Perspectives; Thoughts; Comments; Opinions; Discussions

Archive for the ‘Law’ Category

Judge’s Abortion Pill Opinion Tells The Truth About ‘Unborn Humans,’ And The Left Can’t Stand It


BY: MARGOT CLEVELAND | APRIL 10, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/04/10/judges-abortion-pill-opinion-tells-the-truth-about-unborn-humans-and-the-left-cant-stand-it/

abortion pill protest after Roe v. Wade was reversed
In his 67-page straight-talking opinion, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk stuck to the facts — something Americans desperately need to hear after decades of euphemistic discussions about abortion.

Author Margot Cleveland profile

MARGOT CLEVELAND

VISIT ON TWITTER@PROFMJCLEVELAND

MORE ARTICLES

“Unborn humans.” “Eugenics.” “Head, hands, and legs, with defined fingers and toes.” “Shame, regret, anxiety, depression, drug abuse, and suicidal thoughts.”

Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s Friday decision freezing the FDA’s approval of the abortion-pill combination, mifepristone and misoprostol, included these phrases and more. And while the left is already attacking Kacsmaryk’s 67-page straight-talking opinion in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA by framing it as filled with anti-abortion rhetoric, the Trump appointee stuck to the facts — something Americans desperately need to hear after decades of euphemistic discussions about abortion.

After a brief introduction in which Kacsmaryk highlighted the FDA’s two decades of stonewalling that delayed a legal challenge to the 2000 approval of the abortion drugs, the court opened with the basic facts. The plaintiffs — doctors and medical associations that provide health care to pregnant and post-abortive women and girls — sued the FDA, challenging several administrative actions related to the approval of the chemical abortion drugs. 

‘Unborn Humans’

The court then explained the drugs and their functioning: “Mifepristone — also known as RU-486 or Mifeprex — is a synthetic steroid that blocks the hormone progesterone, halts nutrition, and ultimately starves the unborn human until death.” But “because mifepristone alone will not always complete the abortion,” the court continued, “the FDA mandates a two-step drug regimen: mifepristone to kill the unborn human, followed by misoprostol to induce cramping and contractions to expel the unborn human from the mother’s womb.”

Calling an unborn human an “unborn human” immediately triggered abortion activists, but as Kacsmaryk explained in a footnote, such terminology is scientifically correct, whereas the lawyers and courts “often use the word ‘fetus’ to inaccurately identify unborn humans in unscientific ways.”

“The word ‘fetus,’” Kacsmaryk explained, “refers to a specific gestational stage of development, as opposed to the zygote, blastocyst, or embryo stages.” And because the FDA’s approval of the abortion drugs applies at multiple “gestational stages,” the word “fetus” would be inaccurate.

It is understandable that abortion activists want to hide the humanity of unborn humans, but that doesn’t make the science less real: It just means girls and women who have bought the “clump of cells” narrative will suffer when faced with the truth, which chemical “at home abortions” force. 

“The mother seeing the aborted human ‘appears to be a difficult aspect of the medical termination process which can be distressing, bring home the reality of the event and may influence later emotional adaptation,’” the court wrote, based on the record evidence. “For example, one woman was surprised and saddened to see that her aborted baby ‘had a head, hands, and legs’ with ‘[d]efined fingers and toes.’” 

Another woman alleged that “she did not receive an ultrasound or any other physical examination before receiving chemical abortion drugs from Planned Parenthood.” According to the record, “The abortionist misdated the baby’s gestational age as six weeks, resulting in the at-home delivery of a ‘lifeless, fully formed baby in the toilet,’ later determined to be around 30-36 weeks old.” 

Harm to Women

Beyond exposing the reality that abortion kills an unborn human, Kacsmaryk’s opinion also refuted the “popular belief and talking points” that using the abortion pill is “as easy as taking Advil.” Here, the federal judge detailed the factual evidence. Among other things, “bleeding from a chemical abortion, unlike surgical abortion, can last up to several weeks,” and by being done at home, “without physician oversight,” it can lead “to undetected ectopic pregnancies, failure of rH factor incompatibility detection, and misdiagnosis of gestational age — all leading to severe or even fatal consequences.” 

The opinion also countered the claim that side effects are rare by highlighting evidence that “over sixty percent of women and girls’ emergency room visits after chemical abortions are miscoded as ‘miscarriages’ rather than adverse effects to mifepristone.” 

The evidence also shows emotional and psychological injury, Kacsmaryk stressed, with 77 percent of women who underwent a chemical abortion reporting “a negative change” after the at-home abortion, and 38 percent of women reporting issues “with anxiety, depression, drug abuse, and suicidal thoughts because of the chemical abortion.” 

While the abortion industry prefers to cite its own evidence, as Kacsmaryk noted, those studies are flawed both because of the miscoding of chemical abortions as miscarriages and because the FDA stopped requiring the reporting of non-fatal adverse reactions.

Eugenic Roots

The left also didn’t like Kacsmaryk exposing the eugenic beliefs of the Population Council, which had sought FDA approval for the abortion drugs. John D. Rockefeller founded the Population Council in 1952, “after he convened a conference with ‘population activists’ such as Planned Parenthood’s director and several well-known eugenicists,” the court wrote. Attendees of that conference discussed “the problem of ‘quality,’” and concluded that “[m]odern civilization had reduced the operation of natural selection by saving more ‘weak’ lives and enabling them to reproduce,” thereby resulting in “a downward trend in … genetic quality.”

“[m]odern civilization had reduced the operation of natural selection by saving more ‘weak’ lives and enabling them to reproduce,” thereby resulting in “a downward trend in … genetic quality.” …….. “Natural Selection”????? Can you say, “disciples of Margarete Sanger”?

Many Americans remain oblivious to the historical backdrop eugenics played to the abortion movement, and activist groups prefer they remain in the dark. The sunlight Kacsmaryk shined upon that truth infuriates them.

Political Pressure

Judge Kacsmaryk also exposed the political pressure placed on the FDA to approve the abortion drug — something Americans are likely to appreciate more today in the aftermath of the FDA’s hasty approval of the Covid mRNA shots. 

In the case of the abortion pill, the FDA took the unprecedented step of arranging a meeting between the French pharmaceutical company that owned the patent rights and the eventual drug sponsor, the Population Council. “The purpose of the FDA-organized meeting was ‘to facilitate an agreement between those parties to work together to test [mifepristone] and file a new drug application.’” 

Evidence further shows the Department of Health and Human Services “initiated” another meeting to determine how the Clinton administration “might facilitate successful completion of the negotiations” between the French firm and the Population Council to ensure the group secure patent rights and eventual FDA approval.” In fact, Clinton’s HHS secretary “believed American pressure on the French firm was necessary.”

Then after the Population Council submitted a new drug application, the FDA proposed detailed restrictions to address safety concerns, including that the drug be administered by doctors “trained and authorized by law” to perform surgical abortions; trained in administering mifepristone and treating adverse events; and able to provide treatment at a medical facility that had the equipment necessary to perform surgical abortions, resuscitation procedures, and blood transfusion, within one hour’s drive. The FDA’s restrictions were leaked to the press, prompting a political firestorm. 

So Much for Safety

The FDA later abandoned the above safety mandates and approved the drug for use to kill unborn humans aged seven-weeks gestation or younger. The FDA further required three “in-person office visits: the first to administer mifepristone, the second to administer misoprostol, and the third to assess any complications and ensure there were no fetal remains in the womb.” All adverse events were also required to be reported. 

In 2002, the FDA removed even more of the safety restrictions, increasing the maximum gestational age from seven-weeks gestation to 10-weeks gestation, reducing the number of office visits from three to one, increasing the drug dosage, allowing non-doctors to prescribe and administer chemical abortions, and eliminating the requirement for non-fatal adverse reactions to be reported. Then in 2019, the FDA approved a generic version of the abortion pills, and on April 12, 2021, the FDA announced it would allow abortion pills to be dispensed through the mail. 

“Whether FDA abandoned its proposed restrictions because of political pressure or not,” the court wrote, “one thing is clear: the lack of restrictions resulted in many deaths and many more severe or threatening adverse reactions.” But “due to FDA’s lax reporting requirements, the exact number is not ascertainable,” Kacsmaryk stressed. 

Straight Facts

But it was not on politics that Kacsmaryk based his decision to freeze the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill. Rather, in his methodical opinion, the federal judge explained that the FDA lacked the authority to accelerate approval of the drug under what is called “Subpart H” of the FDA. That subpart only allows for accelerated approval of drugs that treat “serious or life-threatening illnesses” — something pregnancy is not. 

Kacsmaryk also concluded the evidence the FDA supposedly relied upon to approve the abortion drugs failed to support the conclusion that they were “safe and effective under particular conditions of use.” And finally, Kacsmaryk held the FDA’s approval of mail distribution violated the 1873 Comstock Act, which makes it illegal to use the mail to deliver any “article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.” 

The Biden administration has already filed a notice of appeal with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and in issuing his opinion in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, Kacsmaryk entered a temporary stay, which he or the court of appeals will likely make permanent pending resolution of the case. Thus, abortion pills will remain available for now. 

How the Fifth Circuit and eventually the Supreme Court will rule remains to be seen, but what is clear now is the abortion-loving left is desperate to keep the truth about abortion from the public and is furious that Kacsmaryk dared to expose the reality: Abortion kills unborn humans.


Margot Cleveland is The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.

Florida Sheriff Billy Woods goes off after reporter asks about gun control following teen murders


By Audrey Conklin | Fox News | Published April 7, 2023 12:54pm EDT

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-sheriff-billy-woods-goes-off-reporter-asks-about-gun-control-following-teen-murders

Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods on Friday slammed “society,” “school districts” and gun law rhetoric after announcing the arrests of two juveniles — one of which is just 12 years old — in connection with the recent killings of three teenagers in Florida.

A third juvenile suspect remains at large, and the attorney general’s office is weighing whether to charge all three suspects as adults, Woods said during a press conference.

“The fact is: society fails them. We do not hold our juveniles accountable. We minimize their actions,” Woods said Friday.

The suspects are accused of fatally shooting 16-year-old Layla Silvernail, 16-year-old Camille Quarles, and an unnamed 17-year-old male on or around March 30 in rural Marion County.

FLORIDA POLICE ARREST 2 JUVENILE SUSPECTS IN MURDERS OF 3 TEENS, HUNT FOR THIRD SUSPECT

Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods blames society and school district failures for three juvenile suspects accused of killing three teenagers around March 30.
Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods blames society and school district failures for three juvenile suspects accused of killing three teenagers around March 30. (Fox News)

Woods told reporters he had to “look into the eyes” of the suspects’ mothers and inform them of their son’s crimes.

“Really, [the suspects’ parents] don’t have a whole lot to say. If you’re a parent, put yourself in their shoes. Holy hell. Panic. I’m scared to death as a parent. Embarrassed. Ashamed. What do you think they’re gonna say?” the sheriff said.

FLORIDA TRIPLE HOMICIDE VICTIMS LIKELY KNEW GANG-LINKED SUSPECTS, SHERIFF SAYS

“I am a father, and I cannot fathom what they were going through. These mothers and the mothers across this nation need all of your help because here’s what infuriates me,” he added.

"I am a father, and I cannot fathom what they were going through. These mothers and the mothers across this nation need all of your help because here's what infuriates me," Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said.
“I am a father, and I cannot fathom what they were going through. These mothers and the mothers across this nation need all of your help because here’s what infuriates me,” Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said. (Marion County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook)

The sheriff also criticized media and others who put the blame on guns after a shooting.

“There are individuals out there viewing … who want to blame the one thing that has no ability or the capacity to commit the crime itself, and that’s the gun,” Woods said. “These individuals committed the crime.”

THIRD FLORIDA TEEN DIES IN SUSPECTED GANG-LINKED TRIPLE HOMICIDE

He added that he does not know what the solution is, but “[t]he bad guy’s going to get a gun no matter what laws you put in place.” Woods went on to blame society and schools for not holding juveniles accountable for their crimes.

Layla Silvernail, left, and Camille Quarles, along with an unidentified 17-year-old male, were shot and left for dead in Marion County, Florida, between March 30 and April 1.
Layla Silvernail, left, and Camille Quarles, along with an unidentified 17-year-old male, were shot and left for dead in Marion County, Florida, between March 30 and April 1. (Facebook/Layla Silvernail/Camille Quarles)

“I am a father,” he said. “But here’s the one thing my boys know: growing up, the freaking barber had my permission to whip their a–es.”

The suspects in the triple homicide were involved in a burglary and robbery ring and stole their firearms from cars, Woods said.

“A simple burglary, as some people would say — but I don’t consider anything ‘simple’ when it comes to a burglary — if the law allows me, I’ll plaster their face up … on my page, on media, I will hand it out if the law allows me because parents have the right to know who their kids are hanging out with and preventing this,” Woods said.

He continued, “Our school districts, not just here, across this state and across this nation need to stop minimizing the actions of their students. Hold them accountable. That’s where the failure is.”

Police first found Silvernail with a gunshot wound, lying on the side of the road in the area of Forest Lakes Park on SE 183rd Avenue Road. Authorities transported the teenager to a hospital in critical condition, and she lost brain function until she was pronounced dead.

Three teenage shooting victims were found left for dead miles apart in Marion County, Florida, between March 30 and April 1.
Three teenage shooting victims were found left for dead miles apart in Marion County, Florida, between March 30 and April 1. (America’s Newsroom)

A day after finding Silvernail, Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) deputies responded to SE 94th Street and SE 188th Court and located a deceased 17-year-old male with a gunshot wound.

The next morning, on April 1, the MCSO Major Crimes Unit, Forensic Unit and Underwater Recovery Team responded to a tip and searched the area of Malauka Loop and Malauka Loop Trace and found Silvernail’s vehicle partially submerged in a body of water. The car was about 9 miles from where Silvernail was found.

GABBY PETITO’S PARENTS ASK BRIAN LAUNDRIE’S PARENTS ABOUT MAJOR WITHDRAWALS IN NEW COURT FILINGS

The suspects were in Silvernail’s vehicle with the victims prior to their deaths, according to the sheriff. Authorities believe all three victims were shot at the same time.

“She was there of her own free will,” Woods said of Silvernail.

Layla Silvernail's family is planning to donate the 16-year-old's organs, according to a GoFundMe.
Layla Silvernail’s family is planning to donate the 16-year-old’s organs, according to a GoFundMe. (Facebook/Layla Silvernail)

After obtaining a search warrant and searching her vehicle, authorities found 16-year-old Quarles dead from a gunshot wound in Silvernail’s car. The arrested suspects confessed to shooting Quarles in the vehicle, Woods said.

Woods previously told Fox News Digital that he believed the suspects were part of a “wannabe” or “neighborhood” gang, and the victims likely knew them for a short time.

Police have not released the name of the male victim who was killed.

Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.

House Oversight Committee subpoenas banks for Biden family financial records


By Chad Pergram , Adam Sabes | Fox News | Published April 7, 2023 3:21pm EDT

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-oversight-committee-subpoenas-banks-biden-family-financial-records

The House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas to banks asking for the Biden family’s financial records.

Fox News has confirmed that the Oversight Committee subpoenaed Bank of America, Cathay Bank, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC USA N.A., as well as former Hunter Biden business associate Mervyn Yan asking for financial records.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, complained that Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., was trying to hide information regarding the investigation from Democrats on the committee.

COMER DEMANDS BIDEN CORRECT HIS ‘DISHONEST’ DENIAL THAT FAMILY GOT $1M FROM HUNTER’S CHINA DEAL

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., leads an organizational meeting for the 118th Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., leads an organizational meeting for the 118th Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

In a statement to Fox News, Comer said “Ranking Member Raskin has again disclosed Committee’s subpoenas in a cheap attempt to thwart cooperation from other witnesses. Given his antics with the first bank subpoena, the American people and media should be asking what information Ranking Member Raskin is trying to hide this time. No one should be fooled by Ranking Member Raskin’s games. We have the bank records, and the facts are not good for the Biden family.

President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, step off Air Force One, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, N.Y. 
President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, step off Air Force One, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, N.Y.  (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

The Oversight Committee Democratic staff sent a memo to members on Thursday which accuses Republicans of conducting their investigation behind a “veil of secrecy.”

COMER DEFENDS DECISION TO SHIELD WITNESSES FROM DEMS IN HUNTER BIDEN PROBE, SAYS SOME ‘DO NOT TRUST’ RASKIN

“Despite this massive investment of time and resources, Republican efforts on this and other congressional committees have failed to yield any evidence of misconduct by President Biden. Nevertheless, Chairman Comer has issued six document subpoenas for financial records as part of this renewed investigation, several of which have been based on information Committee Republicans know to be false,” the memo states.

The Democratic memo alleges that Republicans haven’t been publicizing their subpoenas or notifying Democrats, which has purportedly resulted in some targets of subpoenas being unaware that the committee is seeking their records.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

President Biden speaks during the annual House Democrats Issues Conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Baltimore on March 1, 2023.
President Biden speaks during the annual House Democrats Issues Conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Baltimore on March 1, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“On February 27, 2023, Chairman Comer secretly issued the Committee’s first document subpoena as part of Committee Republicans’ ongoing investigation into the Biden family to Bank of America. This subpoena sought, among other information, “all financial records” from January 20, 2009, to the present — a staggering 14-year period — for John R. Walker, a private U.S. citizen… Yet, because of Chairman Comer’s use of a secret subpoena, Mr. Walker was never notified that the Committee had subpoenaed his financial records from Bank of America, he was never notified that Bank of America turned over his records to the Committee, and he was never notified that the Committee was publicly releasing information from these records,” the memo states.

Chad Pergram currently serves as a senior congressional correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.

Maoist survivor issues chilling warning to those celebrating Trump arrest: ‘Cheering for your own demise’


By Bailee Hill | Fox News | Published April 6, 2023 2:00pm EDT

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/media/maoist-survivor-issues-chilling-warning-celebrating-trump-arrest-cheering-own-demise

A survivor of the Chinese Cultural Revolution issued a chilling warning on the heels of the Trump indictment, arguing the tumultuous past of communist China is “repeating itself” in the U.S.

Xi Van Fleet, a Maoist survivor, joined “Fox & Friends First” to discuss why Tuesday, the day former President Donald Trump was arraigned in Manhattan, will be remembered as one of the “darkest” days in history. 

“You are cheering for your own demise, because… April 4th, 2023, would be remembered as one of the darkest day[s] in America when the Democrats made our country… a banana republic of communism,” Fleet told Todd Piro on Thursday. 

TRUMP FACES MAXIMUM SENTENCE OF 136 YEARS IN PRISON FOR 34-COUNT INDICTMENT

The former president was formally charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. The indictment was predicated on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s years-long investigation into alleged hush money payments prior to the 2016 election. 

He has faced rampant bipartisan criticism surrounding the strength of the charges, and some have even tabled the move as “political persecution.”

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower in New York on Monday for his expected booking and arraignment the following day on charges arising from hush money payments during his 2016 campaign.
Former President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower in New York on Monday for his expected booking and arraignment the following day on charges arising from hush money payments during his 2016 campaign. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Fleet noted that when she was growing up in China, Mao weaponized the law to target his political enemies, and that is now happening in the U.S., she warned. 

TRUMP SLAMS BRAGG AFTER PLEADING NOT GUILTY: ‘I NEVER THOUGHT ANYTHING LIKE THIS COULD HAPPEN IN AMERICA’

“When the totalitarian wins, no one is safe, we will all become victim[s],” Fleet said. “After the cultural revolution, what happened is China was brought to ruins and 20 some million lives lost. American people need to learn the history of the communism and to see that it is repeating right here in America.”

Hung Cao, who is a retired Navy captain, fled Vietnam decades ago, just before the fall of Saigon. He echoed Fleet’s sentiment on Thursday, saying Americans are falling “prey” to totalitarian leadership in wake of the indictment. 

“My grandfather was hauled away in the middle night. He was a magistrate and murdered in front of my mom, and so it’s just one of those things where if this can happen in the United States, that it can happen anywhere,” Cao said. 

“This is why I fought for this country for so many years. I wore uniform for 30 years and fought in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, for things like this, and here we are,” he continued. “We’ve fallen prey to all of this.”

CHINESE EMBASSY SENDS THREATENING LETTER TO CONGRESS OVER TAIWAN MEETING, WARNS IT ‘WILL NOT SIT IDLY BY’

Meanwhile, some critics worry China is celebrating the unprecedented indictment, in an effort to derail the significance of American democracy on the world stage. This could, in turn, have an impact on heightening bilateral tensions over Taiwan as relations between Washington and Beijing remain icy at best. 

The South China Morning Post, a media organization funded by the pro-China e-commerce firm Alibaba, published an op-ed saying China is “chuckling at the irony” of Trump’s arrest. 

“Chinese didn’t always feel the need, nor have the ammunition, to lampoon the U.S. political system,” the article says. “However, the generation of young people who shouted ‘Long live President Wilson’ at the end of World War I, and the idealistic generation who endorsed a ‘fight for freedom and democracy’ in Tiananmen Square in 1989, have little in common with young Chinese people today who see no upside to emulating American democracy.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

A delegation of U.S. lawmakers traveled to Taiwan to meet with the island’s leaders, despite clear warnings from Chinese officials that came on the heels of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s historic meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Simi Valley, California, on Wednesday. 

“We have to show them that we’re going to stand with them and have the Seventh Fleet standing by to support them in case something happens,” Cao said. 

The Chinese military had a fleet surrounding the island during the lawmakers’ visit, according to Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas. Despite the “intimidation” tactics, he insisted the delegation would not succumb to the threats.   

Video

Bailee Hill is an associate editor with Fox News Digital. Story ideas can be sent to bailee.hill@fox.com 

Rep. James Comer: Investigation into Biden Corruption ‘Doesn’t Look Good for POTUS’


BY: JORDAN BOYD | APRIL 04, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/04/04/rep-james-comer-investigation-into-biden-corruption-doesnt-look-good-for-potus/

James Comer on Biden family corruption
‘This investigation is moving along at a lot faster pace, I think, than most people would have predicted,’ Comer said.

Author Jordan Boyd profile

JORDAN BOYD

VISIT ON TWITTER@JORDANBOYDTX

MORE ARTICLES

In the House Oversight Committee’s (HOC) latest update on its investigation into the corruption of President Joe Biden, Chairman James Comer announced several former Biden family associates have eagerly agreed to speak with Republicans about how they were “left out to dry” by the Bidens.

“It doesn’t look good for @POTUS,” Comer warned during a Fox News segment on Monday.

Comer said that the HOC is in discussions with four associates who have inside knowledge about the foreign dealings the Bidens made with several of America’s political enemies. This, combined with potential testimony from two other associates who are currently tied up in litigation concerning their roles in Biden family businesses, could give the committee proof that the White House is compromised.

“If you look at everyone who’s ever been in business with Biden, whether it be Hunter Biden or Joe Biden, none of them ended well, none of the businesses ended well. Most of the businesses never got started off the ground,” Comer said. “Any money that was transferred in from China or adversaries around the world ended up in the Bidens’ back pockets.”

Now, Comer said, the HOC also has possession of the Biden family’s “suspicious activity” reports from the Treasury Department and subpoenaed the family’s bank records which will expedite Republicans’ investigation significantly.

The HOC confirmed in March that several Biden family members, including Hunter Biden, James Biden, Hallie Biden, an unknown “Biden,” and companies linked to the family “collectively received $1.3 million in payments from accounts related to Rob Walker, a Biden family associate.” Within six months of Vice President Joe Biden leaving the White House and after several bank transfers, the Bidens received the money.

Comer said the HOC still did not know who the unnamed Biden was in the China transaction because the Biden family holds so many bank accounts and LLCs.

“That right there is a red flag,” Comer said. “That’s one reason they got so many bank violations. If they’re in a legitimate business, why do you have to have so many different LLCs, and why, when China sends you a wire, do you have to send it through one, two, or even three LLCs to launder it before then hits a Biden bank account? This whole thing stinks to high heaven.”

Despite this, Comer said that once the HOC gains access to the LLCs, it can assess the Biden family’s bookkeeping habits.

“It’ll be interesting to see how and if they paid any taxes on this revenue that was coming in from our adversaries around the world,” Comer said. “What all did they write off?”

He also expressed optimism about the speed of the HOC’s investigation thus far.

“This investigation is moving along at a lot faster pace, I think, than most people would have predicted,” Comer said.


Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.

No One Is Above the Law? Give Me A Break


BY: DAVID HARSANYI | APRIL 04, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/04/04/no-one-is-above-the-law-give-me-a-break/

The Clintons at Donald Trump's inauguration
On exacting poetic political justice.

Author David Harsanyi profile

DAVID HARSANYI

VISIT ON TWITTER@DAVIDHARSANYI

MORE ARTICLES

Lock Donald Trump up, or don’t lock him up, but don’t tell me that “no one is above the law.” It’s one of the most ludicrous fantasies peddled by the left.

Plenty of people are “above the law.” James Clapper, who lied under oath to Congress about spying on the American people, is above the law. John Brennan, who lied about a domestic spying operation on Senate staffers, is above the law. Unlike Trump advisor Peter Navarro, Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder was never going to be handcuffed and thrown in prison for ignoring a congressional subpoena. He is above the law.

Trump’s 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, is also above the law. The then-Secretary of State set up a private server in her home to circumvent transparency surrounding her slush-fund foundation. She sent 110 emails containing marked classified information, and 36 of those emails contained secret information. Eight of the email chains contained “top secret” information. Every one of those instances was a potential felony punishable with up to ten years in prison.

