Free Republic

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Arena,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship was “a loser.” Host Kasie Hunt said, “I want to start with what the Supreme Court discussed here today. They seemed open to limiting the ability of district court judges to issue nationwide injunctions. Do you think there’s potential validity to that?” Raskin said, “Not really. It would mean, for example in this case on birthright citizenship, that every family in America that might be affected or every person who might be affected would have to go themselves to court...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Chris Jansing Reports” that if President Donald Trump disobeyed a Supreme Court order, “extraordinary action will be necessary.” Jansing said, “The Supreme Court said the administration must facilitate the return of Kilmer Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. That has not happened. Are we at the point, Senator, where you feel extraordinary action is warranted?” Schumer said, “Look, the case will be back to the Supreme Court, they sent it down to the lower court judge. But if the president disobeys a Supreme Court order, extraordinary action...

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said that she would make sure education funds are spent properly, but “Heaven help the Republican states who might take that money and do something that’s not focused on feeding hungry kids, helping kids with disabilities, and everyone else that the Department of Education helps.” And declared, “Just leave everybody alone. Leave the parents alone, leave the kids alone.” Hochul said, “Right now we get $6 billion from them in New York state, 2 billion for Pell Grants to give people a pathway to higher education, $2 billion...

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said on Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Ana Cabrera Reports” that President Donald Trump was “destroying” both the rule of law and the world order. Blumenthal said, “I’ve been to Ukraine six times. I’ve met with Volodymyr Zelensky probably 15, in Paris, Munich as well as in Kyiv. I think the Ukrainians are going to continue to fight. When I first met with them, after they had pushed back the Russians, he said to me, we’ll fight with pitchforks if we need to. And they are so zealous because they are defending the independence and freedom of their...

The following are excerpted from The World Bank's website, "In observance of the International Migrants Day, December 18." Officially recorded remittances to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are expected to reach $685 billion in 2024. The true size of remittances, including flows through informal channels, is also believed to be even larger. The growth rate of remittances in 2024 is estimated to be 5.8 percent, significantly higher than 1.2 percent registered in 2023 (table 1). "The top five recipient countries for remittances in 2024 are India, with an estimated inflow of $129 billion, followed by Mexico ($68 billion), China ($48...

President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order Monday closing a federal executive staff development school. Though not well-known to the general public, the Federal Executive Institute was terminated “to refocus Government on serving taxpayers, competence, and dedication to our Constitution, rather than serving the Federal bureaucracy,” according to the order. The FEI was created by the Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967 as a senior staff college “to endow the career leadership levels of the federal government with the capacity and motivation to bring proactive change to a huge enterprise” according to a history of the school. An alumni organization...

America First Legal filed two amicus briefs this week in support of President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants. The firm filed the briefs on behalf of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and 17 other committee members. Despite there being nearly two dozen Democrat-run states and civil rights groups suing to stop the order and two federal judges ruling to temporarily block it, America First is arguing that there is a clear constitutional basis for denying citizenship to illegal migrants who have broken the country’s immigration laws. Trump’s order titled "Protecting...

DOGE - A Lawyer’s Perspective on the @elonmusk @realDonaldTrump Policy Centerpiece I inherently do not trust the media so I decided to look into DOGE myself and see what is under the hood. Initially I was quite concerned about the legality of a “new agency” created by executive order but that - just like everything else - is a lie put out by the mainstream. The order is here and the thread is below: To understand anything the government does it’s usually best to start with the law or something else I might be able to sue over… in this...

President Trump signed an executive order overlooked by some in the media on his first day of office that experts tell Fox News Digital will play a critical role in developing mineral resources in the United States. On the first day of his presidency, Trump signed an executive order advancing the Ambler Access Project, a 211-mile industrial road through the Brooks Range foothills that enables commercial mining for copper, zinc and other materials in a remote Arctic area in Northwest Alaska. That executive order, one of dozens signed by Trump in the early hours of his administration, reverses a move...

New York Attorney General Letitia James warned local hospitals Monday that they will be in violation of state discrimination laws if they comply with President Trump’s executive order aimed at outlawing sex-change procedures for minors. “Regardless of the availability of federal funding, we write to further remind you of your obligations to comply with New York State laws, including those that prohibit discrimination against individuals based on their membership in a protected class, such as sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, creed, color, national origin, citizenship or immigration status, military status, disability, or marital status,” James wrote in...

