Free Republic

A CRASH COURSE IN ARTICLE II. Among other things, the second Trump administration is giving the political world an education in the meaning of Article II of the Constitution, the article that establishes the executive branch and lays out the president’s powers. A lot of people do not like what they are learning.“The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America,” it begins. The article outlines the process for electing the president, establishes qualifications for office, creates the oath of office, and details the process for removing the president. It lists the president’s powers,...

It wasn’t long after the smoke cleared in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow that the second explosion landed—on Capitol Hill. Except this one was pre-planned.With the precision of a broken clock, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) preemptively introduced a War Powers resolution on June 16—five full days before the June 21 airstrikes—laying the groundwork for a headline-grabbing repudiation before a single B-2 Spirit had lifted off.That’s right—before a single B-2 took flight, the legislative branch had already launched its own volley, aimed not at Tehran, but at the commander in chief. The phrase of the hour? “Unconstitutional.”Except it isn’t. And never was.The...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in a Sunday morning interview pushed back on claims that President Trump acted outside his Constitutional authority by ordering strikes on Iran. “No, he was within his Article II authority,” Graham said in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” when asked if Trump violated the U.S. Constitution by “acting unilaterally.” “Congress can declare war or cut off funding,” Graham continued. “We can’t be the commander in chief. You can’t have 535 commander in chiefs.” “If you don’t like what the president does, in terms of war, you can cut off the funding. But declaring...

At 10:00 a.m. today, the Court will issue opinions in one or more of the cases pending for the October 2024 term. Scotusblog will be liveblogging as the opinions are released. You can follow that blog at:Scotusblog opinion release A list of the pending cases can be found here:October 2024 casesAfter the release of Opinions, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the government's implementation of Trump's Executive Order on birthright citizenship. I'm not sure how much the Court will address the actual merits of the case since the main issue is the constitutionality of federal judges issuing national...

The Supreme Court has agreed to examine the Trump administration’s challenge to judges issuing nationwide injunctions, setting a date for a case that could have a major impact on the president’s ability to carry out his agenda as well as on the entire country. This comes after three federal judges issued separate nationwide injunctions blocking an executive order by President Donald Trump ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants. On Thursday, the court consolidated the three cases into one and set oral arguments to examine the fundamental question of whether district judges can issue rulings that affect the...

Opponents of President Donald Trump’s USAID spending freeze will take cheer from the Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene this week. But there is less cause for celebration than they claim. The Justices’ decision to allow a trial judge’s order resuming spending to proceed is merely the first procedural skirmish in a larger constitutional battle that will return to the Court. In the meantime, Trump’s campaign to restore executive energy will still play out with the home field advantage created by the Constitution itself.

If Presidents can't control the Executive Branch, elections don't really matter. The Administrative State exists to perpetuate unelected Democrat control, no matter who wins or loses. It has to end. Ninety years ago, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal created a constitutional obscenity: agencies of government that violated separation of powers and that were not accountable to the elected President. You might find it odd that as dynamic a President as FDR would want this, but oh dear reader, you are missing the point. The agencies were staffed almost entirely by Democrats, who were happy to do Roosevelt’s bidding. It’s after Roosevelt,...

The opening sentence of Article II of the U.S. Constitution is straightforward and grants one person, the president, broad powers: “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” Nineteen rebellious states are now attempting to usurp that executive power, which the Constitution vests solely in the president. This case, which seeks to wrest control of the Department of the Treasury away from President Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, is part of the ongoing campaign of lawfare by which the Democrats seek to frustrate the will of a majority of voters and states,...

For a solid week, blue states, labor unions, and non-profit organizations have descended on federal courts up and down the East Coast seeking to halt President Donald Trump’s agenda. And they have found receptive partners in a handful of federal judges willing to enter temporary restraining orders, or TROs, to immediately — and sometimes without any notice — prohibit the normal functioning of the executive branch. To be clear, the TROs entered are not addressing specific disputes between Trump and the litigants, where the plaintiffs allege a particular action injures them in some concrete way. Rather, the country is seeing...

Once more, faithful P&E readers and students of the Constitution’s “natural born Citizen” (“nbC”) Eligibility Clause – not a concocted, fictitious “’natural born’ Citizenship Clause” – grab your preferred caffeinated beverage and find a comfortable chair, because what follows gets a bit convoluted. Ready? The “natural born Citizen” (“nbC”) issue remains unresolved, but at least the threat of yet another ineligible president at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been avoided through the Nov. 5, 2024 election of Donald Trump and the rejection of Kamala Harris. That fact will remain true, of course, only if before January 20, 2025 (a) the slug...

