Free Republic

On March 11, about 50 judges gathered in Washington for the biannual meeting of the Judicial Conference, which oversees the administration of the federal courts. It was the first time the conference met since President Trump retook the White House.In the midst of discussions of staffing levels and long-range planning, the judges’ conversations were focused, to an unusual degree, on rising threats against judges and their security, said several people who attended the gathering.Behind closed doors at one session, Judge Richard J. Sullivan, the chairman of the conference’s Committee on Judicial Security, raised a scenario that weeks before would have...

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said that Democrats have a good message, “The problem we’ve got, honestly, is that we have to depend upon the media to deliver it.” And “when you’ve got people saying we’re not going to fact-check, we’re not going to worry about whether or not you’re telling the truth and just let the reports go out there. That’s what’s killing us as Democrats, because we don’t have a stomach for just lying.” Clyburn stated, “I think the message that’s coming from the Democratic Party is a good message. The...

Actor Vince Vaughn joined President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Good Friday after attending a prayer service at the U.S. Capitol. Vaughn, renowned for his roles in comedy classics like Wedding Crashers, Old School, and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, posed with Trump for a photo. The White House’s image, which is headed with “White House Crashers,” plays on the 2005 film Wedding Crashers, in which Vaughn and co-star Owen Wilson played a pair of Washington, DC, bachelors who crash weddings to pick up women.

Alphabet’s Google illegally dominated two markets for online advertising technology, a federal judge said on Thursday, dealing another blow to the tech titan in an antitrust case brought by the U.S. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, could allow prosecutors to argue for a breakup of Google’s advertising products. The U.S. Department of Justice has said that Google should have to sell off at least its Google Ad Manager, which includes the company’s publisher ad server and its ad exchange. Google will now head in to 2025 facing the possibility of two different U.S. courts...

Judge orders White House to lift restrictions on AP access

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced a bill with far-left Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), which would almost certainly put Trump’s new tariffs entirely on ice. The legislation’s stated purpose is to ‘reassert’ the legislative branch’s power over tariff policy. “The Trade Review Act of 2025” requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of imposing new tariffs. The president must also present a detailed rationale and analysis of the potential consequences for American businesses and consumers. Moreover, the legislation will require ALL tariffs to be approved by Congress within 60 days, or they will automatically expire.

Four Republicans – Sens. Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky; Susan Collins, of Maine; and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, sided with Democrats in voting for a resolution that would repeal the emergency declaration that permitted Trump to levy taxes on Canada by citing deadly fentanyl flowing across the border. The measure, introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., passed the upper chamber of Congress by a 51-48 vote.

Holy Bible sales are soaring in the UK with publishers crediting the rising spirituality of Gen Z as driving the revival of interest embracing the ancient text in an increasingly unstable world. The Times reports there was an increase of 87 percent between 2019 and 2024 — from £2.69 million to £5.02 million — over five years, according to figures compiled by SPCK Group, the Christian publishers, using transaction information from Nielsen Book Data.

Some Canucks are proposing the most drastic measure yet in the trade war with Uncle Sam – blocking US access to Canadian-owned Pornhub. The idea is the brainchild of funnyman Matthew Puzhitsky, who posted a now-viral Instagram video suggesting the X-rated offensive — calling it Canada’s “nuclear weapon.” Pornhub is the most visited in the US with more than 3 million views a month. “If Canada could ban Pornhub in the states, we win the trade war. That’s it. There is no trade war,” the Toronto stand-up comedian told The Post. A petition has since been launched urging Canadian authorities...

March 13 (Reuters) - A California federal judge on Thursday ordered six U.S. agencies to reinstate thousands of recently-hired employees who were fired as part of President Donald Trump's purge of the federal workforce. The ruling made by U.S. District Judge William Alsup during a hearing in San Francisco applies to the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of Interior and the Treasury Department.

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that he believed Vice President JD Vance was correct in his criticisms of European speech laws during a recent speech. Maher said, “JD Vance…the other week, made a speech, in Munich. A lot of people were shocked by it. I thought half of it was pretty shocking because it was about this election that they just had in Germany where there is a party on the ballot that is very Nazi-friendly.” He continued, “But the first part of the speech was about free speech, that I didn’t think he...

BREAKING: The World Health Organization has warned that its largest global laboratory network is at risk of collapsing without additional funding.

Illegal aliens fearful of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids under President Donald Trump are staying inside, reportedly causing foot traffic to drop by 50 percent in a busy Chicago shopping district known as “Mexico of the Midwest.” Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood dotted with taquerias and Mexican grocery stores “turned into a ghost town” by Monday afternoon, after Trump was sworn into office, according to a report by Bloomberg. By Tuesday morning, several shops in Little Village, which is also known as the “Mexico of the Midwest,” were closed. “Business was just down, people were staying home, people were...

The Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a Texas case that could have major ramifications across the country—including, perhaps, the end of anonymity online.A Texas law requiring people to provide proof of age before viewing online porn comes before the U.S. Supreme Court today. With similar laws already at play in 18 states besides Texas, and other states considering such measures, it's fair to say that the future of online porn in this country depends on what the justices decide in this case. The Texas law (House Bill 1181) is being challenged by multiple plaintiffs, including the Free Speech...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s daughter-in-law reportedly is no longer under consideration to serve as deputy director at the CIA during the second Trump administration. President-elect Donald Trump told people close to him that he's not considering former undercover CIA operative Amaryllis Fox Kennedy for the position, The Washington Post reported Monday. Fox Kennedy, who is married to Bobby Kennedy III, had interviewed separately with Trump's pick for CIA director, John Ratcliffe.

The Danish National Symphony performs The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Eastern European country of Romania was in shock after the first round of its Presidential elections in late November as independent, rightwing candidate, Călin Georgescu, a Euroskeptic who has called the United Nations ‘satanic’ came out as the big winner.Almost as shocking was the fact that the Prime Minister, a leftist-globalist-euro-fanatic candidate, whom all opinion polls called the favorite, came in third and was out of the race. (snip) The Romanian Constitutional Court cancelled the first round of presidential elections a mere days before the second round, which was to take place earlier this month.The court , blamed Russia...

Donald Trump's choice of Kash Patel for director of the FBI is sending shockwaves throughout DC. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe went into complete meltdown Sunday as he whined that Patel would spearhead a campaign of 'retribution.' McCabe, who backed the Russian interference investigation into Trump, claimed that Patel - a Trump loyalist - would use the FBI to further the president-elect's political agenda and crackdown on his enemies. His rant on CNN went viral as people were stunned by the apparent hypocrisy in his criticism of Patel, while he has previously made wild claims that Trump was a...

Already bracing for funding cuts under a new Trump administration, U.S. Treasury officials are calling on Congress to unlock $20 billion in IRS enforcement money that is tied up in legislative language that has effectively rendered the money frozen.Hoping to unlock the funds in upcoming budget negotiations, Treasury officials are rushing for action before President Joe Biden's term ends.The $20 billion in question is separate from another $20 billion rescinded from the agency last year. However, the legislative mechanism keeping the government afloat inadvertently duplicated the one-time cut.There would be 6,000 fewer audits of wealthy individuals and 2,000 fewer...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday he had a “good call” with President-elect Trump following the incoming U.S. leader’s pronouncement that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods when he takes office. “I had a good call with Donald Trump last night again,” Trudeau told reporters Tuesday. “We obviously talked about laying out the facts, talking about how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth.