Free Republic

The big news in political lies at the moment comes from a guy named George Santos. Santos has been newly-elected to Congress from New York’s 3rd District, a competitive seat covering parts of Queens and Nassau Counties. Although the districts got re-drawn for this election, most of Santos’s district was previously held by Democrats, Tom Suozzi and Steve Israel, for the last decade. So Santos became part of the mini-wave of Republican pickups that will lead to the takeover of Congress by a thin margin come January 3. On December 19, several weeks after the election, the New York Times...

Republicans in the minority on the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee declared Friday that there had been “no legitimate legislative purpose” for the Democratic majority to release Donald Trump’s tax returns. It was the first time Congress had ever obtained and released the federal tax returns of a private individual. Democrats claimed that they needed the returns as they considered future tax legislation. But the former president argued in court — to no avail — that Democrats were overstepping the separation of powers.

Last week, I reported on the Supreme Court's Kelo vs City of New London decision, which seriously weakened Constitutionally guaranteed private property rights. Now, in what can only be viewed as an attempt at pure poetic justice, a budding developer, businessman Logan Darrow Clements, has begun the process of seizing Supreme Court Justice David Souter's homestead in Weare, New Hampshire and replacing it with a hotel. Citing the Kelo decision, Clements has contacted Weare's building official, saying: "Although this property is owned by an individual, David H. Souter, a recent Supreme Court decision, "Kelo vs. City of New London" clears...

A private developer has contacted the local government in Supreme Court Justice David Souter's hometown in New Hampshire asking that the property of the judge – who voted in favor of a controversial decision allowing a city to take residents' homes for private development – be seized to make room for a new hotel. Yesterday, Logan Darrow Clements faxed a request to Chip Meany, the code enforcement officer of the town of Weare, N.H., seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road, the present location of Souter's home. Wrote Clements: "Although this property...