THE FOUNDATION

“Constitutions of civil government are not to be framed upon a calculation of existing exigencies, but upon a combination of these with the probable exigencies of ages, according to the natural and tried course of human affairs.” —Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 34, 1788

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Some Liberties Are More Equal Than Others

One day before the Supreme Court ruled on same-sex marriage, ACLU deputy legal director Louise Melling wrote of the organization’s newly announced hostility to Christians and religious liberty, specifically regarding its withdrawal of support for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. “The ACLU supported the RFRA’s passage at the time because it didn’t believe the Constitution, as newly interpreted by the Supreme Court, would protect people … whose religious expression does not harm anyone else. But we can no longer support the law in its current form. For more than 15 years, we have been concerned about how the RFRA could be used to discriminate against others. As the events of the past couple of years amply illustrate, our fears were well-founded. While the RFRA may serve as a shield to protect [some], it is now often used as a sword to discriminate against women, gay and transgender people and others. … Yes, religious freedom needs protection. But religious liberty doesn’t mean the right to discriminate or to impose one’s views on others.” It’s not exactly surprising that the ACLU would find a way to oppose such laws once Christians found refuge in them. But this is an organization that has gone to bat for the KKK and the American Nazi Party. And the irony is too much: Melling decries the imposition of views while having no problem with homosexuals forcing bakers, photographers and florists to provide their services against their consciences. Now that the Supreme Court has found a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, more imposition and discrimination will occur. And the ACLU will be leading the charge. Because “love wins,” right?

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Puerto Rico Wants a Pass on $72 Billion Debt

“Death spiral” — that’s how Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro García Padilla describes the commonwealth’s debt. Over the last few years, the island racked up a debt of $72 billion, or 3.5 times the amount that bankrupted Detroit. Padilla, who once vowed to repay the loans accrued by his and past administrations, now says it’s impossible and creditors should “share the sacrifices.” Problem is, Puerto Rico has been a popular place for retirees to invest because the commonwealth’s bonds are tax-free. The problem becomes stickier, as Puerto Rico cannot file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The island used to be an economic powerhouse, filled with manufacturing and a vibrant port. But Deepak Lamba-Nieves, research director for the think tank Center for a New Economy, said in 2013, “You cannot pay daily expenses with your credit card, and that’s what Puerto Rico has been doing for years. We borrowed just to keep the lights on.” Padilla doesn’t appear ready to make the difficult cuts, firing government workers, tightening its belt and getting serious about the debt. Like Detroit, Puerto Rico was destroyed by liberal politicians and their failed economic theories. Now, some will say the only way to save the commonwealth is with a bailout. Barack Obama says he won’t do so, but don’t be surprised if he proposes to “fix” the problem by floating Puerto Rico statehood again — in order to firm up some Latino support. While the offer is hollow, a narcissist like Obama would certainly be pleased with a legacy of altering the American flag.

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Brady Center’s Frivolous Suit Against Ammo Company Backfires

After the massacre at the Aurora movie theater, The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence went after the company from which the murderer bought his ammunition. The center filed suit against Lucky Gunner because it sold its ammunition online, arguing that’s “unreasonably dangerous and create[s] a public nuisance.” But not only did the judge disagree, he reprimanded the Brady Center because he said it was filing suit simply to make a high-profile political point. Judge Richard Matsch wrote in his ruling, “It is apparent that this case was filed to pursue the political purposes of the Brady Center and, given the failure to present any cognizable legal claim, bringing these defendants into the Colorado court where the prosecution of James Holmes was proceeding appears to be more of an opportunity to propagandize the public and stigmatize the defendants than to obtain a court order.” Furthermore, Matsch said the Brady Center had to pay Lucky Gunner’s legal fees. Lucky Gunner said those funds would be donated to pro-Second Amendment groups. For groups with deep pockets and a bitterness toward Liberty, an effective strategy is to silence the lovers of Liberty through suits, frivolous or no. Judge Matsch put a damper on that strategy.

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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

All Isn’t Lost, as SCOTUS Rebukes EPA

By Lewis Morris

EPA chief Gina McCarthy isn't pleased

The Supreme Court proved it still has a little bit of respect left for Rule of Law in its decision yesterday in Michigan v. EPA. In a 5-4 ruling that predictably followed partisan lines with Justice Anthony Kennedy swinging to the right, the High Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency did not properly consider the high costs of regulation of emissions from coal-fired power plants.

That this Court — the one content to rewrite ObamaCare in order to save it, twice — found the EPA went too far in rewriting the law is saying something.

