Free Republic

Democrats are using arguments for states’ rights as a cynical ploy to paint themselves as victims of an oppressive federal government.There’s an old adage that says history doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme. As the past few years have shown, Democrats aren’t too keen on history, especially American history. In fact, they hate American history so much that they probably don’t realize they’re repeating it.In their rebellion against Trump’s constitutional purview and mandate to enforce immigration laws, Democrats have resorted to using almost the exact same talking points that southern leaders used leading up to the outbreak of the Civil...

‘It is time to return to a world where we can say what we wish without fear of being censored, or deplatformed, or shot dead’. The following remarks were submitted as written testimony at a hearing in front of the Senate Commerce Committee titled, “Shut Your App: How Uncle Sam Jawboned Big Tech Into Silencing Americans” on Oct. 8, 2025.Chairman Cruz, Ranking Member Cantwell, and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify on behalf of First Amendment speech and press rights and against authoritarian censorship designed to shut down the free speech rights of American citizens....

‘When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too.’On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court declared rogue lower courts’ universal injunctions against President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order to be unlawful.“[F]ederal courts do not exercise general oversight of the Executive Branch; they resolve cases and controversies consistent with the authority Congress has given them. When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too,” Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote.The final decision was 6-3,...

Just because the judiciary chooses to violate the Constitution does not mean the other branches are required to follow suit. ... Since returning to office, President Trump has faced what can only be described as a judicial coup. Through the use of overreaching nationwide injunctions, predominantly Democrat-appointed judges have gleefully granted requests from left-wing activists to block enforcement of the agenda 77 million Americans voted for last year. Yet, despite this egregious affront to America’s constitutional framework, Trump and his administration are neglecting to stop it. The latest example of the administration’s refusal to uphold separation of powers is its...

If the judicial branch won’t adhere to the Constitution, then Trump must.The leftist-backed effort to effectively nullify the results of the 2024 presidential election via a judicial coup is destroying the country’s constitutional order. But according to the White House, President Trump doesn’t have any actual plans to stop it. During Thursday’s White House press briefing, Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway had the opportunity to ask Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about how the administration intends to rein in “rogue lower court judges” grinding the administration’s policies to a halt with overreaching injunctions and temporary restraining orders. After noting the Supreme Court...

The Atlantic’s “disinformation expert,” Anne Applebaum, came right out and admitted it Thursday: The permanent bureaucracy is a “regime change” in the United States. The [deepstate Anne Applebaum Atlantic] article is titled “There’s a Term for What Trump and Musk Are Doing” and subtitled “How regime change happens in America.” Her article’s second line reads: “DOGE and its boss, Elon Musk, have … focused their activity on the eradication of the federal civil service, along with its culture and values, and its replacement with something different. In other words: regime change.” This is an open admission that the federal bureaucracy...

Vice President Kamala Harris’ rapid response team shared a clip from a 3-year-old episode of The Federalist Radio Hour as a “stunning new leak” to claim J.D. Vance supports a conservative think tank’s project to staff the next administration. On Saturday, the Harris campaign published an interview between Vance with then-Federalist Publisher Ben Domenech and then-Editor Chris Bedford to allege the Republican senator from Ohio “completely endorses Project 2025.” The podcast, however, was taped and published before Vance had even launched his Senate candidacy and almost a year before the Heritage Foundation unveiled its project. “In a stunning new leak,”...

For as long as I can remember, the left has been sneering at anyone who points out that the United States is a republic, not a democracy. They find the notion almost as unsophisticated and fascistic as flying a revolutionary-era flag.Even some people I admire dismiss the democracy/republic debate as a semantic distraction. They shouldn’t.The other day, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan tried to make Trump fans who repeat this factual contention look like a bunch of dumb, lockstepping authoritarians. To explain the problem, CNN even recruited “democracy” expert Anne Applebaum, who noted that, “America is a democracy. It was founded as...

The Daily Wire, The Federalist, and the state of Texas joined on Tuesday in a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department, alleging that the government agency funded censorship technology designed to bankrupt domestic media outlets with disfavored political opinions. The State Department is tasked with foreign relations and has no authority over domestic affairs, yet it took a government office designed for countering foreign terrorist propaganda, the Global Engagement Center (GEC), and unleashed it against Americans engaged in what it claimed was “disinformation,” according to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas on Tuesday night...

Those who were Covid cowards need to stand up against tyranny in the future. It’s the least they can do. If you were one of those people who always diligently wore an ineffective mask, got the experimental vaccine and boosters, or performatively practiced social distancing, you really owe an apology to those who stood up for civil liberties during Covid and must commit to being smarter and braver in the future. The Covid years mark what was arguably the greatest encroachment on personal freedom and bodily autonomy in the history of our country. The government decimated the American economy by...