We learned all of this from James Comey, then FBI director, who noted that Hillary had been “extremely careless” in conducting her business. Comey didn’t recommend charges because, he claimed, the state couldn’t prove Clinton’s intent — even though “gross negligence,” not intent, was the only standard he needed. Gross negligence and extreme carelessness are synonyms. Comey concocted a new standard to protect Clinton because she is above the law.

When Hillary’s husband, also above the law, perjured himself under oath, Democrats argued that puritanical conservatives were only pursuing Bill because of some trumped-up charge over “sex.” Using that logic, Trump’s campaign finance charges related to Stormy Daniels’ “hush money” are also about sex. This is different because Trump is the boogeyman, and everyone knows he’s guilty of something. The important thing is getting that mug shot.

Don’t worry, though; former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says, “Everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence.” By “everyone,” she means Republicans. And if you think this authoritarian formulation is an accident, you haven’t been paying attention. When Democrats were smearing Brett Kavanaugh as a (gang) rapist a few years back, Mazie Hirono was asked whether the then-nominee deserved the “same presumption of innocence as anyone else in America?” After all, this wasn’t about any judicial disagreement but about alleged criminal behavior. The Hawaii senator responded, “I put his denial in the context of everything that I know about him in terms of how he approaches his cases.”

In other words, if you’re a conservative, your politics are evil; and if your politics are evil, you’re probably evil. I imagine that was the rationalization used by Kamala Harris when reading obvious fabrications about Kavanaugh into the Congressional Record. It is likely the rationalization of Lois Lerner or Merrick Garland — both above the law — when they weaponized government agencies against political opponents. It is almost surely the rationalization of Alvin Bragg. This is what justifies the contemporary left’s increasing comfort with deploying the state to punish and destroy political enemies. For many progressives, the legal system isn’t merely a tool for criminal justice (if that) but a way to exact poetic political justice.

(Though it should probably be mentioned that Alvin Bragg promised to use the DA’s office to enact social justice, not any kind of impartial or neutral justice. People who don’t pay for public transportation, those who trespass, those who resist arrest, those who obstruct governmental administration, or those involved in prostitution, are all above the law in New York City.)

Despite there being perfectly sound political arguments against Trump, we have been on a hysterical journey that has taken us from accusing Trump of being a seditious actor working on the orders of an antagonistic foreign government — the most successful conspiracy theory ever spun in American politics — to indicting him on some rickety seven-year-old campaign finance violation charge. Giving a porn star “hush money” is an immorality, not an illegality. Are DAs now going to be in the business of indicting political opponents who put $130,000 on the wrong side of the ledger during a race that cost hundreds of millions of dollars? I look forward to this kind of justice being meted out equally.

Everyone knows, of course, what’s going to happen when (or if) Republicans return the favor. Cries of fascism, that’s what. When Harry Reid blew up the judicial filibuster, it was to preserve the republic. When Republicans use that very precedent for themselves, they are power-hungry partisans. When Democrats throw congressmen off subcommittees, they do it for democracy. When Republicans follow suit, they are bigots. When a Republican governor retaliates against Disney for involving itself in educational issues, it’s 1933 all over again. But when a Democrat governor punishes companies like Walgreens for their stand on abortion drugs, it is a blow against injustice. This goes on and on and on.

Not that anyone cares about double standards anymore. I’m not naïve. And no one is innocent in politics. But the contemporary left’s utter and growing disdain for any semblance of limiting principles — the kind of abuse that helped Trump win the presidency in the first place — continues to do profound damage to the system. Trump is an easy target. The next target, I assure you, will be a Republican who is even “worse than Trump.” And the justifications for throwing out norms to stop them will be exactly the same.

Conservatives who contend that Democrats won’t like where the Trump arraignment leads are probably engaged in some wish-casting. Those who hold the upper hand in our major institutions aren’t too worried about short-term threats of retribution. And, anyway, progressives love Calvinball, a “system” of constantly shifting norms that rewards those most willing to use power. That’s the point.


David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist, a nationally syndicated columnist, a Happy Warrior columnist at National Review, and author of five books—the most recent, Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent. He has appeared on Fox News, C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News and radio talk shows across the country. Follow him on Twitter, @davidharsanyi.

Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records linked to 2016 hush money payments


By Brooke Singman , Jake Gibson | Fox News | Published April 4, 2023 3:52pm EDT

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-charges

Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty in New York City court Tuesday after being charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges, which are related to hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign, came out of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s years-long investigation. 

Bragg alleged that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”

In 2019, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits at the defense table with his defense team in a Manhattan court during his arraignment on April 4, 2023, in New York City.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits at the defense table with his defense team in a Manhattan court during his arraignment on April 4, 2023, in New York City. (Photo by Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images)

Trump surrendered to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and was arraigned in court Tuesday afternoon after being indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last week.

The indictment was unsealed in court during Trump’s arraignment Tuesday before Judge Juan Merchan, the trial judge presiding over the case. Trump was charged in a New York Supreme Court indictment with 34 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree.

https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/04/e2e16898-Donald-J.-Trump-Indictment.pdf

Bragg is alleging that Trump falsified New York business records in order to “conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election.” 

“During the election, TRUMP and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects,” Bragg alleged. “TRUMP then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.” 

Former US President Donald Trump makes his way inside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York on April 4, 2023. 
Former US President Donald Trump makes his way inside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York on April 4, 2023.  (Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

According to New York state law, a charge of falsifying business records in the first degree alleges that the defendant committed a crime of falsifying business records with the intent to defraud. The intent to defraud would be an intent to commit another crime. 

Trump pleaded not guilty. The judge did not impose a gag order. The judge said he would like to move ahead as expeditiously as possible with the case. The next hearing in the case is Dec. 4, 2023 in the same Lower Manhattan court.

The prosecution wants a trial in January 2024—the height of the GOP presidential primary season. Trump’s defense wants to delay that as long as possible.

Bragg alleged former Trump attorney Michael Cohen orchestrated the hush money payments on behalf of Trump. 
Bragg alleged former Trump attorney Michael Cohen orchestrated the hush money payments on behalf of Trump.  (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

According to the indictment, Bragg alleged that Trump, from August 2015 to December 2017, “orchestrated a ‘catch and kill’ scheme through a series of payments that he then concealed through months of false business entries.”

Bragg alleges that American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman, who claimed to have a story about a child Trump had out of wedlock.

Stormy Daniels reacted to former President Donald Trump's arraignment with an X-rated tweet.
Stormy Daniels reacted to former President Donald Trump’s arraignment with an X-rated tweet. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images/Photo by Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images)

Bragg also alleges American Media Inc. paid $150,000 to a woman who alleged a sexual relationship with Trump. It appears Bragg is referring to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

DONALD TRUMP AND STORMY DANIELS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Playboy model Karen McDougal, right. 
Playboy model Karen McDougal, right. 

Trump “explicitly directed a lawyer,” an apparent reference to Michael Cohen, to “reimburse” American Media Inc. in cash, Bragg charges. He alleged that Cohen, “12 days before the presidential general election,” wired $130,000 to an attorney for an adult film actress—an apparent reference to Stormy Daniels.

Cohen pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison for violating campaign finance laws related to the payments, among other federal charges. Cohen pleaded guilty to arranging the payments but maintains that Trump directed them.

Former US President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City Tuesday, April 4, 2023. Mandatory Credit: 
Former US President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City Tuesday, April 4, 2023. Mandatory Credit:  (Thomas P. Costello – USA Today Network)

Bragg alleged that after the election, Trump reimbursed Cohen through a series of monthly checks— “first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust – created in New York to hold the Trump Organization’s assets during TRUMP’s presidency – and later from TRUMP’s bank account. In total, 11 checks were issued for a phony purpose.”

“Nine of those checks were signed by TRUMP,” Bragg charges. “Each check was processed by the Trump Organization and illegally disguised as a payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a non-existent retainer agreement.

“In total, 34 false entries were made in New York business records to conceal the initial covert $130,000 payment . . . Further, participants in the scheme took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the reimbursements.”

Opponents of former US president Donald Trump protest outside the Manhattan District Attorney's office in New York on April 4, 2023.
Opponents of former US president Donald Trump protest outside the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in New York on April 4, 2023. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP/ Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

The former President of the United States, and the leading Republican presidential candidate for 2024, was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury Thursday after a years-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which began in 2019. 

Trump was not handcuffed, as some are during an arraignment, after making arrangements with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Detectives within the office handled the arrest of the former president.

The payments to Daniels and McDougal had been investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York and by the Federal Election Commission.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks on Donald Trump arraignment April 4, 2023.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks on Donald Trump arraignment April 4, 2023. (Fox News)

TRUMP SAYS DA BRAGG’S ‘OBSESSION’ WITH TRYING TO ‘GET TRUMP’ WILL ‘BACKFIRE’ AFTER GRAND JURY INDICTMENT

The charges against the former president come after federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Daniels payment in 2019.

Also, the Federal Election Commission, in 2021, dropped its case on the same issue— examining whether Trump violated election law with the $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels, after it “failed by a vote of 2-2 to…find reason to believe that Donald J. Trump knowingly and willfully violated” federal election law.” 

TRUMP TARGETED: A LOOK AT THE INVESTIGATIONS INVOLVING THE FORMER PRESIDENT; FROM RUSSIA TO MAR-A-LAGO

“The People of the State of New York allege that Donald J. Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” Bragg said in a statement after the arraignment. 

“As the Statement of Facts describes, the trail of money and lies exposes a pattern that, the People allege, violates one of New York’s basic and fundamental business laws,” Bragg said. “As this office has done time and time again, we today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law.” 

Trump has slammed the DA’s investigation and the indictment as “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.”

Fox News’ Bill Mears contributed to this report. 

Brooke Singman is a Fox News Digital politics reporter. You can reach her at Brooke.Singman@Fox.com or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.

If ‘No One Is Above The Law,’ Democrats And Their Partisan Pawns Would Be Arraigned, Not Trump


BY: JORDAN BOYD | MARCH 31, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/31/if-no-one-is-above-the-law-democrats-and-their-partisan-pawns-would-be-arraigned-not-trump/

POTUS Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton
If Democrats truly valued rule of law, they would pursue cases against many more people before even considering indicting Trump.

Author Jordan Boyd profile

JORDAN BOYD

VISIT ON TWITTER@JORDANBOYDTX

MORE ARTICLES

America’s two-tiered justice system status was solidified on Thursday after a Manhattan grand jury voted to hit former President Donald Trump with a felony indictment and the threat of imprisonment. Cue the chorus of Democrats and corporate media mouthpieces who spent all of Thursday night on Twitter condescendingly warning: “no one is above the law, not even the former president.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the anti-Trump Adams, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Rep. Adam Schiff, and even Trump’s ex-attorney Michael Cohen say Trump- or anyone else- doesn’t just get a free pass because he’s a 2024 presidential candidate. Yet, it doesn’t take an expert to know that the sole reason Trump ever faced indictment is because his political enemies requested it.

In addition to suggesting that Trump is not “above the law,” former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed that the former president has the opportunity to “prove innocence” in court. Of course, the law, smugly touted by Pelosi, dictates that defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty- not the other way around.

Whether Pelosi’s “innocence” comment was a Freudian slip or a genuine assertion, we may never know. What we do know is that for years, Democrats have operated under the belief that their party members and their partisan allies are above the law.

1. The Criminals Alvin Bragg Refused To Prosecute

While Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was busy searching for ways to indict Trump, violent criminals were taking over New York City streets.

During Bragg’s first year in office, major crime in New York City increased by 22 percent. Since then, the DA has made a career out of reducing charges for armed robbers, freeing cop-beaters, relaxing bail, and letting violent antisemites off.

Bragg’s soft-on-crime policies may have earned him left-wing billionaire financier George Soros’ favor and dollars, but even Democrat-voting New Yorkers know that he’s no stranger to giving better treatment to convicts than law-abiding people like this bodega owner who defended himself against a murderous criminal.

2. Hillary Clinton

If Democrats truly cared about campaign finance law violations, they would have already prosecuted several members of their party, including Hillary Clinton.

In 2022, the Federal Elections Commission fined Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign for falsely attributing the money that the Democrat used to orchestrate the Russian collusion hoax. If Trump is guilty of intent to conceal a campaign finance crime, a motivated prosecutor might look at the DNC and Clinton campaign’s efforts to hide their involvement in the so-called Steele “dossier” and find they were guilty of the same crime.

In addition to her election meddling, Clinton and her staff mishandled highly classified information, which resulted in at least 91 security violations. Instead of raiding her house and asking the DOJ to prosecute her, the FBI “inexplicably agreed to destroy [Clinton staffers Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson’s] laptops knowing that the contents were the subject of Congressional subpoenas and preservation letters.”

Clinton also played a central role in the decision to abandon four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, where they were murdered by terrorists.

3. Barack Obama

Before Clinton was forced to pay for her scheming, President Barack Obama faced “one of the largest fees ever levied against a presidential campaign,” $375,000, for “campaign reporting violations.” Instead of facing calls for prison time, Obama received years of protection from the corporate media and fake fact-checkers who repeatedly downplayed his violation as a proportionally small infraction compared to the billion dollars he raised on the campaign trail.

4. Election Law-Breakers Like Marc Elias

Marc Elias has repeatedly tried to undermine U.S. elections. He has such a reputation for meddling and manipulating elections that even a federal judge reprimanded him for it. Unlike Douglass Mackey, who was charged by the DOJ for posting a meme encouraging Hillary voters to “text” their votes, however, Elias has not faced any charges or unannounced raids.

5. President Joe Biden

A president avoiding paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes seems like the kind of thing federal agencies, including the recently financially invigorated Internal Revenue Service, should explore. Yet Biden, who hasn’t explained millions of dollars of his recorded income, and First Lady Jill Biden together reportedly dodged about $517,000 in Medicare and Obamacare taxes between 2017 and 2020 without scrutiny.

6. Hunter Biden

The president’s son isn’t just a walking liability for the Biden family name, he’s a glaring national security threat with a long, infamous history of using illicit drugs, engaging in possibly criminal sexual escapades with foreign women, and selling access to his dad under the guise of doing business with foreign oligarchs from places like China.

Besides all this and his reckless handling of a lost gun in 2018 — which, against normal protocol, the Secret Service reportedly helped him cover up — Hunter likely lied on federal forms about his drug use to purchase that gun, a felony, with barely a whisper of punishment.

7. Eric Swalwell

Speaking of communist China, Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell canoodling with a known spy for the nation’s No. 1 enemy seems like a pretty serious offense. Instead of a member of the House Intelligence Committee facing consequences for giving foreign spies access to key U.S. government offices and information, Swalwell is still comfortably rage-tweeting about Trump and MAGA supporters and appearing as a guest on corrupt corporate media programs.

8. Eric Holder

Former Attorney General Eric Holder misled Congress during its investigation of the Obama-era “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal, which used taxpayer dollars to put guns into the hands of Mexican drug lords. Holder was held in contempt, but that’s pretty much the only punishment he received for intentionally dodging subpoenas and hiding documents from congressional oversight.

9. Susan Rice

President Barack Obama’s National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, unmasked members of the Trump transition team and then lied about it. Unmasking may be a legitimate and legal process for those with the authority, but covering up an attempt to target the political enemies of the regime is an abuse of power that deserves examination.

Instead, it was yet another action taken by the U.S. intelligence apparatus to justify spying on American citizens.

10. The Pelosi Family

Suspected insider trading deserves at least a second glance by federal investigators, but it looks like, so far, Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul have gotten away with conveniently timing their stock purchases and sales to massively grow their wealth.

[Read: “Democrats Say ‘No One Is Above The Law,’ But This List Of Their Corrupt Allies Proves Otherwise”]

The same people who love lording “no one is above the law” over Americans are the ones who think they are above any semblance of oversight or law, or constitutionality. If Democrats truly valued rule of law, illegal border crossers, Russia hoaxers, Jeffrey Epstein’s clients, pro-abortion vandals, rioters, and the people who run corrupt government agencies like the Department of Justice, the FBI, the NSA, and the Manhattan DA’s office would be the ones standing in court next week, not Trump.


Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.

QAnon Shaman released from prison just weeks after Tucker Carlson airs footage of January 6


By: CORTNEY WEIL | March 30, 2023

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/qanon-shaman-released-from-prison-just-weeks-after-tucker-carlson-airs-footage-of-january-6/

Composite screenshot of Fox News YouTube video (Featured: Jacob Chansley, aka the QAnon Shaman)

Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox. SIGN UP

Jacob Chansley, better known as the QAnon Shaman, who entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021, wearing patriot-themed face paint and horns but no shirt, has been released from prison early.

As of Thursday, reports from the Bureau of Prisons indicate that Chansley, 35, has been moved from federal prison to a halfway house in Phoenix, Arizona. In September 2021, Chansley pled guilty to civil disorder and violent entry to the Capitol. He and his attorney even signed a statement claiming that he entered the building through a broken door, that he “was not lawfully authorized to enter or remain in the building,” and that he “entered the Gallery of the Senate alone.”

However, Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy recently released tens of thousands of hours of unedited footage of the events of January 6 to Fox News host Tucker Carlson. In turn, Carlson aired just a brief portion of that footage a few weeks ago. That footage contradicted the claim that Chansley violently entered the Capitol and that he entered the gallery alone. Rather, Capitol police appeared to escort the unarmed Chansley throughout his time in the Capitol. When Chansley eventually entered the Gallery of the Senate, he prayed for the police who “allowed” them into “this building.”

about:blank

They don’t want you to see this … Big Tech does its best to limit what news you see. Make sure you see our stories daily — directly to your inbox.

Now, just weeks after that footage was released to the public through Tucker Carlson’s program, Chansley has been released from federal prison after serving 27 months in prison, 11 of them in solitary confinement. His attorney, Albert S. Watkins, praised the decision to release Chansley, who had been sentenced to serve three and a half years behind bars.

“After serving eleven months in solitary prior to his sentence being imposed, and only 16 months of his sentence thereafter, it is appropriate this gentle and intelligent young man be permitted to move forward with the next stage of what undoubtedly will be a law abiding and enriching life,” Watkins said in a statement.

Though the announcement of Chansley’s release to a halfway house came just weeks after Carlson aired what he described as “clearly exculpatory” footage of Chansley in the Capitol, others claim that the timing is merely coincidental.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with media [or] public pressure,” said former federal prosecutor Neama Ramani, who is not affiliated with the case. “Despite the violent nature of the Capitol riots, most of the rioters had little to no criminal history.”

According to the Daily Mail, federal inmates may be given a 15% reduction in their sentences at the discretion of the BOP. They can also be transferred to a halfway house for the final 12 months of their sentence. The BOP did not respond to requests for comment from several outlets.

Chansley, who is from Arizona, is scheduled to be released from the halfway house on May 25.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

No One Should Be Forced to Choose Between His Faith and His Paycheck


BY: RACHEL N. MORRISON | MARCH 06, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/06/no-one-should-be-forced-to-choose-between-his-faith-and-his-paycheck/

USPS man sitting in the back of his mail truck
Without action by the Supreme Court, employers will continue to feel safe denying religious accommodation requests.

Author Rachel N. Morrison profile

RACHEL N. MORRISON

MORE ARTICLES

Should American employees be forced to choose between making a living and freely exercising their religious beliefs? That is the question the Supreme Court is considering in Groff v. DeJoy.

On Tuesday, a diverse group submitted amicus briefs urging the court to answer that question with a resounding “no.” More than 30 briefs were filed on behalf of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Mormons, Muslims, Seventh-day Adventists, Sikhs, Zionists, religious liberty and employment law scholars, medical professionals, nonprofit organizations, states, and members of Congress, among others.

Groff involves United States Postal Service (USPS) mail carrier Gerald Groff, a Christian, who holds uncontested sincere religious beliefs about resting, worshiping, and not working on his Sunday Sabbath. After he joined USPS in 2012, USPS contracted with Amazon in 2013 to provide mail deliveries on Sundays. Initially, USPS accommodated Groff’s Sunday Sabbath observance but later required him to work Sundays.

In accordance with his religious beliefs, Groff refused to work when he was scheduled on his Sunday Sabbath, resulting in progressive disciplinary actions by USPS. Realizing his termination was imminent, Groff resigned in 2019, leading to this religious discrimination lawsuit.

This case places the future of workplace religious accommodation rights in the hands of the Supreme Court.

Religious Accommodations in the Workplace

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Recognizing that we live in a pluralistic and religiously diverse society and that it is important for employees not to have to hide or give up their religious identities in the workplace, Congress amended Title VII in 1972 to affirmatively require employers to “reasonably accommodate” an employee’s religious observances and practices unless doing so would pose an “undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business.”

The necessity for a religious accommodation in the workplace arises when a job duty, rule, or policy violates an employee’s sincerely held religious belief — such as working on one’s Sabbath. In practice, Title VII’s religious accommodation right has the biggest benefit for employees of minority religions and those who have less common religious practices — from a Muslim’s hijab and daily prayers, to a Jew’s yarmulke or Friday Sabbath observance, to a Seventh-day Adventist’s Saturday Sabbath observance, and a Sikh’s kirpan (small sword), metal bracelet, unshorn hair, and beard.

In 2015, the Supreme Court held that under Title VII the clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch could not refuse to hire a female Muslim applicant because she wore a hijab in violation of the store’s “no cap” policy. As the Supreme Court explained: “Title VII does not demand mere neutrality with regard to religious practices — that they be treated no worse than other practices. Rather, it gives them favored treatment,” creating an affirmative obligation on employers.

What Does ‘Undue Hardship’ Mean?

The central issue in Groff is what the phrase “undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business” entails. In a 1977 case called Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, the Supreme Court, interpreting similar language from an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guideline in effect during the events at issue, summarily stated that “undue hardship” meant merely “more than a de minimis cost.” This formulation has been adopted as the standard for Title VII by lower court judges across the country, effectively gutting the workplace religious accommodation right Congress provided employees.

Justices, judges, legal scholars, and religious leaders, among others, have criticized the Hardison court’s undue hardship formulationAs Justice Thurgood Marshall explained in his dissent in Hardison, the decision “effectively nullifie[s]” employees’ religious accommodation rights and “makes a mockery” of Title VII.

To put it simply: Hardison’s more than de minimis standard is absurd. De minimis means “very small or trifling,” and more than de minimis means merely a smidge more than “very small or trifling.” “Undue,” in contrast, means “exceeding what is appropriate or normal” or “excessive,” which is significantly more than “very small or trifling.”

Since Hardison, and to avoid application of Hardison’s non-textual standard, Congress has explicitly defined “undue hardship” in multiple statutes as “an action requiring significant difficulty or expense.” This is true for laws requiring other types of workplace accommodations, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), which provides employees accommodations for disability, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (2022), which provides employees accommodations for the known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.

A secondary issue in Hardison is whether undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business can be met by merely showing a burden on the employee’s coworkers rather than on the business itself. In Groff, the court of appeals held that USPS satisfied its burden to demonstrate undue hardship because accommodating Groff would burden the employee’s coworkers. This standard would minimize Title VII’s religious accommodation protections, subjecting them to a “heckler’s veto by disgruntled employees,” as Judge Thomas Hardiman wrote in his dissent.

Poised to Protect Religious Accommodations

The Supreme Court has had several chances in recent years to revisit Hardison, but the court finally decided it should do so in Groff. This has led many to speculate that the court will reject Hardison’s more than de minimis formulation and clarify that undue means, well, just that — undue.

Indeed, this case should be a no-brainer. It is a simple exercise in statutory interpretation and textual definitions.

An interesting wrinkle in this case, however, is that since the USPS is an arm of the federal government, it is represented in court by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

In December 2019, the DOJ, joined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the federal agency tasked with enforcing Title VII), told the court that Hardison’s formulation is “incorrect.” Indeed, in USPS’s brief urging the court not to hear Groff, DOJ merely argued the case was a “poor vehicle” to revisit Hardison and that the issue of a religious accommodation’s burden on coworkers “does not merit review.” The court clearly disagreed.

It would go against DOJ custom for the United States to change its position on Hardison. But it is unclear if the Biden administration will willingly support religious liberty, especially when it involves a Christian employee. We’ll find out when USPS files its response brief.

As evidenced by the number of amicus briefs filed by different faith traditions in support of Groff, religious accommodation rights in the workplace is an issue that all Americans, regardless of religion, can and should support. No one should be forced to choose between his religion and earning a paycheck.

Without action by the Supreme Court, employers will continue to feel safe denying religious accommodation requests because they can easily demonstrate a cost that is slightly more than de minimis. It is high time the Supreme Court remedies Hardison’s error.

Oral argument in Groff is scheduled for April 18, and a decision is expected by the end of June.


Rachel N. Morrison is an attorney and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she works on EPPC’s HHS Accountability Project.

Teen sues hospitals, physicians over ‘coercing’ her into ‘medical mutilation’ via gender transitioning


By: MICHELE BLOOD | February 25, 2023

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/detransitioner-chloe-cole-sues-hospital/

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Chloe Cole, 18, is suing the hospitals and physicians who ‘coerced’ her to transition from a girl to a boy in the name of profit, Cole’s attorneys announced in a press release Thursday obtained by TheBlaze.

“I am going forward in taking legal action because every second that goes by, more blood is spilled by the same individuals and medical centers that destroyed my body and childhood,” Cole said in the statement.

“After we launched my lawsuit last year, there has been an explosion of both detransitioners and their lawsuits all over the country. Unfortunately, I am no longer alone in my pain and suffering,” Cole also said.

