Free Republic

A whistleblower organization has initiated a court action to force the Department of Justice to disclose why it spied on congressional staff, setting up a landmark legal battle on an issue that has rankled both Republicans and Democrats.Last fall, several current and former congressional oversight staff were belatedly informed that the Justice Department seized phone and email records in 2017 in an internal investigation, raising concerns about separation of powers between two branches of government.Jason Foster, who is now the founder and chair of Empower Oversight, the group which sued in court this week to unseal the court documents in...

Justice Samuel Alito said Congress has “no authority” to regulate the Supreme Court in an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section published Friday, pushing back against Democrats’ attempt to mandate stronger ethics rules. Alito, one of the high court’s leading conservatives, is just one of multiple justices who have come under recent scrutiny for ethics controversies that have fueled the renewed push. “I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it,” Alito told the Journal. “No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period.” Although the Constitution...

Top Senate Democrats announced Monday that a key committee will vote on legislation to set up a code of conduct for the Supreme Court, tighten financial disclosure rules and beef up recusal requirements for justices. The Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act, led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., will get a vote in the committee on July 20, they announced in a joint statement. “Whether you agree or disagree with the most recent historic decisions by the Supreme Court, we hope we can all agree on one thing — these nine...

‘Life, Liberty & Levin’ host Mark Levin says nondisclosure agreements are not ‘hush money,’ and says Democrats are setting a ‘dangerous precedent.’

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas crossed a line when he dissented on the Supreme Court rejection of former President Donald Trump’s attempt to block the release of records to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.Schiff was responding to a question about the committee potentially subpoenaing Ginni Thomas over text messages she sent to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.Partial transcript as follows:MARGARET BRENNAN: Your colleague Liz Cheney was on two other networks this morning, and she said that you all...

A Trump-appointed federal judge threw out a lawsuit from the 45th president late Tuesday that sought to prevent House lawmakers from obtaining his tax returns. US District Judge Trevor McFadden ruled that the House Ways and Means Committee has broad authority to obtain and potentially publish the former president’s tax returns — and described Trump’s claims as “wrong on the law.” “A long line of Supreme Court cases requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquires,” McFadden wrote in his ruling, according to the Associated Press. “Even the special solicitude accorded former presidents does not alter the outcome.” McFadden stayed...

A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump, who was trying to block the release of his taxes to Congress. In his ruling, Judge Trevor McFadden deferred to the need for Congress to carry out "facially valid inquiries." "A long line of Supreme Court cases requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquiries," wrote McFadden. "Even the special solicitude accorded former Presidents does not alter the outcome. The Court will therefore dismiss this case." The lawsuit brought by the former president stems from a 2019 request issued by the House Ways and Means...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) went viral during the Trump administration, and bolstered his conservative cred, with a fiery defense of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But now, he is quietly emerging as one of the GOP's most frequent supporters of President Biden's judicial nominees. The evolution is the latest turn for the South Carolina Republican and former Judiciary Committee chair — regarded by his critics as a political chameleon but one known for his relationships with Democrats and willingness to shift within his own party.

A federal judge ruled that a provision in President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law limiting states from cutting taxes is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Douglas Cole issued the permanent injunction requested by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican who argued the administration was trying to impose a “tax mandate” on states. “The Biden administration reached too far, seized too much and got its hand slapped,” Mr. Yost said. “This is a monumental win for the preservation of the U.S. Constitution — the separation of powers is real, and it exists for a reason.” Mr. Yost had filed a...

Source: Official White House Photo by Shealah CraigheadIt's too late now, but vindication came to one of the Trump campaign election violation claims lobbed after Election Day. The Michigan courts ruled that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson overstepped her authority when she issued unilateral changes for absentee ballots in the state. It all centered on voter signature verification. If she wanted to do that, she was going to have to get the state legislature’s approval. There was a reason why she didn’t pursue this route: Michigan’s state legislature is majority Republican. So, she took this for a spin, and it...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators introduced bipartisan legislation on Wednesday to repeal decades-old authorizations for the use of military force used to justify years of attacks in the Middle East, an effort to shift back the authority to declare war to Congress from the White House. The measure, led by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and Republican Senator Todd Young, would repeal 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq, citing the “strong partnership” between Washington and the government in Baghdad. Under the Constitution, Congress, not the president, has the right to authorize war. But those...

