Free Republic

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...

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass could both face federal charges over their response to ICE raids in the city, President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has warned. As violence tore apart sections of downtown LA, Compton and the suburb of Paramount, the administration has accused the Golden State Dems of fueling tensions, which exploded in riots on Saturday. “Someone is going to lose their life,” Homan warned, speaking to NBC News. He said that he has not ruled out asking the Department of Justice to prosecute the elected officials for allegedly having a role in...

President Trump warned Saturday that his former ally Elon Musk will face “very serious consequences” if he starts bankrolling Democratic candidates for office after their nasty public split over a Republican spending bill working its way through Congress. “If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told NBC News’ Kristin Welker in an interview. “He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that,” the president added. “Is there anything else you just want people to know about the status,” Welker asked. “No, not at all. We’re doing great,” Trump replied. “The bill is great....

MAGA showed up BIG for FREE SPEECH at the Lakeland Farmers Market after they tried to ban me last week! Featuring the great ‪@AdamFrancisco‬!

William F. Buckley Jr.’s centenary arrives as free speech falters and truth-telling grows perilous—a reminder that every generation must fight anew for civilization’s soul. William F. Buckley, Jr., who died in February 2008, would have been 100 years old in November of this year. There are many tributes planned to celebrate his centenary. The huge, authorized biography by Sam Tanenhaus will be out in just a few weeks. I will not say anything about that book apart from noting that its subtitle—“The Life and the Revolution That Changed America”— is apt. For five or six years at the end of...

The First Amendment protects most forms of speech. But did you know that there are certain things even the Constitution does not allow? It's true. Here are 11 statements that can get you in trouble with the law: "I disagree with the government." - The First Amendment was not designed to protect speech criticizing our omnipotent rulers. "The government lied to us." - No, they didn't, and you are going to jail. "I kind of enjoy the Disney Star Wars films." - This can actually get you deported, believe it or not. "Baseball is boring." - The Constitution does...

A New Hampshire town's attempt to force a bakery to remove or alter its painting that shows sunbeams shining down on a mountain range of doughnuts, a muffin, a cinnamon roll and other pastries is unconstitutional, a judge ruled in a First Amendment dispute. The town of Conway infringed on the free speech rights of bakery owner Sean Young, U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante ruled Monday, following a one-day trial in February. He ordered the town to stop any efforts at enforcing its sign code regarding the mural painted by high school students atop Leavitt's Country Bakery, mentioning a "complete...

PORTLAND (WGME) -- The Supreme Court has ordered the Maine House to restore the vote of censured Representative Laurel Libby (R-Auburn). Libby was censured by the Maine Legislature after she posted the name and image of a transgender minor online. As part of the censure, she could not speak or vote on the House floor until she apologized, which she refused to do. In her lawsuit before the Supreme Court, Libby didn't contest the censure but the punishment, saying it violated her First Amendment rights and those of her constituents. Maine’s attorney general filed new paperwork both in district court...

Defending Education is taking parental rights to court, suing the state of Colorado over its outrageous and arguably unconstitutional new groomer law. You might remember the recently passed Colorado legislation to fund castration of “trans” kids with taxpayer dollars and in spite of parents' wishes, to mandate pro-trans policies in schools, to criminalize “deadnaming,” and to take supposed “misgendering” into account in custody cases. Defending Education, an organization that stands for parents and against woke indoctrination in schools, is suing the Democrat-run state over the extremely harmful legislation. Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Protect Kids Colorado, Do No Harm, and Dr....

Dear Mr. Musk, As a self-proclaimed champion of free speech and a transformative figure in technology and culture, you have reshaped platforms like X to prioritize open discourse and challenge censorship. Your actions—from acquiring X to amplify diverse voices to defending the First Amendment through initiatives like America PAC—demonstrate a commitment to preserving the “digital town square” as a space for unfettered expression. Today, I urge you to consider a significant donation to FreeRepublic.com, a pioneering website that has stood as a bastion of free speech since 1996, longer than any other platform in history. Here’s why your support could...

Our Constitution does not forbid government entities from working with religious groups, and the ‘separation of church and state’ is an ahistorical misnomer.Sometimes, a phrase takes on a life of its own and becomes so rhetorically powerful that it can be deployed almost mindlessly, without real consideration of its original meaning. “Separation of church and state” is one such phrase.Consider a couple of examples.In 2011, middle-schooler Brian Hickman auditioned to dance to a contemporary Christian song for his public school’s talent show. Days later, Brian’s mom was told by the school principal that the “separation of church and state” prohibited...

