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SCOTUS Rules in Favor of Anti-LGBTQ Business Owner

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The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the state cannot require an anti-LGBTQ Colorado Christian business owner to provide a service, if doing so would violate their personal beliefs. The case, 303 Creative vs. Elenis, was argued on First Amendment free speech grounds.

“The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees,” the Court ruled on Friday, in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines.

On Friday, Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, ruled in favor of the Colorado designer who claims she would like to expand her business to include producing wedding websites, but also claims her Christian faith requires her to refuse to do so for same-sex couples getting married. Colorado law bans discrimination against sex and sexual orientation. She sued for the right to not be subject to the Colorado statute.

RELATED: SCOTUS Anti-LGBTQ Case Includes ‘Falsified’ Claim Alleging a Straight Married Man Asked for a Same-Sex Marriage Website: Report

“The case, though framed as clash between free speech and gay rights, was the latest in a series of decisions in favor of religious people and groups, notably conservative Christians,” The New York Times reports. “The decision also appeared to suggest that the rights of L.G.B.T.Q. people, including to same-sex marriage, are on more vulnerable legal footing, particularly when they are at odds with claims of religious freedom. At the same time, the ruling limited the ability of the governments to enforce anti-discrimination laws.”

Her case, initially filed in Colorado in 2016, was filed as a preemptive strike – it did not include any documentation that she had suffered any injury. After critics pointed out no same-sex couple had asked her to design a wedding website for them, attorneys provided a document allegedly from a San Francisco designer that said he and his same-sex partner were getting married, and indicted he might like Smith to design a wedding website.

But a bombshell report by The New Republic‘s Melissa Gira Grant, published Thursday, reveals that man says he never contacted Smith, at the time of the alleged request he was married to a woman, and he happens to be a designer. He lives in California, and has never heard of Smith. He also opposes her discriminatory viewpoint.

Justice Gorsuch in his majority opinion wrote, “Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance.”

READ MORE: ‘Pink-Elephant Paradox’: Liberal SCOTUS Justices Scorch Conservatives for ‘Ostrich-Like’ Views ‘Not Grounded in Law’

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing the dissent for the minority, said: “Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.”

Oral arguments were held in December of last year. Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson argued the case against Smith. Smith is represented by Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF is listed as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Colorado law guarantees “equal access to public accommodations, housing, and employment regardless of disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation (including transgender status), marital status, family status, religion, national origin, or ancestry,” according to the LGBTQ advocacy organization One Colorado.

 

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Jason Miller Tries to Spin Trump

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December 9, 2024

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Trump senior adviser Jason Miller appeared on camera Monday morning, attempting to explain remarks made by the President-elect on Sunday. Miller explained that when Donald Trump said Republican former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, should be imprisoned, it was not intended as a literal call for her incarceration. Instead, Miller suggested that the statement was meant to promote the equal application of the rule of law in America.

“For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday (video below). He was referring to Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, and its chairman, Democrat Bennie Thompson.

Trump, The New York Times reported, falsely claimed that the committee had destroyed all the evidence it had collected.

“Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” he said. “They deleted and destroyed all evidence.”

READ MORE: ‘You Have to’: Trump Confirms Plan to Deport US Citizens With Undocumented Parents

“And Cheney was behind it. And so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee,” Trump alleged.

The Times reports, “In fact, the committee did not destroy all evidence. It released an 800-page report as well as 140 transcripts of testimony and various memos, emails and voice mail messages. The evidence remains online. Mr. Thompson explained in a letter last year that the committee had asked the executive branch to go through some material first to protect ‘law enforcement sensitive operational details and private, personal information that, if released, could endanger the safety of witnesses.’”

Cheney “said the incoming president ‘lied about the Jan. 6 select committee’ and that there would be ‘no conceivably appropriate factual or constitutional basis’ to prosecute its members,” The Times adds.

“Here is the truth: Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power,” she said in a statement, according to The Times. “He mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the United States Capitol, where they attacked police officers, invaded the building and halted the official counting of electoral votes. Trump watched on television as police officers were brutally beaten and the Capitol was assaulted, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave.”

“This was the worst breach of our Constitution by any president in our nation’s history,” Cheney also said in her statement. “Donald Trump’s suggestion that members of Congress who later investigated his illegal and unconstitutional actions should be jailed is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”

But Miller, who has been with Trump for much of the time since his 2016 presidential campaign, suggested the President-elect did not call for Cheney to be imprisoned.

READ MORE: Butker’s ‘Traditional Values’ PAC Took Retiree Cash, Spent Most on Fundraising: Report

“Look, Liz Cheney is someone who lost her primary, who got bounced out by a very good Republican who’s been bitter and attacking President Trump ever since,” Miller told CNN’s Pamela Brown Monday morning. “I think Liz Cheney, quite frankly, for what she did, I have my own personal opinions about Liz Cheney, but what President Trump said, if you listen to the entire ‘Meet the Press’ interview, is he wants everyone who he puts in the key positions of leadership … to apply the law equally to everybody.”

