Free Republic

Thomas Jefferson’s most famous slave, and the mother of several of the third American president’s children, died in 1835...We don’t know when news of Joseph Smith’s... religious movement reached...where Sally Hemings spent most of her 62 years, as a house servant and eventually as Jefferson’s “paramour.” But even if Mormon missionaries had come to Monticello during Heming’s lifetime, they would, per the instructions of Smith himself, have worked first to convert the masters, and only then—with the masters’ permission—the slaves. Heming’s chance to become a Mormon came much later, in a Mormon temple in Mesa, Ariz., 13 years after the...

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday nullified a law that made it easy to seal divorce court records. The justices, without comment, declined to review an appeals court decision of a billionaire's divorce that declared the 2004 law "unconstitutional on its face." The Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and the California Newspaper Publishers Association urged the court to let the January appeals ruling stand. The case was brought by supermarket magnate Ronald Burkle, who had filed under seal 28 documents about personal income, expenses, and the post-marital agreement with his former wife, Janet. The law, which critics said was...

U.S. Defends Sealing Charges Against Former Clinton Aide By IAN URBINA Published: March 2, 2005 Correction Appended Federal prosecutors are battling attempts to dismiss their criminal case against Hillary Rodham Clinton's former fund-raising director, claiming in a court motion that they kept the indictment of him secret for more than a year to protect the identity of a witness cooperating in a separate investigation. The defendant, David Rosen, is charged with failing to report in-kind contributions and producing a false invoice in connection with an Aug. 12, 2000, fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton, according to an indictment unsealed in January. He...