Free Republic

A faction of hardliners inside Tehran took advantage of the country’s phantom supreme leader to launch the summer attacks in the Strait of Hormuz that derailed a peace deal with the US, according to a new report. After the US and Iran agreed to the Memorandum of Understanding in June, Iranian moderates led by President Masoud Pezeshkian believed the cease-fire would create a pathway to permanently end the war. Those hopes, however, were dashed when Iran attacked three vessels sailing in the Strait of Hormuz, an attack greenlit not by Tehran’s army, but by its newly appointed paramilitary chief, Hossein...

The Supreme Court will no longer hear an oral argument for a case centered on bond rights for noncitizens detained for lengthy periods, ruling the case moot after New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul pardoned a lawfully present Dominican citizen, who pleaded guilty to second-degree assault. Hochul pardoned Keisy Guerrero Mariano, who is identified in court documents as "Keisy GM," in late August, effectively killing the Trump administration's appeal to the Supreme Court arguing that noncitizens, including those with green card status, do not have a legal right to a bond hearing for a prolonged detention if they have committed...

WASHINGTON — House Democrats voted down a proposed constitutional amendment to lock in the number of justices on the Supreme Court at nine. The amendment failed in a 212-206 vote, far short of the two-thirds majority needed to get it through the lower chamber. Only one Democrat, Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina, voted with Republicans in support of the proposed amendment. Republicans brought up the constitutional amendment as part of an effort to accuse Democrats of seeking to pack the high court due to its conservative majority and tie them to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). “We will...

Iran released a rare video Sunday of its supreme leader appearing in prime condition amid his long absence from the public eye and swirling reports of deteriorating health. The country’s semi-official Mehr News Agency flaunted video of Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, sitting in a circle and speaking with a group of men, with no context of when or where the scene took place. Khamenei was notably free of any of the horrific injuries he was believed to have suffered in the initial airstrikes of the war that killed his father, suggesting the video was taken before the conflict began. The supreme...

President Trump issued an order Thursday to crack down on “birth tourism” after he was defeated at the Supreme Court earlier this summer on the birthright citizenship issue. Trump said the executive order would stop wealthy people from “buying their way” into citizenship with pregnant women traveling to the US birth an American baby. “They’ve taken birthright citizenship and they’ve made a joke out of it,” he said during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office. The order bars citizenship for children born to mothers who enter the United States for the sole purpose of having a child on American...

WASHINGTON — Iran’s mysterious, “probably gay” supreme leader is so elusive that even his own president isn’t convinced he met him in a bizarre one-on-one in the back of a dark car. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was whisked to a secret location in Tehran, shoved into the back seat of a dark car with blacked-out windows and told he was sitting next to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei — except he never actually saw the man, according to a bombshell report from Iran International. The bizarre cloak-and-dagger meeting reportedly lasted just a few minutes, not the cozy two-and-a-half-hour sit-down Pezeshkian bragged...

WASHINGTON — Republican-appointed Justice Clarence Thomas tore into transgenderism as a “lie to the public” in his concurrence on the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold state-level policies restricting girls’ sports to biological females. The senior justice went further than all of his conservative peers in making the sweeping pronouncement on transgenderism and declared biological sex “immutable.” “Men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or girls, even if they believe that they are. Sex is an immutable ‘biological’ characteristic,” Thomas wrote in his brief, two-page solo concurrence. “[I]t is binary; and ‘man’ and ‘woman,’ ‘boy’ and ‘girl,’ are the...

Still-missing Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei authorized in-person meetings with the US to finalize the peace deal, according to a report. Khamenei gave his negotiation team the green light to head to Switzerland for the first round of negotiations with the US on Friday under the memorandum of understanding, according to a statement released by his office. Khamenei, who has yet to be seen in public since he was injured at the start of the war, instructed his team not to yield to any demands made by Washington that he deems excessive. The ayatollah, who ascended to the seat when...

It's happened again. The life of a conservative Supreme Court Justice was reportedly threatened Wednesday night after the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in Washington, D.C., received reports of gunfire at the home of Amy Coney Barrett. DC-based independent journalist Andrew Leyden first reported that trouble was brewing at Barrett's residence just before 10 p.m. ET; Leyden did not identify which Justice was involved, but revealed it was determined to be a "swatting incident."

The call is coming from inside the house. The Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais has made progressives even more determined to delegitimize the court — and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is among them. In a dissent involving a post-decision procedural question, Jackson accused the majority of acting out of pure partisanship. Her opinion said that the court “unshackles itself” from all constraint and “dives into the fray” (meaning the partisan fray). In its jurisprudence, “principles give way to power.” It is acting with an “abandon” that is “unwarranted and unwise.” These harsh charges occasioned a stinging and well-deserved...

