Free Republic

A U.S. court on Monday ruled the Trump administration could not enforce an updated policy barring certain transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, becoming the second court in the country to rule against the government since it unveiled the policy in March. Trump announced on March 23 that he would endorse a plan by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to restrict the military service of transgender people who experience a condition called gender dysphoria. The policy replaced an outright ban on transgender service members that Trump announced last year on Twitter, citing concern over military focus and medical costs....

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order blocking the release of downloadable blueprints for 3D-printed firearms. Lasnik’s ruling comes a day after Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a suit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to allow the release of the blueprints. A federal judge in Seattle has granted a temporary restraining order blocking a Texas man from releasing downloadable blueprints for 3D-printed plastic firearms. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik’s ruling Tuesday comes a day after Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a suit challenging the Trump administration’s decision last month...

CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta expressed concern on Tuesday with the way President Trump's supporters heckle members of the press, warning that the president's rhetoric could "result in somebody getting hurt." Acosta posted a video from Trump's rally in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday showing supporters shouting down members of the press. At one point, one man in the crowd looks into the camera and yells, "stop lying." "Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa," Acosta tweeted. "I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative...

The Trump administration suffered another legal defeat on its sanctuary city crackdown after a judge Friday permanently blocked the government from retaliating against Chicago’s sanctuary policy by stripping away its police grant money. U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber, a Reagan appointee to the bench, said the administration is free to track down illegal immigrants on its own, but it cannot force Chicago to cooperate in reporting or turning them over. His ruling follows similar defeats for the Trump administration in California and Philadelphia, where judges have also ruled against the administration’s attempts to condition Byrne Justice Assistance Grant money...

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said Tuesday that senators who don't oppose President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are "complicit in the evil." Booker, speaking at a press conference with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and religious and moral leaders, said that Kavanaugh's nomination "has nothing to do with politics" but with "who we are as moral beings." "I'm here to call on folks to understand that in a moral moment, there is no neutral. In a moral moment, there is no bystanders," he said. "You are either complicit in the evil, you are either contributing to the wrong, or you...

On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “AM Joy,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow stated that “The worst case scenario that the president is a foreign agent suddenly feels very palpable.”

Democratic Rep. Joe Kennedy III called on the White House Wednesday to publicly recount what occurred in the private meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. If the White House does not come forward, Congress should bring the president's translator to testify, under subpoena if necessary, the Massachusetts congressman suggested during an interview on CNN’s "New Day." Mr. Kennedy acknowledged that the proposal is complicated by potential legal issues around privilege, but he said "it shouldn’t get that far."

‘I was just joking.” One common tactic of sexual predation is the perpetrator’s casual dismissal of the victims’ claims by waving a hand in the air and claiming to be kidding. Not only is it hard to combat — who defines humor? — the dismissal also paints the victim as a prude. No one wants to be either a victim or a prude. Consequently, “Can’t you take a joke?” turns out to be a predator’s pretty effective line of defense. Apparently calling sexual harassment “satire” not only gets you a free pass, it sometimes gets you famous. Take Sacha Baron...

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer called Monday on President Trump’s national security team to testify before Congress about what was said before and after Mr. Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The New York Democrat called for Republicans to join with his party in demanding answers about why Mr. Trump dismissed an opportunity during the press conference in Helsinki, Finland to confront Mr. Putin about the allegation of Russia interfering with the U.S. 2016 election...

Sore loser Hillary Clinton still cannot get over being defeated by Donald Trump for the presidency nearly two years ago now. Sunday night, on the eve of President Trump’s summit in Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Clinton trolled Trump on Twitter, questioning his loyalty to the Unites States. “Great World Cup. Question for President Trump as he meets Putin: Do you know which team you play for?”

The journalist from US political publication The Nation disrupted the meeting holding a banner that read 'Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty' A journalist has been dragged out of the Trump-Putin press conference by Secret Service agents after protesting over America's use of nuclear weapons. Political journalist and activist Sam Husseini got into a scuffle with security forces in Helskini, Finland, as Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump addressed journalists. Husseini, who writes for The Nation, held up a sign saying 'Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty' as he disrupted the conference just before the two leaders were set to take...

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement today on President Trump’s meeting and press conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki: “Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake. “President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be...

Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley speculated about the existence of a “pee tape” with President Donald Trump during an interview with BuzzFeed. “Do you think Vladimir Putin has something on him?” BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith asked Merkley during a sit-down interview, noting Trump’s reluctance to ever criticize the Russian president. “I think it’s likely, yeah,” Merkley confirmed.

Put aside whatever suspicions you may have about whether Donald Trump will be directly implicated in the Russia investigation. Trump is right now, before our eyes and those of the world, committing an unbelievable and unforgivable crime against this country. It is his failure to defend. The intelligence community long ago concluded that Russia attacked our election in 2016 with the express intention of damaging Hillary Clinton and assisting Trump. And it was not only the spreading of inflammatory fake news over social media. As a May report from the Republican-run Senate Intelligence Committee pointed out: “In 2016, cyber actors...

For ten hours Thursday, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok gave riveting, compelling and, at times, farcical testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees. ...(snipped for excerpt size) The lowlights included Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). In a contentious back-and-forth with Strzok, whose well-publicized affair with a colleague resulted in the discovery of damning politically charged text messages, Gohmert questioned Strzok’s fidelity, blasted his “smirk” and condemned his conduct as a “disgrace.” Gohmert, “How many times did you look so innocent into your wife’s eyes and lie to her?”Not to be outdone were Strzok’s “defense attorneys” — the committees’ Democrats....

Chuck Schumer (‏Verified account) @SenSchumer President Trump should not meet with President Putin alone. 6:11 AM - 11 Jul 2018

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement from the Supreme Court, and President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to replace him, is the doomsday scenario liberals feared when Senate Republicans thwarted the appointment of Merrick Garland in 2016: The GOP’s brazen act of democratic sabotage will almost certainly deliver the high court to the far right for a generation. In the years ahead, the court will probably further erode reproductive rights, gay rights and voting rights, ushering in the darkest era in American history since the post-Reconstruction period. Sounds hysterical, right? After all, Democrats will get their chance at reversing the court’s majority...

The Trump administration on Monday lost a bid to persuade a federal court to allow long-term detention of migrant families, a significant legal setback to the president’s immigration agenda. In a ruling that countered nearly every argument posed by the Justice Department, Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Federal District Court in Los Angeles held that there was no basis to amend a longstanding consent decree that requires children to be released to licensed care programs within 20 days. The government said that long-term confinement was the only way to avoid separating families when parents were detained on criminal charges....

Key Trump administration officials have been confronted at restaurants. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) urged protestors to hound Trump officials at restaurants, gas stations or department stores. Progressive pundits and the liberal media almost daily think up new ways of characterizing President Trump as a Nazi, fascist, tyrant or buffoon. Celebrities openly fantasize about doing harm to Trump. What is behind the unprecedented furor? Just as Barack Obama was not a centrist, neither is Trump. Obama promised to fundamentally transform the United States. Trump pledged to do the same and more — but in the exact opposite direction. The Trump agenda...

On June 14, 2016, the Washington Post reported that Russian hackers had broken into the Democratic National Committee’s files and gained access to its research on Donald Trump. A political world already numbed by Trump’s astonishing rise barely took notice. News reports quoted experts who suggested the Russians merely wanted more information about Trump to inform their foreign-policy dealings. By that point, Russia was already broadcasting its strong preference for Trump through the media. Yet when news of the hacking broke, nobody raised the faintest suspicions that Russia wished to alter the outcome of the election, let alone that Trump...