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Lawless National Organization For Marriage Demands Kansas Break Marriage Law

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The National Organization For Marriage has repeatedly labeled judges and lawmakers “lawless” for supporting same-sex marriage. Now, NOM  is demanding the Governor of Kansas break the law and deny same-sex couples their legal right to marry.

“The lawlessness of this administration has reached epic proportions…attempting to force same-sex marriage on the country despite federal law and the Supreme Court ruling that marriage is the purview of the states.” — Brian Brown, President of NOM: February 26, 2014

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly warned of the lawless manipulation of the judicial process that might result from such collusive suits, yet that is what we are left with in the wake of the ruling in the Proposition 8 case…And our nation ignores this new lawlessness at its peril…” – National Organization For Marriage, July 8, 2013

“By providing funding, messaging expertise, and coordination of local groups, we are working to defend marriage in states where it is presently under attack, by lawless elected officials, out-of-control legislatures, and activist courts.” – National Organization For Marriage, September 5, 2013

“And the legal battles to stop the lawlessness that has broken out across our country in the name of homosexual-‘marriage’ demand time and financial commitment that we cannot meet without your gracious support.” – National Organization For Marriage,  August 19, 2013

“Professor John Eastman, Chairman of NOM’s Board of Directors and a highly-regarded constitutional law expert called [VA AG] Herring’s decision ‘lawless.'” – National Organization For Marriage, January 23, 2014

“And while Governor Brown and Attorney General Harris, with several County Clerks, continue their lawless decree that Prop 8 no longer applies…” – Brian Brown, President of NOM, August 1, 2013

“The decision by a single federal judge to redefine marriage in Utah is lawless, and we are pleased that the Supreme Court has put this decision on hold to allow the state to appeal it in an orderly fashion.” – Brian Brown, President of NOM, January 6, 2014

These are just a few of the dozens of times Brian Brown and NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, have labeled as “lawless” decisions by duly appointed judges and duly elected officials whose job it is to decide and execute matters of law.

At no time have any of these officials been fired, impeached, reprimanded, censured, demoted, or otherwise deemed as having done anything but carry out their job.

Now, Brown, the NOM president, is demanding the Governor of Kansas, Sam Brownback, break the law by not allowing same-sex couples marry in his state. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to stay a federal judge’s decision that struck down as unconstitutional the Kansas ban on same-sex marriage.

Yet Brown is now demanding lawlessness.

In a NOM petition, Brown tells Gov. Sam Brownback to “refuse to accept illegitimate rulings” from a federal court, and to “use the full authority of your office to order County Clerks and other State officers to continue to refuse to issue marriage licenses that violate state law,” knowing full well that law has been struck down. “I would urge you and Attorney General Schmidt to continue to uphold and defend the law as the people of Kansas have determined it, and refuse to give way to a tyrannical and out-of-control judiciary in a matter so important,” Brown adds.

And in the latest fundraiser from NOM, Brown claims that the “Governor and other state officers throughout Kansas, such as county clerks, should continue to stand by the definition of marriage passed through the fair democratic process by an overwhelming majority of Kansans just a few years ago, rather than giving in to the whim of an activist judge dictating law from the bench.”

Will he be there if federal marshals come to lock them up for breaking the law? Will he pay their bills if they get fired for not doing their jobs?

It easy to advocate for other people to jump on your bandwagon, but demanding or instructing people break the law, is the very definition of lawlessness.

 

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Top Republican Warns Against Turning Supreme Court Justices’ Testimony Into a ‘Circus’

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For the first time in seven years, Congress is asking Supreme Court justices to testify on their budget request, but the top Republican is warning against turning the appearances into a “circus.”

The Court wants an additional $14.6 million for security, and is slated to have a budget of $207 million — an increase of nearly $44 million, according to Punchbowl News. That comes on top of a last-minute $30 million appropriated in January for security, Bloomberg Law reported.

Punchbowl News’ Dave Clark reports that the hearings “used to be routine.” Citing “political tensions,” Clark says these are now “more intense.”

The request for justices to appear is bipartisan. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), the House Appropriations Committee’s Financial Services and General Government panel chairman, is working to schedule appearances for the justices. The Committee’s Ranking Member, Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), has been calling for the justices to testify.

READ MORE: ‘Major Fireworks’ Ahead — Alito and Jackson Sniping Rocks Supreme Court: Report

Rep. DeLauro says that Justice Elena Kagan “told her the justices are open to appearing,” Punchbowl reported, but the Committee’s chairman, Tom Cole (R-OK), wants to ensure the justices are not put on the spot,” Punchbowl reported.

