Free Republic

Below is my column in the Hill on the first hearings this week to be held by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. It could be one of the most consequential investigations for free speech in decades if it pulls back the curtain on government censorship programs. After the historic release of the Twitter Files by Elon Musk, questions remain on any similar coordination with other social media companies with federal agencies like the FBI to target views considered “disinformation” or “misinformation.” Here is the column: This coming week a new House select subcommittee will hold...

There is a fascinating and chilling survey on the state of free speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The newly released Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) survey shows a growing fear among faculty over their ability to speak freely in classes or other forums on campus. Conversely, a majority students believe that it is acceptable to shout down or block speakers who hold opposing views. The survey captures the downstream impact of students who have been taught in their primary, middle, and high school educations that speech is harmful and preventing free speech is a noble...

Elon Musk’s Twitter Truth Squad is exposing the FBI’s role in suppressing free speech before the 2020 election. But the FBI was practically a bit player in a far greater federal conspiracy to censor any American who cast doubts on the mail-in ballots that made Joe Biden the 46th president. That conniving doesn’t mean the 2020 election was stolen. But the bureaucratic racketeering was a travesty of political fair play. The FBI pressured Twitter to target an Oct. 26, 2020, tweet from a former Republican official who wrote that “between 2% and 25% of Ballots by Mail are Being Rejected...

Below is my column in The Hill on issuance of a subpoena for former President Donald J. Trump by the January 6th Select Committee. It brought to together two obsessions: the Bears and the law. The final scheduled play in both the Bears game and the Committee hearings had one striking similarity. In both cases, the throw was solid but it came too late and the reception was much in doubt.Here is the column:Two events consumed Washington on Thursday. The hapless Commanders won a game against the Chicago Bears — and the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 issued a...

This week I wrote a column on a notable shift by political and media figures on the Hunter Biden scandal toward a last line of defense: the addiction defense. This shift is most obvious with President Joe Biden who spent years insisting that his son “did nothing wrong,” even bizarrely claiming that “no one has suggested that my son did anything wrong.” That defense was picked up by the White House. Then it changed as prosecutors reportedly moved closer to criminal charges and the President no longer denied that his son did anything wrong but rather that he was an...

California's new bill which will discipline doctors for spreading COVID-19 "misinformation" is a "chilling" indication of the Democrats' position toward free speech in the state, GWU law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News on Monday. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed what some are calling the most controversial bill to come out of the pandemic, which seeks to punish doctors and possibly suspend their medical licenses for spreading "misinformation" to patients on key issues, including vaccinations and medications. Turley, a Fox News contributor and legal scholar, ripped the legislation in an appearance on "America Reports" later Monday, calling the...

The fight against the mutilation and other harm of children under the guise of “children-affirming care” has become ground zero in the culture wars. And whether you love him, hate him, or are indifferent, Matt Walsh has helped the lead the fight. His documentary What Is a Woman represented a sea change in the conversation that has been picked up by even the highest levels of the Republican Party, and the facts shared therein have been valuable in pushing back against the trans-lobby. One aspect of that has been exposing these “trans clinics” for their abuse of children. The episode...

With the start of classes at George Washington Law School, I have already had visits to my office of conservative and libertarian students asking if I thought they could speak freely in other classes without being penalized by professors. Despite teaching for decades, it is a question that I never heard from students until the last few years. It is now routine. It is the widespread fear of conservative students who have faced faculties with overwhelmingly liberal viewpoints and growing intolerance on virtually every campus. Now a new study at North Carolina confirms how conservative students routinely “self-censor” and do...

Below is my column in the New York Post on the opposition of the Justice Department to release of even a redaction affidavit in the ongoing controversy over the raid at Mar-a-Lago. As this litigation unfolds (including a key filing today), the Justice Department has been reportedly leaking some of the very same information to the press. In addition, National Archives and Records Administration released a letter contradicting claims of the Trump team, including refuting claims of cooperation or transparency by the former president. There has never been a more important time for Attorney General Merrick Garland to show leadership...

It is litigation by leak where the government prevents others (including the target) from seeing key representations made to the court while releasing selective facts to its own advantage. It shows utter contempt for the court and the public.

