Free Republic

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) responded to Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen’s Monday press conference by stressing that she does not need a sheriff giving her a “lecture on constitutionality.” Breitbart News reported that Allen used his press conference to make clear that neither he nor his deputies will enforce Grisham’s ban on concealed and open carry of firearms. He described the ban as “unconstitutional.” In video published by ABQ Raw, Allen said, “I hold my standards high and I do not, nor ever will, hedge on what is right. I take my oath seriously.” He went on...

When the Louisiana State Militia finally arrived at the Colfax courthouse on April 15, 1873, all it could do was bury the bodies. Two days earlier, a large force of white supremacists had taken control of the courthouse from the mostly black faction protecting it. J. R. Beckwith, the U.S. attorney for New Orleans, told Congress that in the aftermath the ground was “strewn with dead negroes,” their bodies plundered by whites who had come to watch the bloodshed. The dead remained “unburied and mutilated,” Beckwith said, until federal troops arrived days later to shovel them into a mass grave....

A federal judge has found a witness in contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury hearing evidence in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell made the ruling Friday after a sealed hearing to discuss Andrew Miller’s refusal to appear before the grand jury. Miller is a former aide to longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone. Miller’s lawyer Paul Kamenar said after the hearing that Miller was “held in contempt, which we asked him to be in order for us to appeal the judge’s decision...

Round 2. What you're about to find out is that all the hulabaloo about Trump's first immigration order had nothing to do with the flaws in the order. It simply had to do with the fact that it was an order and Trump made it, and that it in any way bent policy to acknowledge radical Islamists coming from certain countries represent a terror threat. The first one was not a Muslim ban. Neither is the second. The first one had problems but was entirely within Trump's scope of authority to implement, and should have been allowed to stand by...

Today, a judge ruled that the NSA surveillance program that collects millions of American's phone calls is "lawful." The case was brought by the ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union et al v. Clapper et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-03994 In his ruling, U.S District Judge Willian Pauley described how the government program "vacuums up information about virtually every telephone call to, from, or within the United States." But went on to say that the program's constitutionality "is ultimately a question of reasonableness," and that there was no evidence that the government had used "bulk...

President Barack Obama on Monday refused to acknowledge the existence of a presidential “kill list” despite multiple assertions by top-ranking officials in his administration that the list exists. Ben Swann, a reporter for Cincinnati’s FOX 19, asked the president, “How do you as president utilize that power [of the presidential kill list] to assassinate … U.S. citizens?” Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/05/local-reporter-takes-obama-to-the-woodshed-on-constitutionality-of-kill-list/#ixzz25isRKODv

Justice Scalia to Obama’s Solicitor General: ‘We’re not stupid’ [AUDIO] By Nicholas Ballasy - The Daily Caller 3:39 PM 03/27/2012 ADVERTISEMENT While Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr. made the Obama administration’s case for the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the health-care law Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia interrupted, telling Verrilli, “we’re not stupid.” Justice Elena Kagan, a former solicitor general appointed by President Obama to the high court, sided with Verilli in arguing that young people should be required by the federal government to purchase health insurance because eventually, others will subsidize their health care in the future....

So much has been made of wealthier citizens paying their "fair share." Much of the argument against this sort of rhetoric has focused on why we shouldn't raise taxes on the highest tax bracket, or why we shouldn't create another tax bracket. But one argument that is missing is whether or not such a system of taxation is legal at all. I don't intend to go into a history of progressive taxation (the colonial Puritans used one, too) or of the income tax and the 16th Amendment. These are irrelevant to the question: Is it just for the government to...

Rep. Graves questions Obama's autopen signing of Patriot Act By Daniel Strauss - 05/27/11 11:17 AM ET Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) is questioning President Obama's use of an autopen in signing an extension of the Patriot Act. In a letter Friday, Graves asks Obama to confirm that he saw the law prior to its autopen signing. "Mr. President, I write to request your confirmation that S. 990, as passed by Congress, was presented to you prior to the autopen signing, as well as a detailed, written explanation of your Constitutional authority to assign a surrogate the responsibility of signing bills...

