Free Republic

It is inconceivable to me that we do not hold people accountable before they run for office. True the Ballot is in the process of being established to change that. The link above is to a website under construction. It gives a good idea of what this is about. Starting in St. Joseph County, Indiana, anyone who took the oath of office will be put on notice: We know who you are, and your name will be publicly available as to your grade in taking and passing our examination or ignoring it as if the oath is a mere technicality...

Today I was able to write, record, and produce seven 30-second commercials for True the Ballot. Here are the links: Commercial 1 https://youtu.be/AB9psWirDhU Commercial 2 https://youtu.be/l4diy2PXQrg Commercial 3 https://youtu.be/e4ThjCTU7fI Commercial 4 https://youtu.be/PR7R4RmHkBM Commercial 5 https://youtu.be/gYbj9G4xI2o Commercial 6 https://youtu.be/njNdkDhi6gQ Commercial 7 https://youtu.be/fT3fNfWJvX8 These are amateur productions, to be sure, but a good start. We are in the process of determining what budget is needed to conduct radio advertising in St. Joseph County, Indiana so that we can approach donors with a realistic goal. We also joined the League of Women Voters because they are diligent in documenting all public officials. It...

For months we have been working on a mechanism whereby American citizens can vote with confidence in any election. True the Ballot has just been launched out of our own pockets to vet candidates before they get on any ballot in the United States. Think about it. Why would anyone run for office or vote if they were unable to demonstrate fidelity to our founding principles? We looked at every single candidacy form of the State of Indiana. There are twenty. Not a single one of them asks a candidate about their fealty toward our nation and its principles. Using...

A federal appeals court has struck down a sweeping gag order that prevented X from notifying users when their data was sought by the US government, declaring that the order failed to meet legal standards under federal privacy law. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in favor of X, finding that the lower court authorized nondisclosure orders without providing the specific findings required by the Stored Communications Act. [link to order] The ruling addressed a case where X had been barred from revealing to users that their personal data had been subpoenaed. The conflict began when the federal...

VIDEOLiberals really HATE the U.S. Constitution because it was designed to make us a republic with a federal system of government. They hid their disdain for the Constitution in the past by pretending they really revere the Constitution but that it must be considered to be a "living" Constitution which means they could interpret it any way they wanted. Now that the dopey "living" Constitution concept has mostly faded away they are more open in their antagonism as illustrated by Chuck Todd and his Chuck Toddcast guest proposing a new Constitutional Convention to basically GUT the current Constitution of its...

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,...

A federal judge on Friday blocked a Washington state law requiring Catholic priests to report suspected child abuse or neglect, including any information they learn from sacramental confession, raising concerns about religious liberty. The law, Senate Bill 5375, was slated to go into effect on July 27, but was blocked Friday after Judge David Estudillo of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington granted a preliminary injunction.

In 1883, when the Pendleton Act was passed, creating the US civil service, it must have seemed like no big deal. The forgotten Chester A. Arthur was the president. The fear of being assassinated like his predecessor James Garfield convinced him to back the legislation. The case for passage: government needs professionals with institutional knowledge. Technicians were changing the world, so why not government too? Science and engineering were the rage – electricity, steel bridges, telegraphic communications, internal combustion, photography – so surely public affairs needed the same level of expertise. Who could deny that civil service could do a...

Many conservatives are celebrating a series of strong decisions from the Supreme Court, including the 6-3 U.S. v. Skrmetti decision upholding Tennessee’s ban on transgender procedures for minors. This is an incredible win, and full credit should be given to the culture warriors who fought tirelessly for this cause. Nevertheless, this temporary victory provides another opportunity to reflect on the nature and function of our current Supreme Court and our political regime more broadly. I have written recently about why the Supreme Court still poses a significant obstacle to national restoration even when it allegedly grants “wins” to conservatives. The...