Detransitioners are people who underwent chemical and/or surgical transition from one gender to the other, later returning to embracing their original, biological gender. Cole is among them. Cole, a biological female suffering from gender dysphoria, underwent surgical and chemical gender transitioning procedures between the ages of 13-16.

Cole’s Center for American Liberty attorneys say doctors lied to Cole and her parents in a number of ways. Those lies included saying Cole’s gender dysphoria would never resolve itself and saying Cole was at high risk for suicide unless she was socially and medically transitioned.

Those lies amount to fraud, according to Cole’s attorneys. As a result, the young woman was subjected to a “lifetime of irreversible physical and psychological damage.”

Cole’s victimization and abuse by medical professionals was profit-driven, according to attorney Charles LiMandri. Their “fraudulent and coercive actions” resulted in “excruciating pain and suffering, permanent disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, and extreme emotional distress,” LiMandri also said.

In addition to puberty blockers and off-label cross-sex hormone “treatment,” Cole’s doctors removed her breasts, performing a radical, double mastectomy.

“Chloe’s family sought medical treatment for her at Kaiser. Her physicians and other medical professionals violated the first norm of the profession, the Hippocratic Oath, when, instead of caring for her and providing medically competent diagnoses and treatment, they permanently disfigured her for profit,” attorney Harmeet Dhillon said in the statement.

“What happened to Chloe at Kaiser should never happen to any child in America, and the Center for American Liberty is committed to protecting children like Chloe,” Dhillon added.

Dhillon Law Group and LiMandri & Jonna LLP, in conjunction with the Center for American Liberty have filed a lawsuit against the Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan & Kaiser Foundation Hospitals who performed, supervised, and/or advised transgender hormone therapy and surgical intervention for Cole, now 18, when Cole was a minor.

Leftists Regurgitate ‘Uncle Tom’ Smear to Dim Clarence Thomas’ Legacy, But It Won’t Work


BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD | FEBRUARY 16, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/16/leftists-regurgitate-uncle-tom-smear-to-dim-clarence-thomas-legacy-but-it-wont-work/

Justice Clarence Thomas doing an interview at the Library of Congress
No matter what the left throws at him, Clarence Thomas will be remembered as one of the greatest Supreme Court justices in U.S. history.

Author Shawn Fleetwood profile

SHAWN FLEETWOOD

VISIT ON TWITTER@SHAWNFLEETWOOD

MORE ARTICLES

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is routinely the target of deranged smears from American leftists, and sadly, this week has been no exception with the return of the “Uncle Tom” attack.

On Tuesday, the Georgia Senate successfully passed SB 69, which, if approved by the state House and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, would allow for the placement of a monument of Thomas on the grounds of the state capitol. In remarks to his colleagues, bill sponsor and GOP Sen. Ben Watson spoke to Thomas’ character and praised the justice for living a life “marked by tremendous achievement,” saying:

This native son of Georgia deserves a place of honor and recognition on our Capitol grounds, a place where future generations of Georgians can learn valuable lessons from his legacy and gain inspiration and belief that their lofty dreams are obtainable too in America, regardless of the circumstances into which they are born.

Meanwhile, the upper chamber’s Democrat members couldn’t have been less enthused. Not only did every single Democrat senator vote against the bill, but several of them used the opportunity to slander the Supreme Court’s most senior justice.

While some Democrats such as Sen. Nan Orrock went after Thomas’ judicial career by calling his service on the nation’s highest court “problematic,” the comments from leftist hacks like Sen. Emanuel Jones were much more vitriolic. During his unhinged diatribe, Jones referred to Thomas, the second black American to serve on the Supreme Court, as an “Uncle Tom,” and said he betrayed “his own community.”

“I’m just trying to tell you what we have in the African American community when we talk about a person of color that goes back historically to the days of slavery and that person betraying his own community — we have a term in the black community,” Jones said. “That term that we use is called ‘Uncle Tom.’ An Uncle Tom … talks about a person who back during the days of slavery sold his soul to the slave masters.”

A Pattern of Racist Attacks

Unfortunately, Jones’ Tuesday rant is just the tip of the iceberg. Through the years, so-called “progressive” Democrats have hurled a barrage of racist and degrading attacks at Thomas for the crime of daring to think for himself.

During a 2014 interview, for instance, Democrat Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi didn’t just call Thomas an “Uncle Tom”; he also claimed the justice “doesn’t like black people” and “doesn’t like being black.”

But it’s not just Democrat politicians lobbing racist insults at Thomas. Prominent legacy media members such as MSNBC host Joy Reid have also joined in on the smear campaign in recent years. After then-President Donald Trump forecasted plans to take his 2020 election challenges to the Supreme Court shortly after the Nov. 3 contest, Reid openly questioned the legitimacy of the court and invoked the “Uncle Tom” slur by referring to Thomas as “Uncle Clarence.”

“So, I think what scares people is that if [Trump] decides to do something that legally makes no sense … but if they somehow manage to stumble into the Supreme Court, do any of you guys trust Uncle Clarence and Amy Coney Barrett and those guys to actually follow the letter of the law?” Reid asked her colleagues. “No! I mean, it’s a completely politicized Supreme Court that you can’t just trust that they’re going to do the right thing.”

In addition to Reid, actor Samuel L. Jackson is among those who has levied the “Uncle Clarence” slur against Thomas.

[READ: Why The Racist Left Smears Clarence Thomas As An ‘Angry Black Man’]

Thomas Is a National Hero

Unlike many of today’s social justice warriors who love to feign “oppression,” Thomas grew up in an era of real oppression. Born into abject poverty in Pin Point, Georgia, Thomas was raised by his grandparents in Savannah during the height of segregation. With his biological father missing from his life, Thomas’ grandfather assumed the role, providing his grandson with a foundation for hard work and discipline.

Despite the harsh circumstances of his beginnings, Thomas would go on to excel in academics, attending the College of the Holy Cross and Yale Law School. After spending years working in the legal profession, Thomas was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 1989. Not long after in 1991, he was nominated and confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court (no thanks to Democrat partisans like then-Sen. Joe Biden), where he has faithfully served for the past 31 years.

If we lived in a world where Democrats earnestly stood by their professed belief in championing the success of non-white people, Thomas wouldn’t be getting one statue, but a hundred. His journey to success is something that shouldn’t just be celebrated but shared to inspire others to overcome adversity and chase their dreams with hard work and strong principles. Then again, leftists’ racial pandering isn’t about helping people.

For Democrats, Thomas’ devotion to the Constitution and willingness to do right by the American people stands in the way of their conquest to centralize government power in the hands of a few elites. His originalist jurisprudence is a roadblock to that goal, therefore making it perfectly acceptable in their eyes to use any tactic, no matter how grotesque, to undermine him.

Despite their best efforts, the left’s bid to slander the legacy of this great man will fail. No matter what kind of rhetorical garbage they throw at him, Clarence Thomas will be remembered as one of the greatest Supreme Court justices and public servants in U.S. history. His understanding of what it means to be a judge and adherence to the Constitution have rightly garnered him adoration from millions of Americans. And that is something the left will never be able to change.


Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

Democrats’ Unconstitutional Crusade to Disbar Texas AG Ken Paxton Shows How Far They’ll Go to Win Elections


BY: MARGOT CLEVELAND | FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/13/democrats-unconstitutional-crusade-to-disbar-texas-ag-ken-paxton-shows-how-far-theyll-go-to-win-elections/

Texas AG Ken Paxton
Democrats are working overtime to make it so painful for attorneys to represent Republicans in election cases that the next candidate will be unable to find lawyers willing to battle on their behalf.

Author Margot Cleveland profile

MARGOT CLEVELAND

VISIT ON TWITTER@PROFMJCLEVELAND

MORE ARTICLES

A state court judge refused to halt the Texas Bar’s assault on Attorney General Ken Paxton for his decision to challenge several swing states’ execution of the 2020 election in Texas v. Pennsylvania, a little-noticed perfunctory order published in late January revealed.

While the partisan targeting of Paxton represents but one of the many attempts by Democrats to weaponize state bars to dissuade attorneys from representing Republicans, court documents obtained by The Federalist reveal that in the case of the Texas attorney general, the bar went nuclear.

In March of 2022, as Paxton prepared to face Land Commissioner George P. Bush in the May 2022 GOP runoff for attorney general, news leaked that the State Bar of Texas intended to advance an ethics complaint against the Republican attorney general. Then, soon after Paxton prevailed in the primary, on May 25, 2022, the Commission for Lawyer Discipline, which is a standing committee of the State Bar of Texas, filed a disciplinary complaint against Paxton in the Collin County, Texas district court. 

While the Texas Bar’s disciplinary complaint represents an outrageous and unconstitutional attack on the attorney general, as will be detailed shortly, the backstory is nearly as troubling — both the machinations underlying the charge against Paxton and, more broadly, the barrage of politicized bar complaints pursued against Republican lawyers who provided legal advice or litigated various issues in the aftermath of the November 2020 general election.

Bars Gone Rogue

The D.C. Bar’s investigation into former Trump administration Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark based on a complaint from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., exemplifies the partisan co-opting of the various professional responsibility boards charged with overseeing attorneys’ conduct. 

In Clark’s case, the ethics charge was both “demonstrably false and premised on the fraudulent narratives pushed by the partisan politicians running the Jan. 6 show trial and their partners in the press.” Yet Clark has been forced to fight for his livelihood because the D.C. Bar allowed Democrats to convert a disagreement over Clark’s legal opinion into a question of professional ethics. Clark has attempted to put a halt to the proceedings by moving to remove the case to the federal district court, but Clark’s motion has been stalled there for several months.

More recently, the California State Bar joined in the political witch hunt when it filed a 35-page, 11-count disciplinary complaint against attorney and former law professor John Eastman. The California State Bar’s complaint alleged Eastman’s engagement “in a course of conduct to plan, promote, and assist then-President Trump in executing a strategy, unsupported by facts or law, to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by obstructing the count of electoral votes of certain states.” As I wrote at the time:

The 11 charges against Eastman prove troubling throughout, with the State Bar of California proposing to discipline Eastman for presenting legal analyses to his client, Trump, and for speaking publicly on his views about the election, with the bar even attempting to hold Eastman responsible for any violence that occurred on Jan. 6. The disciplinary complaint also misrepresents numerous arguments Eastman and others made concerning the 2020 election, falsely equating claims of violations of election law with fraud.

Eastman’s long and costly battle against the California Bar is only beginning. And that is precisely the point of involving state bars: to make it so painful for attorneys to represent Republicans in election cases that the next presidential candidate — or senatorial or congressional candidate — will be unable to find lawyers willing to battle on their behalf.

A Broader Campaign

These efforts are well-coordinated and well-funded, with the group 65 Project launching in March of 2022 ethics complaints against 10 lawyers who worked on election lawsuits following the 2020 presidential election. According to Influence Watch, “65 Project was ‘devised’ by Democratic consultant and former Clinton administration official Melissa Moss,” and is managed by attorney Michael Teter, a former litigation associate with the DNC-connected law firm Perkins Coie. David Brock, of Media Matters fame, advises the group, and the advisory board includes, among others, the former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. 

The 65 Project reportedly “seeks to disbar 111 lawyers from 26 states in total,” but is “not targeting any Democratic-aligned attorneys who have challenged election laws or results in the past.” Rather, the project’s sole aim is Republican lawyers, such as Eastman, with the group pushing for Eastman’s disbarment from the Supreme Court Bar.

It is not merely private attorneys the Democrat project targets, however. In September, the 65 Project filed complaints against the attorneys general of 15 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia, advocating the bars in those states take disciplinary action against the attorneys general for conduct related to the 2020 election.

Texas AG Paxton didn’t make the list, though, because local Democrats had already taken up the charge. And here, the backstory reveals the troubling politicization of state bars is not limited to Democratic-connected groups like the 65 Project or to the bars in leftist locales such as D.C. and California.

Anti-Paxton Crusade

In Paxton’s case, the state bar received at least 85 complaints about Paxton related to Texas v. Pennsylvania. The Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel reviewed the complaints and dismissed them, finding “the information alleged did not demonstrate Professional Misconduct.” But then four attorneys appealed the dismissal, including one who, according to court filings, was the president of the Galveston Island Democrats and a friend of a Democrat seeking to run against Paxton for attorney general in the then-upcoming 2022 election. 

An appeals body within the Texas State Board reversed the dismissal of the complaints, and later a fifth complaint was added to the charges against Paxton. Paxton was then forced to respond to the allegations, which itself proved difficult because they consisted of vague rhetoric, such as claims that Paxton “violated his duty and obligations as a Texas attorney” and “filed an utterly frivolous lawsuit,” bringing “shame and disrespect to the State of Texas and the legal community of Texas.”

Nonetheless, Paxton filed a detailed response, expanded on the theories Texas asserted in the Texas v. Pennsylvania case, and provided the bar with an extensive discussion of the factual and legal basis underpinning the court filings. The Texas Bar then handed the complaints over to what Paxton described as “an investigatory panel comprised of six unelected lawyers and activists from Travis County.” 

As Paxton’s later court filings would stress, “as a group, the panel donated thousands of dollars to federal, state, and local candidates and causes opposed to Attorney General Paxton.” “What’s more,” Paxton argued in opposing the bar’s case against him, “members of the panel voted consistently in Democratic primaries for over a decade. Several have maintained highly partisan social media accounts hostile to Paxton.” 

Unsurprisingly, the partisan panel found “just cause” existed to believe that Paxton had violated a catch-all provision of the Rules of Professional Conduct, namely the canon prohibiting attorneys from engaging “in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.”

But in making this finding and filing a disciplinary petition in the state court, the Texas Bar wholely ignored the fundamental flaw in its crusade against Paxton — and one of constitutional dimension: The state bar, as a bureaucratic arm of the judicial branch, violates the Texas Constitution’s guarantee of separation of powers by challenging Paxton’s execution of his duties as attorney general.

Separation of Powers

Paxton concisely exposed this reality in his briefing, first quoting Texas precedent that teaches: “The Texas Separation of Powers provision is violated … when one branch unduly interferes with another branch so that the other branch cannot effectively exercise its constitutionally assigned powers.” “The Commission’s suit against the Attorney General violates the Separation-of-Powers doctrine,” Paxton continued, because the “decision to file Texas v. Pennsylvania is committed entirely to the Attorney General’s discretion. No quasi-judicial body like the Commission can police the decisions of a duly elected, statewide constitutional officer of the executive branch.” 

In seeking the dismissal of the state bar complaint against him based on separation-of-powers principles, Paxton’s argument shows the politicization process becomes nuclear when the target is the state’s attorney general, writing: “Unelected administrarors from the judicial branch attempting to stand in judgment of the elected attorney general who is the sole executive officers with the authority to represent the State of Texas in the Supreme Court of the United States.”

While it is bad enough that the state bar has been used as a sword to attack political enemies, such as Eastman in California and Clark in D.C., to deter attorneys in the future from representing unpopular cases or parties, the weaponization of the state bar against a state’s attorney general is not a difference in degree, but a difference in kind. As Paxton wrote:

No other attorney in Texas, no one else on the planet can bring a lawsuit on behalf of the State … but we’ve got an administrative arm of the judicial branch, unelected state bureaucrats telling the chief legal officer of the State of Texas how he can exercise his sole prerogative and his exclusive authority to bring a civil lawsuit on behalf of the State of Texas.

Yet unelected bureaucrats — many of whom are political enemies of Paxton — have put the attorney general literally on trial for exercising the executive function with which he was constitutionally charged. And while Paxton fully briefed his position — that as a matter of constitutional law and the doctrine of separation of powers, the court lacked jurisdiction to proceed on the bar’s complaint against him — the trial judge summarily rejected Paxton’s motion, merely stating the motion was “denied.”

Paxton has yet to state publicly whether he plans to appeal the denial of his motion to dismiss to the Texas Court of Appeals. But as a matter of principle he should; this case represents not merely an attack on him personally, but on the position of attorney general.

The Federalist obtained copies of the relevant court filings and they are available hereherehereherehere, and here.


Margot Cleveland is The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.

Senior suspended for wearing pro-2nd Amendment shirt to high school government class: Report


By: CORTNEY WEIL | February 09, 2023

Read more at https://www.conservativereview.com/senior-suspended-for-wearing-pro-2nd-amendment-shirt-to-high-school-government-class-report-2659397249.html/

Last fall, a high school senior in Iowa was suspended for wearing a pro-Second Amendment shirt to her government class, and now her mother is suing the teacher, the principal, and the district. On Monday, Janet Bristow of Johnston, Iowa, a northwest suburb of Des Moines, filed a lawsuit in a U.S. district court alleging that the suspension violated her daughter’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

In late August 2022, Tom Griffin taught his government students at Johnston High School that their rights were “extremely limited” once they entered the classroom, despite the 1969 landmark SCOTUS ruling, Tinker, which affirmed that students and teachers do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Griffin insisted that he would forbid students from wearing any clothing which depicts “guns, alcohol, or any other ‘inappropriate material,'” the lawsuit states.

Bristow’s daughter, identified in the lawsuit only as “A.B.,” was in that class and determined that Griffin had erred in his assessment. Two days later, on September 1, she went to school wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a rifle and the phrase “What part of ‘shall not be infringed’ do you not understand?” emblazoned on the front. Bristow alleged in the lawsuit that A.B. had worn that shirt before without incident and that the girl’s older brother, who graduated from Johnston High School in 2019, also wore the shirt without a problem during his time at the school.

A.B.’s shirtScreenshot of the lawsuit

But Griffin had a problem with the shirt, and he dismissed her from class and sent her to the administration. Bristow soon afterward arrived and discussed the issue with Nate Zittergruen and Randy Klein, both associate principals, and Ryan Woods, the school’s principal. Zittergruen told Bristow that the shirt could be perceived as threatening or offensive, and the administrative team gave A.B. the choice either to change her shirt or face suspension.

Chris Billings, the district’s executive director of school leadership, supported the administration and claimed that the shirt violated school dress code. So, after A.B. refused to change her shirt, she was issued an out-of-school suspension.

Later that evening, Bristow said she received an apology from Superintendent Laura Kacer as well as Billings, who said he had come to realize that the shirt is, in fact, “political speech.”

While Bristow was grateful for the apologies, she does not believe that the issue has been resolved. For one thing, Griffin has neither apologized nor clarified the issue with his class, leaving the impression that “A.B. was wrong and that her opinions were not welcome in the classroom,” the document stated. A.B. also still has the suspension listed on her school record.

In the suit, Bristow is seeking the following forms of relief:

  • affirmation that clothing featuring firearms “in a non-threatening, non-violent manner” is protected under the First Amendment;
  • a permanent injunction which will prevent the defendants listed in the lawsuit from ever restricting such clothing again in the future; and
  • compensation for damages, the costs associated with the legal process, and any other “relief” the court deems “appropriate.”

DOJ charges Planned Parenthood arson suspect in 10 days as pro-life clinic still searches for Answers


By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter | January 30, 2023

Read more at https://www.christianpost.com/news/doj-quickly-charges-abortion-clinic-arsonist-amid-bias-claims.html/

Planned Parenthood in Peoria, Illinois. | Screenshot: Google Maps

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced the arrest of an Illinois man a little over a week after he allegedly set fire to a Planned Parenthood facility, as pro-life groups maintain that federal law enforcement is not acting quick enough to bring justice to those responsible for the arson of pro-life pregnancy centers and churches.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois announced Wednesday the arrest of Tyler Massengill, 32, for the malicious use of fire and an explosive and attempt to damage a Planned Parenthood facility in Peoria, Illinois. The clinic reported on its website that the building is closed indefinitely following the “substantial fire and damage.” The fire occurred in the late evening on Jan. 15, 2023, 10 days before news broke about Massengill’s arrest.

“A review of area surveillance from the fire scene revealed that at approximately 11:20 PM, an older white pickup truck with red doors parked in an area adjacent to Planned Parenthood,” the statement reads. “Video footage depicts a man walking up to the building with a laundry detergent-sized bottle. The man lit a rag on fire on one end of the bottle, smashed a window with an object, then placed the container inside of the Planned Parenthood building. He then quickly left the area on foot.”

The rest of the announcement details the collaboration between “multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Springfield Field Office; the Peoria Police Department; and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.” If convicted on a malicious use of fire charge, Massengill faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years and faces up to 40 years in prison.

Massengill could also face up to three years of supervised release and a possible fine of up to $250,000.

According to a complaint filed Wednesday, authorities received a tip about an Illinois license plate number for the pickup truck. Peoria police “conducted an inquiry of the subject plate number in a license plate reader database system which returned a photo of an older white pickup truck, with red doors,” The Journal Star quotes the complaint as reading. The complaint further stated that Massengill told investigators that he was upset after a girl he was in a relationship with three years ago got an abortion. 

The arson comes as the abortion issue has become a source of contention following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision last June, finding that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion.

Since Politico published a leaked draft decision in the Dobbs case on May 2, pro-life pregnancy centers and churches have found themselves subject to acts of vandalism and arson. While pro-abortion groups and individuals have experienced incidents of violence, a report compiled by the Crime Prevention Research Center found that their pro-life counterparts have experienced 22 times as much violence in the 4.5 months following the publication of the leaked Dobbs draft.

Rev. Jim Harden, the CEO of CompassCare, a network of pro-life pregnancy centers whose Buffalo, New York, office was firebombed last June, praised the Peoria police for their “top-notch investigative work” in a statement released Wednesday. He also denounced the attack on Planned Parenthood, asserting that “Attacking an abortionist does not make someone pro-life, it makes them crazy.”

At the same time, CompassCare noted that after a Planned Parenthood in Kalamazoo, Michigan, was targeted in an attempted arson attack, an arrest was made after four days. CompassCare believes that partisan considerations explain why federal law enforcement has handed down only two indictments of perpetrators of violence against pro-life organizations and churches.

As no arrests have yet been made in the CompassCare firebombing case, the organization partnered with the Thomas More Society legal group earlier this month to hire independent investigators to search for the perpetrators of the June 2022 attack. Vandals broke the windows of CompassCare’s Buffalo office, lit fires at the facility and spray-painted graffiti outside the building. 

“What the situation in Peoria and Kalamazoo show is that the FBI has the tools, skill, and manpower to bring these criminals to justice when it is politically favorable,” Harden said. “They threw pro-life people a bone with the indictment of two pro-abortion extremists on January 18.”

grand jury in Florida indicted two pro-abortion activists last week for vandalizing multiple pro-life pregnancy centers throughout the state. CompassCare is not the only pro-life organization to raise questions about the lack of action taken against those who have committed pro-abortion violence.

Brian Burch, the CEO of the advocacy group CatholicVote, has repeatedly raised concerns about the DOJ’s lack of action to address violence against Catholic churches dating back to May 2020, when the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, led to national unrest. He wrote a letter to the DOJ in December 2021 calling on the federal law enforcement agency to investigate the attacks on Catholic churches and symbols.

In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan published Tuesday, Burch wrote that Associate Attorney General Venita Gupta responded to the request in January 2022, telling the advocacy group that Attorney General Merrick Garland had ordered a “15-day review to ensure that all appropriate resources are being deployed to protect houses of worship.”

Additionally, Gupta informed Burch that the “Department is taking numerous steps to address such violence, consistent with our commitment to combat unlawful acts of hate in all their forms.”

“Disappointingly, it now appears that the promises made in Associate AG Gupta’s January 2022 letter were mere platitudes,” Burch concluded in his letter to Jordan. “To date, the federal government has only found evidence to charge two individuals involved in only a handful of cases, despite hundreds of actual incidences of violence. These charges only recently came to light, indicating the more sunshine that Congress shines on the indifference of the DOJ the more likely they will do their job.”

While the FBI has offered rewards for information that could lead to arrests for the vandalism of 10 pro-life pregnancy centers, Harden contends that the law enforcement agency’s efforts are “a day late and a dollar short.” He attributed the FBI’s embrace of reward money for information about pro-abortion vandals to “the House Judiciary Committee’s demands for cooperation in their inquiry into the ‘allegations of politicization and bias [against pro-life people] at the FBI.”

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights raised questions about a potential political bias against pro-life individuals and groups at the FBI in a Sept. 26 letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“There seems to be much interest in pursuing alleged wrongdoing by pro-life activists, yet little interest in pursuing alleged wrongdoing by abortion-rights activists,” Donohue wrote. 

Donohue cited the arrest of pro-life activist Mark Houck for purportedly pushing a patient escort at a Philadelphia Planned Parenthood clinic as an example of an “overreaction for a minor infraction of the law.” Houck faces the possibility of up to 11 years in prison. Donohue contrasts Houck’s case with the “underreaction by the Department of Justice when the pro-life side is targeted.”

A GiveSendGo fundraiser set up for Houck’s family maintains that the escort was harassing Houck and his son as they prayed outside the abortion clinic, prompting them to walk away from the building.

“The escort followed them, and when he continued yelling at Mark’s son, Mark pushed him away,” the fundraiser stated. 

Houck’s case was heard this week at a federal court in Philadelphia. Judge Gerald Pappert rejected Houck’s defense attorney’s request for the case to be dismissed. The jury remained deadlocked Friday and will resume deliberations on Monday. 

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com

Virginia Committee Passes Parental Rights Bill After School Coverup of Teen’s Dysphoria Enables Sex Trafficking


BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD | JANUARY 30, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/30/virginia-committee-passes-parental-rights-bill-after-school-coverup-of-teens-dysphoria-enables-sex-trafficking/

kids reading in a classroom
My daughter ‘was terribly bullied, but no one told me. … Please don’t let ideology harm another child,’ pleaded the mother of a 14-year-old girl who was isolated from her parents by school and court authorities and sex-trafficked twice.

