Free Republic

In 1974, the Supreme Court seemingly approved a special prosecutor’s authority in then-President Richard Nixon’s case over the Watergate tapes subpoena. But in dismissing the classified documents case against Donald Trump on Monday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon rejected language from that Supreme Court ruling to find that Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel against the former president. How could she have done so? Putting aside for a moment that she may be reversed on appeal, the answer lies in something called dicta, meaning language in an opinion that isn’t necessary to the ruling. Cannon deemed the language...

Poor Jesus Christ. What with coming up with one-liners for T-shirts and bumper stickers and approving the cars that we drive -- let alone running the White House for the next four years -- He must be almost as busy as Oprah. According to The New York Times, His latest brand extensions include the Riverview Community Bank in Minnesota, a "Christian financial institution" whose deposits have grown from $5-million (U.S.) to more than $75-million in the past 18 months, and the chain of Curves fitness centres (based in Waco, Tex.), which Entrepreneur magazine calls the "fastest growing franchise in the...