(Jan. 2, 2024) — On Tuesday morning, New York State resident and registered voter Robert C. Laity lodged a revised formal complaint with the state’s Division of Election Law Enforcement regarding the New York State Board of Elections’s (NYSBOE) “misstating the criteria for being elected as President of the United States.” The original December 30, 2023 complaint contained a clerical error which Laity corrected in this morning’s submission. NYSBOE members are listed here, with Laity naming co-chairman Peter S. Kosinski in Section 2 of the complaint form in accordance with the instructions. Instead of the Article II, Section 1, clause...

DeSantis refuses to acknowledge the 2020 election was rigged.Why? Because he is controlled opposition. You want answers and accountability? Only President Trump will provide that. pic.twitter.com/E6gesUDaP2— Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) May 16, 2023

As the Wall Street Journal relates in an editorial published Monday evening, a dispute has arisen over the counting of mail-in ballots in the closely contested Republican primary election in Pennsylvania between David McCormick and Dr. Mehmet Oz. The candidates seek the party’s nod to run against ailing Democratic nominee, John Fetterman, for the seat now occupied by retiring Republican Senator Pat Toomey.Clearly, the ballots should be counted. [cut]As Politico reports, the Third Circuit ruled that hundreds of undated mail-in votes should be counted because they were received on time. The court has not yet issued its formal opinion explaining...

Brilliant, CORRECT-- FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTION. Do not ACCEPT Illegally Unconstitutionally determined Electors.

Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday said that he doesn’t believe he has the “unilateral authority” to decide between competing slates of electors. “It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” Pence said in a statement released just before a joint session of Congress began. As president of the Senate, Pence is presiding over the session. The purpose of the session is to count electoral votes. Under the Electoral College system, voters choose electors. Those electors...

Dear Freepers, I couldn't sleep last night because of my agitation over the state of this election, so please consider this vanity post a catharsis, a way of relieving my stress. I write this because this is what I would like to see the President say to the nation.My fellow Americans, I am speaking to you publicly today in order to address a very serious, very disturbing situation that has been manifested in this election for president. For months prior to the election this past November 3rd, I warned repeatedly that the Democrats would use mail-in ballots to perpetrate election...

Well, that didn’t take long. A non-White American citizen born right here in the United States has gotten a spot on the Democratic presidential ticket, and the birthers have come scurrying out from whatever rock they have been living under since Barack Obama left office. Within hours of former vice president Joe Biden’s announcement Wednesday of his history-making running mate, once-reputable Newsweek posted a story posing “Some Questions for Kamala Harris About Eligibility.” The author, John Eastman, a conservative law professor, wrote that “some” are “questioning” whether Harris might be “constitutionally ineligible” to be vice president because, should she have...

Nancy Pelosi is going to impeach Donald Trump, the duly-elected president of the United States, based on what we now know is a hoax. This is unbelievable. Because there are no witnesses to anything close to any kind of presidential wrongdoing — and no, sorry, but a mob of smug and bitter bureaucrats — even in full-dress uniform — do not count as witnesses… Because there is no actual evidence of anything close to any kind of presidential wrongdoing — and no, sorry, but Judge Napolitano’s hairline and Jake Tapper’s resting bitchface do not count as evidence…

Subtitle: June 2nd. Recall James Wilson’s (PA) closing comments from yesterday in which he wished to see popular election of men with general notoriety, a respected nationwide reputation like that of George Washington. Today, Wilson proposed the people elect Electors from special districts who in turn appoint the Executive. An advantage of this mode is that it would produce more confidence among the people in the first magistrate than an election by the national Legislature per the Virginia Plan. We can thank James Wilson for what would eventually evolve into the Electoral College. If ancient republics were found to flourish...

President Trump is considering an executive order to try to move forward with a citizenship question on the 2020 census, top sources tell Jonathan Swan and me. "We didn’t come this far just to throw in the towel," said a senior administration official with direct knowledge of the conversations. Former federal judge J. Michael Luttig, who has longtime ties to officials in the administration, told Axios: "If the president of the United States were to issue an executive order, supported by his full Article II powers, directing that the citizenship question be included in the 2020 census, I believe the...