Free Republic

The New Abnormal: Authoritarian Control Freaks Want to Micromanage Our Lives“Man is born free but everywhere is in chains.”—Jean-Jacques RousseauAuthoritarian control freaks out to micromanage our lives have become the new normal or, to be more accurate, the new abnormal when it comes to how the government relates to the citizenry.This overbearing despotism, which pre-dates the COVID-19 hysteria, is the very definition of a Nanny State, where government representatives (those elected and appointed to work for us) adopt the authoritarian notion that the government knows best and therefore must control, regulate and dictate almost everything about the citizenry’s public, private...

There is no question that the D.C. Establishment has been using J6 to pick a fight with ordinary Americans. John and Nisha Whitehead over at The Rutherford Institute always write compelling essays documenting America's descent toward tyranny. "A State of Martial Law: America Is a Military Dictatorship Disguised as a Democracy" is no exception and deserves reading. In that essay, the legal duo reminded me of something John Lennon once warned: "When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you — pull your beard, flick your face —...

“Children are being targeted and sold for sex in America every day.”—John Ryan, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Children, young girls—some as young as 9 years old—are being bought and sold for sex in America. The average age for a young woman being sold for sex is now 13 years old. This is America’s dirty little secret. Sex trafficking—especially when it comes to the buying and selling of young girls—has become big business in America, the fastest growing business in organized crime and the second most-lucrative commodity traded illegally after drugs and guns. As investigative journalist Amy Fine...

California Science Center The state-run California Science Center (CSC) has paid $110,000 to settle a lawsuit by American Freedom Alliance (AFA) against CSC for violating AFA's First Amendment free speech rights to advocate intelligent design (ID). As part of the settlement, the CSC also has invited AFA to present the ID event it previously cancelled. CSC rented its IMAX theater to AFA to show Darwin's Dilemma, a science documentary advocating ID. However, when CSC learned the film would portray ID favorably, CSC cancelled AFA's event. AFA filed suit in California Superior Court alleging viewpoint discrimination and breach of contract. "This...

Rutherford Institute founder responds to rally violence By Courteney Stuart Posted: Tue 7:01 PM, Aug 15, 2017 CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (NEWSPLEX) -- In the days since the violence of the Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally, anger has mounted, some of it directed at the civil rights organizations that represented rally organizer Jason Kessler in his legal fight to keep the rally in Emancipation Park. The Rutherford Institute founder John Whitehead said he doesn't regret taking the case and notes that it's about defending the First Amendment, not supporting the mission of the rally. "If you're going to believe in the...

The federal government and the Obama administration are under fire for a variety of unconstitutional programs aimed at both militarizing and controlling local police and law enforcement, including supplying a vast array of sophisticated U.S. Defense Department “weapons of war” to city and county governments. Billions of dollars in military equipment has already been handed to municipal police departments and county sheriffs’ offices nationwide under the rapidly expanding federal schemes, but concerns from across the political spectrum are growing quickly as well. This year alone, over 150 so-called “mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles,” or MRAPs, used by U.S. forces in Iraq, were...

The U.S. government’s growing surveillance of Americans has transformed the nation into an “electronic concentration camp,” top civil-liberties attorney John W. Whitehead says. “It’s moving so rapidly you have to feel creepy because you're being watched. Everybody has a file if you do anything electronically,” Whitehead, author the new book “A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State,” told Newsmax TV. … Whitehead—who founded the Rutherford Institute in Virginia, which helps promote civil liberties and human rights—has been researching the growth of the National Security Agency since the 1980s. The agency has been under fire for its collection of...

The parents of 10 year-old J.C. Cox have sued a North Carolina public school district for allegedly strip-searching their son in search of a $20 bill lost by another student.J.C. had twice told school officials he did not have the missing money, which was later found in the school cafeteria, attorneys for the Rutherford Institute said announcing the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.Institute attorneys charge that a former Union Elementary School assistant principal violated J.C.'s Fourth Amendment rights when she allegedly ordered the fifth grader to disrobe down to his underwear...

The former Marine who was forcibly placed in a psychiatric ward by government officials who didn’t like his Facebook postings will sue for unlawful arrest, according to his attorneys. “We are definitely going to move forward with a lawsuit,” said Nisha Whitehead, assistant to the president at the Rutherford Institute, the nonprofit civil rights firm defending Brandon Raub.

Phoenix officials have until next Friday to apologize for the actions of a code enforcement officer after he stopped Christians from giving out water bottles to city festival participants on a day that reached 112 degrees. A legal team that fights for religious and civil rights is also demanding a commitment that the city will no longer interfere with the Christian group’s acts of charity. According to a letter to the city from the Rutherford Institute, the case developed in July during a “First Friday” festival when Dana Crow-Smith was giving “free bottles of cold water to passersby” on the...

