Free Republic

A conservative civil liberties group is challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. The new law, attached to a defense authorization bill that President Obama signed on October 28, 2009, makes it a federal crime to attack someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center says it elevates people engaged in deviant sexual behaviors to a special, protected class of persons under federal law. The lawsuit naming U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on behalf...

His hopes for a life with his family, lived in simplicity and fidelity to the Church, were short lived. The King, by now drunk on his own power, insisted that Thomas take the oath under the “Act of Succession”, thereby acknowledging the legitimacy of his “marriage” to Anne and his authority over the Church. Thomas would not do so because he refused to violate his truly formed conscience. So, the King had his former counselor imprisoned in the Tower of London. There he underwent intense tortures of both body and soul. These came not only from the henchmen of the...

The continuing contemporary interest in Thomas More (1478-1535) is hardly to be accounted for by popular fascination with sixteenth-century English politics or even by admiration for a martyr to a religious cause no longer universally popular. St. Thomas More (1477-1535) More lived, as we live today, in a time of rapid social and cultural unraveling. The meaning of his life, at least for us, is not so much his worldly success and religious piety, extraordinary as both of these were, but rather the courage and consistency with which he opposed the forces of disintegration. The culture war of the early...

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced that yesterday evening it filed a federal lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The lawsuit claims that her Department’s “Rightwing Extremism Policy,” as reflected in the recently publicized Intelligence Assessment, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” violates the civil liberties of combat veterans as well as American citizens by targeting them for disfavored treatment on account of their political beliefs.

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced today that it has filed a federal lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The lawsuit claims that her Department’s “Rightwing Extremism Policy,” as reflected in the recently publicized Intelligence Assessment, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” violates the civil liberties of combat veterans as well as American citizens by targeting them for disfavored treatment on account of the political beliefs. General - PDF Links Click here to read the Law Center’s...

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center announced today that is has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Homeland Security demanding to know the basis for their recent intelligence assessment targeting as “rightwing extremists” those who oppose abortion, gun control, lax immigration laws, and a myriad of other policies supported by President Obama’s administration. The Law Center filed its request after consultation with conservative talk show host Michael Savage.

THOMAS MORE AS STATESMAN: A BRIEF SKETCH Born in 1477 in the heart of London, More learned service to his country as part of a longestablished family tradition. On both his mother’s and father’s side, civic service was a way of life. His grandfather Thomas Granger, for example, was a lawyer actively involved in London, serving as an alderman and eventually as sheriff. More's father was a well-known and respected lawyer, then a judge. There in London, More learned the importance of citizens’ vigilant involvement in government, a lesson he would appreciate even more deeply after studying the Greek and...

Thomas More Law Center Answers Prosecutor's Appeal in LtCol Chessani Case ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national, public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, yesterday filed its answer brief in response to the prosecution's appeal of the Military Judge's ruling, dismissing the case against LtCol Jeffrey Chessani, USMC based on unlawful command influence.  In its brief, the Law Center responded to the prosecution's arguments, noting, "Unlawful command influence is 'the mortal enemy of military justice.'  It is the acid that erodes an accused's right to receive a fair trial and the public's...

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national non-profit, public-interest law based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, today released the transcript of the recent Unlawful Command Influence ruling by the military judge — Colonel Steven A. Folsom — dismissing all charges against LtCol Jeffrey Chessani, USMC. The Law Center represents LtCol Chessani. Last week, prosecutors suffered a huge setback when the military judge dismissed all charges against LtCol Chessani, the highest ranking Marine officer facing charges arising out of the Battle of Haditha. The government has indicated that it intends to pursue an appeal, which will continue the...

ANN ARBOR, MI – Military Judge Colonel Steven Folsom, USMC, this morning dismissed all charges against Lt Colonel Jeffrey Chessani on the grounds of unlawful command influence. He blistered the prosecution’s case in an opinion he read from the bench that lasted an hour. The ruling was without prejudice. Colonel Folsom gave prosecutors 72 hours in which to notify him whether they would appeal. The ruling was greeted with tears of joy from Chessani’s wife and several spectators in the courtroom.

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center harshly condemned today’s 4-3 ruling of the California Supreme Court, holding that the California Constitution requires recognition of same-sex marriages, in an unprecedented overturning of a citizen initiative statute protecting traditional marriage. The three dissenters on the panel argued that the issue should have been left to the political process. Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center commented, “This outrageous ruling shows how our most cherished institutions are being destroyed by the tyrannical actions of an out-of-control judiciary. The California Supreme Court took judicial activism to...