Author Shawn Fleetwood profile

SHAWN FLEETWOOD

VISIT ON TWITTER@SHAWNFLEETWOOD

MORE ARTICLES

A subcommittee in the Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill on Monday that mandates public educators notify parents if their child “self-identifies” as something other than his or her natural sex. Introduced by Republican Dels. Dave LaRock, Tara Durant, and John McGuire, the measure (HB 2432) would provide parents with greater oversight into their children’s lives at school and increase transparency in public education. According to a summary of the legislation, if a school official “has reason to believe” that a student “is self-identifying as a gender different from the student’s biological sex,” said official is required “to contact as soon as practicable at least one of such student’s parents to ask whether such parent is aware of the student’s mental state and whether the parent wishes to obtain or has already obtained counseling for such student.”

Under the bill, school officials, such as counselors and clinical social workers, are barred from “encouraging or coercing a minor to withhold from the minor’s parent the fact that the minor’s perception of his or her gender or sex is inconsistent with the minor’s biological sex” or “withholding from a minor’s parent information relating to the minor’s perception that his or her gender or sex is inconsistent with the minor’s biological sex.”

Monday’s subcommittee vote came along party lines, with five Republicans voting in favor and three Democrats opposing.

Known as Sage’s Law, HB 2432 was introduced after it was revealed that a then-14-year-old Virginia girl ended up in the hands of sexual predators after her school failed to disclose her gender dysphoria to her mother. As The Federalist previously reported, the chain of events began in August 2021 when Sage began identifying as a boy and suffered intense bullying and harassment at school. Eventually, Sage ran away and was “found nine days later in Maryland, a victim of sexual assault.”

Appomattox County High School, which affirmed Sage’s new “identity” without notifying her mother, was following model guidelines issued by then-Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration on so-called gender affirmation. Such guidance has since been terminated by current GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

[READ: Virginia Teen Sex-Trafficked Twice After School Hides Gender Identity From Her Parents]

Throughout Monday’s hearing on Sage’s Law, witnesses supporting the bill discussed its importance in keeping parents involved in their children’s livelihoods, especially in the school classroom. During her testimony, Sage’s mother Michele called on the subcommittee to put commonsense before ideology.

“If I had known [what was going on], this would be a much different story. [Sage] was terribly bullied, but no one told me,” Michele said. “Please don’t let ideology harm another child. Let parents do our jobs. We know our children best and we love them a million times more.”

Also called to testify at the hearing was Dr. Erin Brewer, a former “trans kid” who spoke about the importance of schools helping children through their gender dysphoria without affirming such confusion or concealing it from parents.

“I was insistent that I was a boy when I started first grade after a brutal sexual assault. If I had been affirmed by my teachers, it would have allowed me to completely dissociate from myself as a girl and create a new persona who could pretend that the horrible trauma that triggered my gender dysphoria hadn’t happened to me,” she said. “Instead of encouraging my confusion and hiding it from my mother, the school contacted my mother, got permission for me to be assessed by the school psychologist, and they came up with a comprehensive program to help me resolve my gender dysphoria. … I [one] hundred percent support this legislation.”

Erin Friday, a lifelong Democrat and co-founder of Our Duty, a national and international parent and child advocacy group, also spoke in support of Sage’s Law. Throughout her remarks, Friday noted her personal experiences with a gender-dysphoric daughter and stated that “schools should never keep secrets from parents.”

Opponents to Sage’s Law also spoke at the hearing, with one man claiming to be a “trans woman” arguing that such legislation is “ridiculous” and that schools should be able to conceal a child’s gender dysphoria from that child’s parents.

It should be that child’s own choice,” he said. “If we wanna tell who we wanna tell, like, that’s on us.

Despite leftists’ support for deceptively-termed “gender affirmation” and the “transitioning” of children, research has shown that “upwards of 80 percent of gender dysphoric children embrace their sex as they emerge from puberty” and that “children who are ‘affirmed’ as the opposite sex … particularly if puberty blockers are used, consistently go on to further medicalization.” Children who undergo such protocols are subjected to lifelong damage to their bodies. The practices are so horrific that nations around the world, such as England, have ended the disfiguring practices that are falsely labeled as “gender-affirming care” for minors.

“Parents should never be the last to know [about what’s going on in their children’s lives],” said Durant during the subcommittee meeting. “It’s a very strange, strange place to me that we’re in now where parents are being told to step aside, to sit down, that ‘we as educators, as counselors know better [for] your own child’ — and that’s just simply not true.”


Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

UPDATE: Mark Houck, Pro-Life Dad Targeted by Biden Regime, Acquitted of Trumped-Up Charges


BY: JORDAN BOYD | JANUARY 30, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/30/mark-houck-pro-life-dad-targeted-by-biden-regime-acquitted-of-trumped-up-charges/

Mark Houck acquitted
‘The Biden Department of Justice’s intimidation against pro-life people and people of faith has been put in its place,’ Houck’s attorney says.

Author Jordan Boyd profile

JORDAN BOYD

VISIT ON TWITTER@JORDANBOYDTX

MORE ARTICLES

On Monday a federal jury acquitted Mark Houck, the Christian pro-life activist whose house was swarmed by FBI agents last fall in front of his wife and children. The not-guilty verdict comes more than four months after the Biden administration accused Houck of violating federal law for protecting his son from an angry abortion activist across the street from a Planned Parenthood in 2021.

After leaving the courtroom in a deadlock on Friday, on Monday a federal jury agreed Houck was not guilty of violating federal law, contrary to the Biden Department of Justice’s position.

The early-morning FBI raid on Houck’s home in front of his children and wife included battering rams and ballistic shields at the ready and was committed even after Houck’s attorney had told the U.S. Department of Justice Houck would turn himself in if they asked. Since his arrest in September 2022, Houck and his lawyers maintained “This case is being brought solely to intimidate people of faith and pro-life Americans.”

“We are, of course, thrilled with the outcome,” stated Peter Breen, head of litigation for the Thomas More Society, which defended Houck in court. “We took on Goliath – the full might of the United States government – and won. The jury saw through and rejected the prosecution’s discriminatory case, which was harassment from day one. This is a win for Mark and the entire pro-life movement. The Biden Department of Justice’s intimidation against pro-life people and people of faith has been put in its place.”

Houck is now freed from the threat of “a maximum possible sentence of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $350,000.” He also thanked Americans and pro-lifers for their support after the FBI raid and subsequent federal prosecution.

After weeks of ignoring pro-abortion violence and threats against pro-life pregnancy support centers across the nation, dozens of FBI agents arrested Houck in front of his wife and seven children in a raid at his home in September. When Houck’s wife recounted that “they had big, huge rifles pointed at Mark and pointed at me and kind of pointed throughout the house,” the FBI defended their “guns out and ready” positions as necessary.

The Biden administration’s Department of Justice alleged Houck violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a law barring the physical obstruction of abortion facilities, by “attacking a patient escort” more than 100 feet away and across the street from a Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia during one of his regular trips to peacefully protest abortion.

The “patient escort,” Bruce Love, repeatedly initiated profanity-laced verbal confrontations with Houck and his son, Mark Houck Jr., said court documents. The documents also say Houck asked Love to stop multiple times to no avail. On Oct. 13, 2021, when Love escalated by invading Mark Jr.’s personal space, Houck Sr. shoved him away.

Love fell and claimed he “required medical attention,” an allegation the DOJ indictment took as fact. Brian Middleton, a spokesman for the Houck family, said the “medical attention” Love spoke of was “a Band-Aid on his finger.”

During his testimony to the jury, Houck gave his side of the story.

You consider it to be a battle, don’t you?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley Nicole Martin asked Houck during the trial.

“A spiritual battle,” the father of seven replied.

Houck also disclosed that Love instigated the incident that later was used to sic federal investigators on the Houck family.

“All of this was set in motion by the escort, and that’s not a FACE violation,” Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Michael McHale said in a trial recap video on Friday. “FACE is about access to clinics. And what happened here was an escort interfering with Mark and Mark’s son.”

Houck’s son Mark Jr. also testified on Friday. In his testimony, Mark Jr. explained that Love initiated a conversation with him.

“That directly contradicted Bruce Love’s testimony,” McHale said. “Mr. Love testified that he never, has ever, talked to Mark Jr. And to have Mark Jr. on the stand today and just testify confidently and clearly that Bruce Love talked to him and said ‘Your dad’s a bad person and your dad’s harassing women.’ I really think that went a long way, at least with some people on the jury.”


Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.

Man who viewed violent child pornography receives probation, weekend jail sentence to be served ‘at his convenience’


By: CORTNEY WEIL | January 28, 2023

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/man-who-viewed-violent-child-pornography-receives-probation-weekend-jail-sentence-to-be-served-at-his-convenience/

Screenshot of City of St. Helens website

Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox. SIGN UP

An Oregon man who viewed pornographic videos of young girls being tortured has been sentenced to probation and 90 days in jail to be served “at his convenience,” a police report stated.

On Wednesday, Scott Johnson, 27, of St. Helens, Oregon, about 30 miles north of Portland, pled guilty to three counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree. The guilty plea represented the culmination of a two-year investigation which began when the state department of justice alerted local authorities that child pornography had been uploaded on a messaging app in the St. Helens area.

Investigators then zeroed in on Johnson as a suspect and seized his phone. A forensic investigation of the phone revealed that it contained child pornography, a police statement said. The nature of the evidence on the phone was particularly heinous. Fox News reported that it involved the “graphic sexual abuse and torture of young girls.”

“graphic sexual abuse and torture of young girls.”

When questioned, Johnson told authorities that “sometimes people will send him a message asking him if he wants to see something” and that they then sent him that material. Investigators determined that Johnson received a series of links and continued to click on all of them, even after he knew that they would direct him to child porn.

In an effort to reach a plea deal, Columbia County prosecutors offered Johnson a 60-month sentence. However, Johnson rejected that offer and decided to take his chances with the judge.

“He just rejected our offer, pleaded guilty, and asked the judge for probation over our objection,” the district attorney’s office said.

That decision worked out in his favor. According to a statement from St. Helens Police Department, “Johnson was ultimately sentenced to five years of probation and 90 days in jail to be served on weekends at his convenience.”

In Oregon, encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree is a Class B felony, a crime which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Johnson’s light sentence seems to follow a pattern of soft-on-crime policies in the state in recent years. In April 2022, when she was still governor, Kate Brown (D) granted clemency to a murderer who had previously been sentenced to life without parole, putting a violent criminal back on the streets, and Portland had more murders in 2021 than at any other time in history. Travellers Worldwide recently warned prospective visitors that theft and larceny, vandalism, auto theft, and assault are among “the city’s most prevalent crimes.”


Critics Say Latest Lawsuit Against Beleaguered Masterpiece Cakeshop Baker Inevitable After Weak SCOTUS Ruling

By Ashe Schow | Jan 27, 2023

Read more at https://www.dailywire.com/news/critics-say-latest-lawsuit-against-beleaguered-masterpiece-cakeshop-baker-inevitable-after-weak-scotus-ruling

On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled against Masterpiece Cakeshop baker Jack Phillips, arguing he violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act by refusing to bake a cake for a gender transition celebration.

Critics of the ruling point to Phillips’ earlier “win” at the Supreme Court, which narrowly ruled in his favor, as the reason the baker continues to be targeted by activists. In 2017, former Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion that some have argued essentially said Phillips could have lost his Supreme Court case if it hadn’t been for Colorado officials openly disparaging Phillips and his Christian views.

That narrow decision has allowed Phillips to continue to be persecuted, critics say. At the Washington Examiner, Quin Hillyer argued that the Supreme Court’s “search for the narrowest possible result merely invited further, seemingly endless rounds of new litigation.”

The latest lawsuit against Phillips comes from an activist attorney, Autumn Scardina, in Colorado who called Masterpiece Cakeshop on the same day the Supreme Court announced it would take his prior case – in which he was accused of discrimination for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. The attorney requested Phillips create a custom cake that was pink on the inside and blue on the outside to celebrate a gender transition. According to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represents Phillips, the attorney also called back to request a cake depicting Satan smoking marijuana in order to “correct the errors of [Phillips’] thinking.” Phillips declined to make either cake because of the messages they depicted. The activist has now sued.

“Naturally, Colorado’s courts ignored the patently offensive request for a Satan cake and instead again held Phillips responsible for illegal discrimination based on gender, his religious objections notwithstanding,” Hillyer wrote. “Today’s affirmation by the appeals court of the lower court’s ruling takes ample advantage of the loophole left open by the Supreme Court while cherry-picking from other Supreme Court religious liberty decisions to reach its desired, anti-Phillips conclusion.”

On Twitter, prominent conservative PoliMath also blamed the Supreme Court for the ongoing legal struggles of Masterpiece Cakeshop.

“The result of John Roberts pushing for the narrowest possible ruling in the earlier Masterpiece case is that they continued persecuting Jack Phillips for years,” PoliMath tweeted. “They will continue to do this to him until he dies.”

The appeals court on Thursday argued that Phillips only refused to bake the cake after learning the client was transgender and wanted to use the cake to celebrate his birthday and gender transition.

“Thus, it was Scardina’s transgender status, and her desire to use the cake in celebration of that status, that caused Masterpiece and Phillips to refuse to provide the cake,” the court wrote, arguing the cake “expressed no message.”

But ADL argues that “Phillips works with all people and always decides whether to take a project based on what message a cake will express, not who is requesting it.”

“Over a decade ago, Colorado officials began targeting Jack, misusing state law to force him to say things he does not believe. Then an activist attorney continued that crusade,” the ADF said in a statement. “This cruelty must stop. One need not agree with Jack’s views to agree that all Americans should be free to say what they believe, even if the government disagrees with those beliefs.”

Christian charity worker faces potential jail time, fine after speaking about leaving LGBT lifestyle


By Jon Brown | Fox News | January 20, 2023

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/world/christian-charity-worker-faces-potential-jail-time-fine-speaking-leaving-lgbt-lifestyle

A Christian charity worker in Malta could face jail time after he claimed that his faith enabled him to turn away from a homosexual lifestyle he no longer wanted.

Matthew Grech, 33, faces potential fines and imprisonment for allegedly falling afoul of his country’s ban on “conversion practices” when he explained to a local media outlet last year how he left homosexuality behind because he came to believe it was wrong.

“I was invited by this new emerging platform in Malta called PMnews to share my story and to discuss sexuality in general,” Grech told Fox News Digital, noting that he was “surprised” when police later called him early on a Sunday morning and ultimately served him with a prosecution order summoning him to court on Feb. 3.

Legal counsel for Grech maintains that his case is the first of its kind and threatens to set in motion a legal “domino effect” that could endanger freedom of speech and religious liberty throughout the Western world.

THOUSANDS OF CHURCHES RAISE ALARM ABOUT SCOPE OF NEW CANADIAN ‘CONVERSION THERAPY’ BAN

Matthew Grech, 33, faces a court date on Feb. 3 in Valletta, Malta, for allegedly advertising "conversion practices" when he gave an interview about his life.
Matthew Grech, 33, faces a court date on Feb. 3 in Valletta, Malta, for allegedly advertising “conversion practices” when he gave an interview about his life. (Christian Concern)

‘Domino effect’

According to a transcript of his interview with PMnews Malta, at no point did Grech invite anyone to attend therapy to change their sexual orientation or gender identity, though he was critical of the Maltese law and explained how he came to believe that homosexuality is not an identity, but rather a practice that was incompatible with his Christian faith.

“They knew my stance around homosexuality and sexuality in general, so they wanted to hear a little bit more about it because many shun the other side of the story,” Grech said. “But these guys wanted to explore it because they’re for freedom of speech, and they don’t like it when viewpoints are shut down simply because they are unpopular.”

Grech said that after LGBT activists with ties to the Maltese government and the Malta Gay Rights Movement (MGRM) reported him to police for the interview, he now faces up to €5,000 in fines or up to five months in prison if convicted of violating Article 3, Section 3 of Malta’s Affirmation of Sexual Orientation, Gender and Gender Expression Act, which makes it “unlawful for any person” to “advertise conversion practices.” The journalists who interviewed him also have upcoming court dates and face potential criminal sanctions for their part in conducting the interview.

MGRM did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by time of publication.

Grech faces a court date on Feb. 3 in Valletta, Malta, for allegedly running afoul of the country's ban on advertising "conversion practices."
Grech faces a court date on Feb. 3 in Valletta, Malta, for allegedly running afoul of the country’s ban on advertising “conversion practices.” (Sylvain Sonnet via Getty Images)

Grech is slated to appear before the Court of Magistrates in Valletta on Feb. 3, where he will be assisted in legal defense by the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), a London-based nonprofit that focuses on cases of religious discrimination against Christians.

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the CLC, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital that Grech’s treatment by Maltese authorities is discriminatory and violates “his Christian freedoms and fundamental right to free speech.”

Grech’s lawyers plan to argue that his prosecution is a violation of his right to freedom of expression guaranteed under both the Constitution of Malta and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

“The domino effect of ‘conversion therapy’ bans began in Malta,” said Williams, who warned that the case threatens to set a precedent that could spread to other Western countries “unless robust action is taken.”

European Commission headquarters lit up in the colors of the rainbow flag in support of the LGBT community in Brussels, Belgium, on May 16, 2020.
European Commission headquarters lit up in the colors of the rainbow flag in support of the LGBT community in Brussels, Belgium, on May 16, 2020. (NurPhoto / Contributor via Getty Images)

Malta, an island nation between Sicily and the coast of North Africa, was the first country in the European Union to criminalize practices that would seek to “change, repress or eliminate a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression.”

BIDEN EXECUTIVE ORDER TO CRACK DOWN ON ‘CONVERSION THERAPY,’ ACCUSE REPUBLICANS OF SEEKING TO ‘BULLY KIDS’

The legislation, which passed unanimously in 2016, resembles conversion therapy bans throughout the world, including in 20 states and more than 100 municipalities in the U.S.

Many such bans in the U.S. apply only to minors and carve out exemptions for religious counseling, though some in other countries prohibit consenting adults from seeking help from anyone for unwanted sexual attractions and behaviors.

“They want to ban Christian counseling in churches simply because it does not conform to their religion. They claim not to be religious, but I can tell you that they are just as religious as everybody else.” — Matthew Grech

In Canada, therapists who provide any form of counseling to repress or reduce “non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behavior” or “non-cisgender identity” could face up to five years in prison, according to a law put in place last year that prompted protests from thousands of churches throughout North America because of its scope.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participates in the annual Pride Parade in Toronto, Ontario, in 2016.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participates in the annual Pride Parade in Toronto, Ontario, in 2016. (Rick Madonik/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

The Conservative Party-led U.K. government announced this week a plan to debate legislation to add transgender identity to Britain’s conversion therapy ban, which before applied only to sexual orientation.

The United Nations has deemed conversion therapy as tantamount to torture, and U.N. Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Victor Madrigal-Borloz called for a global ban on it in 2020.

‘Simply barbaric’

During a 2020 interview similar to that which led to his prosecution, Grech recalled how his gentle personality and boyhood musical interests made him a target growing up among other boys, who bullied him and mocked him as gay. He said he would assume that label as an identity and go on to become involved in sexual relationships with other men in an attempt to find male acceptance, but that he began to desire a new lifestyle upon becoming a Christian.

Grech became involved with the U.K.-based International Federation for Therapeutic and Counseling Choice (IFTCC), an organization that aims “to promote a caring, nonjudgmental environment where people who choose to move away from their unwanted feelings and behaviors can find the support they’re seeking,” according to its website.

He is also a trustee of Core Issues Trust, a group that works closely with IFTCC and supports “men and women with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek change in sexual preference and expression.”

Grech believes activists worldwide are using conversion therapy bans to silence dissenting opinions.
Grech believes activists worldwide are using conversion therapy bans to silence dissenting opinions. (Christian Concern)

Grech says there many others like him who have “very valid reasons” for seeking to move away from unwanted sexual feelings, but fears such individuals are increasingly being marginalized and driven underground by the effects of overbroad conversion therapy bans.

“To deny people access to spiritual or secular support in any context is barbaric,” he said. “It’s simply barbaric.”

AMERICANS OPPOSE TRANSGENDER SURGERIES, ANTI-PUBERTY BLOCKERS FOR MINORS: POLL

Grech believes the activists propelling the sort of conversion therapy ban enforcement he is facing “don’t just want to ban forced help or support, they want to ban our views altogether.”

“They want to ban Christian counseling in churches simply because it does not conform to their religion,” he said. “They claim not to be religious, but I can tell you that they are just as religious as everybody else. They do have a belief system, they do have a very specific vision.”

LGBT campaigners join Gay Liberation Front veterans marking the 50th anniversary of the first U.K. Pride march in 1972 on July 1, 2022, in London.
LGBT campaigners join Gay Liberation Front veterans marking the 50th anniversary of the first U.K. Pride march in 1972 on July 1, 2022, in London. (Mark Kerrison/Contributor via Getty Images)

Despite its small size, Grech noted that Maltese culture is seen as a “forerunner” and “pioneer” in Europe, consistently ranking at the top of ILGA-Europe’s list of most progressive countries.

Parliamentary Secretary Rebecca Buttigieg announced last week that Malta is strengthening its conversion therapy law by adding an amendment to redefine the advertising clause “to include the publishing, advertising, displaying, distributing, referral and circulation of any material promoting the practice,” according to the Times of Malta.

“So it is concerning the other countries will follow suit, but we need to alert other nations and to show them what the real face of a conversion therapy ban is,” Grech said. “It’s just a foothold for these LGBT lobbies to get into churches and to get the pastors and get the gospel ministers to shut up and conform, and it’s just simply not sustainable.”

‘The idol of our generation’

Grech noted the irony that the first case of his kind should be in Malta, which has a notable position in the history of his faith. One of the first Roman colonies to convert to Christianity, the island featured in the New Testament as the place where the apostle Paul was shipwrecked and left unharmed from the bite of a venomous snake that emerged from a fire.

“That story speaks to us to this day, because when Paul arrived in Malta, a fire was set because it was cold, and a snake fastened itself against his arm,” Grech said, referencing the story in Acts 28. “He shook it off, told it where it needs to go, and it went back to the fire.”

“People at first thought he was being judged by the gods because that snake fastened itself around his arm, but when they saw that nothing happened to him, they changed their minds,” he said.

DETRANSITIONING TIKTOKER WAS ‘HORRIFIED’ AFTER LGBT ACTIVIST CLAIMED ‘DETRANSITIONING’ IS NOT ‘A REAL THING’

The apostle Paul shakes a viper off of his arm into the fire, as recounted in Acts 28.
The apostle Paul shakes a viper off of his arm into the fire, as recounted in Acts 28. (ZU_09 via Getty Images)

Grech likened the biblical story to his legal battle and the spiritual struggles of people like him who fight to maintain their faith despite their feelings amid what he sees as the tightening grip of opposition from government and the culture.

“I believe that as we survive this snake that is trying to poison us and harm us, as we look toward God, who is able to save us and redeem us, people will shift their perspective,” he said.

“We believe in the best for our nation, but there has been an idol that has been set up, and it needs to come down,” Grech added. “We are facing the idol of our generation, and we’re saying, ‘We’re not going to bow down to you, no matter what the cost.'”

Jon Brown is a writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to jon.brown@fox.com.

Va. Tech soccer player allegedly benched after refusing to kneel for BLM gets $100K settlement


By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor | January 12, 2023

Read more at https://www.christianpost.com/news/college-soccer-player-gets-100k-after-refusing-to-kneel-for-blm.html/

Unsplash/Emilio Garcia

A college soccer player allegedly punished by her coach for refusing to kneel in support of the Black Lives Matter movement has won a settlement worth $100,000.

Kiersten Hening, a former soccer player with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, will receive at least $100,000 as part of a recently reached settlement, according to reports.

At issue was the reported harassment she received from Virginia Tech Hokies soccer coach Charles “Chugger” Adair when she refused to kneel when a “unity statement” was read during a game against the University of Virginia in 2020. Hening claimed that Adair verbally abused her for refusing to kneel during the statement, benched the starting player and even pressured her to leave the team as a result.

According to the court documents cited by Fox News, while Hening “supports social justice and believes that black lives matter,” she “does not support BLM the organization,” expressing opposition over the organization’s “tactics and core tenets of its mission statement, including defunding the police.”

The settlement didn’t include an admission of wrongdoing from either side. 

For his part, Adair posted a statement to Twitter last week claiming victory, saying that he was “pleased that the case against me has been closed and I am free to move forward clear of any wrongdoing.”

The people I care about and whose opinions to me matter know the truth. They know my coaching decisions are based purely on getting our team in a position to win,” Adair continued.

Hening was starting in a different position and had been replaced by a player who also stood during the ACC Unity Statement. It’s unfortunate, but this ordeal was about a disappointment and a disagreement about playing time.”

Adam Mortara, an attorney who represented Hening, responded to the tweeted statement by noting, “Kiersten Hening was benched for her free speech and you paying a giant settlement proves it.”

“If by clarity you mean you are paying my client six figures in a settlement then you’re right that’s pretty clear. Honestly, Coach, read the Court’s opinion. You are paying. Defendants don’t pay in cases that have no standing,” Mortara tweeted.

In March 2021, Hening filed a complaint against Adair in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Roanoke Division, accusing the coach of punishing her for her political views.

“Hening’s coach is a state actor,” read the complaint. “Hening’s refusal to kneel is protected by the First Amendment. … The Constitution gives college students like Hening ‘the right to be free from [such] retaliation’ for their protected expression.”

