Free Republic

Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case. The Supreme Court on Thursday voted 4-4 to block the creation of a taxpayer-funded charter school in Oklahoma. Catholic dioceses had sought to establish St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School as a school that would have been eligible for public funding. Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, according to Reuters. The state Supreme Court in 2023 ruled 6-2 against the school, after state AG Gentner Drummond sued to "prevent the type of state-funded religion that Oklahoma's constitutional framers and the founders of our country sought...

Yaron Lischinsky was preparing to propose to his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim. He had just bought an engagement ring, and planned to ask on a trip to Jerusalem next week. But on Wednesday night in Washington, they were shot dead by a man who shouted "free Palestine" outside the Capital Jewish Museum as they left an event billed by organisers as a discussion of the Gaza crisis that aimed to "turn pain into purpose". Their deaths have shocked colleagues at the Israeli embassy, sparked international outrage and prompted Israeli leaders to blame "rising hostility" and antisemitism after Hamas attacked the country...

The European Union has stepped in to provide Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty an infusion of millions of dollars to keep functioning as the international broadcaster battles the Trump administration to release funds Congress has already designated for it. "We are grateful for the emergency funding to help keep Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty afloat," the network's president, Steve Capus, said in a statement from Brussels, where he has been meeting with European officials. "Radio Liberty's survival remains at risk as long as these funds are withheld," Capus said, referring to $75 million held back by the Trump administration. Radio Free Europe...

A pro-Palestinian man is in custody after allegedly killing two Israeli embassy staff members who were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night, authorities confirmed. The Embassy of Israel to the US identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, who were set to be engaged. Steven Jensen, the FBI's Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington Field Office, said the agency will be investigating the "heinous crime" for hate crime motivation or ties to potential terrorism.

After holding the tax bill hostage, House Republicans from high-tax states have extorted an enormous increase in the state-and-local tax deduction—not that they will get much credit for it. Unlike the bill’s pro-growth provisions, this giveaway to the affluent will have no economic payoff and subsidizes profligate Democratic-run states. Speaker Mike Johnson late Tuesday greased the wheels for the reconciliation bill’s passage by cutting a deal with Republicans from New York, New Jersey and California to raise the state-and-local deduction to $40,000 with a 1% annual inflation adjustment over 10 years. The deduction would be phased out starting at $500,000...

For centuries, the Fengyang Drum Tower stood tall over the Chinese Anhui province, working like a sort of clock marking the time of day, and announcing the beginning of official ceremonies. But the passage of time and a recent renovation have led to a disaster last Monday that very nearly ended in a catastrophe costing human lives. CNN reported: “Visitors to a centuries-old tourist site in eastern China were sent scrambling after hundreds of roof tiles came loose and cascaded more than two stories to the ground.” MULTIPLE VIDEOS AT LINK............. The Fengyang drum Tower is one of the largest...

Executives with Disney and ABC News have reportedly asked The View hosts to tone down their bashing of Presdient Donald Trump and political rhetoric overall. While The View hosts have never shied away from bashing Trump and Republicans in general, executives within the company have reportedly grown weary with the show’s over-emphasis on politics, feeling that it has strayed from its original inception as a talk show for women. According to the Daily Beast, two sources confirmed that Disney CEO Bob Iger and ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic recently held a meeting with The View hosts and executive producer Brian...

Former Libertarian National Committee Chair Angela McArdle shared details of a meeting she had with then-Republican candidate Donald Trump during the 2024 election cycle in a speech delivered at the NH Liberty Forum this past month. McArdle also discussed her experience with the campaign and her role in securing a pledge from Trump to pardon Ross Ulbricht. McArdle recounted the events in a mainstage keynote address at the annual gathering, which is hosted by the Free State Project. Local media estimated that around 300 attendees participated in the full forum. McArdle’s talk, titled “The Heart of the Deal,” covered her...

Police are probing whether the suspected terrorist arrested for shooting dead two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C. blasted out an anti-Israel manifesto online in the lead up to the bloodshed, law enforcement sources told The Post. Elias Rodriguez, 31, had allegedly chanted “Free, free Palestine” just moments before he confessed to gunning down the couple outside the Capital Jewish Museum late Wednesday, cops said. As investigators probed a motive behind the horrific antisemitic bloodshed, cops were homing in on a 900-word manifesto brandishing Rodriguez’s name that started circulating online immediately after his arrest, the sources said. In addition to...

Solar stocks were plummeting as President Donald Trump’s tax-and-spending bill narrowly passed in the House of Representatives early Thursday, threatening the huge tax benefits granted to clean-energy companies during the Biden-era. Clean-energy producers like solar companies have worried that the Trump administration will cut back or completely overhaul tax credits introduced by former President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act from 2022. Those credits can be of up to 50% of a project’s value. “[The] latest draft represents among the most restrictive interpretations we have heard speculated and the closest to ‘complete’ gutting of [the] bill we’ve ever seen,” Jefferies analyst Julien...

