Free Republic

The Benedictine Sisters of Erie, falsely charged with election fraud ahead of the 2024 election, are the recipients of a prestigious national award for political courage. The nuns are the 2025 winners of the Margaret Chase Smith American Democracy Award from the National Association of Secretaries of State. Other recipients of the award include President Jimmy Carter, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and civil rights activist Rosa Parks. “The good Sisters earned this award by courageously challenging political disinformation when they were targeted with false charges of voter fraud just before the 2024 election,” said Pennsylvania Secretary of...

The Not-So-Secret History of Filibusters By GEORGE J. MITCHELL Published: May 10, 2005 EVERYONE recalls "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," but too few remember the real-life Mrs. Smith. So, as the Senate nears a vote on a proposal to unilaterally change Senate rules for confirming federal judges, I am reminded of the words spoken 55 years ago by Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine in her famous "Declaration of Conscience" against the tactics of Senator Joe McCarthy, a member of her own party. "I don't believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national...