Free Republic

The ugly specter of religious bigotry reared its disgusting head during Senate confirmation of the nomination of Brian Buescher for a federal judgeship. The Constitution’s Article VI, Clause 3 clearly specifies that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States,” but that must be news to Senators Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris. Ed Condon of the Catholic News Agency reports:  A judicial nominee faced questions from Senators this month about whether membership in the Knights of Columbus might impede his ability to judge federal cases fairly. The...

California Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte on Varney's show regarding the mounting opposition to California's sanctuary status.

Gov. Jerry Brown urged the Legislature on Friday to "man up" and make spending cuts, acknowledging the state budget deficit is likely larger than he previously thought. The Democratic governor, in an interview on Bay Area talk radio station KGO (810 AM), said the deficit is "probably bigger now" than the $9.2 billion he estimated earlier this year. "We're trying to be as prudent as we can," Brown said. "That's why the Legislature has to man up, make the cuts and get some taxes and we'll make it." Democrats this year have resisted Brown's proposed cuts to social services and...

America's most fiery conservative talk show host backing liberal Jerry Brown for California's attorney general? Yes, it's true. Michael Savage, the nation's third most listened-to radio host (and 4th most influential host according to NewsMax's Top 25 List), confirmed that he recently donated $5,600 -- the maxium allowable -- to Brown's campaign. Brown won the Democratic Party nod and is facing Republican State Sen. Chuck Poochigian of Fresno, Calif. "What can I say?," Savage told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I think he'd make a great attorney general compared to the other guy. By the way, who is the other guy?"...

Just one day after California Governor Jerry Brown compared supporters of President Trump to cave dwellers, he told the United Nations the U.S. is not run by Trump. Speaking at a UN roundtable event on Tuesday, the Democrat vowed to fight climate change despite Trump’s stand on the issue.

Leftists are relentlessly selling their bogus narrative that Trump is insane. Here are samples of leftists' headlines: "Lawmakers Met With Psychiatrist About Trump's Mental Health," "President Trump's Mental State An 'Enormous Present Danger,'" "The Awkward Debate Around Trump's Mental Fitness," "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists Assess." So what has Trump done to convince leftists that he must be crazy? Unlike Republicans, Trump fearlessly confronts fake news media, calling them out when they lie. Unlike Obama's punish-evil-America-first presidency, Trump has America's best interest at heart. Unlike leftists seeking to dissolve our borders, Trump plans to build a wall...

For a guy known to hold some pretty strange views, this might be the most bizarre perspective on welfare policy I have ever seen. Here is Jerry Brown from his Pacifica Radio show in 1995 (full transcript here): The conventional viewpoint says we need a jobs program and we need to cut welfare. Just the opposite! We need more welfare and fewer jobs. Jobs for every American is doomed to failure because of modern automation and production. We ought to recognize it and create an income-maintenance system so every single American has the dignity and the wherewithal for shelter, basic...

SAN FRANCISCO -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown has become a hero to gay rights advocates - and a potential leader in the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial field - with his recent controversial decision to mount a legal challenge to overturn Proposition 8, the initiative approved by voters that banned-same sex marriage in California. But few remember that 32 years ago, when Brown was governor of California, he played a crucial role on the same issue - he signed the landmark bill that changed the state's definition of marriage from a contract between two persons to one specifically between a man...

FULL TITLE - Gov. Jerry Brown Signs Bill Criminalizing Journalists Who Distribute Recordings of Abortion Providers A bill sponsored by Planned Parenthood that criminalizes the distribution of recordings of conversations with abortion providers is now law in California. Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1671 into law, making it illegal for journalists to distribute audio or video recordings of healthcare providers without their consent. As the Los Angeles Times reports, Planned Parenthood pushed the bill through the legislature even though it is already illegal to make these types of recordings without authorization in California. The abortion business argued that further...

SACRAMENTO — The press secretary for California Attorney General Jerry Brown has been secretly recording telephone conversations with reporters, an apparent violation of state law. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday that spokesman Scott Gerber acknowledged taping a phone interview with one of its reporters. It said Gerber later acknowledged recording other conversations with reporters without asking their permission.