Germany’s ambassador to the United States reportedly warned that Donald Trump’s incoming administration will undermine “basic democratic principles” and seek a “redefinition of the constitutional order.” While European leaders have been relatively muted in their response to the re-election of Donald Trump, particularly compared to the hysterical reaction to his victory in 2016, the panic has apparently merely been confined to backrooms rather than in public. According to Reuters, a confidential document briefing Berlin on the incoming administration signed by Ambassador to the U.S. Andreas Michaelis warned that the incoming administration would seek “maximum disruption” and usher in “a redefinition...

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) used an executive order Tuesday morning to create a state-level violence prevention office, dedicated to fighting gun crime. KSTP reported that Evers did this in response to the December 16, 2024, shooting at Madison’s Abundant Life Christian School, which left two innocents dead. The suspect in the shooting was a 15-year-old student, and police have not revealed how the student acquired the guns. Evers used a X post to push for more gun control after signing the executive order. The post said: And with 60% of suicides and 78% of domestic violence homicides involving a...

Israel has expanded the evacuation orders in southern Gaza, forcing residents to leave their residences amid the ongoing displacement crisis caused by the war with Hamas. Israel’s military said on Sunday that it was widening the humanitarian zone in response to Hamas’s “exploitation” of the zone “for terrorist acts and the continuous firing of rockets towards the State of Israel,” according to a post on the social platform X. Israel released leaflets to areas of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, and made phone calls to residents warning them to flee, saying, “remaining in this block has become dangerous.” “We inform...

A former Minnesota bar owner who now commutes two hours a day to sling suds in neighboring Wisconsin said Gov. Tim Walz’s restrictive pandemic-era lockdowns in the state “decimated” local businesses — and caused financial ruin for those who stood up for their livelihoods. “I think he’s an evil man who overstepped his role as the governor. He took small businesses and ripped them up. He destroyed us,” Lisa Zarza. ... She said when shelter-in-place and business closures first went into effect in March, 2020, “I did everything I was supposed to do. I wore my mask, I social distanced....

President Biden on Tuesday blamed former President Trump and Republicans for leaving him with no choice but to act on curbing the influx of migrants at the U.S.-southern border. The president, in remarks from the White House, said he is “moving past Republican obstruction” to act on his own and announce the order, which will be in effect when the seven-day average of daily border crossings exceeds 2,500 between ports of entry. “Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation, because that’s the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now that’s...

Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman said Wednesday that the gag order recently imposed on former President Trump in his New York hush money trial is “so unusual.” “I think what the viewers have to understand is, this is so unusual,” Akerman told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield in an interview. “This never happens, in over 50 years of law practice, both as a prosecutor, a defense lawyer. Akerman emphasized the unprecedented nature of how Trump’s case has unfolded, and that his attacks on Judge Juan Merchan could get the former president in “harm’s way.” Not only is the gag order itself unusual,...

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace said Wednesday on “Deadline” that if former President Donald Trump is elected president again, the United States would become a threat to the world order. Wallace said, “One of my favorite conversations you had last night we were talking about sort of the things that were still in the DNA of the two parties, that the Republicans fall in line and the Democrats sort of wait to fall I think they largely love Joe Biden and what he’s done, but they want to be more madly in love with someone or something. It was on display...

Former President Trump and his legal team won’t be barred from publicly discussing the case in which he was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. After much speculation about whether a gag order would be imposed on parties in the case, one was not requested during the Tuesday arraignment — and the judge presiding over the case said he wouldn’t have granted one if it had. Legal observers had wondered ahead of the high-profile trial whether Judge Juan Merchan would impose the uncommon order, which would have blocked Trump and his team from talking publicly about the...

The Department of Defense (DOD) is mulling moving forward with discharges for some servicemembers who did not seek exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to a Feb. 24 letter from the Office of the Secretary of Defense viewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. As of Friday, the services have rescinded their vaccination orders as required by Congress. “It’s very important that our service members go and follow orders when they are lawful,” Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert Cisneros told Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana Tuesday. The military is considering discharging servicemembers who did...

Two Sydneysiders challenged fines for Covid Public Health Order breaches. Case was run by Redfern Legal Centre in New South Wales Supreme Court. Hearing did not go ahead when the government conceded fines were invalid. Commissioner of Fines Administration then withdrew 33,121 penalty notices . Thousands more such fines across NSW could now be found to be invalid. ... More than 33,000 people who were fined for Covid breaches will get refunds after two Sydneysiders won a landmark test case and the NSW government admitted the fines were invalid. NSW Revenue's Commissioner of Fines Administration Scott Johnson said on Tuesday...