Free Republic

Prosecutors in Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office said President Trump violated Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order when he criticized the judge’s daughter on social media. The far-left judge overseeing the Stormy Daniels ‘hush money’ trial hit President Trump with a gag order on Tuesday. Judge Juan Merchan ordered Trump to refrain from making any public statements about witnesses and jurors in the Stormy Daniels case. Trump criticized Merchan’s daughter and now Bragg’s office wants the judge to “clarify or confirm” the scope of his gag order. President Trump’s attorneys said the former president didn’t violate the gag order because Loren...

"Facebook gave us a couple of screenshots of your account," one agent in a gray shirt said in the video. "So we no longer live in a free country and we can't say what we want?" replied Abdeljawad. "No, we totally do. That's why we're not here to arrest you or anything," a second agent in a red shirt added. "We do this every day, all day long. It's just an effort to keep everybody safe and make sure nobody has any ill will."

(FBI) visited a woman on February 22 who had used social media to expose a man who allegedly ‘dumped her cousin’s body like trash’ and was released on probation. The tweet posted by Twitter user Kristin Martin has gone viral and has been viewed over 8.6 million times. The tweet in question was a call for justice for her 27-year-old cousin, Macy Peebles, who Martin alleges was drugged by a man at L’Auberge Casino in Baton Rouge and later found dead. The accused, Damion Matthews, is currently on probation despite having a criminal history. Martin’s tweet reads: “This monster drugged...

@GlobalAffairs Earlier this week, X was ordered by the Australian E-Safety Commissioner, subject to an approximately $800,000 AUD fine, to remove a user's post. The post had criticized an individual appointed by the World Health Organization to serve as an expert on transgender issues. X is withholding the post in Australia in compliance with the order but intends to file a legal challenge to the order to protect its user's right to free speech.

Democrats run the state of Washington with almost no Republican opposition, and, apparently, there are so many unreported hate crimes that lawmakers have set up a snitch line. We don’t have anywhere near these problems where I live — you know, in MAGALand — but wherever Democrats run things, you get hate, racism, and bigotry, on top of crime, poverty, drug addiction, and homelessness.

Bill Whatcott is one of those people who ultimately helps change the world for the better. Many people talk about fighting back against the radical agendas degrading society – but back off when the government (or the Left) threatens them. Bill Whatcott takes his Christian faith seriously and refuses to back down! The details of this outrageous situation are documented by MassResistance here. The “crime” In 2016, Bill and his friends registered to march in the Toronto Gay Pride Parade as members of the “Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumers Association.” Marching in the parade wearing masks and green body suits, they...

If you think free speech is under attack in the United States—and it is—you should see its besieged status in the rest of the world. Open contempt for unrestricted debate prevails in even many supposedly "free" countries and finds its expression in laws that threaten harsh penalties for those who dare to speak in ways that offend the powers that be. Contempt for Free Speech "When other communications revolutions like the printing press, radio, and television came along, they were still largely controlled by the elites. But when the internet came along, regulatory bodies like Canada's [Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications...

The Washington Post Editorial Board went to bat for the federal government colluding with Big Tech to police so-called disinformation online. Gatestone Institute Senior Fellow Gordon Chang was having none of it. “Don’t defund the fight against Russia and China’s disinformation,” decried the Board in the editorial. In the editorial, the Board defended the State Department-tied Global Engagement Center’s financing of the now-infamous Global Disinformation Index (initially based in the U.K.), which has since been panned for blacklisting right-leaning American media. The Post propagandized how the GEC “deploys a $61 million budget and a staff of 125 to counter disinformation...

The Washington D.C. based Smithsonian Museum recently agreed to pay $50,000 to tourists who were previously kicked out for wearing pro-life apparel. According to CBN News, The National Air and Space Museum agreed to pay the settlement to a group of 12 plaintiffs, who are students of Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic School in Greenville, South Carolina, and their parents. The students initially filed a lawsuit after visiting the museum during the March for Life rally on Jan. 20, 2023. At the time, they all wore beanies with the words "Rosary PRO-LIFE" as they toured the Smithsonian. The American...

10 Times The Censorship Industry Suppressed The TruthThe era of online censorship was fueled by media-driven panics about “fake news” and “disinformation.” The focus of fear switched many times, from the spy-thriller narrative of Russian agents spreading disinformation intended to undermine U.S. elections, to “conspiracy theorists” questioning the official response to COVID-19 and undermining “election integrity” by raising concerns about mail-in ballot fraud.Eventually, these narratives led to the censorship of true information. The Foundation for Freedom Online has compiled some of the top examples:1. Targeting of Domestic “Malinformation.” There are three categories used by the censorship industry and its government...

