Free Republic

We know you’re busy. And we’re quite certain you care deeply about the future of our country. We care, too. We care about your communities, your families, and how Washington’s decisions are going to impact you. More and more people are grabbing bites of news from mobile devices on the go – and they need a place where they can find digestible, trusted news on the most important policy debate of the day. That’s why the Heritage Foundation team created a digital-first, multimedia news platform called The Daily Signal. The Daily Signal provides policy and political news as well as...

The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider a challenge from Alabama Democrats who say a Republican-drawn legislative map intentionally packs black Democrats into a few voting districts, giving them too little influence in the Legislature. The justices agreed to hear a pair of appeals from the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus and other Democratic lawmakers who contend the new map created in 2012 illegally limits black voting strength and makes it harder to elect Democrats outside the majority-black districts. A panel of three federal judges had ruled 2-1 last year that the new districts were not discriminatory and did not...

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out a lower court decision in a patent fight over heart rate monitors, a decision that will affect other patent infringement fights.

The Supreme Court issued opinions in three argued cases today, and the Court was unanimous in the judgment on all three (even if one produced multiple opinions articulating different rationales). In two patent cases, Limelight Networks v. Akamai Technologies and Nautilus v. Biosig Instruments, the Court unanimously rebuffed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. It seems the Federal Circuit does not get much love these days at One First Street. It was unanimously reversed in the Octane Fitness case too.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday turned down an appeal from James Risen, a New York Times reporter facing jail for refusing to identify a confidential source. The court’s one-line order gave no reasons but effectively sided with the government in a confrontation between what prosecutors said is an imperative to secure evidence in a national security prosecution and what journalists said is an intolerable infringement of press freedom. The case arose from a subpoena to Mr. Risen seeking information about his source for a chapter of his 2006 book “State of War.” Prosecutors say they need Mr. Risen’s...

Bergdahl, released Saturday by the Taliban after being held captive nearly five years, will reunite with his family in San Antonio when he is flown here to be evaluated at the San Antonio Military Medical Center. Bergdahl, 28, will begin a reintegration process at the sprawling medical center, which has treated thousands of troops injured in Iraq and Afghanistan and has experience with former POWs. ... He'll undergo more medical exams and structured debriefings at Landstuhl, and likely remain there three days before coming to San Antonio to be with family, receive additional care and face final debriefings.

The Arkansas police officers who fired 15 rounds into a fleeing vehicle, killing both the driver and passenger, were justified in doing so, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. In 2004, police officers in West Memphis ended a high-speed car chase by firing shots into the fleeing vehicle. The drivers of the car weren’t armed and were killed as a result of the firing, leading many to argue the use of force by the police squad was excessive. Not so, declared Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the decision for the court. “Under the circumstances present in this case,” Mr. Alito said,...

With $50 million a year in county revenues on the line, the U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday that it will hear a challenge to a Maryland court's ruling that some taxes on out-of-state income are collected in violation of the Constitution. The Maryland Attorney General's office asked the Supreme Court to weigh in, arguing the Maryland Court of Appeals ruling would make state's tax system unfair. "The Court of Appeals has mandated a new tax system under which certain Maryland residents … can obtain all the benefits granted to other Maryland residents, without having to pay their full share of...

<p>A divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Michigan can't block the opening of an American Indian casino because the state's legal challenge is barred by tribal sovereign immunity.</p> <p>In a 5-4 decision, the high court said the state could not shutter the Bay Mills Indian Community's casino about 90 miles south of its Upper Peninsula reservation.</p>

A largely overlooked Supreme Court case has the potential to fundamentally alter the right of public employees to unionize — and a ruling could be handed down as early as this week. That case, Harris v. Quinn, comes from the great state of Illinois, which recognizes a union for its home health care workers. One of those workers, Pamela Harris, is the lead plaintiff. At issue are two critical questions. First, can the state actually recognize a union of such workers? And second, do these workers have a First Amendment right to refuse to pay their “fair share” of the...

The Supreme Court gave greater protection Tuesday to death row inmates seeking to prove they should not be executed because they are intellectually disabled, and ruled that laws like those in Florida and Virginia are too rigid. The court ruled 5 to 4 that state laws that draw a bright line on IQ-test results are unconstitutional. Under those laws, an inmate who scores above 70 on the test cannot be considered intellectually disabled and cannot present evidence that he or she should not be executed. Florida, Virginia and Kentucky have such laws, and a handful of others have similar rules....