The EPA, which has been pursuing the ecofascist dream of completely wiping the coal industry off the face of the earth, released a series of regulations in 2012 that would force energy producers to comply with limits on mercury and air toxins released in coal energy production. The National Federation of Independent Business said the regulations, known as Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), are among the costliest ever issued.

The EPA estimated the new rules would cost close to $10 billion annually, while bringing direct annual benefits of no more than $6 million. Bureaucrats also made the un-provable assertion that the rules would prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths and 130,000 asthma cases each year. In developing its regulations, the EPA was expected to adhere to the Clean Air Act’s “appropriate and necessary” standard. But the agency arbitrarily determined that cost had no bearing in the development of the regulations, essentially flouting the decades-old law and choosing to make up its own rules. The EPA determined that its work protecting the environment justified whatever actions it saw fit.

Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion stated, “EPA strayed well beyond the bounds of reasonable interpretation in concluding that cost is not a factor relevant to the appropriateness of regulating power plants.” Scalia also noted, “The costs to power plants were … between 1,600 and 2,400 times as great as the quantifiable benefits from reduced emissions of hazardous air pollutants.” He added, “No regulation is ‘appropriate’ if it does significantly more harm than good.”

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California weighed in on the decision in a statement, saying, “The Supreme Court’s decision today vindicates the House’s legislative actions to rein in bureaucratic overreach and institute some common sense in rule making.” That said, Congress has more work to do to rein in an out-of-control EPA, especially given that the Court left open a substantial loophole of sorts: Regulations are fine as long as the EPA “counts the cost.”

Indeed, the EPA seemed nonplussed by the decision, with spokeswoman Melissa Harrison saying, “EPA is disappointed … but this rule was issued more than three years ago … and most plants are already well on their way to compliance.” In other words, she gloated that the damage was already done and blew a raspberry at opponents.

The EPA and the White House will certainly try to play down this loss, but the Court’s decision lays groundwork for a number of other cases in which multiple states are seeking to challenge the imperial overreach of the EPA. As noted by National Mining Association President Hal Quinn, “The decision effectively puts EPA on notice: reckless rulemaking that ignores the cost to consumers is unreasonable and won’t be tolerated.”

But Justice Clarence Thomas warned in his concurring majority opinion, “[W]e seem to be straying further and further from the Constitution without so much as pausing to ask why. We should stop to consider that document before blithely giving the force of law to any other agency ‘interpretations’ of federal statutes.” We can think of a few other cases in which that logic applies, and we hope this victory isn’t merely symbolic.

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• ANALYSIS: Two More Bad Policies: Rules of Engagement and Hostages
• The Hypocrisy of the Rainbow Mafia
• Syrian Red Line Update
• Ex-Im Bank to Stop Issuing Loans Tuesday

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• Dennis Prager: The Formal End to Judeo-Christian America
• Arnold Ahlert: Supreme Insanity
• Thomas Sowell: Supreme Court Disasters

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Dennis Prager: “Beginning with the Supreme Court’s ban on nondenominational school prayer in 1962, the same-sex marriage decision has essentially completed the state’s secularization of American society. This is one thing about which both right and left, religious and secular, can agree. One side may rejoice over the fact, and the other may weep, but it is a fact. And what has replaced Judaism, Christianity, Judeo-Christian values and the Bible? The answer is: feelings. More and more Americans rely on feelings to make moral decisions. The heart has taken the place of the Bible. … Same-sex marriage is, above all else, the statement that male and female mean nothing, are completely interchangeable, and, yes, don’t even objectively exist, because you are only the gender you feel you are. That explains the ’T' in ‘LGBT.’ The case for same-sex marriage is dependent on the denial of sexual differences. It is the heart, not the mind, that has concluded that all a child needs is love, not a father and mother. And therein lies one of the reasons that the notion of obedience to religion is so loathed by the cultural left. Biblical Judaism and Christianity repeatedly dismiss the heart as a moral guide.”

