Free Republic

President Obama on Thursday nominated a former CIA officer and longtime lawyer who examined missteps in U.S. intelligence to be the spy agency’s next inspector general, hoping to fill a position at the watchdog office that’s been vacant for more than a year. If confirmed by the Senate, Shirley Woodward would fill the role left empty since David Buckley stepped down from in January 2015, on the heels of a landmark determination that CIA officials had gained unauthorized access to Senate computer files. Lawmakers called the episode a potential violation of constitutional separation of powers, and the spat led to...

Justice Elena Kagan has officiated for the first time at a same-sex wedding, a Maryland ceremony for her former law clerk and his husband. Kagan presided on Sunday over the wedding of former clerk Mitchell Reich and Patrick Pearsall in the Washington suburb of Chevy Chase, Maryland. Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Monday that the same-sex ceremony was the first at which Kagan officiated. Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg have previously officiated at the wedding of gay and lesbian couples, including at the Supreme Court. Ginsburg most recently performed the wedding of Washington theater...

Shortly after John J. O’Connor became Archbishop of New York in March 1984, he found himself in a battle with the state’s governor, Mario M. Cuomo, which not only made national headlines but also had a profound impact on the abortion debate in America.It began when the archbishop said during a press conference: “I do not see how a Catholic, in good conscience, can vote for an individual expressing himself or herself as favoring abortion.” That didn’t sit well with Cuomo.  The governor, who in the early 1970s had been publicly pro-life, changed his position after losing a primary for lieutenant governor...

I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way “cool” to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos. It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether it’s the music business or yourself doing the pimping. You ought be protected as a precious young lady by anyone in your employ and anyone around you, including you. This is a dangerous world. We don’t encourage our daughters to walk around naked...

More personnel news from the Internal Revenue Service: The agency is hiring former Clinton administration aide Jennifer O’Connor to help it navigate the scandal over its reviews of conservative organizations. **SNIP** Ms. O’Connor didn’t respond to a request for comment. As we wrote earlier today, Mr. Werfel is also bringing an official from outside the agency as the IRS’s chief risk officer. Read the rest of the story at WSJ’s Washington Wire blog.

ICE Agent Crane to Obama: "Mr. President, you've overstepped your boundaries. It's your job to enforce the law, it's Congress' job to enact the law."- Last week, ICE union chief Chris Crane won a stunning initial court victory in his lawsuit against the Obama Administration. As we reported, Federal Judge Federal Judge Reed O’Connor told the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that they had no power to refuse to deport illegal aliens, and that he was likely to strike down Obama’s virtual “DACA” amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. The ruling stunned Washington, and Crane’s lawsuit could derail Obama’s four-year...

Former San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor took $2 million from a nonprofit foundation to feed a gambling addiction in which she lost more than $1 billion over a nine-year period, federal prosecutors said Thursday. O’Connor, 66, appeared in federal court and pleaded not guilty to a money laundering charge as part of a deferred prosecution. Under the arrangement with federal prosecutors, she has two years to repay the $2 million taken from the R.P. Foundation, a nonprofit set up by her late husband, Robert O. Peterson. Peterson was co-founder of the Jack-In-The-Box restaurant chain and later Southern California First National...

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor apparently got in a real zinger at last weekend’s Alfalfa Club dinner: Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor made a joke about the GOP candidates Saturday that reportedly drew much laughter. At the black-tie steak-and-lobster Alfalfa Club dinner Saturday among political and business elites in Washington, she said that of two GOP presidential candidates, “one is a practicing polygamist, and he’s not even the Mormon,” according to an Associated Press report. The remark appeared to be a comparison between Romney’s Mormon faith (which no longer allows polygamy) and thrice-married Newt Gingrich. The...

O'Connor pleased with exhibit of her lifeIt's been 30 years since Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. An exhibit about her life opens this week at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. O'Connor is an El Paso native who spent summers on her family's Arizona ranch that initially didn't have electricity or water. She said Wednesday she was pleased with the exhibit. She said her time on the ranch taught her responsibility and how to solve problems on her

After more than 24 years in the U.S. Supreme Court, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor now strives to make civics and government more interesting for young children than it was for her growing up in El Paso, Texas. “I was so sick of learning about Stephen F. Austin,” she said Saturday inside a University of Chicago lecture hall, referring to the man after whom the Texas capital city is named. “All they teach in Texas is Texas!” > O’Connor argued that young people need to be better informed about the workings of their own government. To that end, she said,...