<p>The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a last-ditch bid by the lawyers for Colorado movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes to compel FoxNews.com reporter Jana Winter to reveal confidential sources from a story or face jail.</p> <p>Winter earlier had won her case before New York's highest court, which in December ruled that -- thanks to New York's strong media shield law -- she would not have to comply with a Colorado subpoena demanding she testify.</p>

The Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously rejected a lawsuit brought by anti-Bush protesters who claimed the Secret Service violated the First Amendment in 2004 by moving them away from President George W. Bush while allowing pro-Bush demonstrators to remain closer to him. The case stemming from Bush's visit to a Jacksonville, Ore. inn about three weeks before the 2004 election appeared to ally the court's conservatives, who traditionally side with police, with liberals who are more skeptical of law enforcement but are often quite deferential when presidential security concerns are at stake. "No decision of which we are aware...would alert...

A chilling message from the cartels: Billboards with hanging mannequins warning cops to choose 'silver over lead' appear in Texas Two billboards along highways in El Paso, Texas were vandalized and had mannequins hanging off of themOne reads 'silver or lead' in Spanish which is taken to mean that police and business owners can either take drug cartels' bribes or dieWorries spreading that cartels that have ruled Mexican border towns with violence may be headed north Two frightening incidents of vandalism in El Paso near the Mexican border in Texas have been interpreted as warnings from drug cartels. In both...

A May 7th solicitation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks "the commercial acquisition of submachine guns [in] .40 Cal. S&W." According to the solicitation, the Dept. of Agriculture wants the guns to have an "ambidextrous safety, semiautomatic or 2 round [bursts] trigger group, Tritium night sights front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore group) and scope (top rear), stock collapsible or folding," and a "30 rd. capacity" magazine. They also want the submachine guns to have a "sling," be "lightweight," and have an "oversized trigger guard for gloved operation."

Today, SCOTUS denied, without comment, the petition for a writ of certiorari in Drake v. Jerejian, which leaves in place the Third Circuit's ruling. The questions presented in Drake are (1) whether the Second Amendment secures a right to carry handguns outside the home for self-defense; and (2) whether state officials violate the Second Amendment by requiring that individuals wishing to exercise their right to carry a handgun for self-defense first prove a “justifiable need” for doing so. The Third Circuit held (1) that carrying handguns outside the home for self-defense falls outside the scope of the Second Amendment’s protection;...

Since 1999, the monthly town board meetings in Greece, New York, have opened with a roll call, a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, and a prayer given by clergy selected from the congregations listed in a local directory. While the prayer program is open to all creeds, nearly all of the local congregations are Christian; thus, nearly all of the participating prayer givers have been too. Respondents, citizens who attend meetings to speak on local issues, filed suit, alleging that the town violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause by preferring Christians over other prayer givers and by sponsoring sectarian...

This video explains a lot. We're doomed as a society, I tell you. DOOMED. These people walk among us. They are our future. Gasp! Welcome to Tumblr!

SASABE, SONORA - Has a unit of Mexican Army soldiers who patrol right on the Arizona border gone rogue? This small group has attacked U.S. citizens, and even challenged U.S. federal agents within the U.S. A News 4 Tucson investigation into the dangerous world of rogue soldiers in mexico's military. In January, soldiers from this lonely outpost of the Mexican Army drew their guns on U.S. Border Patrol agents just 50 yards into the United States. Then in March, they opened fire on Javier Jose Rodriguez, a young Tucson man visiting family in Sásabe when he was driving around the...

WASHINGTON — Confronting a right-to-privacy question in the new world of smartphones, the Supreme Court justices sounded closely split Tuesday on whether police officers should be free to search through the phone of any person who is arrested. Justice Elena Kagan, the newest and youngest member of the high court, urged her colleagues to insist on protecting privacy. “People carry their entire lives on their cellphone,” she said during the argument involving a San Diego case. If there are no limits, a police officer could stop a motorist for not having seat belt buckled and download a huge amount of...