Free Republic

There’s “precedent” and then there’s precedent. It seems for Maine’s Senator Susan Collins—who’s never been considered a conservative and is the very definition of a RINO—precedent is everything, except when it isn’t. According to Townhall recently, “Maine's moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins told CNN's Jake Tapper today that she would not be supporting a Supreme Court nominee who has “demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade” because, in her mind, that would be a justice who does not respect established precedent.”… As most today well know, much of what modern liberals hold dear was achieved because of the efforts of rogue...

As President Donald Trump packs the Supreme Court with justices adhering to his fundamentalist brand of social conservatism, the return to an era in American history when questionable religious standards were the law of the land in most states is fast approaching. Women, ethnic minorities, and gays are about to undergo a reversal of the gains made by decisions of the high court since the 1950s. In less than two years, Trump has taken the opportunity to nominate two staunch social conservatives to the court. Justice Neil Gorsuch merely filled the vacancy created by the sudden death of Antonin Scalia,...

The Supreme Court was sharply divided Monday during high-profile arguments in a case that could deal a blow to public-sector employee unions across the country – and the justice seen as a key vote was not showing his hand. At issue are so-called “fair share” fees that nonmembers pay unions to help cover the costs of contract negotiations. Justices split on the issue 4-4 when it came up two years ago – but with Justice Neil Gorsuch now filling the vacancy left by the late Antonin Scalia, all eyes were on him Monday morning in Washington. Gorsuch, however, said nothing...

Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world. - Antonin Scalia

The late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia was a fan of President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Bryan Garner a friend and now biographer of Scalia told The Wall Street Journal Monday.Garner, a long-time literary collaborator with Scalia and friend, said that the late justice “thought it was most refreshing to have a candidate who was pretty much unfiltered and utterly frank.”He had spent two weeks in 2016 traveling with Justice Scalia through several Asian countries just a week before his death.Garner added that while Scalia liked Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, “he was fascinated by the fact that Trump was so...

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said Monday the high court has adopted much of the late Justice Antonin Scalia's textualist judicial reasoning. Kagan was speaking to an audience at the Chicago-Kent College of Law when she said that Scalia's judicial reasoning has come to dominate the court, the Washington Examiner reported. Scalia, who sat on the Supreme Court for 30 years before his death in 2016, was a proponent of textualism, a theory in which the interpretation of law is based on the meaning of legal text as it would be commonly understood at the time of its passage, and...

I knew the late Justice Antonin Scalia a little, and like millions of others, I was an avid fan of his jurisprudence, the great bulk of which he produced after I was no longer a law student, so much the worse for me. What do I have to do with it? Nothing, except that reading opinions as a law student was often like trying to swallow great bowls of sawdust -- without milk. Very few judges can write well. On the rare occasions when I came across a decision by Learned Hand, I would practically weep with gratitude for his...

Antonin Scalia responded to questions from committee members about his views regarding such topics as federal-state relationships, the Constitution, death penalty, abortion, national security versus individual rights, original intent, independent agencies versus executive branch agencies, court disciplinary structure, legislative veto, bill history, economic deregulation, affirmative action, committee reports, and executive privilege.

If you think the riots and marches are bad now, wait until President Trump gets a chance at filling a second or even third vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States. The "nastiness," vulgarities, property damage, and violence we see now are nothing compared to what we will witness if the American left see the legality of their perverse sexual agenda threatened. With the nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat vacated as a result of the death of Antonin Scalia, liberals at every level of political involvement are already throwing a hissy-fit. After Trump chose...

It's only a matter of time before Democrats accuse President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee of hating puppies. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi launched a rather ugly attack on Judge Neil Gorsuch just moments after he was announced as Trump’s nominee – calling him a “very hostile appointment” and “well outside the mainstream of American legal thought.” “If you breathe air, drink water, eat food, take medicine or in any other way, interact with the courts, this is a very bad decision,” Pelosi said during a CNN town hall gathering. In other words, liberals believe Judge Gorsuch wants to starve our...

Oh, the Democrats’ agony is soothing and sublime, like a warm lemon-scented bath whilst sipping Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 20 Year Straight Bourbon Whiskey and puffing away on a fine Arturo Fuente Opus X “A” cigar lit by a bikini-clad Sofia Vergara or the conservachick or conservagay equivalent. The president – that’s President Trump, suckers – has nominated Neil Gorsuch to replace the irreplaceable Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, and as a result, every heartbroken conservative has learned to love again.Can you imagine if it was Jeb making the appointment? “Here’s Myron Putney, who I know from...

