Free Republic

Are we living in a banana republic? The vast majority of Americans believe so, and if they didn’t before the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s home, then they likely do now. The partisanship and lopsided control of our two-tiered justice system is rapidly deconstructing any trust there once was in the way our government operates. Fox News host Will Cain, sitting in for Tucker Carlson, gave one of the most important opening monologues I’ve ever heard. He cut to the core of what the raid on Trump’s home really tells us about our Justice Department. More importantly, he told us...

Justice Scalia's Great HeartMay God rest his soul Jeffrey Tucker Saturday, February 13, 2016 Some of Justice Antonin Scalia's decisions I agreed with and some I disagreed with. But I've never once doubted the sincerity of his beliefs. Now that he is gone from this earth, I can tell a story I've held inside for many years, a scene that touched me deeply and profoundly. I cannot think of him without remembering this moment. It was a spring afternoon some years ago, and he was attending church services, sitting in a back pew, holding his prayer book in his hands....

If there were a scintilla of doubt that McConnell did the nation a great favor, that doubt should have been put to rest during Garland’s June 15, 2021, speech on “Violent Extremism and Domestic Terrorism.” The ideological purge will make Lois Lerner blush. Mitch McConnell likes to boast, including recently, that his most consequential achievement in his Senate career was keeping Merrick Garland from filling the Scalia seat after the death of the great conservative Justice. McConnell, with a consistency his detractors refuse to acknowledge, followed historical practice and precedent in refusing to allow the Senate to take up the...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday excused Democrats who launched an investigation into possibly unseating an elected GOP House representative, explaining that the margin of victory was extremely slim. “It was six votes,” Pelosi told ABC News on Sunday, noting the number of votes by which Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) defeated her Democratic opponent, Rita Hart. Miller-Meeks was ultimately seated in Congress after votes were counted, recounted, and certified by the state. Several days ago, the House Administration Committee started a process that could lead to Miller-Meeks being unseated. “It was six votes, and our candidate Rita Hart, the...

Fulton is part of a broader effort to hold the government to a higher standard whenever it limits our freedom—from our ability to speak, work, exercise religion, or simply live as we choose. On Nov. 4, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a challenge to the city’s exclusion of Catholic Social Services from participation in the foster care system due to its views on same-sex behavior. This may sound like a run-of-the-mill battle in the culture war, but there’s a lot more to it.Fulton is part of a broader effort to hold the government...

Congratulations to Chief Justice Elena Kagan on her big win Monday at the Supreme Court on gay and transgender rights in Bostock v. Clayton County. Ok, she isn’t the Chief, but she might as well be as her redefining of Antonin Scalia’s jurisprudence prevailed in a startling 6-3 ruling that included Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch. Justice Kagan didn’t write the majority opinion, but her views are all over Justice Gorsuch's opinion that essentially rewrites Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That law bars discrimination in employment on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex,...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Antonin Scalia. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Antonin Scalia was the cornerstone of the constitutional wing of the Supreme Court until his suspicious death in 2015. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns) of the puzzle into the white squares on the bottom half...

President Donald Trump has selected lawyer Eugene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, to be his new labor secretary. Trump tweeted news of the planned nomination on Thursday evening, less than a week after his previous secretary, Alexander Acosta, resigned amid renewed criticism of his handling of a 2008 secret plea deal with wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein. The financier was indicted this month on charges of sexually abusing underage girls and pleaded not guilty. "Gene has led a life of great success in the legal and labor field and is highly respected not only as...

President Trump announced Thursday evening that he is nominating Eugene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, to be the new Secretary of Labor. “I am pleased to announce that it is my intention to nominate Gene Scalia as the new Secretary of Labor. Gene has led a life of great success in the legal and labor field and is highly respected not only as a lawyer, but as a lawyer with great experience working with labor and everyone else,” he tweeted. “He will be a great member of an Administration that has done more in the...

President Trump on Thursday night announced he's nominating attorney Gene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, to replace Alex Acosta as secretary of labor. The surprise move -- which top Republicans privately pushed for -- was a visible manifestation of the close personal bond Trump has forged with the Scalia family in recent years. The confirmation process for Justice Neil Gorsuch, who ultimately filled Scalia's seat, sparked the connection. Scalia, 55, is currently a partner in the Washington office of the international law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is expected to face headwinds from...