A whistleblower has emerged in the controversy of Governor Jerry Brown’s use of state oil experts to study his own family’s private land. Jennie Catalano, a mapping specialist for the California Department of Conservation, says she faced retaliation after complaining about being required to do personal work for Brown. It is illegal for politicians to use state resources for personal benefit. Brown says he used the same resources available to any Californian. The Associated Press confirmed the whistleblower complaint, which is separate from the original legal action by Kern County farmers alleging that Brown colluded with oil companies over the...

The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against California over a state law giving it the power to override the sale of federal lands, the department announced Monday. The suit marks the latest battle between President Trump and the nation's most populous state, where Democrats have tried aggressively to thwart the president's agenda. Last month, Sessions visited Sacramento to announce he was suing California over laws that restrict cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Under the law, which was passed in September, California has the first right to purchase federal lands or to arrange for a specific buyer. Lawmakers had expressed...

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Twenty years ago this month, 59 percent of California voters passed a ballot measure designed to set up a state-run immigration system and deny most public benefits — including K-12 education — to illegal immigrants. Proposition 187 was widely viewed as one of the harshest anti-immigrant measures in the country. But when President Barack Obama last week signed executive orders to protect about 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, there were only muted protests in the Golden State. And polls show that more Californians back Obama on this than oppose him. “It’s a very different atmosphere from what we had...

The state’s top cop issued a warning to California employers Thursday that businesses face legal repercussions, including fines up to $10,000, if they assist federal immigration authorities with a potential widespread immigration crackdown. “It’s important, given these rumors that are out there, to let people know – more specifically today, employers – that if they voluntarily start giving up information about their employees or access to their employees in ways that contradict our new California laws, they subject themselves to actions by my office,” state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said at a news conference. “We will prosecute those who violate...

City of LA short of funds and with a bankrupt pension system increases services aimed at helping people stay in the country illegally. This is a trend. i think Chicago and NY are already doing this. Opening additional service centers after serving 47,000 already at libraries. Garrett has an exploratory committee to run for president. He once said about Jerry Brown release thousands of inmates early, "We should thank the inmates for doing their time."

The photograph is of a lovely young woman, with a warm smile on her face, a woman who loved and was loved in turn. Her name was Kate Steinle. The last words she said to her father before she died were "Help me, Dad." So look at that photo. See the promise in her face. Some are calling her a symbol now of what's wrong with illegal immigration. I'm not so sure. My parents were immigrants. I grew up in this country desperate to become an American. So immigration isn't some political exercise for me. It's been part of my...

President Trump's pick to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday called for a crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities, saying politicians who help run them should be charged with crimes. In an interview with Fox News' Neil Cavuto, ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan said the Department of Justice needs "to file charges against the sanctuary cities" and "hold back their funding." Homan, who was announced in December as President Trump's pick to permanently run the agency, went on to say that politicians enforcing sanctuary city policies need to be held "personally accountable." "We gotta take [sanctuary cities] to court,...

Attorney General Jeff Landry is urging a federal appeals court to reverse an order that is preventing the implementation of President Donald Trump's executive order regulating so-called "sanctuary cities," arguing that such immigrant-friendly jurisdictions "undermine the rule of law and deprive law enforcement of the tools necessary to enforce the law effectively." "We have seen too many crimes occur against our own State’s citizens due to sanctuary city policies; which is why I have been actively fighting back against these policies since taking office," Landry, a Republican, said in a news release announcing that he had joined 10 other attorneys...

WASHINGTON - The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants the Justice Department to prosecute mayors and other political leaders in so-called "sanctuary cities" that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. "We need to hold these politicians accountable for their actions," Thomas Homan told Fox News. "This isn't the America I grew up in. We got to take these sanctuary cities on. We got to take them to court. And we got to start charging some of these politicians with crimes." Such a policy would dramatically raise the stakes for immigrant-friendly cities and states that have clashed with the administration....