Free Republic

Monday on the radio, LevinTV host Mark Levin gave credit to his neighbor for making a very good point about the impeachment effort against President Donald Trump. Levin said his neighbor believes that the Democrats want to impeach Trump to have an excuse not to let him appoint another justice to the Supreme Court — whether he wins re-election or not. “I’ll bet he’s right. I’ll bet that’s part of the calculation,” Levin said. “That they want to claim that they’ve crippled this lawless president, that the Republicans wouldn’t remove him from office, and there is no way that the...

States as states do need representation in the federal government. Under the Constitution, they have far too much. The confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court spurred a lively discussion about institutional design. After the vote, some noted that the 50 senators who voted to confirm represent about 45 percent of the population. A number of astute constitutional historians quickly spoke up to point out that of course that happens, because the Senate represents states and not people. If you want to see the people represented, look to the House. But of course, the fact that the Constitution does...

It’s practically a foregone conclusion that everyone uses Google in one way or another. Now the company’s reach has expanded even further, acquiring Fitbit in December for a whopping $2.1 billion. Google products are in our homes, its software is on our phones, and its search engine answers over three billion queries per day. Even the word “google” itself has become a fixture in the American lexicon. The tech giant has become so ubiquitous, its influence so massive, that it’s safe to say Google’s effect on public discourse is unparalleled in modern society. Once a mere search engine, the tech...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg shut down President Donald Trump's attempts to discredit the ongoing impeachment proceedings against him by saying "the president is not a lawyer" at an event in New York City, CNN reports. Ginsburg made the remarks at a function where she was awarded the Berggruen Institute Prize for Philosophy and Culture.

Schumer did that again today with his demand for a “fair” trial, meaning to Schumer that Democrats get to reopen the investigation of Trump during the trial, including calling witnesses who did not testify, and doing the job the House Democrats failed to do. A do-over. That’s not usually the way trials work — the pleading of claims and discovery takes place before the trial. House Democrats chose not to do that for key witnesses they wanted — including John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney — because forcing them to testify in the House would have meant court litigation. Democrats were...

The U.S. Supreme Court this week declined to hear an appeal by Lehigh County prosecutors, leaving in place a state court ruling that police can’t detain a person merely for carrying a gun. The high court on Monday rejected a request by the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office to review a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision throwing out its case against a man stopped by Allentown police after a camera operator spotted him tucking a revolver in his waistband outside a gas station. Michael J. Hicks, who was licensed to carry the gun, wasn’t charged with a weapons offense, but he...

The outcome is a significant victory for homeless activists and a setback for city officials in California and other western states who argued the appeals court ruling undercut their authority to regulate encampments on the sidewalks. Lawyers for the homeless had argued it was cruel and wrong to punish people who have nowhere else to sleep at night. They won a major victory last year when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that prosecuting people for sleeping on the sidewalks violated the 8th Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

In 1918, Scotus settled the issue of WWI conscription v. the 13th Amendment’s ban on involuntary servitude. Borrowing from Vattel, the court majority wrote in the Selective Draft Law Cases, The highest duty of the citizen is to bear arms at the call of the nation. This duty is inherent in citizenship; without it and the correlative power of the State to compel its performance, society could not be maintained. It is a contradiction in terms to say that the United States is a sovereign and yet lacks this power of self-defense. So, the Scotus boldly defended the survival of...

Alan Dershowitz believes one of the “most important” developments in the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump happened Friday. Speaking with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Friday, the Harvard law professor explained the Supreme Court — by agreeing to hear a trio of cases involving subpoenas for the president’s financial records — just “pulled the rug out of part two of impeachment.” . . . “Now, we don’t know how the court is going to come out. But they made it clear that’s a viable issue,” Dershowitz went on to say. “So, that charge, that ground of impeachment, should...

When the Dear Leader of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler, said that this was too important a matter to trust to the voters in the next election, he and his ilk gave us a frightening preview of the Gulag into which they would put We the People, should they gain full control of the government. They wrap themselves up in the Constitution but conveniently forget the first three words. They forget that the Constitution establishes three branches of government, not two. But they have no time for the courts to rule on disputed documents and privileged conversations. They...