NOW LET'S GET ON TO THE REAL ISSUES!!! *Doubled Gas Prices! (from $1.61/gal on 1/12/09 to $3.85/gal on 4/22/2011 !!! *40 cents of every dollar spent by the federal government borrowed from China, India, etc. *45% of income earners paying no Federal Income Tax (no skin in the game)! *8.8 % Unemployment! *Rising Inflation! *$3 Trillion Dollars of Additioanl Debt in 2 Years! *Lowest % of people in the workfoce since 1983 (45.4% of Americans! *Skyrocketing Commodities Prices! *Highest % of Government Handouts per family since 1936! *A 57% Disapproval Rating of Obama's Handling of the Economy! *A stalemate in...

Why Did U.S. President Barack Obama order a military attack on Libya? Why did he seek the permission of the United Nations Security Council, but not that of the U.S. Congress - as he is constitutionally obliged to do? Glenn Beck has explained President Obama's decision to attack Libya in terms of the United Nations' "Responsibility to Protect Doctrine"Mr Beck is right.According to Radio Free Europe Those who justify the Libyan intervention on humanitarian grounds draw much of their logic from a concept which has dramatically gained ground over recent decades. The concept is known as "R2P," shorthand for the...

Agroup of hard-left Democrats, led by Manhattan Rep. Jerry Nadler, is questioning the constitutionality of US military strikes in Libya. They may have a point. We're not under any illusions that Nadler & Co. are demonstrating anything but their reflexive antipathy to any display of US military force. But certainly it is fair to ask just what Team Obama is up to. Two weeks ago, the president said Col. Khadafy "must go." Over the weekend, he said Khadafy's removal was definitely not the mission's objective. Then, in Chile yesterday, the president said again that Khadafy "needs to go" -- that...

Does President Obama need Congressional authorization before taking military action against Libya? Is a no-fly zone a good idea? Congressional opinion on those questions has been divided -- and not along the usual party lines.

Commentators have noted the hypocrisy of those that claim that "sensitivity" has no place in the decision to build a Islamic center 2 blocks from ground zero, for them this is a constitutional issue. Many of those same pundits also think it is paramount to consider the "sensitivity" of some people if Glenn Beck chooses to exercise his first amendment rights. When Mr. Beck chooses a date for practical reasons, he is lambasted as being insensitive and told that he should move his event. His fellow Fox News host Greta Van Susteren had this to say on her blog; "Yes...

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) became the first medical society to sue to overturn the newly enacted health care bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). AAPS sued Friday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. ....................... Congress recognized that PPACA cannot be funded without the insurance mandates, and will become unaffordable without them. Court action is necessary "to preserve individual liberty" and to prevent PPACA from bankrupting the United States generally, and Medicare and Social Security, specifically.

The new state law making illegal immigration a state crime is badly drafted, poorly thought out and goes too far. It shouldn't have been enacted. However, the hyperbolic reaction to the law is actually much worse than the law itself. The most despicable and irresponsible reaction came from Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. According to a column Gordon wrote for the Washington Post (republished in Monday's Arizona Republic), the new law "requires" the Phoenix Police Department to profile "people with brown skin . . . based on stereotypes and insufficient information." The only way the law will have that effect is...

In late breaking news this evening after the historic passage of Obamacare through the House of Representatives by Democrats over bipartisan opposition, many state attorneys general held a conference call in which it was decided that they would file a multi-state suit alleging the newly-passed Obamacare is unconstitutional immediately after President Barack Obama signs the act, which is expected on early next week. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott broke the news on his Facebook page: Just got off the AG conference call. We agreed that a multi-state lawsuit would send the strongest signal. We plan to file the moment Obama...

Although Democrats think their health-care legislation faces smooth sailing to implementation, there is a rock dead ahead -- a constitutional challenge to the legislation's core. Democrats who assume it is constitutional to make it mandatory for Americans to purchase health insurance should answer some questions: Would it be constitutional for the government to legislate compulsory calisthenics for all Americans? If not, why not? If it would be, in what sense does the nation still have constitutional, meaning limited, government? Supporters of the mandate say Congress can impose it under the enumerated power to regulate interstate commerce. Since the New Deal,...

Bill of Rights Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Amendment II A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. Amendment III No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor...

Much has been made recently of the unconstitutionality of federal health care reform, especially a government-run system (the "public option") that could devolve into a "single-payer" system. The main objection is that the federal government has no authority to operate a health care system. Indeed, the 9th and 10th Amendments forbid it, according to Larrey Anderson of American Thinker. In The Wall Street Journal, Judge Andrew Napolitano writes that Congress has been getting around such constitutional bans by invoking its Commerce Clause, "the favorite hook on which Congress hangs its hat in order to justify the regulation of anything it...