Free Republic

A day after North Carolina lawmakers introduced legislation that would outlaw same-sex marriage and defy a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling, a top Republican there said Wednesday that the bill is dead on arrival. North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore released a curt statement Wednesday shooting down the bill known as the “Uphold Historical Marriage Act.” Moore said lawmakers would not hear the bill, which prompted a new round of criticism this week for a state already drawing negative attention for its transgender bathroom law.

We tend to think that every perceived wrong must be litigated to be made right, but the tenth amendment specifically includes "the people" in it's list of those with standing.

A civil war has begun. This civil war is very different than the last one. There are no cannons or cavalry charges. The left doesn’t want to secede. It wants to rule. Political conflicts become civil wars when one side refuses to accept the existing authority. The left has rejected all forms of authority that it doesn’t control. The left has rejected the outcome of the last two presidential elections won by Republicans. It has rejected the judicial authority of the Supreme Court when it decisions don’t accord with its agenda. It rejects the legislative authority of Congress when it...

(Snip)in a possible effort to chip away at this number, the New York Times reports that all five borough district attorneys are considering striking thousands of open warrants from the record. The group has reportedly agreed to purge 200,000 warrants that were issued at least 20 years ago, while Acting Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez and Bronx DA Darcel Clark push for a larger purge: all 800,000 warrants written 10 or more years ago.New York immigration attorneys and advocates say these warrants are increasingly dangerous for non-citizens, as one of President Donald Trump's sweeping executive orders targets any non-citizen with an...

A bill seeking to block the U.S. Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling in Tennessee has been defeated in a subcommittee of the state House over concerns about nullifying federal rulings. The five-member panel defeated the measure sponsored by Republican Rep. Mark Pody on a voice vote on Wednesday. Republican Rep. Mike Carter of Chattanooga said that while he disagrees with the high court's ruling, he considered the bill to turn back the ruling a step too far. In Carter's words: "I equate nullification with anarchy."

Mitch Morrissey tried to imprison activists for passing out jury nullification pamphlets. Last August, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey charged two local activists, Mark Iannicelli and Eric Brandt, with seven felonies each for passing out jury nullification pamphlets at the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse. Morrissey continued to pursue those charges even after conceding that such activity is protected by the First Amendment. When I asked Lynn Kimbrough, Morrissey's public information officer, what Iannicelli and Brandt had done that crossed the line from constitutionally protected speech to felonious jury tampering, she refused to say. That's probably because Morrissey had no case, as confirmed...

To recover their political freedom from an increasingly despotic and totalitarian federal government, the American People MUST recover their only legal bulwark of freedom against federal tyranny: the U.S. Constitution as written and originally understood and intended. The people must once again establish the Rule of Law, the key to political freedom, by reinstating the Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land and the Ruler over the federal government. To do this, the average American must familiarize himself with the Constitution and understand how it mainly limits the federal government. Below is a rough outline of the possible order...

Conservative National Coalition Webinar Reclaiming our Liberties and Stopping the Federal Overreach: Nullification and Interposition WHAT: Educational Webinar on Nullification and Interposition WHO: Conservative National Coalition (CNC) WHEN: Saturday, November 21, 12-2pm EST HOW: Sign up at cp-cnc.org or by clicking here! WHY: The webinar will generate a national discussion about ways and means to unite Conservatives into opposing the recent SCOTUS ruling that forced gay marriage on the American people by peaceful civil disobedience that stops gay marriage at the city, county and state levels. Have you had enough of the federal government’s overreach? Do you want to take...

Is jury nullification being used in Chicago gun cases?  In strict parlance, jury nullification refers to the right of jurors to judge both the facts and the law.  If a juror believes that justice will not be served by following the law, they always have the right to vote not guilty.  It has always been the right of American jurors to do so, but about 1900, judges stopped telling jurors that they had that right, and gradually that decision morphed into an assumption by judges that it was wrong for jurors to assert their rights.  In spite of the...

There were several important victories in the fight to protect the Second Amendment from federal attack during the 2015 legislative session. This sets the stage for further action to nullify in practice federal infringement on the right to keep and bear arms in 2016. In light of the recent murders at an Oregon college, Obama is once more trying to use a vicious crime as an excuse to violate our natural right to self-defense via executive orders. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both stated they intend to introduce gun control measures such as magazine capacity limits, background checks and...