Justice Samuel Alito tore into Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s lone dissent in a high-stakes Louisiana redistricting dispute on Monday, calling her arguments "baseless and insulting" after the Supreme Court decided to fast-track implementing its recent redistricting ruling ahead of the 2026 midterms. Alito used a concurring opinion, joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, to directly rebuke Jackson, saying her "dissent in this suit levels charges that cannot go unanswered." "The dissent goes on to claim that our decision represents an unprincipled use of power," Alito wrote, adding that that was a "groundless and utterly irresponsible charge." The clash...

Iran’s severely injured supreme leader remained defiant Thursday as he vowed to protect the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and missile capabilities — warning that America’s only place in the Gulf was “at the bottom of its waters.” Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to be seen since becoming the supreme leader following his father’s death, issued another statement via state media rejecting President Trump’s peace terms and the American naval blockade on Iran’s ports. “Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities — from nanotechnology and...

WASHINGTON — Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t released an audio or video message since assuming power because his face was badly burned in Israeli airstrikes on Feb, 28, according to a report — as President Trump says peace talks are inhibited by a lack of clear leadership in Tehran. Khamenei, 56, “does not want to appear vulnerable or sound weak,” four Iranian officials told the New York Times, adding that one of the ayatollah’s legs has been “operated on three times, and he is awaiting a prosthetic,” while he also has had surgery on one of his hands. “His...

Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is still recovering from severe facial and leg injuries suffered in the airstrike that killed his father at the beginning of the war, three people close to his inner circle told Reuters. Khamenei’s face was disfigured in the attack on the supreme leader’s compound in central Tehran and he suffered a significant injury to one or both legs, all three sources said. The 56-year-old is nonetheless recovering from his wounds and remains mentally ​sharp, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. He is taking part in meetings with senior officials...

Jane Sullivan Roberts, the wife of Chief Justice John Roberts, generated $10.3 million in commissions as a legal recruiter over an eight-year period, according to internal records cited by Business Insider. Roberts, who worked at legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, generated the commissions from the years 2007 to 2014, according to the Business Insider story, which was noted by How Appealing. “Roberts’ apparent $10.3 million in compensation puts her toward the top of the pay scale for legal headhunters,” according to the article. Her “attributed revenue” to Major Lindsey was $13.3 million during that time. The commissions were...

WASHINGTON — One of President Trump’s most ambitious policy endeavors — his effort to end birthright citizenship — is set to face its moment of truth before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, just over a month after it axed the centerpiece of his tariff agenda. The Supreme Court will decide whether Trump’s attempt to block the kin of illegal immigrants born on US soil from automatically becoming citizens is within his power, something that is widely seen as the most consequential case left on its docket. “This is a glaring red line for the Supreme Court justices that they don’t...

Iran’s probably gay and likely incapacitated new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t been seen publicly in a month — but it has nothing to do with poor health, the evil regime has claimed. Khamenei has been lying low for security reasons after his father, former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was wiped out by the US and Israel at the start of their war with Tehran. “The reason for his absence from public view is the observance of security considerations due to the current special circumstances,” said Ali Bahreini, Iran’s representative to the United Nations office in Geneva, CNN reported,...

The Supreme Court appeared ready Monday to rein in one of the most controversial election practices still allowed in several states: counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. During oral arguments in Watson v. Republican National Committee, the Court’s conservative justices signaled deep skepticism toward a Mississippi law allowing absentee ballots to be counted up to five days after Election Day, so long as they are postmarked on time. The case could have sweeping consequences ahead of the November midterms, especially in battleground contests where delayed ballot counting could once again fuel chaos, suspicion, and legal warfare. Mississippi is...

Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is little more than an "empty entity" who is not at the helm of the regime, according to Israeli national security sources. The son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a targeted Israeli strike on Feb. 28, is also linked to what officials describe as a "misfunctioning" regime. "The new leader is an empty entity," Kobi Michael, a defense analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital. "Mojtaba Khamenei does not appear in public, but we also have reliable information that he does not...

Iran’s new Supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei released his first statement Thursday vowing to use the “lever” of closing the Strait of Hormuz to international energy shipping — after reports circulated that he was in a coma and had his leg amputated after being severely injured in the US-Israeli strikes that killed his father and other family members. The lengthy message was read out on Iranian state TV by an anchor as an image of Khamenei was displayed on screen, a break from tradition. No explanation was given for why the 56-year-old did not appear in the flesh, with experts suggesting...