A constitutional law expert says Trump should do what Biden did: waive executive privilege to release Biden White House records. Now that Jake Tapper and crew have had their epiphany about the meat puppet that periodically occupied the White House for the previous four years, it’s long past time congress find out who knew what and when about President Joe Biden’s addled mind. The Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee is preparing to hold hearings into what is shaping up to be the worst cover-up in U.S. presidential history. Word this week that Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive...

A non-fatal shooting was reported outside CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia, Thursday morning, the Fairfax Police Department said. The incident happened around 4:00 a.m., a police spokesperson said. "The main gate is currently closed, employees should seek alternative routes," a CIA spokesperson said. "Additional details will be made available as appropriate." Fairfax police said officers are in the area to direct traffic while the CIA conducts their investigation. There are no road closures at this time.

The Supreme Court will be releasing Opinions from the October 2024 term at 10:00 a.m. today.Scotusblog will be liveblogging the Opinion release and we will be following along and trying to make sense of the Court's opinions.Once released, the Court's Opinion can be read on the Supreme Court's website at SCOTUS Opinions.All cases from the Court's October and November sittings have been resolved. There are three cases remaining from the December sitting, one being Skrmetti which is the challenge to Tennessee Senate Bill 1, which prohibits all medical treatments intended to allow "a minor to identify with, or live as,...

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) vowed Wednesday to veto a proposal to ban in guns in bars if it reaches his desk. VTDigger reported that the proposal is a charter change for Burlington contained in S.131 and it cleared the Vermont Senate in April. However, S.131 only passed the Senate by 17 votes, which is not enough to overcome the veto Gov. Scott promises to use against it. Gov. Scott believes the ban would be onerous on bar owners as it would put them in the position of enforcing it. He said, ““Like, who’s going to stand at the door...

Senior officials at the voting software company Smartmatic ordered the deletion and doctoring of evidence relevant to its ongoing defamation case against Fox News, a court filing made on Wednesday alleges. In its new memorandum filed with the New York Supreme Court, Fox News claimed that multiple Smartmatic officials — including its CEO — are complicit in the spoliation of records pertaining to the ongoing legal saga between the two companies. As The Federalist’s Beth Brelje previously reported, “Smartmatic seeks $2.7 billion from Fox in a years-long defamation case in which it accuses Fox of reporting without evidence that the...

DOJ Pardon Attorney Ed Martin discussed Biden’s growing autopen scandal this week with journalist Mark Halperin on the “2WAY Tonight” podcast. Last Tuesday Ed Martin said that the Justice Department is reviewing Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons since it has become increasingly clear he was incapacitated during his presidency. Ed Martin this Tuesday revealed he wrote to the Biden family and others and a senior Democrat whistleblower came forward with shocking allegations. A couple of people “lawyered up” Ed Martin said. “The Biden pardons are unprecedented,” he added. “I had a whistleblower in my office 10 day ago, senior, senior Democrat...

A Danish man living in Mississippi for a dozen years has been imprisoned in Louisiana for more than a month after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers took him into custody because of a “paperwork miscommunication” during his effort to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, his wife says.......................... ......For years, Kasper went through the process of trying to become a U.S. citizen, and Savannah Eriksen – now homeschooling their children and pregnant with their fifth baby, due in August – said her husband’s move toward citizenship appeared to be on track. He received notice last September that his naturalization application was...

More details have emerged about the Wednesday night shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, that has left two staffers from the Israeli Embassy dead. The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) held a press conference a short time ago and revealed that 30-year-old Elias Rodriquez of Chicago, Illinois, had been taken into custody by law enforcement officials on suspicion of carrying out what increasingly looks like a brutal act of anti-semitism. Chillingly, multiple sources report that Rodriquez was heard chanting, "Free, free Palestine!" while in custody.

Democrats Don’t Get The Benefit Of The Doubt On Biden’s Health, ‘86,’ Or Anything ElseWe don’t know all the details of Biden’s cancer timeline or Comey’s latest beach walk. But we do know about Democrats’ relationship with the truth. And that tells us everything.Joe Biden’s inner circle can’t stress this enough: Before last Friday, the former president had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Pinky swear.A Biden spokesman “clarified” the “timeline” in a statement to multiple news outlets after widespread speculation that Biden’s Sunday cancer announcement wasn’t so much a new diagnosis as a new disclosure. Even Democrat doctors came...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) reacted to new reporting about then-President Joe Biden’s fitness by saying, “I don’t think it’s a new story that Joe Biden is a seasoned senior leader of our country, it was probably the most covered story of 2024, questions about his age.” Coons said, “I was surprised by what I saw the night of the debate. I hadn’t had a previous experience like that with President Biden. Ultimately, several weeks later, he decided to drop out. And, frankly, rather than looking back and re-litigating the timing...