“As a result of her coach’s actions, Hening can no longer play the game she loves, despite having two more years of NCAA eligibility. This Court should vindicate Hening’s constitutional rights and award her legal and equitable relief.”

Last month, U.S. District Judge Thomas T. Cullen issued a memorandum opinion in which he denied Adair’s motion for summary judgment and allowed the lawsuit to proceed to trial.

“The court concludes that there is sufficient evidence in the record supporting Hening’s claim that Adair’s actions, whatever his motives, adversely affected her First Amendment rights,” wrote Cullen.

Cullen also rejected Adair’s attempt to use qualified immunity, or the legal doctrine that says government officials are not liable for violating an individual’s rights unless it was a clearly established constitutional right or statute.

Cullen wrote, “it has long been the law that state officials cannot retaliate against individuals or groups, including college students, for exercising their First Amendment rights.”

The Roanoake Times reports that before the settlement, the school claimed it would present evidence showing that two other players also declined to kneel but were not met with any negative consequences. 

Coach Adair’s explanations have been consistent — Hening’s play contributed to his decision for a line-up change,” the university’s lawyers argued in court filings cited by The Times. 

Hening contends that she had started since her freshman year, and there was no reason to explain why she spent more time on the bench after she refused to kneel. 

Follow Michael Gryboski on Twitter or Facebook

Illegal alien and DACA recipient sentenced to five consecutive life sentences for the brutal murders of three Americans


By: JOSEPH MACKINNON | January 08, 2023

Read more at https://www.conservativereview.com/illegal-alien-and-daca-recipient-sentenced-to-five-consecutive-life-sentences-for-the-brutal-murders-of-three-americans-2659085613.html

Image source: Greene County Sheriff’s Office

Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox. SIGN UP

An illegal alien and so-called “Dreamer” who brutally murdered three American citizens in 2018 was sentenced Friday to five consecutive life sentences.

27-year-old Luis Perez, a Mexican national, shot and killed his former roommates Steven Marler and Aaron Hampton on Nov. 1, 2018, and injured two others in Springfield, Missouri. The next day, the criminal noncitizen murdered Sabrina Starr, the 21-year-old who provided him with the weapon he used in the first two slayings.

TheBlaze reported at the time of the murders that Perez had been locked up in the Middlesex County Jail just months before on suspicion of various felonies, including assault, aggravated assault, and child abuse. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials requested that the jail hold Perez while it started deportation proceedings against him, however, the jail elected instead to release the criminal noncitizen. Perez summarily went on to kill Marler, Hampton, and Starr.

John Tsoukaris, the ICE Newark field office director said, “This tragedy might have been avoided had it not been for the reckless policy required of the Middlesex County Jail by their county officials.”

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

County officials suggested that the blame instead lay with ICE, as the agency “has the legal authority and the resources to secure such orders from a federal judge with regard to any inmate in the county’s custody it seeks to detain or deport.”

While Greene County prosecutors initially sought to have Perez put to death for his crimes, they ultimately fought to ensure he would never again walk free, reported the Springfield News-Leader.

Assistant Greene County Prosecutor Phil Fuhrman said, “Mr. Perez is dangerous, he is violent, and he is deserving of the maximum sentence.”

Perez’s attorney pushed for leniency in terms of his client’s sentencing, suggesting that the murderous illegal alien should receive his life sentences at the same time rather than one after another, so that he might one day become eligible for parole. The thinking behind this leniency: Perez, in the U.S. unlawfully, allegedly had a tough time growing up in New Jersey.

A spokesman for ICE revealed that Perez was previously a recipient of the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” program in 2012 and 2014, enabling him to dodge deportation and to receive a work permit.

Judge Thomas Mountjoy, who found Perez guilty of the murders in October, was not swayed by this line of argumentation, noting he was “struck by the magnitude of the violence” and that the “magnitude speaks to requiring the most severe sentence that the law would structure.”

Mountjoy gave Perez consecutive life sentences, ensuring the murderer will die in prison.

The News-Leader reported that Deboray Elkins, the mother of victim Aaron Hampton, called Perez’s victims “fallen heroes” and said Perez’s conviction in October marked a “day of jubilation.”

According to ICE, 62 illegal aliens were convicted in fiscal year 2022 for murder or manslaughter; 1,142 were convicted with assault, battery, or domestic violence; 896 were convicted for burglary, robbery, or fraud; 1,614 were convicted for driving under the influence; 365 were convicted for sex offenses; and many more faced convictions for other crimes.

While Perez’s co-defendant Nyadia Burden previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, having bought the bullets Perez used in the murders, two others have pending charges.

Dalia Garcia stands accused of tampering with evidence, having allegedly burned clothing worn during the murders.

Aaron Anderson also remains on the hook, having been charged with being an accessory to murder.

Transsexual who butchered his parents no longer serving his 40-year sentence in men’s prison, now listed as a ‘female’ in medium-security prison


By: JOSEPH MACKINNON | December 29, 2022

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/transsexual-who-butchered-his-parents-no-longer-serving-his-40-year-sentence-in-mens-prison/

Image source: YouTube video, Central Maine News – Screenshot

Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox. SIGN UP

On account of legislation sponsored and approved by Democrat politicians, the 24-year-old transsexual who butchered his parents and family dog on Halloween in 2016 — claiming they provoked him by refusing to indulge his fantasy of being a woman — has received a “female” designation and is no longer in a men’s-only prison.

What are the details?

Andrew Balcer, now 24, was held at the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland, Maine, prior to his conviction in 2018 for the murder of his parents. A program manager at the secure juvenile facility testified in court that Balcer demanded to be called “Andrea” while in custody and further requested that people use female pronouns when describing him, reported the Kennebec Journal.

After receiving his sentence, Balcer was sent to the Maine State Prison, a maximum-security facility for men. However, it appears that the double murderer has since had his accommodations upgraded.

The feminist publication Reduxx reported that Balcer now resides in the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, a mixed-sex medium-security facility where he is likely kept with real women.

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

According to the MCC website, the facility is Maine’s primary adult reception facility for both male and female residents and is where “residents sentenced to less than five years are directly admitted.”

The Maine Department of Corrections lists Andrew Balcer, a biological male looming at over six feet tall and weighing in at over 245 pounds, as a “female” with the alias “Andrea Balcer.”

Andrew BalcerMaine Department of Corrections, inmate profile

Reduxx noted that the so-called “Act to Protect the Rights of Certain Incarcerated Individuals,” sponsored by Democrat state Rep. Charlotte Warren and approved by Democrat Gov. Janet Mills in 2021, enables men to be housed with women in the event that the men identify as women.

The act “provides to a person residing in a correctional or detention facility the right to have that person’s consistently held gender identity respected and acknowledged and to have staff and representatives of the correctional or detention facility use the pronouns, titles and names identified by the person.

Extra to affirming the inmate’s supposed gender dysphoria, housing and search procedures must be consistent with the inmate’s gender identity.

In addition to potentially residing with real women, Balcer is also permitted dysphoria-affirming apparel.

Fox News Digital noted that MDOC Commissioner Randell Liberty rolled out a policy in 2020 requiring state-run prisons to provide clothing that aligns with an inmate’s so-called gender identity, meaning that men can be given bras and women can receive chest binders. Balcer would be eligible to receive such gear.

The murders

WGME reported that on Oct. 31, 2016, Balcer murdered his parents, Alice and Tony Balcer, and then slaughtered the family’s chihuahua because it kept barking.

In a 911 call played in court, Balcer confessed to the murders, saying, “I snapped. I took my little Ka-Bar [U.S. Marine Corps combat knife] there and I drove it straight into my mother’s back.”

Balcer later told Maine State Police detectives that he had stabbed his mother when she came over to give him a comforting hug.

The murderer noted at the time of the 911 call — which was punctuated by his apparent laughter — that his mother’s corpse was lying on the floor, “messy.”

“My father came up because he heard her screams and I stabbed the f*** out of him,” said Balcer. “I stabbed the dog too. She was barking.”

Alice Balcer was reportedly stabbed nine times and Tony Balcer was stabbed 13 times.

The murderer reportedly asked his brother Christopher Balcer if he wanted to die, but ultimately permitted him to escape unmolested.

Judge Eric Walker said, “The only possible motive for the murders appears to be Andrew’s perception that his parents were unwilling or unable to deal with his transgender issues. We will never know if Antonio or Alice Balcer would have been accepting, because they were ambushed and murdered by Andrew.”

Contrary to the murderer’s claims, Alice Balcer’s brother Carl Pierce said, “There was no hatred. There was no malice. There was no ill will. There was resignation to be sure but ultimately there was acceptance.”

The murderer’s brother Christopher Balcer similarly suggested that the victims had been accepting of their killer’s identity, reported the Sun Journal.

Christopher Balcer also suggested that the murderer’s claims of abuse at the hands of his parents were similarly lies, calling the allegations “the most absurd I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Christopher shared a letter he sent to his brother in jail with the Kennebec Journal, in which he wrote, “I still hear our dearest mother’s screams, every night as I fall asleep. Every morning as I awaken, they echo in my head. Her screams as she was stabbed by the son she doted on so much, the son she only wanted the world for, and would accept nothing less.”

“I remember the foul things you accused her of, and the looks of horror upon the family’s faces as they heard about them. You are an inhuman creature and the fact that you continue to pretend otherwise sickens me,” added Christopher.

Andrea Balcer sentencing youtu.be

Justice Dept. sues Republican Arizona governor over shipping container border wall


By: CARLOS GARCIA | December 15, 2022

Read more at https://www.conservativereview.com/justice-dept-sues-republican-arizona-governor-over-shipping-container-border-wall-2658971311.html

Image Source: KPHO-TV YouTube video screenshot

Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox. SIGN UP

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey over his order to pile up shipping containers at the border to create a wall and deter illegal migrant crossings. Ducey began filling gaps in the border wall with shipping containers stacked on top of each other in August. The Department of Justice objected to the policy, and Ducey filed a lawsuit in October to keep the container wall in place.

Arizona is taking action to protest on behalf of our citizens,” he said at the time. “With this lawsuit, we’re pushing back against efforts by federal bureaucrats to reverse the progress we’ve made. The safety and security of Arizona and its citizens must not be ignored. Arizona is going to do the job that Joe Biden refuses to do — secure the border in any way we can. We’re not backing down.”

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in an Arizona district court accusing the state government of acting unconstitutionally.

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

Officials from Reclamation and the Forest Service have notified Arizona that it is trespassing on federal lands,” the lawsuit said. “Not only has Arizona refused to halt its trespasses and remove the shipping containers from federal lands, but it has indicated that it will continue to trespass on federal lands and install additional shipping containers.

The government also argued that Ducey is violating the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which says that federal laws take precedence over state laws when there’s a conflict between the two.

Ducey has said that the state has stacked about 130 shipping containers along 3,820 linear feet.

On Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said California was in a fiscal crisis over the number of illegal immigrants who had been sent to the state by the federal government.

Here’s more about the container wall conflict:

Feds sue Gov. Doug Ducey over shipping containers at the border www.youtube.com

Skirt-wearing biological boy sexually assaulted 2 female students last year – superintendent finally fired following grand jury report


By: CANDACE HATHAWAY | December 07, 2022

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/skirt-wearing-biological-boy-sexually-assaulted-2-female-students-last-year-superintendent-finally-fired-following-grand-jury-report#toggle-gdpr/

Loudoun County School Board Superintendent Scott Ziegler (Image Source: WUSA video screenshot)

Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox. SIGN UP

The Loudoun County School Board fired Superintendent Scott Ziegler following a grand jury report regarding the district’s handling of two sexual assaults committed by a biological boy who claimed to be transgender, Fox News Digital reported.

In May 2021, the skirt-wearing biological male student was accused of raping a 15-year-old female student in the girls’ bathroom. The story received national attention when the victim’s father, Scott Smith, accused Loudoun County School District of covering up the sexual assault to protect to its transgender policy. Following the horrifying attack, the biological boy was removed from the school and quietly sent to another school in the same district, where the student was accused of sexually assaulting another girl in October 2021.

The attacker faced charges and was found guilty of both sexual assaults.

Monday’s grand jury report stated that the district showed a “stunning lack of openness, transparency and accountability, both to the public and to the special grand jury.”

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

The report noted that the district “failed at every juncture.” According to the report, the school board attempted to “thwart, discredit and push back” against the grand jury’s investigation.

The grand jury slammed Ziegler for claiming at a school board meeting in June of last year that he did not have any knowledge of the first sexual assault and that there was no “record of assaults occurring in our restrooms.” In that meeting, Ziegler also stated that “the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist.”

The investigation into the district’s handling of the assault revealed that the superintendent was, in fact, aware of the initial assault. In a May 28 email, the superintendent alerted school board members about the reported attack.

Senior district officials subsequently met in private to discuss the sexual assault that occurred in the school bathroom, internal emails revealed. The report noted that LCSD “bears the brunt of the blame” for the second sexual assault and that it “could have and should have been prevented.” However, the grand jury did not find that there was a “coordinated cover-up” between school officials and the board.

“A remarkable lack of curiosity and adherence to operating in silos by LCPS administrators is ultimately to blame for the October 6 incident,” the report stated.

LCPS was provided with eight recommendations to increase school safety and avoid a similar incident in the future. The grand jury’s investigation did not result in any indictments.

COMMENTARY: Walmart Mass Shooter Left Behind Suicide Note – Includes 4 Words Media Doesn’t Want to Talk About


 By C. Douglas Golden | November 26, 2022

Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/walmart-mass-shooter-left-behind-suicide-note-includes-4-words-media-doesnt-want-talk/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=aa-breaking&utm_campaign=can&utm_content=firefly

The way you can tell the media is going to move on from the shooting at a Chesapeake, Virginia, Walmart that claimed the lives of six people is that there’s absolutely no handle for them.

Race? Not a factor — accused shooter Andre Bing, who later killed himself, was black. The gun? Not an AR-15 or an associated long rifle — the handgun he used was legally purchased. His victims weren’t chosen for any other reason than that they were his coworkers at the store.

And there are four words you definitely won’t hear them talk about from the alleged shooter’s suicide note: “led by the Satan.”

The note, which Chesapeake police say they found on the phone of the 31-year-old Bing, was released in a series of tweets on Friday.

In the rambling screed, Bing said he was offended because his coworkers compared him to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Trending: Watch: CNN Anchor Watches Narrative Collapse, Left Stunned When She Finds out Colorado Shooting Suspect is ‘Non-Binary’

“I would never have killed anyone that entered my home,” he said, calling his fellow employees “idiots with low intelligence” who tormented him with what he described as “evil twisted grins.”

“Sorry God I’ve failed you, this was not your fault but my own,” he wrote. “I failed to listen to the groans of the holy spirit which made me a poor representation of You.”

“My only wish would have been to start over from scratch and that my parents would have paid closer attention to my social deficits,” he continued.

“Sorry everyone but I did not plan this, I promise things just fell in place like I was led by the Satan.”

So, guess how many times Satan was mentioned in CNN’s write-up of the suicide note? Zero.

Instead, we got this: “The note — found on his phone — talks about God, the holy spirit, and how the author felt his ‘associates’ were mocking him.”

Nowhere in the article is it mentioned how he was addressing God or talking about the Holy Spirit. One is left with the distinct impression he was inspired by God, not by the embodiment of sin and evil.

Related: Watch: CNN Anchor Watches Narrative Collapse, Left Stunned When She Finds out Colorado Shooting Suspect is ‘Non-Binary’

By ignoring Satan, the media ignores the fact very real spiritual evil exists. “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one,” 1 John 5:19 reads. Even a CNN reporter can look at the outlet’s own homepage and realize how true the last part of that equation is.

Focusing on that, however, would lead too many readers to ruminate on the state of our fallen world and to blame individuals — not guns, politicians or religion — for the shooting.

With the shooting at a Colorado Springs, Colorado, gay nightclub, those scapegoats were too easy. It was the fault of religion. Of Tucker Carlson and Lauren Boebert. Of the so-called “assault weapon.”

This time, four disgusting words spell out what motivated this and so many other mass murderers: “led by the Satan.”

Expect the media to do everything to avoid talking about the inconvenient fact that good and evil are real, objective things. They’re going to avoid it because they want to exist in a godless bubble where good and evil are determined by manmade standards.

Tragically, shootings like the one in Chesapeake show exactly what happens when those concepts are left to human arbiters.

C. Douglas Golden

Contributor, Commentary

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.

@CillianZeal

Facebook

Media outlet revises story about Joe Biden after legal scholar exposes ‘whopper of a claim’


By: CHRIS ENLOE | November 22, 2022

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/ap-revises-story-joe-biden-hunter-business-dealings/

Kris Connor/WireImage

Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox. SIGN UP

The Associated Press revised a story about the Hunter Biden scandal after constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley spotlighted the “whopper of a claim” within it.

On Saturday, the AP wrote about House Republicans and their plan to investigate President Joe Biden for potentially being involved in his son’s business dealings despite his denials. Buried deep within the story was a paragraph absolving the president of any wrongdoing. The AP reported:

Joe Biden has said he’s never spoken to his son about his foreign business, and nothing the Republicans have put forth suggests otherwise. And there are no indications that the federal investigation involves the president.

Turley quickly called out the “breathtaking but telling” claim.

“[T]he Bidens have succeeded in a Houdini-like trick in making this elephant of a scandal disappear from the public stage,” Turley wrote on his website. “They did so by enlisting the media in the illusion. However, this level of audience participation in the trick truly defies belief.”

He then detailed the circumstantial evidence that appears to contradict Biden’s claims about not being involved in Hunter’s business dealings, including voice messages, emails, and claims from Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden.

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

The AP later deleted its suggestion that Republicans have failed to produce evidence backing their suspicions.

Joe Biden has said he’s never spoken to his son about his foreign business, and there are no indications that the federal investigation involves the president,” the AP story now reads.

According to Turley, the edit — which the AP does not disclose in an editor’s note — “creates a new problem.”

Rather than simply stating the fact, AP seems to struggle to shield the President. There is every indication that ‘the federal investigation involves the president.’ Not only is the President discussed in key emails under investigation, but the grand jury heard testimony that the ‘Big Guy’ is Joe Biden,” he explained, adding a link to this story.

Supreme Court Clears Way For Congress To Access Trump’s Tax Returns


By: TREVOR SCHAKOHL, LEGAL REPORTER | November 22, 2022

Read more at https://dailycaller.com/2022/11/22/supreme-court-trump-tax-returns/

Former U.S. President Donald Trump Makes An Announcement At His Florida Home
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Supreme Court has denied former President Donald Trump’s request to block the House Ways and Means Committee from reviewing his tax returns.

The committee has long been attempting to review six years of tax returns and files in connection with Trump and eight of his businesses. Trump had appealed to the Supreme Court to stop the committee from reviewing his tax returns, but the court turned down Trump’s request Tuesday.

On Oct. 27, a three-judge panel on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s request to block the tax returns, pushing him to file the emergency appeal in the Supreme Court, CNN reported. Trump asked the court Oct. 31 to temporarily block the committee from viewing his tax returns as the court considered his case, and Chief Justice John Roberts granted that request. (RELATED: Supreme Court Okays Masks On Planes During Public Health Emergencies)

The Tuesday court ruling also vacated Roberts’ order.

Trump’s Oct. 31 application claimed the committee’s tax return review request would, if allowed to stand, “undermine the separation of powers and render the office of the Presidency vulnerable to invasive information demands from political opponents in the legislative branch.”

Attempted murder suspect freed from jail after allegedly plowing through 25 LA sheriff’s recruits and leaving behind ‘bodies everywhere, bones sticking out and bleeding’


By: JOSEPH MACKINNON | November 18, 2022

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/suspect-accused-of-plowing-through-25-la-sheriffs-recruits-freed-from-jail-despite-attempted-murder-charges/

Image source: YouTube video – KTTV

Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox. SIGN UP

The driver accused of plowing through a large group of 75 law enforcement recruits in Los Angeles County on Wednesday has been named, charged, and released. Investigators now believe the incident to have been intentional.

In a statement on Nov. 17, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department indicated that 22-year-old Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez was charged with attempted murder on peace officers and that additional charges were pending.

CNN reported that while investigators have strong suspicions that the suspect meant to inflict harm on the recruits, they first need to shore up those suspicions with substantial evidence.

Since the department is usually required to present a case to the district attorney within 48 hours of a suspect’s arrest, they provisionally cut Gutierrez loose after his initial arrest. According to the Los Angeles Times, Gutierrez’s original arrest was deemed a detention.

LASD Deputy Deanna Mares told CNN: “It’s not like they arrested the wrong suspect. … They just want to make sure the investigation is going to be complete.”

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

Sgt. Gerardo Magos similarly suggested that there was ample evidence but that law enforcement just wanted “to make sure it’s properly presented.”

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva suggested that part of the reason investigators are taking more time is that they don’t trust the leftist district attorney to do his job.

The sheriff told NewsNation, “We operate under prosecutor George Gascón. We definitely have grave concerns about his ability to prosecute. We are actually going to provisionally release him (Gutierrez) until we can have the case ironclad, iron-proof, and submitted to the DA for filing consideration. Right now, we want to tie up all the loose ends on the case and then present it to the DA.”

Gutierrez is reportedly due in court on Friday.

Gutierrez allegedly drove 30 to 40 mph the wrong way up a street near the sheriff’s STARS Center Academy in Whittier, California, where 75 sheriff’s deputy recruits were jogging. The suspect is said to have mowed down 25 recruits, some of whom reportedly lost limbs.

Twenty of the victims are with the LASD; two are with the Glendale PD; two are with the Bell PD; and one is with the Pasadena PD.

The Independent reported that were it not for a light pole, even more people could have been injured.

Captain Pat MacDonald said, “Thank God for that light pole, because the vehicle ultimately hit it and stopped, as opposed to possibly hitting more recruits.”

Five recruits were left in critical condition. According to the Los Angeles Times, over a dozen others suffered “life-altering” injuries of varying severity.

Villanueva described the aftermath to NewsNation: “It was a bedlam, chaos, you know, there were bodies everywhere, bones sticking out and bleeding profusely. It was a pretty traumatic scene.”

“In fact, the paramedics that were there had never seen something of that scale. It was almost like an airplane accident, but everyone was alive, thankfully,” added Villanueva.

As of Thursday night, seven recruits were reportedly still in the hospital, two of whom remained in critical condition.

The LASD noted that homicide investigators would present the case to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office on Friday for filing considerations.

Villanueva believes the vehicular attack to have been a “deliberate act.”

In one video of the incident caught on a nearby security camera, it appears as though the suspect oriented his vehicle toward the victims:

Surveillance video shows moment of horrific Whittier crash that injured 25 recruits youtu.be

The sheriff said on Wednesday that there were no skid marks at the scene, suggestive of a failure or a refusal to apply the brakes when driving toward the recruits. After allegedly mowing down the prospective deputies, Gutierrez allegedly remained in the Honda CR-V with his foot still on the accelerator.

A field sobriety test indicated that Gutierrez was not drunk on the morning of the brutal incident. The Los Angeles Times indicated that marijuana may have been recovered from the suspect’s vehicle.

Two dozen LA sheriff recruits injured after car plows into group youtu.be

Detransitioner to sue ‘mutilators’ who ‘butchered’ her body


By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter | November 15, 2022

Read more at https://www.christianpost.com/news/detransitioner-to-sue-mutilators-who-butchered-her-body.html/

Detransitioner Chloe Cole, 17, speaks about her experience undergoing trans medicalization as a young teenager in a meeting with Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo in July 2022. | Screengrab: Twitter/Joseph A. Ladapo

A detransitioner is suing doctors who performed body mutilating sex-change surgeries on her as a minor, seeking to hold accountable the “mutilators” who “butchered” her. 

Chloe Cole, an 18-year-old detransitioner residing in California, has filed a notice of intent to sue the medical facilities that performed procedures that have left her disfigured. The notice of intent to sue in California Superior Court lists three doctors practicing in the Los Angeles area and two medical companies based in California as defendants in the pending lawsuit. The lawsuit will move forward 90 days after the publication of the notice of intent to sue, on Feb. 9, 2023, “unless this matter can be resolved prior to that time.”

A detransitioner is a person who formerly self-identified as the opposite sex but has now become comfortable with their biological sex. 

In a statement announcing the letter of intent to sue, Cole described her teenage years as “a culmination of excruciating pain, regret, and most importantly injustice.” Cole recalled that she was “emotionally and physically damaged and stunted by so-called medical professionals in my most important developmental period.”

I was butchered by an institution that we trust more than anything else in our lives,” she added. “What is worse is that I am not alone in my pain. I will ensure that the blood and tears of detransitioners like me will not be in vain. It is impossible for me to recoup what I have lost, but I will fight to ensure that no other children will be harmed at the hands of these liars and mutilators.”

Harmeet Dhillon, CEO of the Center for American Liberty, is representing Cole in her litigation. Dhillon vowed to “hold the ‘professionals’ involved accountable for their deliberate choices to mutilate children and financially benefit from it without regard to the human tragedies they’ve created,” adding, “We will break the cycle of them breaking America’s children before it’s too late.”

The notice of intent to sue elaborates on Cole’s circumstances: “Chloe is a biological female who suffered from a perceived psychological issue ‘gender dysphoria,’” the document states. “Under Defendants’ advice and supervision, between 13-17 years old Chloe underwent harmful transgender treatment, specifically, puberty blockers, off-label cross-sex hormone treatment, and a double mastectomy.”

The notice classified Cole’s experience as a form of “medical experimentation,” adding, “She now has deep emotional wounds, severe regrets, and distrust for the medical system.” Specifically, the letter adds that because of acts carried out by the defendants, Cole “suffered mutilation to her body and lost social development with her peers at milestones that can never be reversed or regained.”