Behind the scenes, a top department official pressed employees to gather a list of activists and investigate them, people familiar with the matter said.A top Trump appointee in the Justice Department ordered an aggressive investigation in the last several months of student protesters at Columbia University, raising anger and alarm among career prosecutors and investigators who saw the demand as politically motivated and lacking legal merit, people familiar with the episode said. The demand for the inquiry into students who protested Israel’s conduct of the conflict in Gaza also prompted pushback from a federal magistrate judge, who believed some of...

DC_Draino @DC_Draino Stephen Miller just called out legacy media to their faces for defending cartel thugs He says if he offered them a rent-free home in a neighborhood with MS-13 members, none of them would take it So why should other Americans be forced to deal with that? From Rapid Response 47 8:49 AM · May 1, 2025

From the outset of forming our country, our Founders were determined to keep religion as a foundational element, given that many people had left their homes in Britain to be able to practice their religions as they chose. The goal was not for the government to reject faith, but for it to be prevented from dictating doctrine. But over the years, the Left has distorted the meaning of “separation of church and state” (a phrase that’s not written into the Constitution) and now the country feels obligated to ban religion from every nook and cranny. How did a country founded...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced the closure of the Global Engagement Center as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shutter the “censorship-industrial complex.”“Today, it is my pleasure to announce the State Department is taking a crucial step toward keeping the president’s promise to liberate American speech by abolishing forever the body formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC),” Rubio wrote in an op-ed for the Federalist, titled, “Rubio: To Protect Free Speech, The Censorship Industrial Complex Must Be Dismantled.”Rubio wrote that, in 2016, the Obama administration changed the GEC’s focus on combatting international terrorism cover...

The Republican-led Texas House has officially caved to the radical Left’s war on free speech—and shockingly, it’s being spearheaded by none other than the state’s own scandal-plagued former House Speaker Dade Phelan. On Tuesday, House Bill 366 passed with bipartisan support, making it a potential crime in the state of Texas to share or distribute AI-generated and “altered media”—including political memes—without a government-approved disclaimer on political ads. According to the bill: “A person may not, with the intent to influence an election, knowingly cause to be published, distributed, or broadcast political advertising that includes an image, audio recording, or video...

After the Biden administration spent four years “weaponizing” her division, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon says that she needs more “energized attorneys” to help her spearhead new initiatives to protect rights that have been trampled on in the past years. The priorities pursued in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division by her predecessor Kristen Clarke — prosecuting pro-life activists, suing states over election integrity efforts and targeting police departments — are going to change, Dhillon told the Daily Caller News Foundation during a Friday interview. Under her leadership, Dhillon said the Civil Rights Division will...

An Idaho woman filed a notice of tort claim Monday with the Kootenai County clerk saying county officials and others violated her constitutional rights when she was removed from a town hall meeting in February. “Town halls are intended to foster conversation and discourse across the aisle, which is why I am deeply alarmed that private security dragged me out of the public meeting for simply exercising my fundamental right of free speech,” Teresa Borrenpohl said in a press release. The tort claim says Borrenpohl is seeking damages of at least $5 million. Wendy Olson, an attorney for Borrenpohl, said...

President Donald Trump on Monday said CNN refuses to report accurately on the decrease in migrants crossing the southern border because "they hate our country." During a meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office, Trump talked about military and law enforcement recruitment that has surged. "Actually, what you're doing with the border is remarkable. It has dropped, what, 95%? It's incredible," Bukele said to Trump. "As of this morning, 99%, 99.1% to be exact," Trump replied. "Why are those numbers not in the media?" Bukele asked. "Well, they get out, but the fake news, you know,...

Press access is not freedom, it's privilege. For the umpteenth time, AP executive editor Julie Pace claims that it’s fighting for the freedom of speech of all Americans by demanding exclusive cartel access to the White House. If Pace were at all literate, she would at least be arguing about Freedom of the Press, but neither one applies. Now if Trump had dispatched the FBI to take smash up the presses or ban the AP from operating for refusing to use the term Gulf of America, that would be a textbook First Amendment violation. But that’s not happening. Instead the...