Amid a surge in youth-driven violent crime in the nation’s capital, newly elected attorney general for the District of Columbia Brian Schwalb is laser-focused—on his political enemies. Reports suggest that Schwalb is investigating, of all people, Leonard Leo, the longtime chairman of the Federalist Society. Leo is an odd target for a probe, since his supposed malfeasance is financial self-dealing related to nonprofits registered in other states. If those allegations are substantiated, they would constitute federal tax and wire-fraud crimes—infractions far outside the jurisdiction of D.C. authorities. Stranger still, the precipitating complaint against Leo for alleged “dark money” shenanigans was...

There is a vital battle over education in our day. And if we lose it, we could ultimately lose the country.

With so many relationships broken and real conversations off-limits, what is left but the new patriarchy, the Daddy State?The following is an excerpt from the author’s new book, “The Weaponization of Loneliness: How Tyrants Stoke Our Terror of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer.” (Bombardier Books, Post Hill Press.)Feminists have long urged women to promote the politically correct viewpoint that they are oppressed victims. Champions of second-wave feminism — such as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem — emphasized valid grievances of women, such as feeling like a sex object or being passed over for career advancement. However, the media-tech complex...

‘We did not fight a civil war about oboe players,’ Chief Justice John Roberts said, shooting down Harvard’s attorney during oral arguments on Monday.WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Monday morning, I swept through the marbled halls of the Supreme Court of the United States, off First Street NE here in the nation’s capital, to enter the highest room of jurisprudence in the land. The sound of my footsteps muffled atop thick carpeting, the blinds on the massive windows mostly drawn and the room packed with rows upon rows of chairs, slowly filling.A daughter of India who grew up in Morgantown, West...

Over at MSNBC, Steve Benen contends that Republicans, poised to take back the House next year, keep promising to impeach Joe Biden but “haven’t quite worked out” why. As a big fan of impeachments and congressional investigations, I may have some helpful ideas. In his conduct while president of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has shown a habitual contempt for the rule of law, on numerous occasions willfully violating his constitutional oath by corrupting and manipulating the power of the executive branch. Take the eviction moratorium. The Supreme Court explicitly ruled that the plan “exceeded … existing statutory...

“The Federalist Papers” are a collection of 85 linked essays that explain the construction of the U.S. government and why it was built that way. The Papers are regarded as the best pipeline into understanding the U.S. Constitution and the founding principles of the government it would establish. I have endeavored here to present these essays, not as articles in a newspaper, but as you might have experienced them if you had sat in a comfortable tavern with a tankard in hand, and listened while these ardent men ranged in front of a friendly fireplace as they attempted to convince...

The U.S. Constitution is the sacred text of American government and civic life. But it's time to face facts: The document, written in 1787, isn't working. The signs are all around us. Just 38 percent of Americans in a recent Gallup poll expressed either a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the presidency, down from 48 percent in 2001. Congress, never high in the public's estimation to begin with, fell from 26 percent to a mere 12 percent. The Supreme Court has also taken a hit, down from 50 percent to 36 percent during the same period....

In words that ring true today, Hamilton’s first Federalist explained the situation that faced America. The young country was at a crossroads; its very existence was in the balance. The nation was to decide whether society can establish good government through thought and choice, or whether people are forever destined to be ruled by accident and violence. The answer depended on the nation’s response to the crisis. The wrong decision deserved to be considered a misfortune for all of mankind. Then as now, Americans have a choice. Shall we succumb to the course of current events and continue our slide...

A New York college prep school sent white parents literary materials asking them to identify their “level” of whiteness, ranging from “white supremacist,” which is depicted in red, to “white abolitionist,” depicted in green. According to race education watchdog Christopher Rufo, white parents of sixth- through 12th-graders received the “tool for action” from the principal of East Side Community School asking them to work toward becoming white traitors and abolitionists by “subverting white authority” as well as “changing institutions, dismantling whiteness, and not allowing whiteness to reassert itself.” “This is the new language of public education,” Rufo tweeted along with...

After excusing and ignoring riots from leftists all year, Democrats and their allies in the media are ready to condemn riots now that the turmoil has shifted to fit their narrative.Democrats and their allies in the media are ready to condemn riots now that the turmoil has shifted to fit their narrative. On Wednesday, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building. It was an astonishing display of anarchic protest that delayed congressional certification of the Electoral College vote formally handing former Vice President Joe Biden the keys to the White House. he scenes from the dark day...