“Defendants coerced Chloe and her parents to undergo what amounted to a medical experiment by propagating two lies. First, Defendants falsely informed Chloe and her parents that Chloe’s gender dysphoria would not resolve unless Chloe socially and [medically] transitioned to appear more like a male. Chloe has been informed by her parents that Defendants even gave them the ultimatum: ‘Would you rather have a dead daughter or a live son?’”

The notice of intent to sue notes that “the vast majority of childhood gender dysphoria cases resolve by the time the child reaches adulthood, with the patient’s self-perception reverting back to align with their biological sex.

According to the letter, “Despite an undeniable body of relevant medical literature, Defendants never once informed Chloe of the possibility, indeed the high likelihood, that her gender dysphoria would resolve, without cross-sex treatment, by the time she reached adulthood.

Defendants fraudulently concealed that information from Chloe that the only way to resolve her psychological condition was to undergo physical, chemical, and social transition to a male role,” the document added. 

Citing a longterm study finding that “gender dysphoric individuals who undergo sex reassignment continue to have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behavior, and psychiatric morbidity as compared with the general population,” the letter lamented that “Defendants intentionally obscured these facts and defrauded Chloe and her parents in order to perform what amounted to a lucrative transgender medical experiment on Chloe.”

Although Cole was “advised that the distress she experienced because of her gender dysphoria would resolve as she transitioned,” her “distress always came back worse” following the “initial relief” that occurred after “each phase of transition.” Cole’s double mastectomy, which was performed on her at 15, caused her to experience suicidal thoughts and a deteriorating state of mental health.

Cole told Fox News opinion host Tucker Carlson last week that the doctors named as defendants in the letter committed medical malpractice. The notice of intent to sue outlined some of the claims of medical malpractice, including the absence of “specific information regarding the actual risks of the testosterone and puberty blockers” she was first prescribed at age 13. 

Side effects of puberty blockers include: “Permanent fertility loss, painful intercourse, impairment of orgasm, reduced bone development and inability to obtain peak or maximum bone density, stopped or stunted widening and growth of the pelvic bones for reproductive purposes, increased risk of osteoporosis and debilitating spine and hip fractures as an adult, increased morbidity and death in older age due to increased risk of hip fracture, negative and unknown effects on brain development, emotional liability such as crying, irritability, impatience, anger, and aggression, and reports of suicidal ideation and attempt.”

While much of the notice of intent to sue contains redacted information about the medical consequences of the experimental procedures performed on Cole’s body, the document concludes with an assessment of damages caused by the drugs and operations performed on her body over the course of several years. Cole will seek $350,000 from each of the three doctors named as defendants in the lawsuit and both healthcare organizations where the procedures were performed, making it possible that she could be awarded up to $1,750,000 in damages altogether.

The notice of intent to sue comes shortly after Cole has emerged as one of the most prominent detransitioners in the U.S. Cole founded the support group Detrans United, established to provide detransitioners who regret their attempts at gender transitions with a platform to voice their “dissent against ‘gender-affirming care,’ [and] influence policy.”

Cole has voiced her dissent against sex-change surgeries for minors by calling into a school board meeting last month at Conejo Valley Unified School District in Ventura County, California. Cole expressed concern about the school district’s distribution of a book to 8-year-old students teaching that children could be born in the wrong body. Cole warned that exposing children to such material could lead them to make ill-fated decisions like the ones she made when she was experiencing gender dysphoria.

“I will not be able to breastfeed any children I have in the future and my sexuality has permanently been affected because I was allowed to make adult decisions starting at 13, and then again at 15,” she said at the meeting. “This is what happens when children are sexualized and exposed to developmentally inappropriate and confusing content and ideas from a young age. This is what happens when we treat children like adults and expect them to have the mental faculties for proper long-term decision making.”

In light of the concerns about the longterm impacts of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and body-mutilating surgeries on minors, the states of AlabamaArizona and Arkansas have banned such procedures for children younger than 18, while the Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine voted to do the same earlier this month. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services classified such procedures as a form of child abuse, as has the state’s Republican attorney general

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com

Middle school dean placed on leave after Project Veritas video exposes teacher sexualizing students, talking about panties of ‘naughty’ girls


By: PAUL SACCA | November 11, 2022

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/middle-school-teacher-students-sexual-project-veritas/

iStock / Getty Images Plus

Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox. SIGN UP

A dean at a high-priced Connecticut private school has been placed on leave after a Project Veritas video appears to show him sexualizing his students.

Iman Rasti is the middle school dean, writing center director, and seventh-grade English teacher at the Greens Farms Academy, according to his LinkedIn account. He was reportedly caught on video making sexually explicit comments about his underage students entrusted to his care. Rasti seemingly admits to being sexually turned on by his seventh-grade students.

The undercover Project Veritas journalist asked Rasti if he was ever “tempted” by his students, and he nodded in agreement, then said, “Every day.” Rasti then appeared to confess being sexually aroused by his students: “It’s very hard. I mean, literally and figuratively.”

When asked about being sexual with his students, the dean noted, “That possibly means me losing my job, my reputation – it’s risky, way too risky.”

Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe said the female journalist recorded two hours of video speaking with Rasti – including the teacher making sexual remarks about his students.

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

“Like, one thing they [students] do these days, they sit down in front of me, they purposefully sit down somewhere in the class that is literally directly in front of me,” Rasti said. “They spread their legs wide open and that is just brutal. Brutal.”

“Every day, there is different panties on: green, black, white,” he stated. “And they [students] make sure – it’s like they talk to each other, the three of them do that.”

“They open their legs, and I am teaching, and I see what I see,” Rasti told the undercover journalist at a restaurant. “They make sure that the panties are positioned in a way that I actually see the thing.”

Rasti is seen on video telling the Project Veritas journalist that he has seen the genitalia of his female students.

Rasti – who was hired by the school in 2019 – said he is distracted by the girls spreading their legs during the class. He said, “Well, how can you concentrate? How can you continue talking with your classroom when you see that?”

“I don’t know for women – if you see, I don’t know, I guess for women it’s sexy to see a man with a hard-on,” Rasti continued. “Maybe it’s sexy, I don’t know.”

The teacher said of his students, “And they smile, and they smirk at me, and they close and open, close and open a couple of times. They’re naughty.”

“When girls start having sex, it’s interesting for someone like me who has been in and out of relationships all my life, and married, and all of that,” he admitted.

Rasti theorized that you can see “changes in face and appearance” of adolescent girls once they begin having sex.

“You see a 15-year-old girl, and then next year they come back to school and she’s a woman,” he declared. “There is no way she has gained weight just doing nothing, so it is clear that she has had sex. A lot of sex.”

“Part of the reason why those girls give me attention – in addition to me being genuine with them and honest with them – I think it’s maybe they get that vibe, that sexual tension. I feel like they get it now,” he added. “They lost their head with the TikToks.”

Rasti met with the Project Veritas journalist a second time, and he made a shocking confession.

“I get the vibe, it’s obvious, but I refuse, because I don’t f*** my students. That’s my principle,” the dean said, but added, “I don’t do that, but sometimes I make exceptions. Sometimes.”

Rasti then admitted that he had numerous sexual encounters with his students when he was a college professor.

“Not with my K-12, but college, I had sex with many, many, many, many of my students,” he seemingly bragged.

After Rasti’s exposure in the Project Veritas video, Greens Farms Academy placed Rasti on leave.

“We have just been made aware of a report of inappropriate comments allegedly made by a teacher at GFA,” Greens Farms Academy spokesperson Michelle Levi told the Hartford Courant. “We are placing the employee on leave and will be promptly investigating this matter and taking appropriate action.”

Levi said the school sent a message about the situation to the parents of students on Thursday night. The school also provided parents with “resources” that could offer assistance.

Westport Police Capt. David Wolf told the outlet that police are aware of the damning video, but there is no investigation at this time.

Tuition for seventh-grade students at Greens Farms Academy is $48,770.

(WARNING: Explicit language)

Connecticut School Director Placed “On Leave” After Detailing Sexual Fantasies with Minor Students www.youtube.com

Targeting of pro-lifers shows FBI is ‘rotted at its core’: report


By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter

Read more at https://www.christianpost.com/news/targeting-of-pro-lifers-shows-fbi-is-rotted-at-its-core-report.html/

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

A new report compiled by congressional Republicans suggests that the FBI is “rotted at its core,” citing the targeting of pro-life activists and parents concerned about their children’s education.

Republicans on the United States House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee released a report Friday titled “FBI Whistleblowers: What Their Disclosures Indicate About the Politicization of the FBI and the Justice Department.” The report contains approximately 1,000 pages of correspondence between lawmakers and current and former agency employees and the executive branch seeking clarification and documents related to actions lawmakers view as concerning. 

“Over the last year, a multitude of whistleblowers have approached Judiciary Committee Republicans with allegations of political bias by the FBI’s senior leadership and misuses of the agency’s federal law-enforcement powers,” the report states. “Whistleblowers describe the FBI’s Washington hierarchy as ‘rotted at its core,’ maintaining a ‘systemic culture of unaccountability,’ and full of ‘rampant corruption, manipulation, and abuse.’”

The report specifically outlined information obtained from whistleblower testimony and other sources revealing how “actions by FBI leadership show a political bias against conservatives.” It expressed particular concern about the FBI’s embrace of an “anti-life agenda” while allowing “attacks on pro-life facilities and churches to go unabated.” 

For its part, the FBI is insisting that it continues to go about its business in a politically neutral way. In a statement shared with The Christian Post, the law enforcement agency asserted that “we follow the facts without regards to politics.”

“The FBI has testified to Congress and responded to letters from legislators on numerous occasions to provide an accurate accounting of how we do our work. The men and women of the FBI devote themselves to protecting the American people from terrorism, violent crime, cyber threats and other dangers,” the statement added. “While outside opinions and criticism often come with the job, we will continue to follow the facts wherever they lead, do things by the book, and speak through our work.” 

The document identified the harassment and threats U.S. Supreme Court justices have found themselves subject to following the leak of the draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which concluded that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion, as violations of federal law: “In the face of ongoing threats to the justices and their families, the DOJ has, without any public explanation, neglected to institute a single prosecution for those acting in apparent violation and even brazen defiance of the law.”

After classifying the attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers following the leak of the Dobbs decision as violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, the report maintained that the DOJ was abiding by a double standard when it comes to enforcing the federal law. It lamented that “the administration has looked the other way on violence targeting pro-life groups and facilities” while acting “thuggish” in enforcing the provisions of the FACE Act preventing the assault of abortion clinic workers.

“On Sept. 23, an FBI SWAT team raided the home of Pennsylvania resident Mark Houck to arrest him on an indictment charging FACE Act violations punishable by up to 11 years in prison, based on simple shoving incidents. The warrant alleged that on Oct. 13, 2021, Houck shoved a Planned Parenthood volunteer escort outside a clinic. Houck’s wife, however, explained that Houck was provoked by the Planned Parenthood activist making ‘crude … inappropriate and disgusting’ comments to Houck’s 12-year-old son.”

The report added that the FBI deployed 15 vehicles and 25 agents to his home, where they pointed guns at Houck and his family, all because of a confrontation between the pro-life activist and the Planned Parenthood escort as he and his son prayed outside the abortion clinic. It added that while the FBI “claims that it is investigating ‘a series of attacks and threats targeting pregnancy resource centers, faith-based organizations, and reproductive health clinics,’” it hinted at a double standard because “the FBI has not executed any SWAT team ‘dawn’ raids to make arrests in these cases.”

The document contained additional examples of the DOJ’s FACE Act enforcement, which resulted in pro-life activists facing 11 years in prison.

In addition to suggestions of a political bias against pro-lifers, the report pointed to a similar derision toward “parents resisting a far-left educational curriculum.” It recounted the memorandum authored by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland directing law enforcement agencies to address a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” toward school officials. 

The document stressed that the memo came five days after the National School Boards Association likened the “malice, violence, and threats” directed at school officials to “a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes” and suggested that the federal government use counterterrorism statutes to prosecute those engaged in such behavior. The DOJ memo and the NSBA letter prompted considerable backlash, leading to Garland testifying before Congress. 

While Garland assured lawmakers that he did not view “parents getting angry at school boards” as an example of domestic terrorism, a May 20 report released by the NSBA indicated that the Biden administration collaborated with the organization to craft the Sept. 29, 2021, letter that predated the memo. 

According to the NSBA report, “White House officials discussed the existence of the [NSBA] Letter, its requests, and the contents of the Letter with Department of Justice officials more than a week before the Letter was finalized and sent to President [Joe] Biden.”

Friday’s report added that “the FBI quickly operationalized Attorney General Garland’s directive,” with FBI officials creating a new threat tag titled “EDUOFFICIALS” that applied to all “investigations and assessments of threats specifically directed against school board administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.” The report cited “information from whistleblowers” revealing that “the FBI has opened investigations with the EDUOFFICIALS threat tag in almost every region of the country and relating to all types of educational settings.”

Examples of incidents that led to FBI investigations included a mother informing a school board “we are coming for you.” The complaint that led to the investigation presented the woman as a threat because of her membership in a so-called “right-wing mom’s group” titled “Moms for Liberty” and her status as a “gun owner.” 

Another parent that became the target of an FBI investigation vocally expressed opposition to mask mandates, with the complaint against him implying that he “fit the profile of an insurrectionist” because “he rails against the government,” “believes all conspiracy theories” and “has a lot of guns and threatens to use them.” 

The complainant admitted to the FBI that they had “no specific information or observations of … any crimes or threats” and submitted the complaint because the FBI had created a website “to submit tips to the FBI in regards to any concerning behavior directed toward school boards.” 

Other findings in the report declared that “The FBI is artificially inflating and manipulating domestic violent extremism statistics for political purposes,” adding: “the FBI downplayed and sought to reduce the spread of the serious allegations of wrongdoing leveled against Hunter Biden,” “the FBI is abusing its foreign surveillance authorities” and “the FBI is purging employees who refuse to align themselves with the leadership’s political ideology.”

It also denounced the raid upon former President Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago over the summer. 

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com

NBC Removes Report Claiming Paul Pelosi Walked Away from Police, ‘Did Not Immediately Declare’ Emergency


By TREVOR SCHAKOHL, LEGAL REPORTER | November 04, 2022

Read more at https://dailycaller.com/2022/11/04/nbc-removes-report-pelosi-emergency/

Screen Shot 2022-11-04 at 2.58.14 PM
Screenshot/Twitter/Benny Johnson

NBC pulled an aired report from its website that said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul opened the door to their house, walked away from police and “did not immediately declare an emergency” the morning he was attacked.

“Sources familiar with what unfolded within the Pelosi residence now revealing, when officers responded to the high-priority call, they were seemingly unaware they’d been called to the home of the Speaker of the House,” NBC News reporter Miguel Almaguer said in the Nov. 4 “Today” report. “After a knock and announce, the door was opened by Mr. Pelosi. The 82-year-old did not immediately declare an emergency or try to leave his home, but instead began walking several feet back into the foyer toward the assailant and away from police.”

NBC removed the report from the show’s website the same day, stating, “The piece should not have aired because it did not meet NBC News reporting standards.”

David DePape allegedly broke into the home early on Oct. 28, said he wanted to speak with Nancy Pelosi, and eventually attacked her husband with a hammer, according to a federal affidavit. The Speaker and her protective detail were in Washington, D.C., when the incident occurred, U.S. Capitol Police said.

Paul Pelosi has since returned home after being hospitalized. NBC added it was unclear why “Pelosi didn’t try to flee, or tell responding officers he was in distress.” (RELATED: Paul Pelosi’s Attacker Was In The US Illegally: REPORT)

The report referenced a state-level court filing against DePape. He has pleaded not guilty to all state-level charges against him, CNN reportedincluding attempted murder, false imprisonment and threatening the life or serious bodily harm to a public official.

DePape is also federally charged with assaulting a U.S. official’s immediate family member with the intent to retaliate against the official on account of the performance of official duties and attempting to kidnap a U.S. official on account of the performance of official duties.

NBC did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Clarence Thomas delivers knockout punch when hearing pro-affirmative action claim: ‘I’ve heard similar arguments in favor of segregation’


By CHRIS ENLOE | November 01, 2022

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/clarence-thomas-affirmative-action-segregation/

OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images

Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox. SIGN UP

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Monday that pro-affirmative action arguments being made before the court reminded him of pro-segregation arguments.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina on Monday. The significance of the cases cannot be overstated. First, the court will decide whether race can play a role in college admissions, which is currently legal and is known as “affirmative action.”

Second, the court will determine “whether Harvard College is violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by penalizing Asian American applicants, engaging in racial balancing, overemphasizing race and rejecting workable race-neutral alternatives,” according to SCOTUSBlog, and whether “a university can reject a race-neutral alternative because it would change the composition of the student body, without proving that the alternative would cause a dramatic sacrifice in academic quality or the educational benefits of overall student-body diversity.”

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

During oral arguments, Thomas asked North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park for a definition of “diversity” and to explain the “educational benefits” of diversity.

“Mr. Park, I’ve heard the word ‘diversity’ quite a few times, and I don’t have a clue what it means,” Thomas noted. “It seems to mean everything for everyone.

“I’d like you to give us a specific definition of diversity,” he asked.

Park, however, could not provide a specific definition of “diversity.”

“First, we define diversity the way this court has in this court’s precedents, which means a broadly diverse set of criteria that extends to all different backgrounds and perspectives and not solely limited to race,” he responded.

Regarding the educational benefits of diversity, Park claimed there is no dispute whether diversity is beneficial in education. When pushed further, he pointed to studies about stock trading that claim “racially diverse groups of people making trading decisions perform at a higher level.”

“The mechanism there is that it reduces groupthink and people have longer and more sustained disagreement, and that leads to a more efficient outcome,” Park claimed.

Thomas fired back, “Well, I guess I don’t put much stock in that, because I’ve heard similar arguments in favor of segregation too.”

Thomas’ objection to affirmative action is well known. In a previous case — Grutter v. Bollinger, the case that could be overturned — Thomas explained how the racial considerations innate in affirmative action are dehumanizing.

“The Constitution abhors classifications based on race not only because those classifications can harm favored races or are based on illegitimate motives, but also because every time the government places citizens on racial registers and makes race relevant to the provision of burdens or benefits, it demeans us all, he wrote in an opinion.

In another affirmative action case, Fisher v. University of Texas, Thomas explicated his comparison to arguments for segregation. “It is irrelevant under the Fourteenth Amendment whether segregated or mixed schools produce better leaders,” he wrote.

“Indeed, no court today would accept the suggestion that segregation is permissible because historically black colleges produced Booker T. Washington, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other prominent leaders,” he explained. “Likewise, the University’s racial discrimination cannot be justified on the ground that it will produce better leaders.”

Border Patrol Agents and Illegal Venezuelan Migrants Violently Clash at Southern Border


By JENNIE TAER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER | October 31, 2022

Read more at https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/31/border-migrants-venezuela-texas-southern-border-clash/

elpaso
Twitter//@fotornelas

Border Patrol agents and illegal migrants from Venezuela had a violent clash at the southern border on Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The incident occurred when the group of Venezuelans, who were engaged in a protest, tried to cross the border from Mexico into El Paso, Texas, along the Rio Grande River, illegally, CBP told the DCNF. The situation grew tense as one of the protestors assaulted a border agent with a flag pole and another person threw a rock that injured one of the agents.

The attacks led agents to deploy “crowd control measures” that included a pepper ball launching system. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: ‘Facilitators Of Traffickers’: Guatemalan President Says US Needs To ‘Pressure’ Countries To Stop Flow Of Illegal Migrants)

The group then returned to Mexico, CBP said, adding that the incident is under review.

“Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional responsibility will review the incident. The situation is still on going, further information may be provided as it becomes available,” CBP said.

Due to an early October Biden administration rule, Venezuelan migrants who cross into the U.S. illegally are expelled immediately to Mexico. CBP encountered over 187,000 illegal Venezuelan migrants during fiscal year 2022, according to agency statistics. Some migrants from Venezuela may come due to a “perception that once they reach the border, they have a greater chance of remaining in the United States, based on a misunderstood perception of temporary protected status,” an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation in late October said.

“These actions make clear that there is a lawful and orderly way for Venezuelans to enter the United States, and lawful entry is the only way,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said of the policy at the time.

However, it is unclear if the incident is related to the policy change.

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Blocks Jan. 6 Committee


 By Jack Davis  October 27, 2022

Read more at https://www.westernjournal.com/liberal-supreme-court-justice-blocks-jan-6-committee/

Efforts by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion to examine phone records of the Arizona Republican Party chairwoman have been stymied by a member of the U.S. Supreme Court’s liberal wing.

Justice Elena Kagan on Wednesday temporarily blocked the panel from accessing the phone records of Dr. Kelli Ward and her husband, Mark Ward, according to The Hill.

Kagan’s order was terse, saying, “Upon consideration of the application of counsel for the applicants, it is ordered that the October 22, 2022 order of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, case No. 22-16473, is hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.

“Likewise, respondent T-Mobile USA, Inc. is temporarily enjoined from releasing the records requested by the House Select Committee pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.

“It is further ordered that a response to the application be filed on or before Friday, October 28, 2022, by 5 p.m. (EDT).”

Kagan was involved because she is the justice assigned to handle emergency requests from Arizona.

The Wards had sued to block access to their phone records. After losing their case at the district court level, they appealed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit voted 2-1 to deny their bid to protect their records, according to CNN.

That prompted the emergency appeal to Kagan. “This is an unprecedented case with profound precedential implications for future congressional investigations and political associational rights under the First Amendment,” the Wards said in the appeal.

“In a first-of-its-kind situation, a select committee of the United States Congress, dominated by one political party, has subpoenaed the personal telephone and text message records of a state chair of the rival political party relating to one of the most contentious political events in American history—the 2020 election and the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021.”

The appeal painted the case as potentially setting a dire precedent.

“If Dr. Ward’s telephone and text message records are disclosed, congressional investigators are going to contact every person who communicated with her during and immediately after the tumult of the 2020 election. That is not speculation, it is a certainty. There is no other reason for the Committee to seek this information,” the Wards’ filing said.

“There can be no greater chill on public participation in partisan politics than a call, visit, or subpoena, from federal investigators,” they wrote.

The appellate panel ruled against the Wards, saying the federal subpoena “is substantially related to the important government interest in investigating the causes of the January 6 attack and protecting future elections from similar threats.”

“The investigation, after all, is not about Ward’s politics; it is about her involvement in the events leading up to the January 6 attack, and it seeks to uncover those with whom she communicated in connection with those events,” Judges Barry Silverman and Eric Miller wrote in the majority opinion. “That some of the people with whom Ward communicated may be members of a political party does not establish that the subpoena is likely to reveal ‘sensitive information about [the party’s] members and supporters.’”

The two judges who formed the majority castigated the activities of the Wards, who were electors pledged to former President Donald Trump.

“Ward participated in a scheme to send spurious electoral votes to Congress, a scheme that the committee describes as ‘a key part’ of the ‘effort to overturn the election’ that culminated on Jan. 6,” the opinion said.

In her dissent, Judge Sandra Ikuta said the Wards have valid constitutional rights that were insufficiently considered.

“The communications at issue here between members of a political party about an election implicate a core associational right protected by the First Amendment,” Ikuta wrote.

“Regardless of Ward’s position regarding the 2020 election, her right to engage in discussions with her political associates remains entitled to First Amendment protection against the government’s compelled disclosure of her political affiliations,” the judge said. “We must be vigilant to protect First Amendment rights — even when raised by an individual alleged to have engaged in a nefarious ‘scheme.’”

Jack Davis

Contributor

Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

Clarence Thomas’s Duty is to the Constitution, Not a Constituency of Black Men


BY: MARK PAOLETTA | OCTOBER 27, 2022

Rerad more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/10/27/clarence-thomass-duty-is-to-the-constitution-not-a-constituency-of-black-men/

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
If you listen to corporate media, you’d think Clarence Thomas is a dark-skinned white supremacist. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Author Mark Paoletta profile

MARK PAOLETTA

VISIT ON TWITTER@MARKPAOLETTA

MORE ARTICLES

MSNBC host Tiffany Cross recently went on a rant about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in which she referred to him as “Tom” (short for the derogatory term “Uncle Tom”) and invoked a series of other ugly and disrespectful names. But while Cross and her fellow leftwing TV hosts have been spewing hatred, Thomas has been laying out a jurisprudence of faithfulness to the text of the Constitution that now represents a view held by the majority of justices on the Supreme Court. This view does away with the nonexistent constitutional “right” to abortion while reigning in out-of-control federal agencies and giving the Bill of Rights the respect it deserves.

Cross criticized Thomas for not representing black men in his jurisprudence, but where did she get the idea that a supreme court justice is supposed to represent a constituency? In our system of government, a judge’s job is to decide cases according to the Constitution and the law, without regard to any person. Take, for instance, Justice Sonya Sotomayor’s views on affirmative action. It is certainly not her job to represent the median views of Hispanics, 68 percent of whom oppose race being a factor in college admissions, yet she continues to support racially preferential admissions systems that categorize people by their heritage and not their merits. 

Contrary to Cross’s claim, working-class black Americans historically have been in agreement with Thomas’ views on virtually every contentious issue. Thomas has long been opposed to affirmative action and racial preference programs, and so are most black Americans. According to a 2022 poll from Pew Research Center, 59 percent of black Americans are against race factoring into college admissions. It is unlikely Cross is a part of this 59 percent. 

