Free Republic

President Trump on Monday signed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, a new federal ban on animal cruelty. The law will outlaw purposeful crushing, burning, drowning, suffocation, impalement or other violence causing “serious bodily injury” to animals.

Leaked funding documents reveal an effort by George Soros and his foundations to manipulate election laws and process rules ahead of the federal election far more expansively than has been previously reported. The billionaire and convicted felon moved hundreds of millions of dollars into often-secret efforts to change election laws, fuel litigation to attack election integrity measures, push public narratives about voter fraud, and to integrate the political ground game of the left with efforts to scare racial minority groups about voting rights threats. These Soros-funded efforts moved through dozens of 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) charities and involved the active compliance with civil rights groups, government...

The new Attorney General of New York State, aligned with Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Democratic majority in the state government, have passed a law allowing the prosecution of persons granted presidential pardons. As even NBC News was honest enough to admit, this was a measure cooked up specifically to “Resist” President Trump and blunt his ability to grant pardons to people associated with him. Of course, the devil is in the details as always. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a measure Wednesday that would allow the state to pursue charges against people who have received a presidential...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed a measure Wednesday permitting New York state to press charges against those who have received presidential pardons. The measure was passed to prevent President Trump's ex-aides facing prison time or potential sentencing from receiving pardons and avoiding criminal punishment, NBC News reported. The network added that the legislation was a direct response to the president's consideration of giving his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, a pardon. Manafort is serving in a federal prison after being convicted on bank fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy charges. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has also indicted him on state...

A federal judge handed the Trump administration a win Monday, dismissing a lawsuit from states with high taxes. The lawsuit asked U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken to block the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's limit on how much people can deduct in state and local taxes (SALT). The provision effectively raised the tax burden on citizens of high-tax states.

...Wayne LaPierre...told him it would not be popular among Trump's supporters,...LaPierre also argued against the bill's merits, the officials said...On Tuesday, Trump outlined some NRA concerns...with Manchin...Manchin said. "I told him, we don't expect the NRA to be supportive. Mr. President,...when you did the bump stocks, they weren't for you. They were against that, too...A White House official said Trump had asked some advisers and lawmakers this week about whether the NRA had enduring clout amid an internal leadership battle...After the Parkland shooting, Trump expressed support for background checks...and greater police power to seize guns...But he faced significant resistance from...

I recently wrote about the coming civil war over the issue of abortion, and day by day, state by state, the divide is getting more pronounced and more extreme. Let’s take a look at a map of America to see where things stand at the moment. As broken down by NBC News, the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia – forming a connected chain – along with Utah, have passed strong pro-life bills. Of interest is the fact that, in most of these states, the bill passed with overwhelming approval in each of the legislative...

Full Title: Supreme Court’s conservatives overturn precedent as liberals ask ‘which cases the court will overrule next’ The Supreme Court’s conservative majority overturned a 41-year-old precedent Monday, prompting a pointed warning from liberal justices about “which cases the court will overrule next.” The issue in Monday’s 5 to 4 ruling was one of limited impact: whether states have sovereign immunity from private lawsuits in the courts of other states. In 1979, the Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to such immunity, although states are free to extend it to one another and often do. But the court’s...

Today states that withdraw find resettlement continues without any oversight from state authorities yet with states continuing to be forced to pay. Tennessee is the first state to tell the federal government that it can’t be forced to pay for the federal refugee resettlement program on the constitutional basis of federalism and the Tenth Amendment. It is suing the federal government over its continuation of refugee resettlement in Tennessee after the state withdrew from the program. When the state withdrew more than 10 years ago, the federal government turned program administration over to the federal contractor, Catholic Charities of Tennessee,...

The Afternoon Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) By now, most of you have heard that, in her town hall event on the Collaboration News Network (CNN), Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren endorsed the idea of completely eliminating the Electoral College, because of course she did. “Every vote matters and the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting, and that means get rid of the Electoral College,” Warren told the audience, “I believe we need a constitutional amendment that protects the right to vote for every American citizen and makes sure that vote gets...

United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Much of the focus on Second Amendment issues tends to be at the federal level. There are good reasons for this focus: Federal law sets the baseline for laws affecting our Second Amendment rights. Federal judges can overturn anti-Second Amendment state laws. The President can appoint new federal judges, and also can set the tone for what happens in the executive branch. We have been very fortunate to have President Donald Trump these last two years. Some may nitpick about the bump-stock ban via the regulatory process, but that is far better than the legislation anti-Second...