College Official Fired for Column on Homosexuality By Pete Winn CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer May 12, 2008 (CNSNews.com) - Cybercast News Service has learned that a University of Toledo administrator has lost her job because she wrote a newspaper commentary that questioned whether homosexuality is a civil rights issue. Crystal Dixon, the associate vice president of human resources at the state university, had earlier been put on paid administrative leave for the Apr. 18 column published in the Toledo Free Press, as detailed in a previous CNSNews.com story. "She has been fired," said Brian Rooney, spokesman for the Thomas More...

The court-martial of the highest ranking Marine Corps officer accused of crimes in the infamous incident at Haditha, Iraq will face further delays if the Military Court of Appeals grants motions filed there by his defense team today. The Thomas More Law Center that represents Lt. Col Jeffrey Chessani announced today that it has filed a “Petition for Extraordinary Relief” with the United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals in Washington, D.C on his behalf. The petition asks the military appellate court to reverse the judge’s order denying the defense counsel’s request for evidence it deems essential to his...

A shadow legal body was set up by the Defense Department to manipulate the prosecutions of U.S. Marines accused of massacring Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005. That’s the bombshell disclosure from the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm that is representing one of the accused Marines, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. And it could prove to be the most damning piece of evidence showing the political motivations behind the ongoing prosecutions of the Haditha Marines. “The hysteria and media firestorm over Abu Ghraib and the Pat Tillman investigations led to fear of a similar media reaction...

ANN ARBOR, MI – In oral arguments last week, the Thomas More Law Center asked Maryland state circuit court judge William Rowan III to overturn a Maryland Board of Education ruling that approves of public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, teaching 8th and 10th graders that homosexuality is innate—meaning they are born that way. The schools also show how to use condoms in anal and oral sex. Montgomery educators were forced to defend their new sex curriculum that promotes anal sex, homosexuality, bisexuality and transvestitism despite strong opposition from several pro-family groups. The controversial new curriculum was adopted as a...

Complaint Filed on Behalf of Firefighters Forced to Participate in San Diego "Gay Pride" SAN DIEGO, August 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced today that its West Coast Director, San Diego area attorney, Charles LiMandri, filed a sexual harassment and freedom of speech complaint in California state court on behalf of four respected San Diego firefighters. Charles LiMandri was also the Thomas More Law Center's lead counsel in the successful Mt. Soledad Cross case in San Diego. In July, four San Diego firefighters were ordered,...

Law firm will consider legal action against Rep. John Murtha Chad Groening OneNewsNow.com August 27, 2007 A Christian law firm hopes that once its client is cleared of charges in connection with the so-called Haditha massacre, it will consider legal action against one of the men responsible for the accusations: Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha. The Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center is representing Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani (USMC), who has been charged with not fully investigating the events at Haditha, Iraq, and failing to report a Law of War violation, in the aftermath of the November 19, 2005, incident that led...

SAN DIEGO – Four San Diego city firefighters have filed a complaint with the state saying their superiors forced them to participate in last month's gay pride parade, where they became targets of obscene gestures and sexual comments. An attorney for the four sent a letter to the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing on Aug. 1, requesting the right to file a sexual harassment lawsuit against the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. Fire Chief Tracy Jarman issued a statement yesterday saying she apologized to the men and plans to have the city's Equal Employment Investigative Office look into their...

ANN ARBOR, MI – Four respected San Diego firefighters were ordered, against their wishes, to participate in uniform on their city fire truck in the city’s annual “Gay Pride” parade. During the course of the ensuing three hour long ordeal, the firefighters were subjected to vile sexual taunts from homosexuals lining the parade route. This included the following statements: “show me your hose,” “you can put out my fire,” “you’re making me hot,” “give me mouth-to-mouth,” “you look hungry, why don’t you have a twinkie (from a man wearing a “Girth and Mirth” t-shirt),” and “blow my hose.” These firemen...

 Tue, Aug 7, 2007 Impending Clash in Haditha Case; Thomas More Law Center Calls Re-Opened Article 32 Hearing a Sham ANN ARBOR, MI - The ordered reopening of Lt. Colonel Jeffrey Chessani’s Article 32 Hearing scheduled to begin this Wednesday, without making any of the requested defense witnesses available, has been called “a sham” by the Thomas More Law Center. The order for a new hearing limited the hearing to only three days, beginning on Wednesday, August 8, 2007, and ending no later than Friday August 10, 2007. The impending clash is connected to the refusal of Government prosecutors...