Justice Thomas has opined for thirty years that there is no constitutional right to abortion. According to a 2020 Gallup article, from 2001-2007, only 24 percent of black Americans believed abortion should be legal in all circumstances. From 2017-2020, only 32 percent did. In a May 2022 YouGov poll, 81 percent percent of black respondents said that abortion should be banned after the 25th week. Cross likely is unwilling to tolerate any limit on abortions up to the moment of birth, which would put her far outside the mainstream of black Americans.  

Thomas has ruled that there is no constitutional right to same-sex marriage. While that is wholly different than whether one supports or supports same-sex marriage, it is notable that a large percentage of black Americans have, until very recently, been opposed to the practice. According to Pew Research, only 21 percent of black Americans supported same-sex marriage in 2004, only 30 percent in 2010, and 51 percent in 2019, and now it is 59 percent.

On topics where Thomas has not ruled from the bench, it is noteworthy that 81 percent of black parents support school choice, but the NAACP opposes school choice. Sixty-nine percent of black Americans support Voter ID laws. Only 28 percent of black Americans support leftist calls to defund the nation’s police. 

Why do Cross and black leadership groups, like the NAACP, continue to be so out of touch with the black Americans they claim to represent? Why do they prioritize the goals set by rich white socialists? Perhaps it is because the NAACP receives significant funding from a majority of white leftwing organizations and labor unions and, therefore, may feel obligated to parrot the views of their funders. Certainly, that’s what happened in 1991 when the NAACP opposed Justice Thomas’ nomination at the insistence of the white labor unions, despite his support in the black community. Cross works for, in her own words, “a white-run media” company, and she pushes far-left views, whereas Thomas has a lifetime appointment and answers only to the Constitution and his conscience.   

Elites have worked to destroy Thomas for years because, among other things, he exposes how out of step they are with the concerns of everyday black Americans. Thomas has argued for affirmative action programs that help students of all races from disadvantaged backgrounds, but the major beneficiaries of racial set-aside programs are wealthy blacks and Hispanics. A recent analysis showed that 71 percent of blacks and Hispanics at Harvard were from wealthy families. These wealthy individuals prevent the truly disadvantaged members of their communities from getting ahead. 

During her tirade, Cross also attempted to smear Thomas by mentioning the ridiculous “pubic hair on a Coke can” comment that Anita Hill bizarrely claimed Thomas made to her many years ago. But the majority of the American people – men and women – did not believe Anita Hill’s testimony at Thomas’ confirmation hearings in 1991. A New York Times/CBS News poll showed people believed Thomas by 58-24 percent. Only 26 percent percent of women believed Anita Hill.   

In 1998, Anita Hill was interviewed by Tim Russert on “Meet the Press,” where she trashed two women who claimed to have been sexually harassed or assaulted by then-President Bill Clinton, one of whom Clinton later settled with out of court for $850,000. After Hill had zealously defended Clinton, Russert asked if there were a double standard on harassment allegations for liberals and conservatives. Hill said there is a double standard, saying, “We live in a political world, and the reality is that … there are … larger issues other than just individual behavior.” Hill meant that if you are pro-abortion, women’s groups will give you a pass if you sexually assault or harass women. Despite Hill being a blatant fraud, Cross still used her antics to smear Thomas. 

The left and the out-of-touch black leadership have attacked Thomas since he joined the Reagan administration forty years ago. Nevertheless, he does not care what they think or say. Cross’s attacks may play well to her leftist audience, but that’s not a lot of people, given she is the second lowest-rated show on the lowest-rated cable news network. 

Nevertheless, it’s important to respond to these attacks to demonstrate how out of touch she and her colleagues are. On the other hand, Thomas will continue building a long-lasting legacy by writing well-reasoned opinions and persuading a majority of his colleagues to join him in ruling in a manner that is faithful to the Constitution.


Mark Paoletta served as a lawyer in the George H.W. Bush White House Counsel’s office and worked on the confirmation of Justice Thomas. He is a senior fellow at Center for Renewing America, and partner at Schaerr Jaffe.

‘The Left Is Out For Blood’: Biden’s DOJ ‘Weaponizing’ Law To Arrest ‘Political Enemies,’ Former Official Says


By DIANA GLEBOVA, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT | October 21, 2022

Read more at https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/21/biden-department-justice-face-act-pro-life-activists/

Manhunt For NY Escaped Prisoners Gains Intensity After DNA Match Confirmed
Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Biden administration is “weaponizing” the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act to go after pro-life activists, an attorney who served under George W. Bush and Barack Obama told the Daily Caller.

“The left is out for blood, and Biden’s base is demanding prosecutions and the DOJ is providing them,” said Roger Severino, who served as an attorney at the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division, the same division that enforces the FACE Act. (RELATED: DOJ Charges 11 Pro-Life Activists For Blocking Abortion Clinic, Threatens Massive Prison Sentences)

The Biden administration has charged at least 16 pro-life activists with a maximum of 11 years in prison for alleged violations of the act, which prohibits obstructing people seeking reproduction services. Pro-life activist Mark Houck allegedly pushed an abortion escort to the ground after a verbal confrontation. FBI agents swarmed Houck’s house and took him away at gunpoint months after the initial charges against him were dropped.

The DOJ charged the other 15 pro-lifers with allegedly obstructing entrances of abortion clinics and they face a maximum of 11 years in prison, when, under the law, first time violators of the FACE Act usually face a maximum of six months(RELATED: Biden DOJ Trying To ‘Intimidate People Of Faith,’ Says Lawyer For Pro-Life Activist Arrested By FBI)

Past administrations have issued multi-year prison sentences for violations of the FACE Act in cases of a fatal shootingdeath threats, and damaging an abortion clinic with a Molotov cocktail, while people obstructing entrances to abortion clinics faced monetary fines and restraining orders.

Houck is being charged with the decade-long version of the FACE Act violation because the abortion escort “scraped his arm,” his attorney Peter Breen told the Daily Caller. “The charges shouldn’t apply at all, but even if they did, he’s being overcharged.”

“It’s outrageous that you would take a six-month misdemeanor … and turn it into a 10-year federal felony,” Breen added.

One of the other pro-lifers facing over a decade in prison, Paul Vaughn, never blocked the door of an abortion clinic, but was standing nearby, Breen claimed.

Severino, who served under both former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama from 2008 to 2015, said he’s “never heard of a charge being so excessive” as the 11-year maximum prison sentence and $350,000 fine put forth by the current administration for allegedly obstructing abortion clinic doors.

“This is law enforcement run amok. The FACE Act had always been enforced very rarely, because the pro-life movement is a movement of peace,” Severino said. “All of a sudden, they are inventing cases and doing sham prosecutions in an election year for purely political purposes to go after their political enemies.”

The DOJ did not respond to an inquiry from the Daily Caller asking if they have comment on whether the Biden administration has used the FACE Act more excessively than previous administrations.

The FACE Act also protects houses of worship and pro-life pregnancy centers, both of which have been firebombed across the country after the Dobbs decision. Thirty-three churches and 54 pregnancy centers have been attacked, according to the Catholic News Service. The DOJ has not prosecuted any cases of destruction against pro-life centers, Severino stressed. (RELATED: Pro-Life Groups Sound The Alarm Over Repeated Attacks, Call Out FBI, DOJ For Not Doing Enough)

Attack at Loreto House in Denton, Texas. Photo courtesy of Randy Bollig

The effort to arrest pro-lifers is specifically being pushed before the midterms, Department of Homeland Security official under the Trump administration, Ken Cuccinelli, told the Daily Caller.

“This has nothing to do with public safety. This is political virtue signaling to the radical-left base that has control of this administration,” Cuccinelli said.

“I think it will thoroughly backfire on them. I can’t think of a way they’ll get one more vote because they arrest these people, but I guarantee you, a lot [more] pro-lifers will stay home than might have for the midterm election,” he added.

12,000 fentanyl pills disguised as candy seized at LAX; Authorities issue Halloween warning


By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter

Read more at https://www.christianpost.com/news/12k-fentanyl-pills-disguised-as-candy-seized-at-la-airport.html/

TSA Officer watches people go through the security checkpoint at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on November 24, 2021 in Arlington, Virginia. FAA expects the number of travelers for Thanksgiving to reach pre-pandemic levels, with more than 53 million people traveling around the holiday. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Parents are advised to be extra vigilant this year in checking what their children bring home on Halloween after agents in Los Angeles seized around 12,000 fentanyl pills packaged in several bags of candy, the latest incident of the deadly drug being disguised as something innocuous.

According to a statement from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, a suspect carrying packages of fentanyl pills attempted to go through a TSA screening at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday, trying sneak past screening and board a plane. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Narcotics Bureau Detectives and Drug Enforcement Agency agents assigned to the airport discovered the pills inside boxes of Sweetarts, Skittles and Whoppers. The person carrying the drugs fled before he or she could be detained, but the suspect’s identity is known. An investigation into the matter is ongoing. 

“With Halloween approaching, parents need to make sure they are checking their kids candy and not allowing them to eat anything until it has been inspected by them,” officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department warned in the statement. 

“If you find anything in candy boxes that you believe might be narcotics, do not touch it and immediately notify your local law enforcement agency.” 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported over 71,000 overdose deaths from synthetic fentanyl in 2021, up from 57,000 deaths in 2020. 

Last month, New York authorities arrested a New Jersey woman after discovering she had 15,000 rainbow-colored fentanyl pills inside a lego box. The DEA reported the incident was the largest fentanyl seizure in New York City history. The 48-year-old suspect, Latesha Bush, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Sept. 30. A criminal complaint filed by the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor (SNP) against Bush charged her with one count of first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. 

New York authorities investigating suspected narcotics trafficking stopped Bush’s vehicle and found the two black tote bags and a Lego package containing fentanyl pills in the car. The pills were imprinted with “M” and “30” to resemble Oxycodone pills. 

“Disguising fentanyl as candy — and concealing it in children’s toys — will never hide the fact that fentanyl is a deadly poison that harms our communities, our families, and our city,” Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said in a statement.

Investigators claim Bush traveled from New Jersey to Manhattan in a rental car, and the pills she was carrying originated from Mexico. Investigators said disguising fentanyl as candy or other prescription drugs is a tactic used by the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel, two Mexican drug cartels. 

Earlier this month, the DEA announced the results of its One Pill Can Kill initiative, which led to the seizure of more than 10.2 million fentanyl pills and approximately 980 pounds of fentanyl powder from May 23 through Sept. 8. Out of the 390 cases investigated, 51 were linked to overdose poisonings, and 35 were connected to one or both of the Mexican cartels.

In a national survey of 1,000 likely U.S. voters conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC for Rasmussen Reports, 91% of participants said they believe the country’s fentanyl issue is serious, with 73% describing it as a “very serious problem.” 

The survey was conducted from Sept. 26 to Sept. 27 by phone, with a margin sampling of error of is +/- 3 percentage points and a 95% confidence level. 

Free-Speech Nonprofit Sues Former Jan. 6 Staffer for Defamation Over ‘Domestic Violent Extremists’ Smear


BY: MARGOT CLEVELAND | OCTOBER 20, 2022

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/10/20/free-speech-nonprofit-sues-former-jan-6-staffer-for-defamation-over-domestic-violent-extremists-smear/

US Capitol on Jan. 6
Mr. Riggleman’s book pushes the Democrat talking point that military veterans who defend the First Amendment are violent extremists. We are not.’

Author Margot Cleveland profile

MARGOT CLEVELAND

VISIT ON TWITTER@PROFMJCLEVELAND

MORE ARTICLES

1st Amendment Praetorian, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting free speech rights, filed a defamation lawsuit on Wednesday against a former staffer for the Jan. 6 Committee and publishers of his insider story of the investigation that labeled the group of former veterans as “domestic violent extremists” and a “militant group,” and portrayed the nonprofit as responsible for the violence that erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

News broke last month that a former senior adviser to the Jan. 6 Committee, Denver Riggleman, had penned a behind-the-scenes book purportedly detailing the inner workings of the Jan. 6 Committee. Riggleman’s book, “The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation Into January 6,” was released last month, with Esquire publishing an edited excerpt of it. 

The book and the Esquire excerpt both spoke of “the militant groups that took part in the attack, namely the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and 1st Amendment Praetorian,” adding that the committee was looking at the storming of the building as a military operation. “The targets of our investigation were divided up into five major categories,” Riggleman wrote, with one group consisting of “domestic violent extremists,” which the former Jan. 6 staffer claimed, “included militant groups like Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and 1st Amendment Praetorian.”

Those statements were false and defamatory, according to the lawsuit filed by 1AP in a federal court in Virginia on Wednesday that named as defendants Riggleman; Hearst, which publishes Esquire; and the publishers of “The Breach,” the Holt and MacMillan publishing companies. 

“Mr. Riggleman’s book pushes the Democrat talking point that military veterans who defend the First Amendment are violent extremists. We are not. We love America and it is our mission to guard its cherished values,” a representative of the 1AP told The Federalist. “Riggleman’s arrogance and reckless disregard of basic facts is not surprising. This book is low on intelligence and full on propaganda,” 1AP’s representative added.

Riggleman and the other defendants are not the first to falsely portray 1AP as “violent extremists” and “militant groups.” In July, The Federalist reported that in the days before the long Independence Day weekend, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told The New York Times that when the Jan. 6 Committee reconvenes public hearings in July, “he intends to lead a presentation that will focus on the roles far-right groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and 1st Amendment Praetorian played in the Capitol attack.” According to the Times, “Mr. Raskin has also promised to explore the connections between those groups and the people in Mr. Trump’s orbit.”

Raskin’s comments followed a year of the Jan. 6 Committee falsely portraying 1AP as “right-wing, paramilitary, or even a militia.” Lawyer Seth Abramson went further, claiming 1AP and its members were involved in the Capitol riot and are “insurrectionists” or “seditionists,” resulting in the group filing suit in a federal court in New Hampshire against Abramson for defamation.

Following Raskin’s comments, Leslie McAdoo Gordon, a lawyer representing 1AP in connection with the Jan. 6 Committee, corrected the record, telling The Federalist, “No matter what you think of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, 1st Amendment Praetorian in no way resembles those groups.” Rather, 1AP “provides pro bono security services at events to ensure a heckler’s veto does not interfere with the speakers’ constitutional right to express their viewpoint,” McAdoo Gordon explained.

McAdoo Gordon stressed these points in a letter to the Jan. 6 Committee in response to subpoenas issued to 1AP; its founder, Robert Lewis, a retired United States Army Green Beret and recipient of the Bronze Star; and 1AP member Philip Luelsdorff, who is a former U.S. Army Ranger. Among other things, the subpoenas demanded that 1AP provide “documents sufficient to identify all employees, officers, and board members” of the nonprofit, as well as “all agendas, minutes, notes, or other records related to meetings” of the nonprofit.

McAdoo Gordon rejected the committee’s demands, telling The Federalist that to use subpoenas “to demand financial and fundraising records (including bank account information) and ‘recruitment’ information from a nonprofit civic organization, especially a civil liberties group, is wholly unacceptable,” and “a gross affront to [the] First Amendment.” McAdoo Gordon stressed that her clients had nothing to do with the violence at the Capitol and were instead targeted because of the individuals with whom they associate.

The letter to the Jan. 6 Committee further detailed 1AP’s activities in D.C., noting that the group provided security for a rally held on Jan. 5, 2021, but the planned tasking to provide security in D.C. ended after that rally. While most members of 1AP left D.C. after the Jan. 5 rally, Lewis and Luelsdorff, who had remained, were asked to provide some additional protection services for the media outlets covering the protest at the Ellipse. They were later asked by the staff at the Willard Hotel to help “maintain order given the flood of people into the lobby and around the hotel after the Ellipse events ended.” They had nothing to do with what occurred at the Capitol.

Not only did the Jan. 6 Committee know these details in April, when McAdoo Gordon first responded to the committee’s subpoena, but by early July, the information was made public — well before the publication of Riggleman’s book and the Esquire excerpt. Nonetheless, the defendants called 1AP a “domestic violent extremist” and “militant” group.

In addition to the lawsuit against Riggleman and the publishers, an attorney for 1AP is calling for the Jan. 6 Committee to respond to the false claims pushed by their former adviser. 

“If the J6 Committee had an ounce of integrity, it would denounce Riggleman’s lies and admit that there is no evidence that 1AP participated in a plot to attack the Capitol on January 6,” Virginia attorney Steven Biss told The Federalist.

With midterm elections less than a month away and the Jan. 6 Committee still pushing its partisan goals by subpoenaing former President Donald Trump, that outcome seems unlikely.


Margot Cleveland is The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.

We Need The ‘Protect Children’s Innocence’ Bill As A First Line Of Defense Against Sterilizing Kids


BY: SANDRA KIRBY | OCTOBER 18, 2022

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/10/18/we-need-the-protect-childrens-innocence-bill-as-a-first-line-of-defense-against-castrating-and-mutilating-children/

two young girls wearing rainbow colors carry pride flag in pride parade
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill gives us the chance to defend children from leftists pushing a radically sexualized agenda on minors.

Author Sandra Kirby profile

SANDRA KIRBY

MORE ARTICLES

Children in America are in need of protection now more than ever. The leftist tide is coming at them in full force, pushing a radically sexualized agenda on minors both mentally and physically, robbing them of their innocence and their childhood. That’s why legislators like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., are introducing legislation to protect children from dangerous experimental procedures such as puberty blockers, wrong-sex hormones, and ill-named “gender-affirming” surgeries.

Instead of being allowed to enjoy the innocence of childhood, develop imagination, cultivate friendships, develop curiosity, and enjoy the satisfaction of learning facts, figures, and formulas, children are assaulted with sexualized content fueled by a radical agenda. If you think it’s not having an effect, just look at a sampling from Maryland schools. According to school surveys in Montgomery county, over the last two years, the number of students identifying as gender nonconforming has increased by 582 percent. This survey includes children in elementary school.

At the very least, parents should be fully aware of any and all exposure their children have to sexualized content, and they have the primary right to know of any confusion or distress their children may be experiencing in school. Yet somehow it is becoming more to push policies to keep parents in the dark. Most schools cannot even prescribe aspirin to a child without parental consent, yet they see no issue with socially transitioning a minor without parental involvement. The disparity gives every cause for concern.

And when the parents do know about their child’s gender confusion, the agenda becomes even more radical, pushing parents to “affirm” their child’s choices to extreme degrees. Whether you embrace the ideology, no amount of parental concern can justify even the slightest delay in transitioning a child.

Compliance, Not Concern

One lesbian couple had already transitioned their eldest son when their second boy started asking to be called a girl. Unlike their first child, who had preferred playing with girls and had a gentler side, the younger acted like a typical boy, so his mother suspected that he was simply mirroring his older sibling’s behavior. But what happened when she voiced her concerns to a gender therapist?

“She [their gender therapist] expressed that it was transphobic to believe there was anything wrong with our younger son wanting to be like his older transgender sibling. When I pushed back, and asserted that I was not yet convinced our younger son was transgender, she told me that if I did not change his pronouns and honor his identity, he could develop an attachment disorder,” the mom recalls.

Instead of addressing the mother’s fears, the therapist merely preyed on them further.

It’s horrible to emotionally blackmail loving parents while blatantly ignoring their genuine concerns, but this is mild compared to the psychological manipulation that’s been waged on other parents, who have been told “comply or they die,” with doctors insisting that any questioning of their child’s feelings will result in further depression and suicide.

Meanwhile, these “experts” are not basing their methods in science at all.

So Much for Science

According to the recent Heritage report, “Puberty Blockers, Cross-Sex Hormones, & Youth Suicide” by Dr. Jay Greene, stats show that the exact opposite may be the case. He writes, “Starting in 2010, when puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones became widely available, elevated suicide rates in states where minors can more easily access those medical interventions became observable.”

That’s right, here it seems that access to these “life-saving drugs” has actually increased suicide rates. The fact is, there is no golden standard study proving the “lifesaving” claims of transition, yet left-wing politicians insist that it is the only path forward.

There is proof that these drugs are dangerous on their own, and there is no certifiable data proving the long-term harmlessness of puberty-blocking drugs and wrong-sex hormones, despite leftist claims to the contrary.

This isn’t health care. This isn’t science. We need to stop using children to wage ideological warfare, and we must stop the progressive tide before every child pays the price.

A Reason for Hope

Rep. Taylor Green is trying to do just that. She recently released the Protect Children’s Innocence Act (H.R.8731), which, if passed, will charge anyone who knowingly performs “gender-affirming care” — including the administering of puberty blockers and wrong-sex hormones — with a class C felony.

The bill will prohibit the federal taxpayer funding of so-called gender-affirming care, forbid institutions of higher education from providing instructions on such care, and will prevent aliens who have performed such procedures from receiving a visa. If they already have a visa, they will be eligible for deportation. It is designed to protect children from abusive experimental procedures from every angle.

Victims of surgery who realize their mistake and choose to detransition have recourse to the courts through a private right of action levied against anyone who took an active part in their transition, including administering puberty blockers and performing surgeries. There is no statute of limitations, ensuring that anyone involved in destroying a child’s life will be held accountable in perpetuity.

This bill also looks out for those victims who have already suffered at the hands of misleading therapists, doctors, and propaganda. While it does ban transition attempts on minors, it explicitly states that it in no way prohibits doctors from helping patients handle complications due to those interventions, regardless of whether they were received illegally. In every aspect, this bill holds the health of these patients as its primary object, not monetary benefits and soul-sucking propaganda.

Fighting on defense in the culture isn’t enough. We’re losing — more and more children are being subjected to these horrific “treatments” every single day. We need to fight back legislatively. We need to protect the innocence of children and demand justice for those who have already been deprived of that privilege. If the battleground is in our backyard, this bill gives us the chance to push back enemy lines, to establish a first line of defense that will allow our children the space they need to grow and thrive.

The character of our country will be determined by whether we are willing to defend our innocents. Children being mutilated and castrated openly is the moral issue of our time. Will we stand up and fight? Or will we let these evil monsters continue to wreak havoc on the helpless?


Sandra Kirby is the Government Affairs Manager at American Principles Project. Follow her on Twitter @SandraK1776.

Gender transition for minors would be first-degree child abuse under bill put forward by Michigan state GOP lawmakers


By ALEX NITZBERG | October 17, 2022

Read more at https://www.conservativereview.com/gender-transition-for-minors-would-be-first-degree-child-abuse-under-bill-put-forward-by-michigan-state-gop-lawmakers-2658464662.html/

A. Perez Meca/Europa Press via Getty Images

Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox. SIGN UP

A group of GOP Michigan state representatives has introduced legislation that would make it first-degree child abuse to allow a child to undergo gender transition surgery or take cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers. This would apply to an individual who “knowingly or intentionally consents to, obtains, or assists with a gender transition procedure for a child,” according to the text of the bill. “For purposes of this subdivision only, ‘person’ means a child’s parent or guardian or any other person who cares for, has custody of, has authority over a child regardless of the length of time that a child is cared for, in the custody of, or subject to the authority of that person, or a physician or other licensed medical professional.”

“Child abuse in the first degree is a felony punishable by imprisonment for life or any term of years,” the bill notes.

Republican state Reps. Ryan Berman, Steve Carra, Luke Meerman, Beau LaFave, and Steve Marino introduced the measure.

Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

“People are abusing these children,” state Rep. Beau LaFave told The Hill. “The idea that we would be making potentially life-altering changes to 11-, 12-, 13-, 14-, 15-year-old kids when it is illegal for them to have sex is insane. I mean, they’re not responsible enough to smoke a cigarette until they’re 21.”

LaFave noted that he is optimistic that most GOP members of the state legislature will support the bill and said that while he thinks most state Democrats actually agree with those pushing the measure, Democratic figures would face the risk of hurting their political careers if they openly backed the bill.

While Republicans have a majority in both chambers of the state legislature, they do not have enough of an edge to muster the two-thirds vote required in each house to override a gubernatorial veto. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would almost certainly veto the measure if it were ever to reach her desk. Whitmer is currently seeking reelection during the state’s 2022 gubernatorial election.

Ann Coulter Op-ed: For More Crime, Vote Democrat!


Ann Coulter | Oct 12, 2022

Read more at https://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2022/10/12/for-more-crime-vote-democrat-n2614448/

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com, and What DidYouSay.org.

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

New York Mayor Eric Adams would have been the Democrats’ runaway choice for president if only he’d kept his campaign promise and cut crime in the Big Apple. No mayoral candidate talked about “safety, safety, safety” more than he. As Adams told MSNBC during the campaign:

“Public safety and justice is the prerequisite to prosperity. And I think that we have become too symbolic, instead of realistic, on how you keep cities safe. And it’s time for the Democratic Party to understand this. America wants to be safe. And we can do it with justice at the same time.”

If a black mayor had saved New York City, no one could have beaten him. Not only that, but Adams has a black deputy mayor for public safety (Phil Banks), a black police commissioner (Keechant L. Sewell) and a black district attorney (Alvin Bragg).

As conservatives never tire of pointing out, murder victims are overwhelmingly black (as are murder perpetrators, but let’s not mention that). In a world that has only recently discovered that “Black Lives Matter,” wouldn’t an all-black law enforcement team come down like a sledgehammer on crime?

Adams wasn’t setting some pie-in-the-sky, impossible goal for himself. You don’t have to go back to the 1950s to conceive of a safe New York. Just think back to about five years ago. New Yorkers lived in a virtually crime-free city for 20 years under mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg.