Shocking details of the giant bill passed by both the US Senate and the US House of Representatives on Tuesday exposes how civil servants in DC view their host, the American Taxpayer, including one amendment that was attached to the spending bill that would limit the President’s Constitutional authority as Commander and Chief. In a shocking power grab the power-drunk office dwellers hid in the 5,893-page bill a provision that says: “Nullifies the President’s use of the Insurrection Act.”

Acting as prosecutor, judge, and jury, the National Labor Relations Board is just the tip of the iceberg of government agencies wielding far too much power. “No jokes allowed. Ever.” Apparently, this is the new Twitter rule, as The Federalist national news publication faces a joint administrative and judicial broadside at the National Labor Relations Board. What the publication is going through constitutes just one of the many costly, silly, and arguably unconstitutional quasi-judicial proceedings underway throughout the federal bureaucracy.A recent case before the NLRB — in which the agency served as legislator, police, prosecutor, and judge — helps illustrate...

Finally, a semblance of sanity has been restored to the law and Constitution in the misbegotten prosecution of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Wednesday ordered the controversial lower court judge, Emmet Sullivan, to follow the law by dismissing the false statements case wrongfully brought by the original federal prosecutors who were either incompetent or corrupt — maybe both. As evidence emerged that Gen. Flynn was set up and framed by malevolent actors at the FBI —fired Director James Comey, fired Assistant Director Andrew McCabe and fired counterintelligence...

In deeply conservative eastern Washington state, a prominent state lawmaker kicked out of his Republican Party caucus labels the coronavirus as a foreign bio-weapon, accuses Marxists of using the pandemic to advance totalitarianism and rails against lockdown restrictions imposed by the Democratic governor. A California teleconference last week to consider sport fishing limits in rural areas unprepared to handle influxes of anglers descended into chaos — with callers branding state officials as “fascists” and declaring it was time to “make fishing great again.” Across the U.S., elected officials from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma suspicious of big government and outraged with orders...

Today, I have signed into law H.R. 1158, the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020” (the “Act”), which authorizes appropriations to fund the operation of certain agencies in the Federal Government through September 30, 2020. Certain provisions of the Act (such as Division A, section 8070) purport to restrict the President’s constitutional authority as Commander in Chief to control the personnel and materiel that the President believes to be necessary or advisable for the successful conduct of military missions. Others provisions (such as Division A, sections 8075, 8078, 8110, 9013, and 9016) purport to require advance notice to the Congress before the...

After reading about the shabby effort to advance the impeachment of President Trump over the last two weeks I think it is time for a civics lesson. Maybe that is necessary because they don’t teach civics in the schools and universities anymore. They teach social justice. And kids today need to advertise their social justice activism if they want to get into the Tiger Moms’ favorite universities. Let us have a quick refresher on civics. Our Founders lived in a time that worried about kings and religion. As rich commoners they wanted to curb the power of kings and nobles,...

Lindsey Graham is supposedly a new convert to the MAGA movement. Almost immediately after traitor John McCain died, Lindsey Graham appeared to have a change of heart. He began backing Trump on policy matters, and when Justice Kavanaugh was under attack, Lindsey was the point-man for his defense; delivering one of the most impassioned political speeches ever. Lindsey’s speech last year was a “game-changer” and MAGA rallied around the South Carolina senator and embraced him as a new and important figurehead in the movement. Graham even took over Chuck Grassley’s place as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee – a...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is holding meetings in Italy, held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon in Rome. Secretary of State Pompeo told reporters he was on the July 25th Ukrainian call which would be expected. He also said the policy with Ukraine is consistent. Of course, this is what the liberal media latched onto. But then Pompeo dropped these bombs on the street thugs and goons running the US House committees. Pompeo told reporters how Democrats in the House violated fundamental principles, contacted State Department officials directly and told them NOT to contact legal counsel. Secretary of...

The seminal case on executive authority exercised in a declared national emergency is the case in which President Nixon ordered that the steel industry be nationalized. Youngstown Sheet Tube Co v. Sawyer Sawyer v. Youngstown Sheet Tube Co, 343 U.S. 579, 72 S.Ct. 863, 96 L.Ed. 1153, 26 A.L.R.2d 1378 (1952) The defense asserted was that the President’s order amounted to lawmaking, a legislative function which the Constitution has expressly confided to the Congress and not to the President. President Truman claimed he was acting in a national emergency as the Commander and Chief. It is settled law that the...