A federal judge in Denver has ruled the Stolen Valor Act is "facially unconstitutional" because it violates free speech and dismissed the criminal case against Rick Strandlof, a man who lied about being an Iraq war veteran. "The Stolen Valor Act is declared to be facially unconstitutional as a content-based restriction on speech that does not serve a compelling government interest, and consequently that the Act is invalid as violative of the First Amendment," Blackburn wrote in his opinion. Strandlof, 32, was charged with five misdemeanors related to violating the Stolen Valor Act - specifically, making false claims about receiving...

In September 2009, prison inmate Kyle Mabe ordered music and sermon CDs to further his Christian faith. Rutherford Institute founder John Whitehead picks up the story. "The St. Brides Correctional Center, which is a small prison in Chesapeake, Virginia, denied him the right to hear the sermons," he explains. "They said music CDs are okay, but you can't have any sermons." CDs with the spoken word have been banned, which the attorney explains does not align with the U.S. Constitution. The Institute filed suit based on Mabe's First Amendment right to practice his religion, and on previous court rulings. "There...

U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Case of Football Coach Prohibited from Bowing Head During Team's Pre-Game Prayer, Lets Stand Prayer Ban WASHINGTON, DC - In a blow to athletic coaches across the country, the United States Supreme Court has refused to weigh in on the question of whether or not high school football coaches have a right to silently bow their heads as a sign of respect while their student players offer a pre-game prayer.

Teen Screen Lawsuit Advances: Federal Court Affirms Family’s Right to Sue School for Subjecting Teen to Mental Health Test Without Parental Consent SOUTH BEND, Ind.—A federal court has given the green light to a civil rights lawsuit filed by Rutherford Institute attorneys in defense of a 15-year-old Indiana student who was subjected by school officials to a controversial mental health examination without the knowledge or consent of her parents. In ruling that the lawsuit filed on behalf of Chelsea Rhoades and her parents, Teresa and Michael, may proceed to trial, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana...

The former Christian conservative says Halliburton is building detention centers for American citizens. Long-time religious freedom advocate John Whitehead has taken a sharp left turn on U.S. national security. The founder of the 25 year old Charlottesville, Virginia based Rutherford Institute has long battled secularist attempts to minimize religious expression in public. More controversially, Whitehead helped Paula Jones in her sexual harassment lawsuit against then President Clinton in the 1990’s. Ostensibly, Whitehead was part of the “vast right-wing conspiracy” against which Hillary Clinton inveighed. But Whitehead was always more quixotic than predictable, and his recent commentaries condemn religious conservatives for...

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the East Brunswick High School football coach can bend a knee and bow his head while his players recite pre-game prayers this season, ending a dispute that had mushroomed into a nationally recognized test of the separation of church and state. After nearly two hours of arguments, U.S. District Judge Dennis Cavanaugh sided with the coach, Marcus Borden, declaring "taking a knee" isn't praying and that the Middlesex County school district can't order him to stand still while his players perform a locker room ritual that spans decades. "Tradition plays a part, and the...

Via The Rutherford Institute Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have agreed to represent a high school senior whose microphone was unplugged by school officials after she began to speak about her Christian beliefs during her valedictory address. When Foothill High School valedictorian Brittany McComb began reading a speech that contained Bible verses and references to God and her faith in Jesus Christ during her commencement speech on June 15, 2006, officials with the Clark County School District unplugged the microphone. Institute attorneys plan to file a First Amendment lawsuit against the school district for having violated Brittany's constitutional right to...

Recently the Internal Revenue Service released a report showing that nearly three quarters of 82 tax-exempt groups investigated during the 2004 elections took part in prohibited political activity. But now, churches and nonprofit organizations have a new resource to help keep them out of trouble with the IRS. The IRS says several of the organizations and churches will probably lose their tax-exempt status, a fact that will very likely affect future contributions to these groups. In an effort to help churches, ministries, and other faith-based institutions avoid such errors, The Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties organization, has issued guidelines...

A civil liberties group has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against a Virginia school on behalf of a Spanish teacher whose religious-themed posters were removed from his classroom while he was out sick. The Rutherford Institute is representing William Lee, a public school teacher at Tabb High School in Yorktown, Va., and faculty sponsor of an approved Christian club called First Priority. "Academic freedom is a core First Amendment value," said John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, in a statement. "The real question is whether William Lee has the same free speech rights as other teachers." In the beginning...

Christian Rock Band Sues Ohio School District That Banned Them From Playing at a Public High School The Associated Press Published: Feb 17, 2005 TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - A Christian rock band banned from playing at a public school assembly filed a federal lawsuit against the suburban Toledo district on Thursday, claiming discrimination and violation of their right to free speech. Rossford High School officials in December canceled the band Pawn's performance at an anti-drug assembly. Board members said they feared a lawsuit if they allowed a religious performance in a public school. School officials declined to comment Thursday on...