The following article was posted on the Washington Post website, reprinted from the Volokh Conspiracy site on April 11th of this year. With the sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia came the unnecessary fear that Barack Obama could make a unilateral appointment to the Court—a recess appointment for example. Jonathan Adler explains just how wrong that concern happens to be. Even Mr. Obama’s propensity for ignoring the Constitution—its requirements and limits on his power—will not allow him to summarily place the 5th Marxist on the Court. For those unfamiliar with Mr. Adler and the Volokh site, please make...

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hoped for a different outcome in last week’s election, but she made plain Monday that she accepts that Donald Trump will fill the Supreme Court’s 9-month-old vacancy. The 83-year-old justice said the most immediate impact on the court of Trump’s election would be to fill the seat that Justice Antonin Scalia occupied until his death in February. “President Trump will fill it,” Ginsburg said in a question-and-answer session at a meeting of the Jewish Federations of North America in a Washington ballroom. Ginsburg had criticized Trump in interviews last summer with The Associated Press and other...

Ohio Senate candidate Ted Strickland joked about the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Monday, saying it came "at a good time" for union workers since he was unable to cast the deciding vote in a March case that ended up in a 4-4 deadlock. ... Strickland made the remarks in Cleveland, telling AFL-CIO members that Scalia's death "saved labor" from a terrible decision in the case, which could have dealt a blow to the ability of public-sector unions to collect fees from those who decide against joining the union and pay for collective bargaining activities. ... the...

An ally of liberal financier George Soros and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta had multiple conversations concerning a replacement for late Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court, new emails released by WikiLeaks show. Chris Stone, president of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) — a network of foundations and projects founded and chaired by Soros — emailed Podesta mere hours after Scalia died Feb. 13 to discuss a potential successor. Mere hours.​ We have the employee of a billionaire who made it his mission to determine the outcome of the political process over a decade ago trying to...

It's been months since the passing of conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but Democrats are still seemingly celebrating his death because it paves the way for their political purposes. At The Atlantic’s Washington Ideas Forum on Thursday, Labor Secretary Tom Perez casually noted that Scalia's death helped pave the way for union membership across the country. ... Unfortunately, Perez's comments are not isolated. In August, Ohio Senate Candidate Ted Strickland actually said “the death of Scalia saved labor” at an AFL-CIO event.

Sick To Democrats, nothing matters but agenda. Hypocrisy doesn’t matter, hubris doesn’t matter, decency doesn’t matter. All that matters is that they seize power and use it to ram their ideology down the throats of others. We see it time and again. Like an army of three-year-olds, they’re happy as long as they get their way. If a few people die along the way, and that happens to help their cause, well, that’s just hunky dory.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A lawyer for former media baron Conrad Black urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to overturn his fraud conviction, and several justices asked whether the federal law at issue was too vague. The Canadian-born Black, a member of Britain's House of Lords, has been in prison since March 2008, when he began serving a 6 1/2-year sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice. Attorney Miguel Estrada, representing Black and two ex-colleagues who were found guilty of defrauding shareholders of one-time newspaper publishing giant Hollinger International Inc, argued before the Supreme Court that all convictions in the...

Donald Trump’s private meeting Thursday with Senate Republicans — designed to foster greater party unity ahead of the national convention in Cleveland — grew combative as the presumptive presidential nominee admonished three senators who have been critical of his candidacy and predicted they would lose their reelection bids, according to two Republican officials with direct knowledge of the exchanges. Trump’s most tense exchange was with Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has been vocal in his concerns about the business mogul’s candidacy, especially his rhetoric and policies on immigration that the senator argues alienate many Latino voters and others in Arizona....

It goes without saying that Senator Jeff Sessions is popular with a huge number of Americans. It is also true that Joni Ernst, a war veteran, is a rising star in Republican ranks. Either would make wonderful Vice Presidents for different reasons. However, the trade-off is unacceptable. In the case of Ernst, she is sitting as senator in Iowa, at best a purple state. There is absolutely no guarantee that her seat would be won by a Republican. Why is that so crucial? The Republican majority in the Senate is only 4 senators. And this year the Republicans have 24...