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SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Love your country, but never trust its government.” —American writer Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988)

Upright: “When any branch of government can exercise powers not authorized by either statutes or the Constitution, ‘we the people’ are no longer free citizens but subjects, and our ‘public servants’ are really our public masters. And America is no longer America. The freedom for which whole generations of Americans have fought and died is gradually but increasingly being taken away from us with smooth and slippery words. This decision makes next year’s choice of the next President of the United States more crucial than ever, because with that office goes the power to nominate justices of the Supreme Court.” —Thomas Sowell

Braying Jenny: “[O]ne thing you also said was that you would support a Texas state clerk who refused to issue a license to a gay couple on religious grounds. Let me ask you this: If a state clerk refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple, would you agree with that, too?” —NBC’s Savannah Guthrie to Ted Cruz

Dezinformatsia: “Now’s the Time To End Tax Exemptions for Religious Institutions” —Time magazine

Eco-alarmism: “This December, the world must unite behind a common goal. Because look, this is it. This is our only planet, our only life source. This may be our last chance.” —Robert Redford

Demo-gogues: “We need to join the rest of the industrialized world. We are the only major country on earth that doesn’t guarantee health care to all people as a right, and yet we end up spending much more than they do. So I do believe that we have to move toward a Medicare for all, single-payer system.” —Vermont Sen. and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (Because itworked so well in Vermont?)

And last… “Obama hailed the Supreme Court decision … to uphold federal subsidies in the Affordable Care Act. He cited anecdotal evidence to claim the program is working. In a recent survey, seventy-two percent of doctors say they think Obamacare is terrific as long as you don’t get sick.” —Argus Hamilton

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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.

THE FOUNDATION

“The propriety of a law, in a constitutional light, must always be determined by the nature of the powers upon which it is founded.” —Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 33, 1788

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Obama’s Funeral Platform for Gun Control

On Friday, Barack Obama delivered the eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the slain pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. Naturally, he exploited the occasion — metaphorically stood on Pinckney’s casket — to repeat the need for his policy preferences, namely more gun control. “For too long, we’ve been blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts upon this nation,” Obama thundered. “Sporadically, our eyes are open: When eight of our brothers and sisters are cut down in a church basement, 12 in a movie theater, 26 in an elementary school. But I hope we also see the 30 precious lives cut short by gun violence in this country every single day; the countless more whose lives are forever changed. … The vast majority of Americans — the majority of gun owners — want to do something about this. … None of us should believe that a handful of gun safety measures will prevent every tragedy. … But it would be a betrayal of everything Reverend Pinckney stood for, I believe, if we allowed ourselves to slip into a comfortable silence again.” In this instance, he did mention the lives lost every day — though he neglected the fact that they’re black lives lost to the gang culture festering on his own party’s urban poverty plantations. But he doesn’t speak at their funerals. That’s because he couldn’t make the blacks who murder other blacks into the supposed carbon copies of the racist Charleston murderer, as he did with whites across the nation that twice elected him president. Obama’s race-baiting, anti-gun tirade was despicable, and all the more so because of the true grace shown by the families of the Charleston victims.

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One Year Later, Islamic State ‘Caliphate’ Remains Entrenched

In theory, declaring a caliphate should have painted a huge target on the Islamic State’s back. But after the group (née “the JV team”) announced that it established a caliphate in Iraq and Syria last June, it has continued to hold onto its territory as the coalition fighting the jihadists slowly picks away at the “state.” Indeed, Islamic State-linked jihadists have launched attacks as far away as Pakistan, Algeria and Yemen, and those inspired by the Islamic State have struck both the U.S. and Europe. Now, officials in Afghanistan say the group is in that country, placing the Islamic State in competition with the Taliban over whose caliphate should be established. However, the Islamic State’s strategy has made it less of a threat to the United States than al-Qaida, writes Scott Stewart for Stratfor Global Intelligence. “Al Qaeda argues that the caliphate can be established only after the United States and its European allies have been defeated, to the extent that they can no longer interfere in Muslim lands… The Islamic State takes the opposite tack. It has adopted a more urgent ‘why wait?’ approach and concentrates its efforts on immediately taking, holding and governing territory.” This comes as the levels of terrorism at home and abroad are on the rise and as Independence Day weekend coincides with the month of Ramadan. So much for Barack Obama’s campaign to degrade and decimate our jihadist foes.

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Greeks Scramble for Cash as Financial Crisis Comes to a Head

Fourteen years ago, Greece entered the Eurozone by using a Trojan Horse: It doctored its finances to make them appear more stable than they actually were. For a run of a few years, the country let its finances go. The party ended during the Great Recession as the country needed bailout after bailout to keep the partial-archipelago afloat. Now, the piper must be paid. But instead of tightening belts and making the tough decisions to get out of debt and onto firm footing, the Greeks elected the Syriza Party to power because it promised that it would lessen the burden of debt by resisting the demands for reform and negotiating further with the nation’s creditors. But those talks with the creditors broke down over the weekend and Greece may be booted from the Eurozone. On hearing the news, Greeks started lining up at ATMs, withdrawing as much money as they could before the cash ran out. In response, Greece started capital controls, keeping banks closed this week. “Appeasing Syriza’s demands could spread political contagion to Spain, Portugal and other countries that might think they too can avoid reform and still be rescued,” writes The Wall Street Journal editorial board. “A last-minute reprieve is possible, but if not the Greeks will have committed suicide by ignoring economic reality. Voters in Europe, Japan and the U.S., take note.” As we watch the slow-motion crash of Greece, we should remember that this nation has a growing debt that is being made larger by growing entitlement spending. Someday, the piper must be paid here, too.