“Now,” Miller continued, “that means if you’re somebody who’s committed some very serious crimes, who’s committed very serious felonies, who’s, for example, confidential information and direct violation of laws that are in place, well, then obviously that sets you up for different things, but as far as the politics aspect, if you listen to the entire interview with President Trump, he said he’s gonna leave that up to the law enforcement agents in charge.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Melania Grift’: Incoming First Lady Hawks Her Christmas ‘Collectibles’ in Fox Interview

 

Image via Shutterstock

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‘You Have to’: Trump Confirms Plan to Deport US Citizens With Undocumented Parents

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December 9, 2024

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President-elect Donald Trump confirmed his commitment to ending constitutionally protected birthright citizenship, and initiating the mass deportation of American citizens — including minor children — with at least one undocumented parent, a pledge he emphasized throughout the 2024 campaign.

“I’m talking about parents who might be here illegally, but the kids are here legally,” NBC News’ Kristen Welker told Trump in a “Meet the Press” interview that aired Sunday. NBC News described Trump’s plan as a “mass deportation effort.”

“Your border czar Tom Homan said they can be deported together. Is that the plan?”

“I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back,” Trump said.

“Even kids who are here legally?” Welker asked, suggesting there are around four million families who Trump is saying he would deport.

READ MORE: Butker’s ‘Traditional Values’ PAC Took Retiree Cash, Spent Most on Fundraising: Report

“Look, we have to have rules and regulations,” Trump claimed. “You can always find something out like, you know, this doesn’t work, that doesn’t work. I’ll tell you what’s gonna be horrible, when we take a wonderful young woman who’s with a criminal, and they show the woman and she could stay by the law, but they show the woman being taken out, or they want her out and your cameras are focused on her as she’s crying as she’s being taken out of our country, and then the public turns against us. But we have to do our job. And you have to have a series of standards and a series of laws. And in the end, look, our country is a mess.”

HuffPost adds that later in the interview, Trump promised to deport U.S. citizens to countries where they may have never even visited, “humanely.”

“We’ll send the whole family, very humanely, back to the country where they came. That way the family’s not separated,” he said. “The family may decide to say, ‘I’d rather have Dad go, and we’ll stay here.’ And in which case they have that option.”

Welker also said to Trump, “You promised to end birthright citizenship on day one.”

“Correct,” the President-elect replied.

“Is that still your plan?” she asked.

“Yeah. Absolutely,” Trump vowed.

HuffPost also reports that “in the interview, Trump vowed to use an executive action to end birthright citizenship, something that is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.”

“When asked if that’s even possible, he said, ‘Well, we’re going to have to get it changed. We’ll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it.’ He incorrectly said that America is the only country to have birthright citizenship — about three dozen countries, including Canada and Mexico, provide birthright citizenship.”

Birthright citizenship means children born in this country are automatically U.S. citizens, regardless of the immigration status of their parents. The 14th Amendment guarantees this right.

Back in September, just days after his lie that migrants from Haiti are “eating the dogs” and “eating the cats” of the residents of Springfield, Ohio, Trump, apparently for the first time, invoked language used by the far-right in Europe to vow he will also forcibly deport millions of legal immigrants from those swing states and the rest of the country if elected President in November.

Trump called for “remigration,” the forceful deportation of immigrants, including those in the U.S. under lawful and unlawful circumstances. He vowed to “end the migrant invasion of America,” and falsely characterized some programs that allow legal entry to the U.S. under law.

Legal experts have said Trump’s plan to deport U.S. citizens is unconstitutional and violates the 14th Amendment, but the ultimate arbiter will likely be the Roberts Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 right-wing majority, including three justices who Trump appointed during his first term. That same court handed Trump sweeping immunity, saying any action a president takes during the course of their duties cannot be prosecuted.

On Friday, before the interview aired, California Attorney General Rob Bonta on his official social media account on X wrote: “Donald Trump likes to do what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants, regardless of the constitution or the rule of law. We’re preparing to hold him accountable for lawbreaking.”

Overnight, on his personal X account, Bonta added:

“Trump admits he plans to deport…wait for it…US citizens

Um, that’s not a thing

& it’s unlawful

While Trump wants to do what he wants, when & how he wants, the presidency is limited in its authority by the Constitution & rule of law

If Trump breaks the law, we’ll stop him.”

READ MORE: How Hegseth and Allies Are Waging War Against the US Military to Secure His Confirmation

Earlier last week Bonta sat down with CNN’s Jake Tapper to lay out his plan to fight Trump if he engages in unconstitutional acts.

Other critics also blasted the President-elect.

“The forced deportation of roughly five million U.S. citizen children with undocumented parents would rank among the worst atrocities this country has ever carried out in its history,” observed attorney and immigration expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.

“Trump talking casually about violating the Constitution and deporting legal US citizens… this should be on the front page of every newspaper in the country,” wrote California Democratic state Senator Sasha Renée Pérez.

Immigration attorney Allen Orr, Jr. warned, “No, a President / #Trump cannot deport U.S. citizens. Under the 14th Amendment, U.S. citizenship cannot be revoked arbitrarily. See: Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967).”

