Free Republic

President Barack Obama’s top civil rights official repeatedly declined to support religious free speech during a July 27 congressional hearing, despite repeated questioning from Arizona Republican Rep. Trent Franks, who chairs the House’s constitution subcommittee. Tom Perez, the progressive who runs the Justice Department’s civil rights office, refused to answer the questions posed by Franks. “Will you tell us… that this administration’s Department of Justice will never entertain or advance a proposal that criminalizes speech against any religion?” Frank asked four times. Perez refused to answer, saying “it is a hard question, in the sense that when you make threats...

Saudi Arabia, rich theocratic monarchy and shaky friend of Washington, ranks last among all nations in civil liberties -- or, if not exactly last, then tied for last. That was clear this week in the annual survey from Freedom House, an American research foundation. Saudi Arabia appeared on Freedom House's "worst of the worst" list, scraping along the bottom beside Burma, North Korea and Syria. It's surprising, given this now-well-known reality, that the Saudi ambassador to the United States gets his propaganda published on the op-ed pages of The New York Times and Washington Post. It's even more surprising that...