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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

Having Dispensed With God, Leftists Now Aim for Christians

By Robin Smith

1-2-3-4-5. Five leftist lawyers, currently abusing their authority as Supreme Court Justices, unleashed their activism upon the U.S. Constitution Friday and created a non-existent right to same-sex marriage. The Fourteenth Amendment may provide equal protection under the law, but by applying it to expand the definition of marriage the Court has created a constitutional crisis in America. The First and Tenth Amendments, which respectively promise freedom of individual religion and award jurisdiction to the States of all powers not enumerated in the Constitution, have now been placed in direct conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment.

“Love Wins”? Not here it doesn’t, nor does anything but the will of five judicial despots, followed by the bullying mob rule of the Left and its Rainbow Mafia. Need proof?

In 2008, before the Saul Alinsky-ite Barack Obama and his Chicagoland gang occupied the White House and began “fundamentally transforming” our nation, there was debate, dissent and dialogue about all sorts of issues, including those issues fomented by the hard Left in order to label the response of the Christian Right as extremist.

In 2008, homosexual couples could enter into a legal, binding contract for shared property, power of attorney for making health care decisions, probate of wills, etc., and were, in most cases, receiving health care benefits from employers. These same homosexual couples were consummating their relationship in the privacy of their own domicile without harassment.

In 2008, Christians could speak their opinions and stand on their faith while understanding their voice was respected in the public square.

In 2015, however, those same Christians are in grave danger of losing legal standing because their beliefs are pitted against a brand new, heretofore undiscovered constitutional right. Tolerance is only for those who agree with the mob-rule Left.

What changed in seven years?

If you ask a moderate Republican, he or she might say, “Elections have consequences,” and shrug, since they never viewed this as meaningful anyway. If you ask the Bible-believing Democrats who voted for Ronald Reagan, they shudder at the exchange of timeless principles for sexual license. If you ask a libertarian, you might get the response that devout Christians are the “recalcitrant minority.” But if you ask someone who identifies as Christian first, American second, and is conservative politically, you’ll hear sorrow for a nation that worships the secular triune of me, myself and I rather than our Creator.

Millions of votes cast around the country to support the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman have now been nullified. How will this tyrannical disregard for the enumerated powers of the Constitution play out in the everyday lives of Christians?

In your place of worship, there’s now a government-approved theology that the God-rejecting Left expects to be preached. Whereas Bible-centric congregations stand on Holy Scripture, which does not include one single advocacy of sexual sin or perversion, the homosexual agenda demands that this view be rejected. One of the five black-robed tyrants, Justice Anthony Kennedy — considered the “swing vote” — laughingly attempted to reassure those whose lives revolve around their faith in the Judeo-Christian God by writing, “Those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned.”

Get that? We can advocate our opposition, but there is little legal standing in such a weak word. As Chief Justice John Roberts put it, “The majority graciously suggests that religious believers may continue to ‘advocate’ and ‘teach’ their views of marriage. The First Amendment guarantees, however, the freedom to ‘exercise’ religion. Ominously, that is not a word the majority uses.”

Let’s not forget the Christian bakers, florists, photographers and other business owners who have been financially ruined and litigiously challenged by the Rainbow Mafia. Already, Christians have been forced to either comply with the government-approved theology or face persecution.

What about the tax-exempt status of Christian organizations such as schools, faith-based charities, hospitals and other institutions with religious beliefs?

The Obama administration has already indicated this provision as a likely stick to enforce the mandatory bowing to the altar of government-sanctioned faith. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, arguing conjured-up rights before the Supreme Court back in April, tipped their hand in response to an inquiry by Justice Samuel Alito. “It’s certainly going to be an issue,” Verrilli promised. “I don’t deny that. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito. It is going to be an issue.”

Chad Griffin, president of the Human (read: Homosexual) Rights Campaign, likewise said, “No question, the work is not done. … We still have a long ways to go.”

Cultural icons like Star Trek actor George Takei, who is homosexual, made the same veiled threat after the ruling. Some, he said, are “going to try to use the shroud of religious freedom” to disobey the Court’s decree. “I believe in religious freedom, and people who argue that are entitled to their freedom,” Takei said. “But” — yes, there was bound to be a “but” — “they do not have the freedom to impose their religious values on to others.”