This week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Murthy v. Missouri. This case focuses on whether govt collusion with social media platforms to censor online speech violates the First Amendment. Justice Samuel Alito questioned "whether it is legal for the US government and big tech to collude to censor speech they don't agree with. I think saying that Facebook and the Federal government should be partners contradicts the words and intent of the First Amendment." Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson disagreed. "My biggest concern is that the First Amendment hamstrings the government in significant ways at the most important times....

Federal prosecutors are pursuing a deal to allow WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to avoid espionage charges and instead plead guilty to the misdemeanor of mishandling classified data. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the talks between U.S. authorities and Assange's lawyers on Wednesday. The independent outlet Consortium News then confirmed that it had learned the same details "off the record" several months ago. Assange has been detained in Britain for five years awaiting extradition, and the Journal reported that he "would likely be free to leave prison shortly after any deal was concluded" due to time served. Although it's...

"Mayors should not be allowed to launder animus through warrants," the former city council member's lawyer told the justices.Sylvia Gonzalez, a former Castle Hills, Texas, city council member, plausibly alleges that she was driven from public life by a trumped-up, politically motivated arrest aimed at punishing her for engaging in advocacy protected by the First Amendment. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court considered what sort of "objective evidence" she needs to prove that claim. The case, Gonzalez v. Trevino, hinges on how to read the Court's 2019 decision in Nieves v. Bartlett, which added "a narrow qualification" to the general...

It is obviously un-American for the government to develop a ‘hit list’ of citizens to mute in the public square through secret pressure on communications monopolies. The Biden administration attempted to distract the Supreme Court from the voluminous evidence of federal abuse of Americans’ speech rights during oral arguments in Murthy v. Missouri Monday. It sounded like several justices followed the feds’ waving red flag.“The government may not use coercive threats to suppress speech, but it is entitled to speak for itself by informing, persuading, or criticizing private speakers,” said Biden administration lawyer Brian Fletcher in his opening remarks. He...

Murthy v. Missouri perfectly illustrates the dangers of censorship, but Justice Jackson still thinks the government’s ‘perspective’ of ‘threatening circumstances’ should matter.. Following Monday’s Supreme Court oral argument in the social media censorship case Murthy v. Missouri, outraged free-speech advocates rightfully excoriated Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson for worrying that the First Amendment will “hamstring[] the government in significant ways in the most important time periods.” Given that “hamstringing” the federal government was precisely the purpose of the Bill of Rights, Justice Jackson’s comment laid bare the fundamental disdain she and other politically liberal justices hold for the classically liberal freedoms...

Free speech is the last exit ramp before political violence. During oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri — a dispute that Senator Rand Paul rightly calls “the most consequential free speech case in U.S. history” — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed concern that the First Amendment is “hamstringing the government in significant ways, in the most important time periods.” As with so much of the U.S. Constitution — and specifically the Bill of Rights — that has gotten in the way of the federal government’s march toward absolute power, a foundational American right is now in...

In the wake of the riot on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, a groundswell built in Washington to rein in the onslaught of lies that had fueled the assault on the peaceful transfer of power. Social media companies suspended Donald Trump, then the president, and many of his allies from the platforms they had used to spread misinformation about his defeat and whip up the attempt to overturn it. President Joe Biden’s administration, Democrats in Congress and even some Republicans sought to do more to hold the companies accountable. Academic researchers wrestled with how to strengthen efforts to monitor...

Will the school ban the truck? After a student in Indiana was ordered by his high school not to fly a US flag on his pickup truck, he responded by wrapping the entire vehicle in a US flag design. As reported by Fox 19, Cameron Blasek, a senior at East Central High School in St. Leon, Ind., was told by school administrators that the flag he was flying on his truck broke the rules and had to be taken down. Blasek challenged the ruling and got it overturned, because you can’t order Americans not to fly the national flag in...

There was a bit of good news about the future of public discourse this week. The United States Supreme Court, even though stacked with right-wingers, sounded like it was ready to give the Biden administration the go-ahead to try to persuade social-media platforms not to put out content promoting nonsense about the presidential election, conspiracy theories about the pandemic and other assorted bilge and crackpottery... When other communications revolutions like the printing press, radio, and television came along, they were still largely controlled by the elites. But when the internet came along, regulatory bodies like Canada’s CRTC backed off. It...

An angry Black Lives Matter mob chased and menaced conservatives attending a Turning Point USA event at the University of Memphis featuring Kyle Rittenhouse on Wednesday evening. The crowd was caught on video hitting and spitting on cars of attendees as they left. Reporter Julio Rosas posted videos from the event on X and wrote that “police had to prevent the hostile crowd from physically attacking” the attendees. “Protestors at the event with Kyle Rittenhouse at the University of Memphis seen hitting and spitting on cars as they leave. They also attempted to block cars from leaving,” Turning Point USA...