There’s some weirdness afoot over at The Atlantic, where they’re running contrary pieces on the “Dark Brandon” phenomenon. Molly Jong-Fast argues in her piece that Joe Biden “is a phoenix,” rising from the ashes just at the moment when all looks darkest. We’ve heard a lot this week about Biden’s “string of wins” and a lot of wishcasting by the media that Biden’s momentum is beginning to change, and this is the moment it all turns around and his approval rating surges back above 40 percent. But seriously, Joe Biden is a phoenix. IRL LOL #DarkBrandon pic.twitter.com/GTyumSRz1k — jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL)...

George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley called on the Justice Department to release the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant that prompted the raid on Mar-a-Lago during a Friday appearance on Fox News. “If the attorney general truly believes the Justice Department will speak through its filings and allow these filings to speak for themselves, they should release that affidavit,” Turley told “America Reports” hosts Sandra Smith and Mike Emanuel. WATCH:

Constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law School has proposed an alliance among conservative “red” states to engage in counter-boycotts against any liberal “blue” state, such as California, that boycotts first. The proposal is a response to efforts by blue states to ban state-funded travel to red states that enact conservative laws on issues such as transgender bathrooms in school, biological men participating in women’s sports, and restrictions on abortion. California, for example, currently bans state-funded travel to 22 states. While such bans are difficult to enforce — indeed. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) of California recently violated...

The January 6 Committee has promised since the start of their hearings that they would produce the evidence to nail President Donald Trump. But as anyone can tell you, all they’ve produced is bad television that people have been avoiding like the plague because they know it’s a biased witch hunt. But after nine hearings, they have not produced evidence to support criminal charges, according to George Washington law school professor Jonathan Turley. As he notes, even former prosecutor (and Senator) Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) thought it would be “very tough” to get an indictment legally.Instead, what we’ve gotten is a...

Hunter's controlled demolition will require the perfect timing of the media, Democrats, and the Justice Department For news junkies, there has been a remarkable and sudden shift in the media in the coverage of the Hunter Biden scandal. The shift is the very fact that there is suddenly coverage of the Hunter Biden scandal. From CNN to NPR, reporters are now acknowledging that the infamous laptop is not "Russian disinformation" as was widely claimed before the 2020 election. After years of burying the story, the media is now attempting an even more precarious exercise. It is called controlled demolition: the...

University of Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh is facing calls for his termination after he went public with his pro-life views. Harbaugh is a devout Catholic and said that “I believe in having the courage to let the unborn be born.” The response has been overwhelming and furious, but it is unlikely that Harbaugh (who just signed signed a 5-year, $36.7 million contract) will be canned. It is an interesting comparison to the successful campaign recently to force a NFL coach to withdraw his comments about Jan. 6th. Yet, if critics had their way, both coaches would be fired...

There is an interesting controversy brewing in anthropology departments where professors have called for researchers to stop identifying ancient human remains by biological gender because they cannot gauge how a person identified at that the time. Other scholars are calling for researchers to stop identifying race as a practice because it fuels white supremacy. One of the academics objecting to this effort to stop gender identifications, San Jose State archaeology Professor Elizabeth Weiss, is currently suing her school. Weiss maintains that she was barred from access to the human remains collection due to her opposition to the repatriation of human...

In past columns, we have discussed how Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe seems intent upon running through the entire criminal code in declaring clear evidence of every federal crime by former President Donald Trump and/or his family. Just for the purposes of keeping score, Tribe declared evidence supporting criminal charges of witness tampering, obstruction of justice, criminal election violations, Logan Act violations, extortion, espionage, and treason by Trump or his family. He has now added attempted murder in an interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.” In addition to declaring former President Donald Trump clearly guilty of the attempt to murder...

Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley says the Jan. 6 committee - which held its first primetime hearing Thursday night - should be a truly bipartisan panel. Turley said on "The Brian Kilmeade Show" Friday that the committee failed to present incriminating evidence against former President Trump. JONATHAN TURLEY: That's one of the problems that the Democrats are going to have to confront. Not just that most people have moved on. They got to the condemnation stage two years ago. So they're trying, as The New York Times said, to reframe their argument for the midterm elections. The Times was referring...

Attorney General Merrick Garland continued to refuse to address questions over his refusal to appoint a Special Counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation despite new evidence tying President Joe Biden to the controversial business deals. The New York Post is reporting that President Biden agreed to cover more than $800,000 in bills of Hunter, including legal fees tied to the foreign deals. While President Biden’s denial of knowledge of Hunter’s deals has been repeatedly contradicted (including by Hunter himself), White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declared that President Biden stands by his denials. However, she declined to explain new information...