Free Republic

Alternative headline: Bill de Blasio enjoys new hobby of losing in court. Earlier this morning, the mayor threatened to sue if Donald Trump used federal law enforcement in New York City. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, de Blasio specifically cited DHS action in Portland in claiming that Trump is “tearing up the Constitution,” and that he’d sue to stop a similar action in the Big Apple: MAYOR DE BLASIO: I still believe in the rule of law in this country, and we would go to court immediately. I believe what the president is doing is unconstitutional. I thought that quote...

NEW YORK - With coronavirus deaths climbing rapidly in New York, the governor announced Friday he will use his authority to take ventilators and protective gear from private hospitals and companies that aren’t using them, complaining that states are competing against each other for vital equipment in eBay-like bidding wars. “If they want to sue me for borrowing their excess ventilators to save lives, let them sue me,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. The executive order he said he would sign represents one of the most aggressive efforts yet in the U.S. to deal with the kind of critical shortages around...

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s order directing all but “life-sustaining” businesses to shut down has spurred objections from several sectors. The law firm of Costopoulos, Foster & Fields asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for an emergency injunction to allow the firm to reopen. “The governor’s order is so broad and sweeping, it is manifestly unconstitutional and illegal,” wrote William Costopoulos. “No work is more essential than defending our clients accused of crimes. The postponement of trials that has been offered as a justification for temporarily shutting down our office is not a sufficient remedy. Under our laws, the accused has the...

Following a unanimous vote by the city council Tuesday night, Oakland has now become the first city in California to ban criminal background checks on potential renters. “Indescribable emotions and feelings,” said John Jones III of Oakland, who got out of prison in 2012 and struggled to find a place to live in Oakland despite his well-paying job as an aviation mechanic. Jones said he’s among the many who left prison only to end up on the streets, contributing to Oakland’s homeless crisis. That’s why he’s been lobbying hard for the Oakland City Council to pass the Fair Chance Housing...

The Supreme Court returned Monday for oral arguments after a lengthy holiday break. During the court’s January sitting, the justices will hear arguments in eight cases, including ones dealing with school choice and the “Bridgegate” scandal. The justices already have heard arguments in cases involving the Second Amendment, Obamacare, and whether federal law covers claims of discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Later in the term, the court will take up cases involving the president’s ability to fire the head of an “independent” agency, regulation of abortion providers, and the dispute over a subpoena for President Donald Trump’s...

A Christian school that meets at a church has filed a lawsuit against an Oregon county after officials told the congregation that the school could not use the property.Skopos Christian School, which has around 30 students, began to hold classes at Faith on Hill Church in Milwaukie last year after they had to leave their former building. Skopos and Faith on Hill are both being represented by the Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative law firm based in Sacramento, California.PJI explained in a statement released last week that they're filing the suit under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons...

One would hope that Google would understand the value and importance of copyrights. After all, the search engine giant handles about 2 million copyright takedown notices each day. “Copyrightability” is clearly a fundamental aspect of the company’s business model—a fact that makes some of Google’s recent decisions all the more surprising. Currently, the search engine company is embroiled in a high stakes legal battle over the very issue of copyright protection. Headed for a showdown at the United States Supreme Court, the lawsuit—Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc.—will no doubt establish lasting precedent about the relationship between businesses and their intellectual property....

Billions of dollars in scientific research funded by American taxpayers has been stolen by China right under our noses and the U.S. government has no plan to stop the ongoing theft of the highly valued intellectual property. In the meantime the publicly-funded work is helping the Communist nation meet its goal of becoming a world leader in science and technology, according to a scathing report published by the U.S. Senate. “This report exposes how American taxpayer funded research has contributed to China’s global rise over the last 20 years,” the document states. “During that time, China openly recruited U.S.-based researchers,...

On a recent weeknight, Dahlia and Adam Brown came home to a spacious Colonial on a quiet cul-de-sac in Marietta, Georgia. The Browns both work demanding jobs and have two young sons. They bought the house in June using Knock, a company that’s trying to revolutionize the real estate industry with a “home trade-in platform” making it easier to buy and sell at once. That solution was ideal for the Browns, who are just as busy as most couples, but are more introverted, making the idea of prospective buyers tramping through their private space seem excruciating. Across town, Martha Seay...

The superrich blueprint to navigating this hairy stock market: Tap the brakes and get ready to pounce when it all goes to hell. And by the looks of Monday’s action, hell might not be too far away. In the first quarter, Tiger 21, a coalition of 750 members worth in excess of $75 billion, raised cash to levels not seen since 2013. Not much changed in the second quarter in terms of keeping powder dry. The group’s holding 12% in cash. What has changed, however, is that these deep-pocketed investors, in the call of the day, are continuing to move...

