Free Republic

Rick Santorum’s Catholic faith is an obvious centerpiece of his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, and it is rare for him to speak without referencing his religious beliefs. It is also rare, however, to hear him speak about his particular church, St. Catherine of Siena, which he and his family have belonged to for at least a decade. Even his 2005 manifesto on his personal faith and politics, It Takes a Family, did not mention the church. I was curious to learn more about it, so last Friday morning, I attended a 9 a.m. Mass there. St. Catherine is...

President Biden is finalizing plans to endorse major changes to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks, including proposals for legislation to establish term limits for the justices and an enforceable ethics code, according to two people briefed on the plans. He is also weighing whether to call for a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad immunity for presidents and other constitutional officeholders, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

President Joe Biden is seriously considering publicly endorsing major reforms at the Supreme Court, a move that would make him the first sitting president in generations to back seismic changes to the way the nation’s highest court operates, according to two sources familiar with the deliberations. Chief among the changes Biden is planning to publicly back are term limits for the nine justices, who currently serve lifetime appointments. The president is also said to be preparing to throw his support behind an ethics code for the court that would contain an enforcement mechanism, which was notably absent from the code...

On July 1, 2024 the Supreme Court ruled U.S. presidents have immunity for official acts with President Donald Trump at the center of the case. In his concurrence in the majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas made the argument that Special Counsel appointments could broadly be unconstitutional, but especially if they are not appointed by Congress. "It is difficult to see how the Special Counsel has an office 'established by Law,' as required by the Constitution. When the Attorney General appointed the Special Counsel, he did not identify any statute that clearly creates such an office," Clarence wrote. "None of the...

A federal judge in Texas has ruled that a 156-year-old ban on at-home distilling is unconstitutional, siding with a group that advocates for legalizing the ability of people to produce spirits like whiskey and bourbon for their personal consumption. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump in Fort Worth, on Wednesday agreed with, opens new tab the Hobby Distillers Association's lawyers that the longstanding ban exceeded Congress's taxing power and ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause.

Republican chairs of House committees will send letters to agency heads including Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to ask for their reactions to the Supreme Court’s decision last week in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturning the Chevron doctrine, which gave deference to federal agencies in writing regulations. In a news release, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said, “This week, House Republican Committees are sending letters to their corresponding federal agencies to demand the review of various overreaching regulations in our fight to free the American people from the power-hungry administrative state. Agencies can’t be allowed to run free without...

I'm telling you that Barrett has decided she's a politician, not a Justice...' Tech companies are once again colluding with Democrats to push disinformation and censor legitimate conservative opinions, this time with the imprimatur of legitimacy conferred by the U.S. Supreme Court that allows them to do so more shamelessly and aggressively than ever. Today’s censorship is being made possible by the letters A, C and B—as in Justice Amy Coney Barrett. While the court’s two other centrists, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, are equally culpable (along with its leftist bloc) in allowing the atrocity that is...

The Salt Lake Tribune is throwing a fit over the U.S. Supreme Court stripping the ungodly regulatory power of unelected bureaucrats while picking a fight with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) for daring to support the move. “Utah politicians are wrong to say the end of Chevron is a boost for liberty,” The Tribune editorial board complained in a whiny July 7 screed targeting Lee and other Utah Republicans who celebrated the Court’s ruling. Under the so-called “Chevron Doctrine,” deference was given to federal agencies' subjective interpretations of ambiguous laws to enforce burdensome regulations on American businesses, which was upended by...

The incident sparked criticism of Sotomayor's Second Amendment positions during her tenure on the high court, including one decision where she co-signed a dissent that said the Constitution does not protect "a private right of armed self-defense." In that case, McDonald v. Chicago, decided in 2010, then-Justice Steven Breyer dissented from the majority which ruled that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to own a gun against the regulations of state and local governments. "In sum, the Framers did not write the Second Amendment in order to protect a private right of armed self-defense," Breyer wrote. Parker Thayer of...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is moving forward with her attempt to impeach two members of the Supreme Court: Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. On Wednesday, July 10, the New York congresswoman, 34, formally presented her argument for moving to oust both Justice Alito, 74, and Justice Thomas, 76, introducing articles of impeachment against both.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and a group of House progressives on Wednesday introduced articles of impeachment against conservative Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Why it matters: It's a long-shot element of a broader legislative push by House Democrats to rein in the court after a spate of decisions in June that incensed liberals. Driving the news: The resolutions accuse Thomas and Alito of refusing to recuse from cases in which they had a "personal bias or prejudice concerning a party," as well as "failure to disclose" income, gifts and other financial info. The articles targeting Thomas include...