In fact, those mayors made the city so safe, even communist Mayor Bill de Blasio couldn’t wreck it overnight. It took a virus from China (which apparently required that criminals be released, but citizens be locked up) and a fentanyl addict dying in Minneapolis for him to spring the criminals it had taken Giuliani and Bloomberg 20 years to catch.

The point is: You can’t fool New Yorkers anymore. They know it’s possible to keep violent psychos off the street.

Just not by a Democrat.

The problem is, no Democrat can support any policy that would reduce crime because, unfortunately, that would simply not be possible without putting more “black bodies” in prison.

SIRENS BLARE! TA-NEHISI COATES DESCENDS FROM THE HEAVENS.

The Democratic Party treats black criminals as sacred beings, much like the temple in India where they worship rats.

Recall that when Bloomberg ran for president in 2020, he had to apologize for policies that reduced murders from 600 a year to an astounding 300 a year — in a city where more than 60% of murder victims are black, and nearly 90% are black or Hispanic.

Apology not accepted!

Yes, perhaps vastly more black lives would “matter” in the sense of continuing to exist. But more “black bodies” would be subjected to stop-and-frisk by the police. Obviously, that’s a no-go. Unpack your invisible backpack, white supremacist!

Liberals love to boast about New York’s murder rate going up at a less astronomical clip than other crimes. Well, yeah — criminals are notoriously poor marksmen. They are approximately as likely to hit small children and elderly bystanders as their intended target. Congratulations, New York!

On the other hand, shootings in the city have gone from about 900 a year in 2018 to nearly 2,000 a year, according to The New York Times.

It turns out Adams is the Democrats’ Donald Trump: All talk, no action.

There were hints that Adams wasn’t going to get the job done when, earlier this year, Politico reported he was meeting with crime experts Al Sharpton and Joe Biden. He proudly noted that he’d recently thanked a group of police officers … for letting a perp get away. (At least no black bodies were hurt!) He even suggested that a video of the escaping suspect be screened for officers to show them how it’s done.

Commenting on the episode, Adams said, “You have to inspect what you expect or it’s suspect.” Doggerel from elected officials often precedes a collapse in crime rates.

Apart from encouraging cops not to do their jobs, Adams’ main anti-crime initiative has been to slap “Gun Free Zone” signs around Times Square.

So how’s it going? In addition to the shootings, since Adams has been mayor, forcible rape is up 63%, grand larceny 38%, robberies 24%, car theft 25% and major felonies in the transit system 51%.

Every single day, there’s a new mind-blowing crime in New York.

Here are a few vignettes from Life in the Big City: On Tuesday this week, a 19-year-old public school teacher’s assistant in Brooklyn was shot in the head outside his school in the middle of the day. Last Thursday, three New Yorkers were stabbed on the subway within seven hours, one fatally. The previous Saturday night, nine (extremely body-positive) women dressed from head to toe in neon green bodysuits boarded the subway at Times Square and proceeded to pummel and rob a couple of 19-year-old girls. Days earlier, a random psycho stabbed an EMS worker to death in a frenzied attack in broad daylight outside a Queens deli.

The bad news for New York is that unless Lee Zeldin is elected governor this November, there is no hope. Things will continue to spiral downward into a dystopian horror. The good news for the country is that at this stage, it looks like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t even going to have to campaign to be our next president.

Pro-life volunteer, 83, shot after ‘heated conversation’ while canvassing Michigan neighborhood


By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter | Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Read more at https://www.christianpost.com/news/pro-life-volunteer-83-shot-after-heated-conversation-canvassing.html/

Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

An elderly pro-life volunteer is recovering after she was shot during an apparent dispute while canvassing a Michigan neighborhood.

The 83-year-old woman from Ionia County was passing out pamphlets on behalf of Right to Life of Michigan (RLM) on Sept. 20 when police say she was shot in the shoulder after an “alleged verbal altercation” at a home in the area. 

The woman then drove herself to the Lake Odessa Police Department and reported the incident, according to Michigan State Police. She was transported to an area hospital and was later released, authorities said.

According to a statement from RLM, the victim was shot “while leaving a residence during a heated conversation” by a man who was not involved in that conversation.

The victim does not know the identity or motive of her shooter, according to the statement.

While RLM Education Coordinator Chris Gast could not provide much additional info, he said the victim — who has been a pro-life volunteer “for a very long time” — is recovering and “in good spirits.”

“She hasn’t mentioned returning to door-to-door activities, but she was asking me about when our yard signs come in, so she’s clearly still engaged,” Gast told The Christian Post.

Michigan State Police are investigating the case and will turn over the investigation’s results to Ionia County prosecutors.

The woman was among a group of volunteers who were going door-to-door to inform residents about Proposal 3, titled “Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative,” a state measure which, if approved by voters, would allow abortion to take place up to and including the moment of birth.

By prohibiting “state discrimination” against enforcement of Proposal 3, the measure also would allow people without medical training to assist with an abortion procedure without fear of prosecution.

While Michigan law currently requires parental consent for virtually all medical procedures for underage children, Proposal 3 would allow for children as young as 12 to undergo an abortion without parental consent.

Gast said Proposal 3 would “dramatically” impact dozens of state laws.

“It would remove basic health and safety regulations from abortion clinics; it would allow minors to take hormone-blocking pills, undergo sex changes, and have abortions without notifying their parents; it would allow abortions until birth,” he said. “There’s a long list of other problems it would create.”

The Michigan attack comes as pro-life activists, pregnancy centers, and others are being increasingly targeted by abortion activists after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

Democrats DON’T CARE: “Single Largest Fentanyl Seizure In Phoenix Police History” – OVER ONE MILLION Fentanyl Pills Seized From Arizona Home


By Jordan Conradson | Published September 25, 2022

Read more at https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/09/blame-biden-democrats-dont-care-single-largest-fentanyl-seizure-phoenix-police-history-one-million-fentanyl-pills-seized-arizona-home/

Fentanyl Seized From Students At San Luis High School

More than one million fentanyl pills were seized from a home in Avondale, Arizona, in what police call the “single largest fentanyl seizure in Phoenix police history.”

Arizona is “the pipeline for the most dangerous, deadly drug this country’s ever seen called fentanyl,” says Trump-Endorsed Gubernatorial Nominee Kari Lake.

The deadly drug is pouring into Arizona through the wide-open southern border, and it is Joe Biden’s fault.

Massive amounts of the killer chemical are being found across the United States. The Gateway Pundit recently reported that a Florida police department seized enough fentanyl to kill 1.5 million people during a recent drug bust.

The bust in Florida only seized over 6,000 counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, which could kill 1.5 million people.

It is unclear how many people could have died at the hands of 1 million pills.

According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50-100 times stronger than morphine.

“Fentanyl is added to heroin to increase its potency, or be disguised as highly potent heroin,” the DEA’s website explains. “Many users believe that they are purchasing heroin and actually don’t know that they are purchasing fentanyl – which often results in overdose deaths. Clandestinely-produced fentanyl is primarily manufactured in Mexico.”

Fentanyl is currently the leading cause of death for Americans 18-45 years old.

We recently reported that in Tucson, Arizona, Country Music singer Luke Bell was recently found dead. The Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office later wrote, “the cause of death is ascribed to fentanyl intoxication.”

Kari Lake shared this story on her Twitter page.

Lake: A dose of fentanyl is 2 milligrams. That’s a weapon of mass destruction moving through our border.

Lake has vowed to declare an invasion at the southern border on day one as Governor to stop the criminal illegal aliens that are saturating our Country with lethal drugs.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are trying to sell the idea that “the border IS secure,” but this is an evil lie.

Read her full plan to defend Arizona from the deadly invasion here.

ABC 15 reported,

A Simple Method to Improve Gum & Teeth Health (Watch Video)

PHOENIX — Two men are in custody after what police are calling the “single largest fentanyl seizure in Phoenix police history.”

Authorities say more than 1,000,000 fentanyl pills were seized in the bust.

Detectives were investigating leads into the possession of narcotic drugs for sale leading up to the bust. Their work led to a search warrant being obtained for a home near Avondale Boulevard and Durango Street in Avondale, along with a vehicle for one of the suspects.

That warrant was executed Wednesday. Police say 26-year-old Francisco Delgado and 21-year-old Jose Molina were arrested in connection with the seizure.

At least one weapon was also seized during the bust.

Both suspects were booked into the Maricopa County Jail on a number of felony charges.

Joe Biden and the Democrats are complicit in the mass murder of millions of Americans.


Wife fatally shoots intoxicated man who was fighting her husband outside couple’s front door and trying to force his way into home. She got gun the day before.

DAVE URBANSKI | September 26, 2022

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/wife-fatally-shoots-man-fighting-husband-at-front-door/

A California woman fatally shot an intoxicated man who was fighting her husband outside the couple’s front door and trying to force his way into their home over the weekend, the Stanislaus County sheriff’s office said. Authorities said it appears 22-year-old Angelo Santana became heavily intoxicated Saturday and tried to force entry into a home in the 500 block of Ashwood Lane in Patterson, which is about a half-hour southwest of Modesto. The house belongs to 50-year-old woman and her 45-year-old husband, the sheriff’s office said. The husband tried to physically restrain Santana, and the two men got into a “significant fight near the threshold of the front-door,” authorities said, citing a review of external and internal video surveillance footage and statements from witnesses.

The wife got a revolver from the upstairs bedroom and “fired all rounds” into Santana, authorities said, adding that she had acquired the revolver only the day before.

“The fight with the homeowner was a pretty violent one,” sheriff’s Sgt. Luke Schwartz told the Modesto Bee via text. “Can only imagine how terrifying it must’ve been for these folks.”

Patrol deputies were dispatched to the home around 10:20 p.m. after a report of shots fired, authorities said, adding that the reporting party got a phone call from a female, Mandarin-speaking neighbor saying she had just shot and killed an intruder.

Law enforcement arrived at the home and found an unresponsive, deceased adult male near the entryway, authorities said.

The husband suffered minimal physical injuries, including scrapes and scratches, during his fight with Santana “trying to defend his home,” the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators have made no arrests, authorities said, adding that preliminary findings indicate the incident was “strictly self-defense” and that the homeowners are fully cooperating with detectives.

Santana had a “history of alcohol substance abuse, wherein he would regularly show-up unannounced trying to find friends and acquaintances of his in the same neighborhood,” authorities said, citing interviews with those familiar with Santana. Authorities also said Santana was not armed at the time of the shooting.

There were no children in the house, Schwartz also told the Bee, which reported that there’s no indication the couple had any previous contact with Santana.

Police in Patterson investigate deadly self-defense shooting youtu.be

Border Patrol Increasingly Encounters People On Terror Watchlist, Data Shows


By TREVOR SCHAKOHL, LEGAL REPORTER | September 21, 2022

Read more at https://dailycaller.com/2022/09/21/terror-watchlist-border-patrol/

US-MEXICO-IMMIGRATION
PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. Border Patrol has seen a massive spike in southern border encounters with people on the U.S. terror watchlist between ports of entry, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics.

CBP personnel came across individuals on the watchlist 78 times in those areas between October and August, the data reveals. There have been more than 2,000,000 migrant encounters on the southern border so far this fiscal year, a record-breaking surge.

CBP reported only fifteen southern border encounters with people on the watchlist between ports of entry in FY2021. No such incidents were recorded in FY2019.

There’s been dramatically less coverage of the 78 illegals on the terror watchlist than the 48 illegals who spent a night at Martha’s Vineyard https://t.co/FN531qGLjm

— Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) September 20, 2022

President Joe Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to address migration’s root causes early last year, and she did not visit the southern border until more than 90 days later. Harris insisted in a “Meet the Press” interview released Sept. 11 that the border was “secure,” admitting, “We also have a broken immigration system and particular[ly] over the last four years before we came in and it needs to be fixed.” (RELATED: Texas Sheriff Investigating Martha’s Vineyard Flights Hits Back At Kamala Harris For Saying Border Is Secure)

Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz conceded under oath in late July that the southern border was in crisis. Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar said Sept. 9 that the border was not closed, arguing the administration was “not on the same page” when it claimed otherwise.

The White House and CBP did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Man Reportedly Admits To Running Down, Killing Teen He Believed Was ‘Republican Extremist’


By BRIANNA LYMAN, NEWS AND COMMENTARY WRITER | September 21, 2022

Read more at https://dailycaller.com/2022/09/21/shannon-brandt-cayler-ellingsonteen-republican-extremist-killing-allegations-hit-and-run-reports/

Crime scene tape [Fer Gregory/Shutterstock]
[Fer Gregory/Shutterstock]

A man killed an 18-year-old North Dakota teen in a hit-and-run Sunday after believing he was a “republican extremist,” according to multiple reports.

Foster County Deputies were called to an alleyway in the town of McHenry around 2:35 a.m. by 41-year-old Shannon Brandt, according to Valley News Live and Inforum. Brandt told authorities that 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson was part of a Republican extremist group and he was afraid they were “coming to get him,” according to the reports.

Just before the alleged hit-and-run, Ellingson reportedly called his mother to ask if she knew who Brandt was. His mother said “yes” and immediately went on her way to pick her son up, according to Valley News Live and Inforum. Ellingson later called his mother a second time to say that “he” or “they” were chasing him, according to the same reports. (RELATED: Tim Ryan Says US Needs To ‘Kill And Confront’ ‘Extremist’ Republican Movement)

A person murdered a teen in McHenry, North Dakota, accusing him to be a right-wing extremist. Cayler Ellingson, 18, called his mother for help saying he was being pursued. He was found dead. The suspected killer, Shannon Brandt, is held on $50k. https://t.co/XqZTJtmVLf

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) September 20, 2022

Brandt told authorities that he was under the influence of alcohol and confessed to hitting Ellingson with his car because a political argument ensued between the two of them, Valley News Live reported. Brandt also reportedly said he left the site of the crash, but then returned and called 911 before leaving again.

Ellingson was pronounced dead at Carrington Hospital. Brandt is being charged with criminal vehicular homicide and DUI with a $50,000 bail, according to the report.

President Joe Biden attacked Trump supporters during a recent Philadelphia speech, saying, “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundation of our republic.”

Police: Driver admitted to intentionally killing teen at North Dakota street dance after political dispute

Court papers say 41-year-old Shannon Brandt confessed to a 911 dispatcher and police that he killed 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson due to a political dispute.

By Matt Henson | September 19, 2022

Read more at https://www.inforum.com/news/north-dakota/police-driver-admitted-to-intentionally-killing-teen-at-foster-county-street-dance-during-political-dispute

Cayler
18-year-old Cayler Ellingson

MCHENRY, N.D. — According to court papers, it was not an accident but apparently a politically motivated attack.

The fatal vehicle-pedestrian incident happened early Sunday morning, Sept. 18, in McHenry, North Dakota, about 120 miles northwest of Fargo and 54 miles north of Jamestown.

09197201_gracecity6sot.Still002 (1).jpg
Shannon Brandt, 41, had his first court appearance via zoom from the Stutsman County Jail Monday, Sept. 19.

Prosecutors allege moments before he was killed, 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson called his mom to come rescue him because 41-year-old Shannon Brandt was chasing him in the city of McHenry, where the street dance had just wrapped up. By the time she could get there, her son was dead.

Police: Driver admitted to intentionally killing teen at North Dakota street dance after political dispute

Brandt was officially charged Monday with vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a deadly accident.

“He was the one who called 911 to report the crash,” said North Dakota Highway Patrol Capt. Bryan Niewind.

Court papers show Brandt called 911 around 2:30 a.m. Sunday and told the 911 dispatcher that he just hit Ellingson, claiming the teen was part of a Republican extremist group and was calling people to come get Brandt after a political argument.

Ellingson’s mom told police her son called her just before the crash, asking if she knew Brandt, which she does. She does not believe her son knew him.

“We are still trying to determine what, exactly, transpired at the time of crash and prior to that as well,” explained Niewind.

Police say Brandt was drunk when he hit and killed Ellingson with his SUV in an alleyway.

“We do not know of any witnesses. We are still making attempts to interview potential witnesses from the street dance, people that were present prior to the crash happening,” Niewind said.

A judge ordered Brandt held on $50,000, which he objected, saying he’s not a flight risk.

“I have a job, a life and a house and things I don’t want to see go by the wayside — family that are very important to me,” Brandt told the judge.

If convicted on the vehicular homicide charge, Brandt would face a minimum of 10 years in prison because of a DUI on his record. The maximum for the crime is 20 years. Troopers say as the investigation develops, they could recommend more serious charges.

gofundme has been set up to help pay for Ellingson’s funeral expenses.

Matt Henson

By Matt Henson

Matt Henson is an Emmy award-winning reporter/photographer/editor for WDAY. Prior to joining WDAY in 2019, Matt was the main anchor at WDAZ in Grand Forks for four years. He was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia and attended college at Lyndon State College in northern Vermont, where he was recognized twice nationally, including first place, by the National Academy for Arts and Science for television production. Matt enjoys being a voice for the little guy. He focuses on crimes and courts and investigative stories. Just as often, he shares tear-jerking stories and stories of accomplishment. Matt enjoys traveling to small towns across North Dakota and Minnesota to share their stories. He can be reached at mhenson@wday.com and at 610-639-9215. When he’s not at work (rare) Matt resides in Moorhead and enjoys spending time with his daughter, golfing and attending Bison and Sioux games.

Gunmen open fire at Chicago partygoers, shoot 13-year-old boy in head. But victim’s cousin — a concealed carry license holder — shoots back, and gunmen flee.


By DAVE URBANSKI | September 15, 2022

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/chicago-concealed-carrier-shoots-at-gunmen/

Gunmen opened fire at partygoers outside a Chicago home Tuesday night and shot a 13-year-old boy in the head — but the victim’s 21-year-old cousin has a concealed carry license, and he pulled out his gun and shot back, after which the gunmen fled, WGN-TV reported.

The CCL holder, who did not wish to be identified, told WGN he and his family were celebrating a relative’s birthday along the 1800 block of West 21st Place on the city’s Lower West Side, where he said he grew up.

“It was my grandma’s birthday,” he told the station in an interview that doesn’t show his face.

Image source: WGN-TV video screenshot

WGN said some relatives went to the alley behind the house to check out another cousin’s new car — and then the family members heard what they thought were firecrackers.

“I see my cousin’s face turn weird, then I look to the right and see two gunmen at the end of the alley,” the CCL holder recounted to the station.

He said bullets were being fired at them, WGN reported.

Image source: WGN-TV video screenshot

“We start hearing [whizzing sound] and then we hear the light post making all these weird noises, so we’re like, ‘Oh no, this is serious,’” the man added to the station.

That’s when the man pulled out his own gun, WGN reported: “I started just shooting. I stood my ground. I didn’t even move. I stood my ground because that [is] how I like to do it, just defend my family.”

As the attackers fled, the man told the station his 13-year-old cousin was lying in a pool of blood after having been shot in the right temple.

“No, no, no, no … this can’t be happening,” the man told WGN of his reaction to his cousin being shot.

Image source: WGN-TV video screenshot

“When he got shot, he was still breathing,” he added to the station. “He got shot twice in the head … he was still breathing.”

The boy was immediately rushed to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, WGN said, adding that there’s possible good news on the horizon.

The CCL holder told the station that the victim’s brother called Wednesday night and said the 13-year-old boy “opened his eyes, and he has a little movement, so he’s doing good, and thank God. I had faith. So I wasn’t thinking negative because I didn’t want to bring no negative energy … I just want him to get better.”

The man added to WGN that his family “never experienced gun violence like that.”

The station noted in its video report that a driver of a vehicle connected to the shooting fled the city, but officers in Hinsdale — a suburb west of Chicago — spiked the vehicle’s tires, boxed it in, and took three people into custody.

WGN added that Chicago police said the three individuals are known gang members, but it was unclear whether any of them took part in the shooting.

For Lack Of Public Confidence In The Supreme Court, John Roberts Has Only Himself To Blame


BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD | SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/14/for-lack-of-public-confidence-in-the-supreme-court-john-roberts-has-only-himself-to-blame/

John Roberts speaking at a conference
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

Author Shawn Fleetwood profile

SHAWN FLEETWOOD

VISIT ON TWITTER@SHAWNFLEETWOOD

MORE ARTICLES

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is back in the public spotlight and his latest remarks on judicial integrity are turning heads. Appearing at the 10th Circuit Bench and Bar Conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Friday, the chief justice spoke about the perceived credibility of the Supreme Court among the American public and how disagreeing with its opinions “is not a basis for questioning [its] legitimacy.”

“The court has always decided controversial cases and decisions have always been subject to intense criticism, and that is entirely appropriate,” Roberts said. “But I don’t understand the connection between the opinions people disagree with and the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.”

Following the Supreme Court’s rulings on several hot-button issues this past session, such as the striking down of Roe v. Wade and upholding of Second Amendment rights, Democrats and their sycophants in legacy media have been quick to vilify the high court and call into question its ability to operate as an independent body simply because a majority of justices didn’t give them the outcomes they wanted. While it’s fair for Roberts to push back against such logic and distinguish the legitimacy of the high court from its judicial decisions, his next comments were impossible to take seriously.

“If the court doesn’t retain its legitimate function of interpreting the Constitution, I’m not sure who would take up that mantle,” the chief justice said. “You don’t want the political branches telling you what the law is, and you don’t want public opinion to be the guide about what the appropriate decision is.”

For someone who holds the rank of chief justice, the lack of self-awareness from Roberts is stunning. Throughout his tenure on the Supreme Court, Roberts’s judicial decision-making on various high-profile cases has been guided by “public opinion.”

When the court was considering the constitutionality of Obamacare in the 2012 NFIB v. Sebelius case, for instance, Roberts reportedly took extensive actions behind the scenes to alter the Supreme Court’s final decision on the matter, even though Obamacare is obviously unconstitutional. After initially siding with his Republican-appointed colleagues in striking down the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) “on the grounds that it went beyond Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce,” Roberts got cold feet over fears of potential public blowback over the high court’s impending decision and worked with his Democrat-appointed colleagues to change it.

As reported by SCOTUS biographer Joan Biskupic in her book, “The Chief,” Roberts’s bid to play politics led him to form a deal with leftist Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan that upheld and struck down certain portions of the ACA.

“After trying unsuccessfully to find a middle way with [Justice Anthony] Kennedy, who was ‘unusually firm’ and even ‘put off’ by the courtship, Roberts turned to the Court’s two moderate liberals, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan,” a review of “The Chief” published in The Atlantic reads. “The threesome negotiated a compromise decision that upheld the ACA’s individual mandate under Congress’s taxing power, while striking down the Medicaid expansion.”

Biskupic’s reporting echoes findings released by CBS News’ Jan Crawford. She in 2012 reported that “Roberts pays attention to media coverage” and that “[a]s chief justice, he is keenly aware of his leadership role on the court” and “is sensitive to how the court is perceived by the public.”

In spite of his efforts to maintain the court’s favorability as measured by often-biased poll results, Roberts’s games in the NFIB v. Sebelius case did the exact opposite. As detailed in their bestselling book, “Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court,” Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway and President of the Judicial Crisis Network Carrie Severino detail how “Pew [Research] reported that after the decision the Court remained at its all-time-low 52 percent approval.”

“The accepted narrative, even among those who welcomed the chief’s decision, was that he changed his legal position not on principle but in response to public pressure,” Hemingway and Severino write. “The right lost respect for him, and the decision won him no friends on the left, which still portrays him as unforgivably conservative and a craven political operative. It was a regrettable outcome for anyone concerned about the legitimacy of the Court.”

Roberts’s deference to the consistently changing and poll-manipulated opinions of the American public at the expense of upholding the Constitution didn’t stop at the Obamacare ruling, either. Over the years, Roberts has routinely abandoned originalism for political activism, with the court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision striking down Roe‘s made-up “constitutional right” to an abortion serving as a more recent example.

Despite Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett all correctly maintaining that the precedent established in Roe was unconstitutional garbage, Roberts attempted — yet again — to play politician and convince one of his Republican-appointed colleagues to change his or her vote before the opinion was released. Originally reported by The Washington Post and later Biskupic, Roberts directed his lobbying to save Roe toward justices including Brett Kavanaugh, which “continued through the final weeks of the [2021-2022] session.”

“Multiple sources told CNN that Roberts’ overtures this spring, particularly to Kavanaugh, raised fears among conservatives and hope among liberals that the chief could change the outcome in the most closely watched case in decades,” Biskupic writes. “Once the draft was published by Politico, conservatives pressed their colleagues to try to hasten release of the final decision, lest anything suddenly threaten their majority.”

The report went on to detail how the abrupt May leak of the Supreme Court’s majority draft opinion in Dobbs “thwarted” Roberts’ efforts, with Biskupic noting how the chief justice “can usually work in private, seeking and offering concessions, without anyone beyond the court knowing how he or other individual justices have voted or what they may be writing.”

In the final opinion, Roberts ultimately sided with the leftist justices of the court in upholding Roe, while also voting with his Republican-appointed colleagues to uphold the Mississippi 15-week abortion law as constitutional.

Whether he wants to admit it to himself or not, a decline in public confidence in the Supreme Court isn’t due to any originalist rulings, but to Roberts’s political activism. The role of a judge is — and always has been — to apply the Constitution as it was originally written by the Founders; not manipulate the law to satisfy some personal desire for public approval.

In abdicating his responsibility as a justice, Roberts has given the country every reason to be skeptical of the court’s ability to operate freely from the politics that plague America’s societal discourse. If the chief justice had any interest in ensuring the future of the Supreme Court’s legitimacy, he would quit acting like Mitch McConnell in a robe and start behaving like the judge he was appointed to be.


Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

    Tag Cloud