Have you had enough of: U.S. Government now approaching 23 Trillion dollars in debt, and still borrowing about One Trillion more dollars every year. That’s about 3 Billion new dollars borrowed every day. Congress funding abortions with your tax dollars Government taking one-fourth of the average paycheck, while sending money to other people who refuse to work…and occasionally bailing out companies like General Motors and CIT Group, who have failed to repay billions of dollars to the taxpayers Courts forcing private business owners to fill orders that violate their ethical standards...

We have a property that abuts at the back onto a busy 2 lane thoroughfare (one direction each way) that is being expanded to 4 lanes (2 each way). Currently have a wooded barrier of about 30 feet deep which reduces the noise dramatically. Plus I put a wooden fence against an existing chain link fence to blunt the noise and give privacy. while I understand the need for the expansion (I use the road often and know expansion is necessary) I want to be compensated fairly as well. I’m going to lose about half of my backyard, including a...

One of the main indicators used by economists to measure the health of the nation’s economy is housing starts – the number of private homes being built around the nation. In 2018 housing starts fell in all four regions of the nation, representing the biggest drop since 2016. While many economists point to issues such as higher material costs as a reason for the drop in housing starts, a much more ominous reason may be emerging. Across the nation, city councils and state legislatures are beginning to remove zoning protections for single-family neighborhoods, claiming they are racist discrimination designed to...

January 22, 2015 marked the forty-second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, in which the Court interpreted the Constitution as mandating that all states must allow abortion-on-demand (until fetal viability). In so ruling, the Court instantly gave America the most radical pro-abortion law in the world. The unwritten “constitutional” right to choose abortion as mandated by the Supreme Court is virtually absolute. States cannot directly or indirectly impede access to abortion. The right invented by the Roe Court is not, as it is often described, a right to have an abortion in the first trimester, but...

Poland is the only EU member without comprehensive legislation to return, or provide compensation for, private property confiscated by the Nazis US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the issue of Holocaust-era property restitution during his first official visit to Poland. Poland is the only country in the European Union that has not passed comprehensive national legislation to return, or provide compensation for, private property confiscated by the Nazis or nationalized by the communist regime. At a joint appearance Wednesday in Warsaw with the Polish minister of foreign affairs, Pompeo praised the US-Poland relationship and the “indomitable Polish spirit.” He...

Liberal New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is rolling out a new plan that would potentially allow the city government to seize buildings of landlords who force tenants out -- a plan his opponents say amounts to “straight communism.” De Blasio, in his State of the City address on Thursday, announced he wants to take action against landlords who try to force tenants out by making the property unliveable -- and pulled out an executive order to create a Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. He said that in the event the government intervenes, the buildings would then be controlled...

Mayor Bill de Blasio cited his "socialistic impulse" in describing an ideal world where New York City government has control over all land and buildings in his city. “That’s a world I’d love to see, and I think what we have, in this city at least, are people who would love to have the New Deal back, on one level,” he said. “They’d love to have a very, very powerful government, including a federal government, involved in directly addressing their day-to-day reality.”

Chinese property developers can usually count on September and October to be their “gold and silver” months for sales, but this year turned out to be different. Not only were their sales figures grim for September, but the seven-day national holiday last week also brought at least two fangnao incidents – when homeowners protest against price cuts offered by developers to new buyers. These protests are often directed at sales offices, with varying levels of intensity – from throwing rocks to holding banners and putting up funeral wreaths. As home ownership has remained the most important channel of investment for...

The trail for decades has been a shortcut used by hikers and equestrians traveling between the wealthy ranches of Hidden Valley and the miles of dirt paths that traverse the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. In recent years, however, it has become a battleground between neighbors in an escalating spat pitting public access against private property rights. … David Margulies, 52, a Hidden Valley resident, said he was on horseback in late 2016 when a man warned him that the path was the private property of Sherwood Development Co., a real estate company owned by the billionaire chief executive...

What if the bluest state in the country stole a third of a billion dollars from victims of chicanery and the media refused to notice?    I have been stunned at the lack of media coverage of California’s foiled robbery of almost a third of a billion dollars. That’s right: under Governor Jerry Brown, the Great State of California helped itself to hundreds of millions of dollars – money that was supposed to go to home owners, and you probably didn’t hear about it. Bib Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle was one of the few to cover this...