Despite all the recent talk about “our democracy,” the United States today is not a democracy. This is easy to understand. The concept of democracy says that the people governed are the government. In a large civilization, this means not a direct democracy but a representative democracy, which sees the people’s elected representatives make the laws. Today, though, most of the “laws” that govern the people do not come from their elected representatives. Instead, executive branch agencies promulgate them contrary to Article I of the US Constitution. That provides “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress...

The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday in Fischer v. U.S. struck down one of the most common charges against January 6 defendants. “Obstruction of an official proceeding” had been used in hundreds of cases, and those convictions are now invalid. But the biggest impact of the decision may occur elsewhere. For years, calling January 6 an “insurrection” has been a litmus test for press, pundits and politicians. Members of Congress such as Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) claimed a conspiracy of “armed and organized insurrectionists.” The claim is legally absurd but politically advantageous. It now seems like the insurrection increasingly looks more...

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) are calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to determine if Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas violated federal ethics and tax laws. In the letter sent to Garland last week, the senators point to news reports revealing that Thomas did not disclose luxury trips or gifts over the past 20 years. Whitehouse and Wyden suggested that Thomas could be in violation of the Ethics in Government Act, which criminalizes a public servant for “knowingly and willfully” failing to file or report gifts and income from outside sources. “The...

A deputy US Marshal shot a would-be carjacker who pulled a gun on him while he was guarding Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s home in Washington, DC, authorities said. Two deputies were parked outside Sotomayor’s home in northwest DC on July 5 when Kentrell Flowers, 18, allegedly walked up to one of their cars around 1:15 a.m. and pointed a gun at the bodyguard, the US Marshals Service told The Post.

The federal judge overseeing former President Trump’s classified documents case granted his request to delay a few deadlines further so prosecutors can evaluate the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling. Trump’s lawyers on Friday asked Judge Aileen Cannon for permission to file more documents to argue that the former president should be immune from prosecution in the case. In their motion this week, Trump’s team proposed a schedule that extends through early September, meaning a ruling wouldn’t come until at least the fall. On Saturday, Cannon, a Trump appointee, said prosecutors and special counsel Jack Smith had until July 18 to respond...

A coalition of energy, biofuel and agriculture groups, – including the Illinois Corn Growers Association – are taking their challenge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions mandate to the nation’s highest court. The group filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the EPA’s decision to grant a waiver to California for its 2021-2025 electric vehicle mandate. Illinois lawmakers have considered adopting California’s strict EV policies. The petition asks the high court to throw out an appeals court decision that rejected legal arguments by 17 states over California’s EV mandate. The states had...

The Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity Monday made it more difficult for both special counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to prosecute former President Donald Trump, throwing their indictments into serious question. The decision, which found former presidents are entitled to “at least presumptive immunity” from prosecution for all “official acts,” will force Smith to go back to the drawing board as Judge Tanya Chutkan weighs which portions of the indictment fall into that category and are covered by immunity. The process not only means a trial before the election is a virtual impossibility, but...

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Donald Trump v. United States — in which a majority of the justices found that presidents are immune from prosecution for many actions taken during their presidency — is a legal earthquake. One way to see what a huge difference this new ruling will have is to look back at Watergate to see what behavior the Supreme Court excused for all presidents. I wrote about ex-President Trump’s ongoing criminal exposure in my new book “Corporatocracy.” I worried in that book that Trump would not be held accountable by the courts. As it turns out,...

The ruling requires the administration to keep processing new applications to export LNG as the Texas-led lawsuit proceeds. Attorney General Ken Paxton obtained a temporary injunction in his lawsuit against the Biden administration over their decision to halt liquefied natural gas exports. Joined by 15 other state attorneys general, Paxton secured the win Monday after a federal district court judge in Western Louisiana ruled that the new administrative plan should be paused as the case proceeds. “This ruling means [President Joe] Biden’s illegal ban does not prevent Texas natural gas from reaching market while the lawsuit continues,” stated Paxton in...