Free Republic

A New York court halted the use of a DNA crime fighting tool that has helped crack cold cases and put murderers behind bars, but has also raised privacy and racial discrimination concerns, because state lawmakers never approved the practice. Known as familial DNA searching, the technique allows law enforcement agencies to search the state’s DNA databank for close biological relatives of people who have left traces of genetic material at a crime scene. A panel of judges on a mid-level appeals court ruled Thursday that regulations for the technique were invalid because a state committee implemented them without consent...

A California congregation with a sizable LGBT membership that belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has called for the removal of the denomination’s first trans-identified bishop. The Rev. Megan Rohrer, who uses “they/them” pronouns, was installed as the first trans-identified bishop in ELCA history last September, becoming the leader of the California-based ELCA Sierra Pacific Synod. However, since then, Rohrer has weathered controversy over allegations of racist behavior toward a Hispanic Lutheran pastor, as well as other issues that have led some to call for Rohrer’s removal. The Congregation Council of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, a Fresno-based ELCA...

Michelle Obama's senior year thesis at Princeton University, obtained from the campaign by Politico, shows a document written by a young woman grappling with a society in which a black Princeton alumnus might only be allowed to remain "on the periphery." Read the full thesis here: