behalf of itself and an unnamed protester referred to as “Protester #1″ in court documents. The lawsuit states Protester #1 has been a part of downtown Portland demonstrations regularly, standing...

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing to have illegal aliens counted when apportioning congressional representation. On Friday, the ACLU dropped a lawsuit against the Trump administration on behalf of a number of open borders lobbying groups — including New York Immigration Coalition, Make the Road New York, CASA, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, ADC Research Institute, and FIEL Houston — demanding that illegal aliens be counted in congressional apportionment. This week, Trump signed a memorandum to exclude illegal aliens from being counted when the federal government apportions congressional representation to the states — a reversal of existing policy that allows...