Free Republic

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was offensive in his words and tone when he compared protesters outside the homes of several Supreme Court justices to the rioters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. During a Fox News interview, Cruz said, “What we’re seeing these images are the latest manifestation of just how extreme, how radical the Democratic Party is getting. Today’s Democrat Party believes in violence. They believe in mob rule, they believe in intimidation…These thugs have no business at the private homes of any government officials. These...

The year 1987 was significant in the history of the Senate’s process for considering a president’s nominees. The Senate defeated President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork, and the tactics of his opponents gave rise to the verb “to bork.” Many people, mistakenly it turned out, thought the confirmation process could not get any worse.Individual confirmation conflicts had increased since Reagan took office. In 1984, Democrats launched the first filibuster in American history against an appeals court nominee. After the second vote to invoke cloture, or end debate, on the nomination of J. Harvie Wilkinson to the U.S. Court...

It’s hard to keep up with everything going on in Washington, but if there’s one thing constantly humming along in the background, it’s the Republican effort to push through President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to send 44 of Trump’s court picks to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote. That’s a huge number at once; progressive judicial advocacy groups dubbed the committee’s hearing a “monster markup.” Most of these nominees were introduced in the last Congress but didn’t get confirmed in time, so Republicans are expediting them in one big batch. Thursday’s action comes...

From a proposed ban on transgender people serving openly in the military to an amicus brief in support of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, the Trump administration has often found itself at odds with advocates of LGBTQ rights this year. But there is one area in particular that has advocates worried, one they say will affect the country, and LGBTQ civil rights, long after President Donald Trump has left office: the record speed with which he is reshaping the federal courts. When Trump assumed the presidency in January, he inherited more...

After barring Arkansas from executing eight inmates in rapid succession because of a dispute over how it obtained one of its execution drugs, Judge Wendell Griffen went to an anti-death penalty rally, where he made a stir by lying down on a cot and binding himself as though he were a condemned man on a gurney. Griffen's participation in Friday's protest outside the governor's mansion sparked outrage among death penalty supporters, including Republican lawmakers who described it as judicial misconduct and potential grounds for Griffen's removal from the bench.

Based on numerous polls and countless surveys, we already knew Americans didn’t trust Congress or the Executive Branch—but now, it looks like they don’t trust the courts, either. A new Gallup poll released Friday shows only 53 percent of Americans say they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the United States’ judicial system, a record low since Gallup first began measuring government trust in 1997. Conversely, about half (47%) of all Americans think the courts can’t be trusted. …

Welcome to day four of our ninety-one day adventure. Today we look at look at the Judicial Branch of government. The text is as it was originally written: Article III. Section. 1. The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.

(Jan. 22) -- When the Supreme Court overturned long-standing campaign fiance reform limits with a ruling announced Thursday, it also renewed speculation about the future of its longest-serving -- and most liberal -- member. Court-watchers are wondering whether Justice John Paul Stevens has had enough and may retire this spring. During the last round of Stevens retirement rumors in October, the 89-year-old justice did not exactly knock down the scuttlebutt. "That can't be news," Stevens told USA Today. "I'm not exactly a kid." But predictable or not, a looming vacancy on the Supreme Court is always news, and with the...

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. made it clear as he began taking questions at yesterday's National Italian American Foundation luncheon that he couldn't reveal any of the Supreme Court's forthcoming opinions. But did he at least give a hint? Two of the court's biggest remaining cases focus on the First Amendment, and while Alito didn't mention either, he did make it clear that any restrictions on speech face a high hurdle with him. "I'm a very strong believer in the First Amendment and the right of people to speak and to write," Alito said in response to a question of...

The living Constitution, which has performed innumerable feats of jurisprudential prestidigitation, has accomplished a miraculous new trick during the national debate over NSA surveillance. It faked its own death.To do this, it needed the help of its numerous magicians' assistants in the Democratic party (with some audience participation by Republicans, too). If you recall, the "living Constitution" is the notion that the meaning of the Constitution changes over time. One day nine justices simply wake up, and when they arrive at work that day, they discover that the words in the document they studied their entire adult lives suddenly mean...

Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) issued the following statement about the Supreme Court vacancy following Sandra Day O’Connor’s resignation: “I’m baffled by Senators demanding that President Bush reach out to them in appointing a justice to the Supreme Court. Last time I read it, the Constitution says ‘advise and consent’ not ‘complain and filibuster.’ The Salazar-McCain liberal 14 can’t be allowed to control a judicial branch again.” “I hope the President steps up to the plate and delivers on his mandate. More than 62 million Americans didn’t show up at the voting booth to put an ACLU lefty on the bench.”