The San Francisco Giants won the 2010 World Series thanks to great pitching performances from Tim Lincecum(notes), Matt Cain(notes) and Brian Wilson(notes). And they got timely offensive contributions from the likes of rookie Buster Posey(notes), Aubrey Huff(notes) and Juan Uribe(notes). You remember those guys. How could anyone forget? And what about Robin O'Connor, a payroll department manager? There's no way the Giants get past the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS without her.

“The priest I am today is largely due to his example.” That’s how Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien remembered the late New York Cardinal John J. O’Connor during a panel discussion at the 12th annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life Jan. 23. Archbishop O’Brien paid tribute to his mentor’s courage in speaking out for truth and the cardinal’s pastoral sensitivity in serving priests and laity alike. “To accompany him to the bedside of a priest in the hospital who was dying was a retreat for me,” said Archbishop O’Brien, a former New York clergyman who served as Cardinal O’Connor’s first...

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has violated the Code of Conduct for United States judges. She should resign from her position as a roving judge on "senior status." If she doesn't resign, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. - at whose sole discretion she serves as a "pinch hitter" on lower federal courts - should no longer designate her for such duties. In a controversial case Tuesday before a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Mrs. O'Connor provided the deciding vote in a 2-1 decision to throw out Arizona's requirement that new voter registrants provide...

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has violated the Code of Conduct for United States judges. She should resign from her position as a roving judge on "senior status." If she doesn't resign, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. - at whose sole discretion she serves as a "pinch hitter" on lower federal courts - should no longer designate her for such duties. In a controversial case Tuesday before a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Mrs. O'Connor provided the deciding vote in a 2-1 decision to throw out Arizona's requirement that new voter registrants provide...

I've been collecting fragments from the writings and sayings of others for nearly forty years. They have always struck me as pieces of a vast mosaic that is being slowly and painstakingly assembled. As in an actual mural mosaic (Byzantine, complex, more than the sum of its parts), if one stands too close to it the image blurs. Focus on a single component and the part becomes the whole, throwing all into misinterpretation. Stand back, find proportion, locate the range of vision, and the portrait emerges. It is my hope that through the passages quoted here a portrait of humanity...

..."The law will make entering the country illegally a state crime in Arizona..."

In a recent Senate floor speech, Democratic Leader Harry Reid likened Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to another woman who sat on the court, Sandra Day O'Connor. "One of my favorite Supreme Court Justices in recent years has been Sandra Day O’Connor, not because she’s a Republican, but because she was a good judge. I think one reason she was a good judge is she had no judicial experience," Reid said on May 11, 2010. He pointed out that O'Connor served in the Arizona state legislature, giving her a different perspective on legal matters. "I think Solicitor General Kagan will...

NEW YORK, February 26, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Following a period of relative silence since his installation last year, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan eagerly took an opportunity to set forth Church teaching on controversial points, including the forbidding of public honors for pro-abortion politicians, in a recent interview with NY1.  The bishop also asserted that his outspokenness on such issues was simply part of his job as shepherd and teacher of the faith.When NY1 News reporter Roma Torre asked whether a pro-abortion Catholic should be invited to a "Catholic event" such as the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Dolan's...

John J. O'Connor III, 79, an Arizona lawyer and civic leader who became active in Washington's social and charitable circles after his wife, Sandra Day O'Connor, became the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, died Nov. 11 in Phoenix. He had Alzheimer's disease. As a lawyer, Mr. O'Connor specialized in business and real estate law and commercial litigation. He represented leading companies in industries including mining, manufacturing, real estate and financial services. He was a partner at one of Phoenix's largest firms, Fennemore, Craig, von Ammon & Udall, before moving to Washington when his wife was confirmed to...

Obama pick faces questions over bombers' clemencyBy PETE YOST Associated Press Writer Originally published Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 2:05 PM WASHINGTON — New York police detective Anthony S. Senft's life changed forever when a bomb set by Puerto Rican separatists exploded, blowing him 15 feet in the air and blinding him in one eye. Now, he's angry that Eric Holder, who played a key role in awarding clemency to the bombers, is in line to be attorney general. Holder, as President Bill Clinton's deputy attorney general, worked closely with the Justice Department's pardon attorney to raise the possibility of...