Yet that’s exactly what the Court and the Rainbow Mafia are doing. The mob-rule Left, characteristically using its ends to justify any means, is wielding its political and legal prowess acquired over the last seven years to openly oppress Judeo-Christians.

Yet there are glimmers of hope that will endure.

Cultural and casual Christians, the ones who believe philanthropy and showing up for a holiday service is their only necessary spiritual response, will quickly self-identify and want to change the subject. Eventually, these fair-weather believers will either deepen their faith or more explicitly abandon it to avoid social stigma or name-calling.

But the greatest outcome of this conflict threatening the Liberty of the faithful and devout will be the growth of strength and community. Think of redwoods, trees that soar to heights of over 350 feet and can live thousands of years. These natural giants have roots of only five to 13 feet deep, but spread outward to 100 feet, interlocking with the roots of neighboring trees in the grove. Unseen bonds within these titans of the forest provide stability and support when the storms howl.

As Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, reminds us, “[T]he church often thrives when it is in sharp contrast to the cultures around it.”

And Congress isn’t idle. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) introduced the First Amendment Defense Act, which Lee writes “would prevent any agency from denying a federal tax exemption, grant, contract, accreditation, license, or certification to an individual or institution for acting on their religious belief that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.”

This battle has been won through activism and deception. The war, however, is not over.

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

• ANALYSIS: Valerie Jarrett’s Communist Family Ties
• The Supreme Political Branch
• Recycled Ideas Are Wasteful
• Gun Control Scheme Shot Down
• At Least Two GOP Lawmakers Buried the Hatchet
• Humor: I Proudly Support…
• Humor: Greece Fire

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

• Tony Perkins: Supreme Deception
• George Will: The Damaging Doctrine of John Roberts
• John Goodman: Papal Economics and Papal Climatology
• Jeff Jacoby: It’ll Take More Than Tanks to Keep Putin From the Baltics
• Jeff Jacoby: A Moral World Requires Moral Violence
• Peggy Noonan: Two Miracles in Charleston

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Tony Perkins: “For 11 years, homosexual activists have hidden behind the black robes of the court, trying to force their will on America before people wake up to the devastation. [Friday], in the court’s arrogance, they succeeded — swatting away the democratic expression of 50 million people like gnats on a humid day. ‘Today’s decree,’ Justice Antonin Scalia fumes, ‘says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court. The opinion in these cases is the furthest extension in fact… This practice of constitutional revision by an unelected committee of nine, always accompanied (as it is today) by extravagant praise of liberty, robs the People of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves.’ … As more Americans see and feel the erosion of religious liberty, of parental rights, of children’s innocence, and of conscience rights, their opinions will no longer be swayed by emotions and popular opinion — but by transcendent truth and inevitable consequences that come from its rejection. With this ruling, there is no doubt the Court has set in motion some dark days for religious liberty. But in that darkness will come a great Light, if believers hold firm to faith and continue speaking into the culture the uncompromising word of God.”

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SHORT CUTS

Insight: “I urge you to beware the temptation … to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of any evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil.” —The Gipper

Non Compos Mentis: “What we’re not going to do is unravel what has now been woven into the fabric of America.” —Barack Obama, not on traditional marriage but ObamaCare

Political games: “Sometimes there are days like this, when that slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.” —Barack Obama, who opposed same-sex marriage until it became politically convenient in 2012

Demo-gogues: “[Friday’s same-sex marriage] ruling is a victory for Jim Obergefell and the other plaintiffs in the case. It’s a victory for gay and lesbian couples who have fought so long for their basic civil rights. It’s a victory for their children, whose families will now be recognized as equal to any other. It’s a victory for the allies and friends and supporters who spent years, even decades, working and praying for change to come. And this ruling is a victory for America.” —Barack Obama

The inevitable next steps: “It’s Time to Legalize Polygamy” —Politico Magazine

And: “Now’s the Time To End Tax Exemptions for Religious Institutions” —New York Times columnist Mark Oppenheimer

Braying Jenny: “Fear and hatred are far from finished. … Across the board, [Republicans] are the party of the past.” —Hillary Clinton

Late-night humor: “The Supreme Court ruled to preserve the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, so we now can do anything we want. We could drink, smoke, jump mini-bikes off bridges, or play chainsaw tag if we want to. If we get hurt, it’s not our problem. It’s America’s problem, together.” —Jimmy Kimmel

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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.