“It would be good for the American public, and I think it’d be good for the two parties, but not if one side or the other turned into some sort of circus,” Cole said.

In 2019, the last time justices testified on the Supreme Court’s budget, Justices Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan appeared, SCOTUSblog reported, noting that “they also fielded questions about cameras in the courtroom, law clerk diversity, partisan attacks on the judiciary, and the #MeToo movement.”

READ MORE: ‘Outrageous’: DOJ’s Push in $83 Million Carroll Case Fuels Cries of Corruption

 

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Trump’s FBI and DOJ Have Set Their ‘Credibility on Fire’: Columnist

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MS NOW producer Steve Benen says the FBI faces serious questions following the reported raid on the offices of Virginia Democratic Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas, because “the hyperpartisan leaders of the Justice Department and the FBI have made it impossible to give them the benefit of the doubt.”

Benen finds multiple issues with the execution of what is reportedly a search warrant, including that Fox News was on the scene reporting almost immediately — an issue raised by online commentators as well.

The Bulwark’s Sam Stein quipped: “some pretty remarkable instincts by Fox News to have its London correspondent placed in Portsmouth, Virginia right in time for the FBI raid of Louise Lucas.”

The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol warned of an “awful lot of credulous quoting of ‘federal law enforcement’ sources in the coverage of the Louise Lucas matter. Given the manifest politicization of Trump’s DOJ and FBI, why should media agree to quote any of these sources on background?”

“Not to put too fine a point on this,” Benen continued, “but this is why we don’t politicize federal law enforcement. Because even if the underlying case is legitimate, it’s impossible to avoid the larger context and the degree to which this looks like a retaliatory investigation against a Democrat, launched by a weaponized department known for its retaliatory investigations against Democrats.“

READ MORE: ‘Major Fireworks’ Ahead — Alito and Jackson Sniping Rocks Supreme Court: Report

Benen slams both the FBI and DOJ, saying they “have, over the last 16 months, set their collective credibility on fire, corrupting federal law enforcement to a degree unseen in generations. There have simply been too many abuses, launched too often, against too many Trump targets.”

He notes that Senator Lucas is the face of the Democrats’ successful redistricting of Virginia. Benen calls it “something very different, although possibly related.”

Benen also points to an Associated Press report:

“Though the exact nature of the investigation was unclear, the search comes as the FBI and Justice Department have opened a spate of politically charged investigations into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump.”

He adds that he has “not seen or heard a word about any of the evidence against Lucas, if such evidence exists,” but allows that it is “entirely possible that investigators have worked in good faith.”

READ MORE: White House: Credit Card Spending on Gas ‘Through the Roof’

 

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‘Outrageous’: DOJ’s Push in $83 Million Carroll Case Fuels Cries of Corruption

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The Trump Department of Justice will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to allow it to intervene in President Donald Trump’s appeal of the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, which Trump lost and was ordered by a jury to pay $83.3 million. The DOJ wants SCOTUS to allow it to substitute itself for Trump — which effectively would result in the defamation case being dismissed because the federal government cannot be sued for defamation under federal law.

The DOJ, Bloomberg News reports, will claim Trump was acting as a government employee when he denied Carroll’s sexual-assault claims.

“A panel of appeals court judges previously denied the government’s request to invoke the Westfall Act in the case,” Bloomberg notes. “Carroll alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and then defamed her by calling her a liar when she went public with the claim in 2019.”

Critics blasted the DOJ’s decision to go to the Supreme Court.

READ MORE: White House: Credit Card Spending on Gas ‘Through the Roof’

“This is outrageous. This has nothing to do with Trump as a public official or president. More corruption in the Justice Department in service of the Cult Leader,” charged The Atlantic’s Norman Ornstein, a prominent political scientist.

“Of course they have. They’re the president’s personal law firm at this point,” said MS NOW legal analyst Joyce Vance, a former U.S. Attorney.

“Most corrupt president ever,” alleged HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte.

“This is insane—the DOJ is not the president’s personal law firm,” noted Democratic strategist Mike Nellis.

“In case you have any doubt that the DOJ is just Trump’s personal lawyers now,” wrote journalist Franklin Harris.

“There really needs to be a lot more alarm about the level of fascism and corruption unfolding right now,” observed former Obama and Biden official Jesse Lee.

READ MORE: ‘Major Fireworks’ Ahead — Alito and Jackson Sniping Rocks Supreme Court: Report

 

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