Free Republic

A bedrock principle of the United States is that all citizens are treated equally under the law. This principle guarantees equality of opportunity, not equal outcomes. It promises that people are treated as individuals, not components of a particular race or group. It encourages meritocracy and a colorblind society, not race- or sex-based favoritism. Adherence to this principle is essential to creating opportunity, encouraging achievement, and sustaining the American Dream.... It is the policy of the United States to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts...

- U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham said on Thursday there were grounds to impeach President Bush if he was found to have led America to war under false pretenses. While Graham did not call for Bush's impeachment, he said if the president lied about the reasons for going to war with Iraq it would be "more serious" than former President Bill Clinton's lie under oath about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

Invercargill's James Hargest High School board of trustees yesterday stood by its decision to allow four boys to remain at school for indecent assault, while kicking out another student for smoking cannabis. Chairman Murray Frost broke his three-day silence after the board reversed an earlier decision not to talk to media. The high school has been publicly criticised this week, for the apparent disparity in punishments it meted out to students involved in two separate incidents. The first, in May, involved an indecent assault on a 13-year-old third form girl during school time. Her mother said the girl was tackled...