Ahmed Baba, a columnist at The Independent and co-founder of Rantt Media responded, writing: “1) We warned Trump would try to target legal immigrants and US citizens. 2) This move is incredibly illegal, just like his call to end birthright citizenship. 3) We’re about to find out how far-right the Supreme Court has truly become when these moves are tested in court.”

“Trump is promising a lot of illegal and unconstitutional moves,” he also wrote. “Many of them will be immediately slowed by the courts. He’s not all powerful. How much SCOTUS lets this lame duck POTUS violate the constitution will be the key metric of how bad things get.”

Professor of Law and immigration attorney Charles Kuck warned undocumented parents with children who are U.S. citizens, “Trump will order DOS [Dept. of State] to not issue passports. Folks who have little kids should be getting the passports now.”

“Trump will be issuing an executive order on January 20, 2025, ordering the Department of State to stop issuing US Passports to children born in the US to undocumented parents, and possibly even to parents on nonimmigrant visas, it is essential that those children be applying for US Passports immediately, using the expedite option from Department of State,” he added. “It is also highly likely that he will order USCIS to refuse to accept Form I-130 petitions from US citizen children for undocumented parents. So, file the Petitions now! I have no doubt that the courts will strike this down as unconstitutional, but it will not be a fast fight.”

Immigration attorney Curtis Morrison late Sunday night concurred: “If you’re the undocumented parent of US citizen kids but those kids don’t have US passports, take care of that tomorrow.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Melania Grift’: Incoming First Lady Hawks Her Christmas ‘Collectibles’ in Fox Interview

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Butker’s ‘Traditional Values’ PAC Took Retiree Cash, Spent Most on Fundraising: Report

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3 days ago

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December 6, 2024

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A political action committee founded by Harrison Butker—the pro-Trump NFL placekicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, whose highly controversial comments have led to allegations of bigotry, including antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, and sexism, along with anti-vax beliefs—has come under fire.

Butker’s Upright PAC was supposed to “promote and encourage Christian voters to vote, so that their voices are heard this November.” But according to reports, it appears to have taken in donations, and spent most of it on fundraising.

Butker, 29, a friend of Missouri far-right U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, was described as “the latest angry rich guy with a Pac,” in an opinion piece at The Guardian.

READ MORE: How Hegseth and Allies Are Waging War Against the US Military to Secure His Confirmation

His controversial views made major headlines this year when he delivered the commencement address at Benedictine college, a small Catholic school in Atchison, Kansas, back in May.

“Butker managed, in just a few minutes, to be homophobic, anti-abortion (saying that Joe Biden was responsible for ‘the murder of innocent babies’), and racist, railing against the ‘tyranny of diversity, equity, and inclusion,'” wrote Dave Zirin at The Nation. “He cried out against ‘things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values and media,’ which supposedly ‘all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.'”

“Butker was also antisemitic,” Zirin charged. “He threw down with a ‘Jews killed Jesus’ line, saying, ‘Congress just passed a bill where stating something as basic as the Biblical teaching of who killed Jesus could land you in jail.’ Subtle as a blowtorch. But you won’t hear the right say a word about it while they’ll go full-House Un-American Activities Committee on college presidents over fabricated charges of the same.”

He attacked LGBTQ Pride Month as a “deadly sin.”

Butker also went after women, or more precisely, women who want to have careers outside the home—like his mother, a medical physicist, has. His mother also has not one but two university degrees.

“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you,” Butker told the women graduates (full transcript here). “How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world…I’m on the stage today and able to be the man I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation…and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker. I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”

And he went after President Joe Biden, calling him “delusional.”

READ MORE: ‘Melania Grift’: Incoming First Lady Hawks Her Christmas ‘Collectibles’ in Fox Interview

“Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but at the same time is delusional enough to make the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally,” Butker charged. “He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I’m sure to many people it appears that you can be both Catholic and pro-choice.”

“He is not alone, Butker said. “From the man behind the COVID lockdowns to the people pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America, they all have a glaring thing in common. They are Catholic. This is an important reminder that being Catholic alone doesn’t cut it.”

(GLAAD published this fact-check.)

On Friday, investigative journalist Roger Sollenberger reported: “Remember when Josh Hawley’s placekicker pal Harrison Butker started a PAC to promote candidates that support Christian values? Turns out it raised $36,000, gave $0 to candidates, and spent about $30K on fundraising fees.”

Sollenberger posted a link to this page at the Federal Election Commission.

He adds, “Most of the donors to Butker’s PAC say they’re retirees. One donor was unemployed three years ago and gave the pro-Christian group $475, listing her current job as an associate at Walmart.”

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) also investigated, saying, “we took a look. Butker’s PAC raised $36k from small donors. Guess how much it spent on its stated goal? Absolutely nothing.”

“But records show it spent more than $30k of that $36k, so where did the money go?” CREW asked. “$100 on office supplies. And all the rest spent on fundraising.”

And CREW notes, “A further search shows no records of Butker, the highest paid kicker in the NFL, making any political contributions himself.”

See the social media posts above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Sympathy for Dictators’: Ex-NatSec Officials Warn on Gabbard, Want Closed Door Hearings

 

Image via Wikimedia

 

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