Ranking Member Doug Collins: I’m confident every lawmaker in this room agrees that our democracy depends on protecting voting rights and election integrity. Congress has the authority to prohibit discriminatory treatment in voting based on race or ethnicity as part of its duty to ensure the sanctity of every vote. Unfortunately, this bill actively undermines these goals. The bill before us today federalizes elections in ways that have nothing to do with outlawing discrimination. Instead, it federalizes elections in ways that actually disenfranchise state voters. H.R. 1 would deprive state voters of their own right to determine their state’s voting...

The democrats say the states have a right to defy the federal government when it comes to NOT enforcing immigration laws they don't like. Does this mean the more conservative states have a right to defy the federal government in regards to enforcing laws they don't like? 'Legalized' abortion on demand or same-sex marriage, for example. How about gun control laws? Is there any federal law that states MUST enforce even if they don't like it? Can cities and states pass sanctuary one man, one woman marriage laws? Sanctuary pro-life laws? Sanctuary gun rights laws? Sanctuary free religion laws? Sanctuary...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) introduced the first piece of legislation for the newly convened 116th Congress and it is a political reform bill that includes a provision that would force states to allow convicted felons to vote as long as they were no longer actually in prison. “H.R. 1 will create automatic voter registration across the country; ensure that individuals who have completed felony sentences have their full rights restored; expand early voting and simplify absentee voting; and modernize the U.S. voting system,” says a summary of the bill released by Pelosi. A subsection of the bill is called...

I was recently thinking, what would happen if a conservative city/county/state decided to make a statement about the other cities/counties/states that are "sanctuary zones" and pass law that would read like the following: "As long as a sanctuary city/county/state area exists where the ICE agents are turned away by their local authorities, we reserve the right to refuse law enforcement service to ANY OTHER federal agency under the Equal protection under the Law provision of the 14th amendment. These agencies that we may refuse local cooperation with include but are not limited to the Following agencies: IRS, EPA, DEA, BATF,...

The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on an amendment that would federally legalize marijuana by allowing states to regulate their own medical and recreational pot markets. But even one senator can block a vote on the amendment, which would address a longstanding conflict between federal and state law. Sen. Cory Gardner, D-Colo., is seeking to attach the measure to the First Step Act, a bundle of prison, prisoner re-entry, and sentencing reforms that senators voted 81-12 to advance Monday.

Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers said Sunday he’s not optimistic that outgoing governor Scott Walker will veto bills approved by the Republican-dominated Legislature that would limit the new governor’s power. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Evers said he talked by telephone with Walker recently and appealed to him to veto the legislation, but that Walker was noncommittal. Evers, who will be sworn in Jan. 7 after narrowly defeating the two-term Republican last month, said Wisconsin voters did not elect him to fight over administrative powers with the GOP legislative majority. He said the lame-duck legislation approved by lawmakers after...

Common Core sucked all the energy, money, and motivation right out of desperately needed potential reforms to U.S. public schools for a decade, and for nothing. It’s been about nine years since the Obama administration lured states into adopting Common Core sight unseen, with promises it would improve student achievement. Like President Obama’s other big promises — “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” — this one’s been proven a scam. “If you set and enforce rigorous and challenging standards and assessments; if you put outstanding teachers at the front of the classroom; if you turn around...

The landmark law governing adoptions of Native American children, designed to keep them within Native American families, has been struck down as unconstitutional by a federal judge in Texas. In an Oct. 4 ruling that has stunned Native American rights advocates, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor found that the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 illegally gives Native American families preferential treatment in adoption proceedings for Native American children based on race, in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee. Additionally, O’Connor ruled that the law violated the 10th Amendment’s federalism guarantees, specifically the so-called “anti-commandeering” principle established by...

Smoking cannabis ages the brain by an average of 2.8 years, new research suggests. This is compared to four years in schizophrenia patients, according to the largest study of its kind. Brain ageing is defined as reduced blood flow through the organ. Excessive alcohol also ages the organ by 0.6 years, the research adds. Lead author Dr Daniel Amen, founder of Amen Clinics, said: 'The cannabis abuse finding was especially important, as our culture is starting to see marijuana as an innocuous substance. This study should give us pause about it.' Reduced brain blood flow has previously been linked to...