The Fourth of the July, in a galaxy far, far away. Captain Kirk & the United States Constitution

Friday is #July4th, when we celebrate America’s independence and the documents that made America different, like the Constitution. But is our Constitution good enough today?

The Supreme Court will be announcing Opinions from the bench for the October 2024 term at 10:00 this morning. Scotusblog will be liveblogging as the Opinions are released and we will be following along to try to make sense of the Court's decisions. There are ten cases remaining undecided from this term. That does not include the cases on the emergency docket.

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...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the entire federal district court of Maryland on Tuesday. The lawsuit challenges a standing order issued by the court to automatically block the deportation of any illegal migrant who files a petition for writ of habeas corpus. It names all 15 judges, as well as the court clerk, as defendants. “Defendants’ automatic injunction issues whether or not the alien needs or seeks emergency relief, whether or not the court has jurisdiction over the alien’s claims, and no matter how frivolous the alien’s claims may be,” the lawsuit states. “And it does so in the...

Preston Damsky is a law student at the University of Florida. He is also a white nationalist and antisemite. Last fall, he took a seminar taught by a federal judge on “originalism,” the legal theory favored by many conservatives that seeks to interpret the Constitution based on its meaning when it was adopted. In his capstone paper for the class, Mr. Damsky argued that the framers had intended for the phrase “We the People,” in the Constitution’s preamble, to refer exclusively to white people. From there, he argued for the removal of voting rights protections for nonwhites, and for the...

The Supreme Court will be announcing Opinions from the bench for the October 2024 term at 10:00 this morning.Scotusblog will be liveblogging as the Opinions are released and we will be following along to try to make sense of the Court's decisions.There are 15 cases remaining undecided for this term. All cases from October, November, and December sittings have been announced. There is also several cases remaining on the Emergency Docket (mainly Trump admin related cases). Of interest from the January sitting is:Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, No. 23-1122 [Arg: 01.15.2025 ] Issue(s): Whether the court of appeals erred as...

The Supreme Court will be announcing opinions from the bench at 10:00 a.m. this morning.Scotusblog will be live-blogging the opinions the opinions at Scotusblog and we will be following along and trying to make sense of the court's decisions.There are 20 cases remaining undecided for this term. A list of the cases can be found at October 2024 cases.All opinions from the October and November sitting have been announced. The only remaining case from the December term is Skrmetti.Issue(s): Whether Tennessee Senate Bill 1, which prohibits all medical treatments intended to allow "a minor to identify with, or live as,...

The Supreme Court will be releasing Opinions today at 10:00 a.m. on cases from the October 2024 term. A list of those cases can be found at October 2024 casesThere are 26 cases remaining undecided for this term. That does not include the cases still pending from the Emergency docket. (Mainly cases involving the Trump administration).All cases from the October and November sittings of the Court have been decided. There is only one case from the December sitting pending and that is:U.S. v. Skrmetti, No. 23-477 [Arg: 12.04.2024 ] Issue(s): Whether Tennessee Senate Bill 1, which prohibits all medical treatments...

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that the Trump administration cannot deport Mahmoud Khalil, the radical, pro-Hamas activist who was a graduate student at Columbia University. Random activist judges have overstepped their authority to rule against the Trump administration so many times in the last few months that it’s nearly impossible to keep up with all the rulings. Who appointed these judges to run the country? No one, and the American people are already sick and tired of this. FOX News reports: Federal judge sides with anti-Israel ringleader Mahmoud Khalil, halts Trump administration’s deportation bid A federal judge sided...

A City Council member from Queens is urging her constituents to arm themselves following a terrifying home invasion in which robbers posing as Amazon drivers tied up a family and snatched thousands of dollars in cash, according to cops. Republican Vickie Paladino offered to help residents in her district — which covers Whitestone, where the ordeal took place — obtain gun permits in light of the break-in Monday morning. “I want to remind my constituents that New Yorkers have a constitutional right to protect themselves,” Paladino said in a statement. “I urge my constituents to avail themselves of their rights...