The incorporationist doctrine should be rejected. The simple fact of its long use lends it no credibility – a bad idea is still bad, even if it has the weight of long usage behind it. When he authored the Kentucky Resolution of 1798, Thomas Jefferson based his arguments for nullification, in part, upon the compact theory of the relationship between the states and the Federal Government. According to this original understanding of the State-Federal relationship, the Constitution under which the Republic was to operate was the creation of the several states, and thus the Federal government was also the creation...

GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina told the Hugh Hewitt show on Tuesday that it was “inappropriate” for a Kentucky clerk to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. “Given the role that she’s playing, given the fact that the government is paying her salary, I think that is not appropriate. Now that’s my personal opinion,” said Fiorina. Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, an elected official, vowed not to resign Tuesday under threat of fines and jail time after deciding not to issue marriage licenses to any couples - straight or gay - rather than be forced to comply with...

Emerging from an enthusiastic Presidential campaign rally, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tells Breitbart News that “states should press back” against the EPA’s recently announced Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units rule, “with every tool they have available.” Attorney generals of 16 states said last week the new rule was “illegal in numerous respects.”“Should states refuse to comply with the EPA coal regulations?” Breitbart News asked Cruz.“I think states should press back using every tool they have available. We’ve got to rein in a lawless executive that is abusing its power,” Cruz tells Breitbart News.

Jury nullification occurs when jurors choose not to convict a defendant they believe to be guilty of the offense charged, usually because they conclude that the law in question is unjust or the punishment is excessive. When I first thought about jury nullification as a young law student, I was inclined to be against it. Yes, it could potentially be used to curb unjust laws. But it can also be a vehicle for jury prejudice and bias. ... legal scholar Glenn Reynolds provides a strong defense of nullification. As he points out, the sort of discretion exercised by nullifying jurors...

One of the most common complaints of constitutionalists against the conduct of our federal government is that the judiciary at all levels routinely oversteps its boundaries, intruding into those areas that are beyond its constitutional reach. Though this is largely accepted by most Americans because of its long practice, this does not mean that what we see in Washington with respect to the judicial branch should be be tolerated or allowed to continue. As with unconstitutional actions by the other branches of government, our Founders provided a way for violations of our founding compact to be rectified by the states...

Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., criticized the House of Representatives for not passing legislation prior to the annual August district work period to defund Planned Parenthood. “Over the past two weeks, we’ve all seen the gruesome videos showing the heartless depravity of this organization,” Black said in a speech Wednesday. “We issued statements, we made passionate floor speeches, and we pledged action. Now, our constituents would like to know when we’re going to follow through on that promise.”

A federal law crafted to fight the mob is giving marijuana opponents a new strategy in their battle to stop the expanding industry: racketeering lawsuits. A Colorado pot shop recently closed after a Washington-based group opposed to legal marijuana sued not just the pot shop but a laundry list of firms doing business with it—from its landlord and accountant to the Iowa bonding company guaranteeing its tax payments. One by one, many of the plaintiffs agreed to stop doing business with Medical Marijuana of the Rockies, until the mountain shop closed its doors and had to sell off its pot...

A prominent legal organization has filed a 36-page brief urging the Alabama Supreme Court to reject the U.S. Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision, saying the ruling was an "assault" on the rule of law and natural law and that it defied the very words in the Declaration of Independence.Further, the new brief says, there is major precedent in the nation's history for a state court to ignore a U.S. Supreme Court decision when it is "unlawful."The brief was filed by Liberty Counsel, which is headed by an attorney – Mat Staver – who has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme...

While dissenting from the recent Supreme Court decision rubber-stamping same-sex “marriage,” Justice Antonin Scalia warned his colleagues that with “each decision ... unabashedly based not on law” the Court moves “one step closer to being reminded of [its] impotence.” And a new poll shows that another such step has in fact been taken, with more Americans supporting the idea that states should have the right to ignore federal court rulings. Writes Rasmussen Reports, “A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 33% of Likely U.S. Voters now believe that states should have the right to ignore federal court rulings...

Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz are suggesting there might be ways for states and cities to nullify the justices’ ruling. They’re wrong. The Supreme Court’s decision last week did make gay marriage legal nationwide. Unfortunately for social conservatives, it did not, however, make nullification legal around the nation. Nullification is the historical idea that states can ignore federal laws, or pass laws that supercede them. This concept has a long but not especially honorable pedigree in U.S. history. Its origins date back to antebellum America, where Southern states tried to nullify tariffs and Northern states tried to nullify fugitive-slave laws....