We've recently reported on the Democrats' intentions of trying to expand the Supreme Court in hopes of getting revenge on Mitch McConnell. The Senate Majority Leader blocked President Obama nominee Merrick Garland, who he intended to replace the late Antonin Scalia. McConnell kept the seat open for President Trump to appoint a more conservative individual. And then another after that. With the Court now clearly skewed to the right, progressives have begun to seriously consider upending the norm. "Given the Merrick Garland situation, the question of legitimacy is one that I think we should actually talk about," Holder said earlier this...

Former Attorney General Eric Holder has suggested to his fellow Democrats that one way to put their stamp on American history, especially in light of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's and President Trump's agenda, is to expand the Supreme Court. He made the farfetched proposal last week at Yale Law School and Columbia University. "Given the Merrick Garland situation, the question of legitimacy is one that I think we should actually talk about," Holder said. "We should be talking even about expanding the number of people who serve on the Supreme Court, if there is a Democratic President and a...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the late Justice Antonin Scalia were honored Monday by Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. During a speech she gave at the event, Justice Ginsburg described Senator Lindsey Graham as one of the “women of the Senate.” Justice Ginsburg gave a brief talk about civility and her friendship with the late Justice Scalia. She then made an implied contrast between the era in which she and Scalia were confirmed and the present day. “I thought back to the 1993 confirmation of my nomination to the court,” she said. She continued, “The hearing was altogether civil....

She’s not a senator, but Cynthia Nance plays an enormous role in shaping the debate over some of President Trump’s judicial picks. Ms. Nance, former dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law, handles the American Bar Association’s judicial ratings for nominees to federal courts in North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas, which make up the federal 8th Circuit. The ABA’s role is one the more opaque parts of the process, but Republicans are pushing it into the light, accusing her of allowing personal bias, particularly a fealty to abortion rights, to color her ratings....

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said he had reservations about Chief Justice John Roberts' response to President Donald Trump's controversial characterization of a federal judge and the 9th District court, and suggested it was a hypocritical move based on Roberts' previous interactions with Trump's predecessor. "Chief Justice Roberts rebuked Trump for a comment he made [about a] judge's decision on asylum," Grassley said in a tweet on Wednesday. "I don't recall the Chief attacking Obama when that Prez rebuked Alito during a State of the Union." Grassley, the Judiciary Committee Chairman, appeared to be referencing a State of the...

Not everyone believes Elvis is the king. President Trump will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to seven Americans on Friday, including the late rock star Elvis Presley, though even that gesture is coming under fire from liberals. Trump is honoring Presley, baseball legend Babe Ruth, former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, philanthropist Miriam Adelson, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, jurist Alan Page, and Hall-of-Fame quarterback Roger Staubach. Still, some have accused Trump of racism for honoring Presley, long known as the "King of Rock and Roll." The Washington Post’s pop culture critic Chris Richards called Trump’s move “a little nod...

Christopher Scalia: Lessons from the Kavanaugh chaos -- What my father, Justice Antonin Scalia, would have thought I’ve frequently been asked in the past few weeks what my father, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, would think about the contentious battle just waged over Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the nation’s highest court. Would he have been surprised by the heated debate, political maneuvers, protests, last-minute delays and uncorroborated allegations of sexual misconduct that we saw during now-Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation process? Although I don’t think my father (or anyone) could have predicted the twists and turns of the past...

AFTER A 50-YEAR siege, the great strategic fortress of liberalism has fallen. With the elevation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court seems secure for constitutionalism — perhaps for decades. The shrieks from the gallery of the Senate chamber as the vote came in last Saturday, and the sight of that bawling mob clawing at the doors of the Supreme Court as the new justice took his oath, confirm it. The Democratic Party has sustained a historic defeat. And the triumph is President Trump’s. To unite the party whose nomination he had won, Donald Trump pledged to select his high...

I have become a unicorn. My metamorphosis didn’t require a magic spell or potion, or even a trip to a well-reviewed plastic surgeon to add a horn to my head. All it took was Democrats’ treatment of Brett Kavanaugh over the last few weeks to turn me into that elusive creature: a minority, immigrant woman who supports Republicans. I moved to the United States from Trinidad and Tobago eight years ago when I married my husband, Christopher, former U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia’s eighth (and, in my opinion, most lovable) child. Some people might read that and think, “Well,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj_MhS2u-Pk