The deal that pulled the Senate back from the brink of a shootout over judicial nominations this week didn't really settle anything. Democrats retain the right to filibuster future nominees "under extraordinary circumstances" -- a phrase it is left to them to define. Republicans can still go "nuclear" -- change the Senate rules to block a filibuster of judicial nominations -- if they decide the Democrats are acting in "bad faith." Odds are the deal will collapse as soon as the next vacancy opens up on the Supreme Court. Assuming President Bush sends up a nominee whose ideological profile matches...

... The court says in so many words that what our people’s laws say about the issue does not, in the last analysis, matter: ‘In the end our own judgment will be brought to bear on the question of the acceptability of the death penalty,’ he [Justice Kennedy]wrote. "The court thus proclaims itself sole arbiter of our nation’s moral standards,"; Scalia wrote. And by allowing ";international opinion"; to color their rulings, the justices have thrown both the Constitution of the United States and our national sovereignty into the trash heap. [snip] As Mark Levin writes, "the idea has taken hold...

Since 1994, the Democrat Party has managed to lose control of the House, the Senate, and the White House. In the face of their obviously diminishing power and influence, Democrats have become a party whose activities and pronouncements betray a growing desperation. As they founder, casting about broadly, seeking remedies to reverse their diminishing influence, it is no surprise that their attention has come to rest on the courts. It can be argued that Democrats see their only remaining hope for holding onto political power in mounting a strenuous resistance to President Bush's federal judicial nominees. The court system, overpopulated...

Virginia Court Strikes Down Law Against Sex By Singles POSTED: 4:20 pm EST January 14, 2005 RICHMOND, Va. -- The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down an archaic and rarely enforced state law prohibiting sex between unmarried people. The unanimous ruling strongly suggests that a separate anti-sodomy law in Virginia also is unconstitutional, although that statute is not directly affected. The justices based their ruling on a U.S. Supreme Court decision voiding an anti-sodomy law in Texas. "This case directly affects only the fornication law but makes it absolutely clear how the court would rule were the sodomy law...

Amendment Banning La. Gay Marriage Tossed By ADAM NOSSITER, Associated Press Writer BATON ROUGE, La. - A state judge Tuesday threw out a Louisiana constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, less than three weeks after it was overwhelmingly approved by the voters. District Judge William Morvant said the amendment was flawed as drawn up by the Legislature because it had more than one purpose: banning not only gay marriage but also civil unions. Michael Johnson (news - web sites), an attorney for supporters of the amendment, said he will appeal the ruling. A gay rights group challenged the amendment on several...

JEFF JACOBYThe end of the gay marriage debate? By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist  |  May 16, 2004 THIS IS THE week that same-sex marriage comes to Massachusetts, and thus to the United States. The fundamental building block of civilization is about to undergo a radical change -- a change opposed by a majority of American adults. How did this happen? The joining of gay and lesbian couples in marriage may turn out to be the most consequential development of our lifetimes. How did we get here? The answer to that question has several parts. At the most obvious level, the...

The court would have to decide if the 4,000 marriages remain valid, if they would be automatically be voided or of they could they be voided at some time in the future. Assuming Newsom's defeat, which many legal scholars predict, the court asked: "Would the marriages that have been performed and registered nonetheless be valid, would the marriages be voidable or would the marriages be void?" Lockyer has already told the court in briefs that the marriages, which have left the newlyweds in a state of legal limbo, are invalid and that those married should get their $82 fees refunded.

Ben Levy, founder of ACLU here made his mark `All I wanted to do was to protect the right to speak freely without penalty, without being afraid.' The bullets always were fired at night, but the threats, curses and social snubs came at any hour of the day. Houston's early American Civil Liberties Union members often found themselves in conflict with groups willing to use unsavory means to maintain the status quo. Founded in 1957 by Houston lawyer Ben G. Levy and a handful of supporters, the organization eventually made its mark in prison, civil rights and First Amendment litigation....

Three top Senate conservatives have told GOP conservative groups to lay off Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who helped trigger a controversial investigation into leaked Democratic Judiciary Committee documents. Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), both members of the Judiciary panel, personally delivered that message to a group of nearly 20 conservative leaders last week. Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) also briefly attended the meeting on Capitol Hill. The 90-minute session grew heated at times, as the visiting conservative leaders repeatedly interrupted the senators and questioned their handling of the memo controversy....