Free Republic

California began a soft secession when it banned cooperation with immigration authorities. Since then other states run by Democrats, including Colorado, Illinois and New Jersey, have declared war on ICE. The movement to make it impossible for ICE, an arm of the federal government, to operate in Democrat states has largely been successful. Some Republican states, like Tennessee, Texas and Florida, have responded by ordering law enforcement to cooperate with ICE. And while this is important in limiting the spread of illegal aliens in their states, it may also be time for them to consider their own forms of soft...

'This is an important victory protecting the people of Texas from destructive federal overreach,' Texas attorney general says A federal judge blocked the Biden administration from implementing environmental regulations redefining how water sources are protected, but which opponents have argued were an example of overreach. In his decision published late Sunday, Judge Jeffrey Brown ruled that the so-called Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in late December "poses irreparable harm" to residents of Texas and Idaho, the two states that challenged the regulations in the lawsuit filed on Jan. 18. Brown declined...

@MorriseyWV · 1h State AGs, including WV, will not tolerate such blatant & illegal federal overreach from @POTUS. (Great map at the link - maybe someone can post)

A man charged in assisting the chemical spraying of the Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick on Jan. 6 had been ordered released from jail pending trial, with a trio of appeals court judges ruling the district court "clearly erred" in keeping him jailed. George Tanios of West Virginia was accused of coordinating with Julian Khater of Pennsylvania, who sprayed three officers, including Sicknick, with a chemical spray during the storming of the Capitol grounds. Tanios did not spray any officers and has not been accused of doing so, but he has been held since March by a magistrate judge and...

A sheriff in New York received a warning after a federal investigation into a complaint that his department flew a Trump flag from a government-owned boat in August. Oswego County Sheriff Don Hilton received the warning from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in response to a complaint alleging that he violated the Hatch Act (which forbids the use of taxpayer time and money going toward advocacy for a political candidate) on an on-duty patrol boat during an Oneida Lake pro-Trump flotilla on Aug. 2, Syracuse.com reported....

It looks like the days of trading half of your peanut butter and jelly sandwich for half of your best friend’s ham sandwich may soon be over if the federal government has anything to do with it. A Richmond, Virginia mother received the following note, telling her not to pack a lunch for her pre-school age child. Dear Parents, I have received word from Federal Programs Preschool pertaining to lunches from home. Parents are to be informed that students can only bring lunches from home if there is a medical condition requiring a specific diet, along with a physicians note...

Ky. ag agency sues for release of hemp seeds May. 14, 2014 6:21pm LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's Agriculture Department sued the federal government Wednesday, seeking the release of imported hemp seeds that have been held up by customs officials. The state said it needs to get the seeds in the ground for the spring season and each day they are held up jeopardizes the yield. The 250-pound shipment from Italy has been held for more than a week by customs officials in Louisville. "No state should have to endure what Kentucky has gone through in this process. We must...

When someone hears bureaucratic terms like “compliance, mandates and penalties,” they might think of the EPA, the IRS, or these days, the Department of Health and Human Services. But another federal government department is fast adopting the language of strict and onerous regulation. Annoyed that Indiana wants to extricate themselves from the Common Core education standards, the U.S. Department of Education is erecting procedural obstacles to make this as difficult possible. At stake for Hoosiers is $200 million in federal education funds. The Obama Administration is using “No Child Left Behind” waivers to warn Indiana officials of the penalties they...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Ted Cruz's disdain for President Obama's policies is no less ardent than his advocacy of the 10th Amendment - the one protecting states' rights.On Tuesday, he's releasing a six-page report on "The Obama Administration's Assault on Texas," highlighting some of the legal friction points between the state and federal government and warning that Obama has sought to expand federal power at the expense of states, especially Texas.This isn't a scholarly legal analysis, though Cruz - a former law clerk to a chief justice of the United States - is certainly capable of that. Rather it's more of...

(Gov. Bobby Jindal shakes hands at a pro-voucher rally on the Capitol steps on Wednesday, May 15, 2013. On Aug. 22, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a petition to limit automatic participation in vouchers for districts operating under desegregation orders.) The U.S. Justice Department is suing Louisiana in New Orleans federal court to block 2014-15 vouchers for students in public school systems that are under federal desegregation orders. The first year of private school vouchers "impeded the desegregation process," ... -snip- The statewide voucher program, officially called the Louisiana Scholarship Program, lets low-income students in public schools graded...

Former Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., briefly stepped back into politics Friday, joining U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu to urge the preservation of light bulb standards that were included in the 2007 energy bill. The U.S. House could vote as early as Monday on the BULB Act (Better Use of Light Bulbs) introduced by Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican. It would strip from the law, signed by then-President George W. Bush, standards that traditional incandescent bulbs be 30 percent more efficient starting next year. Barton says consumers, not the government, should determine what type of light bulbs to...

Sholom Rubashkin was the vice president of America's largest kosher meat plant, Agriprocessors, ­located in Iowa. Rubashkin provided kosher meat to Jews throughout much of the country seeking to comply with biblical dietary rules. In 2008, after Rubashkin contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and offered to cooperate, several hundred federal agents raided Agriprocessors. During the raid, 389 illegal aliens were arrested. Rubashkin was later charged with one violation of immigration law. On the day following Rubashkin's release on bail, federal prosecutors Matt Dummermuth and Peter Deegan Jr. yet again had him arrested. This time, they asserted various financial...

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today identified multiple constitutional defects with the so-called Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, a bill pending before the U.S. Senate that would coerce state and local governments to collectively bargain with labor unions representing certain public employees. “The federal government is attempting to intrude upon our state’s authority to independently manage relations with our public employees,” Attorney General Abbott said. “This law would force the State of Texas into federally mandated collective bargaining agreements with labor unions – despite the fact that state law does not authorize collective bargaining for state employees. If...