Just as Democrats carve out certain parts of the 2nd Amendment while intentionally ignoring the rest that clearly says "shall not be infringed," this time they attempt to carve out the Impeachment Clause from the rest of the U.S Constitution that effectively: 1.) Causes a part of the Constitution to not be subject to checks and balances. 2.) Elevates the House above the co-equal branches of the Executive and Judiciary through their claims yesterday they don't need the courts to be the arbiter over whether or not witnesses must comply to summons, papers and information they deem to be pertinent...

The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will take up President Trump’s broad claims of protection from investigation, raising the prospect of a landmark election-year ruling on the limits of presidential power.

Full title: Chief Justice John Marshall, "The American population is entirely Christian, and with us, Christianity and Religion are identified." "The power to tax involves the power to destroy," wrote Chief Justice John Marshall, McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819. Perhaps no one had a greater impact on the development of Constitutional Law than John Marshall. He was born SEPTEMBER 24, 1755, and was home schooled as a youth. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, John Marshall served with the Culpeper Minutemen. Marshall joined the Continental Army and served as a captain in the Virginia Regiment under General George Washington, enduring...

House Democrats urged the Supreme Court to allow them to enforce congressional subpoenas for President Donald Trump’s financial records, saying that the information was needed to protect the 2020 election from foreign interference. In a filing on Wednesday (pdf), the House attorneys argue that any harm suffered by Trump and his businesses from complying with the subpoena would be less severe than the harm the House and the public would suffer without having access to the financial records so that it could “exercise its constitutional functions.” The attorneys said the information was needed to determine if legislation is warranted to...

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a convicted murderer’s appeal to receive gender reassignment surgery, leaving in place a lower court’s ruling in favor of the Texas prison officials who refused the inmate the procedure. The court rejected the appeal of a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling by transgender inmate Vanessa Lynn Gibson, formerly known as Scott Gibson, who claimed the prison’s refusal to grant the surgery violates the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment. Gibson, 41, who was born male but has lived as a woman since age 15, was convicted and sent...

Full title: "Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity, tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government"-Justice James Kent Chief Justice James Kent explained in People v. Ruggles, 1811, what made OATHS effective: "In Taylor's case ... the court ... said, that Christianity was parcel of the law, and to cast contumelious reproaches upon it, tended to weaken the foundation of moral obligation, and the efficacy (effectiveness) of OATHS." This view was held by President and Commander-in-Chief George Washington, who stated in his Farewell Address, September 19, 1796: "Let it simply be asked where is the security for prosperity, for...

On Tuesday the Supreme Court will consider in Maine Community Health Options v. U.S. whether Congress can limit the spending discretion it has previously granted to the executive branch. Four health insurers have sued the government for not making payments they say they are entitled to under the Affordable Care Act’s “risk corridors.” The temporary program was intended to entice insurers to join the ObamaCare exchanges by minimizing their potential losses and giving them time to calibrate premiums and risk pools. Under a formula in the ACA, relatively profitable insurers for the first three years of the exchanges were required...

More than $12 billion is at stake for the nation’s health insurers Tuesday when the Supreme Court hears another Affordable Care Act case. For the federal government, the potential damages could be far greater, as its reputation as a reliable partner to private businesses is on the line.

Wow: Ruth Bader Ginsberg blocks lower court ruling in Trump tax return case, proving POTUS with temporary win (TNS) Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg may indeed by a rock-solid liberal but you can’t call her a blatant partisan, not after a ruling she issued on Friday. As readers know, the Garbage Party has been trying to get President Donald Trump’s tax returns now for going on three years because for some reason they believe they have a ‘right’ to see them. Mind you, they don’t; there is no constitutional requirement for presidents or presidential contenders to reveal their personal...

The Supreme Court has upheld a Kentucky law slowing women a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn baby before having an abortion. Ultrasounds are generally done before abortionist to determine the age of the baby prior to the abortion, but abortion clinics normally don’t let women see their baby because they may change their mind after seeing their child. The nation’s highest court declined to take up a challenge to the law from abortion activists. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Kentucky’s only abortion clinic, EMW Women’s Surgical Center, had asked the courts to strike it down....