Tag: police state

Ready for Your Home to Become a Government School?

One hundred years ago, in the case of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the Supreme Court struck down an Oregon law that required all children to attend public schools, affirming that parents had the right under the 14th Amendment to direct the upbringing and education of their children.  

The Supreme Court wrote, “The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.”

This court decision launched the parental rights movement that has become controversial since the pandemic school lockdown.

The longstanding trust in public schools was shattered when parents were given an unprecedented window into what was happening in the classrooms.  The most common response from parents was, “I had no idea!”  Parents who had never known much about what students did all day were suddenly alarmed by the prevalence of radical dogmas.

As a result, many turned to homeschooling, which now has become the fastest growing type of education in the nation, across all demographics.  In the black community, there has been a fivefold increase over a few short months of parents homeschooling their offspring.

As expected, the left is fighting back.  Leftists have no intention of allowing “domestic terrorist” parents to leave the public school system because it would mean loss of government control over what students are taught and over shaping their worldview.

Hillary Clinton popularized the phrase “it takes a village to raise a child,” which signals that children are considered wards of the state, to be reared and educated as the state sees fit.

In Illinois, Democrats have filed a bill that, if passed, will expand vastly the control of government over the education of children.  House Bill 2827, dubbed the Homeschool Bill, would bring government control of home schools as well as private and religious schools.  Home schools and private schools would become de facto government schools. 

Homeschool parents would be required to provide local and state education authorities annual reports with their children’s personal information, including gender identity, without any restrictions on what data would be mandated.  If parents fail to file this home school paperwork properly or in a timely fashion, they could be charged with a Class C misdemeanor and spend up to 30 days in jail. 

The question is, why do public school educators and politicians believe they need personal information on students and families not enrolled in public schools?  The Supreme Court has already ruled that parents have the sole right to direct the education and upbringing of their children. 

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Senators Demand Obama-Era Inspector General’s Cooperation In Probe Of J6 Undercover Agents

Two prominent senators sent a letter this week to Inspector General Michael Horowitz, pressing him to fully cooperate with their investigation of undercover “confidential human sources” in the crowd at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.

Horowitz, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2012, has failed to respond to requests for information about confidential human sources on Jan. 6, according to Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

They sent Horowitz a letter on Dec. 16, seeking more information about his Dec. 12 report on how the FBI handled its confidential human sources in advance of J6.

That report showed the FBI sent 26 confidential human sources to Washington, D.C. that day, and of those, four entered the Capitol and 13 went into a restricted area. Three sources were “tasked by their respective FBI handlers to report on individuals traveling to Washington, D.C. for the J6 event,” the senators wrote in their most recent letter. “While the report stated that ‘[n]one of these three [confidential human sources] were authorized by the FBI to engage in illegal activity, including to enter the Capitol or a restricted area, or to otherwise break the law on January 6’ two of the FBI sources entered the restricted area around the Capitol and one entered the Capitol.”

None of the FBI sources were prosecuted for their activities on J6.

It is worth noting that the Office of Inspector General and the FBI are part of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The senators have had questions about what other DOJ arms were involved in J6.

In his April 7 letter, Horowitz said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS); and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP); did not have any “undercover employees” in connection with the J6.

The senators bristled at the new language.

“Although this part of your response seems conclusive, it does not completely satisfy our inquiry. On February 28, 2025, our staff noted in an email to your Counselor that because the term ‘undercover agent’ can mean many things, our offices requested that the DOJ OIG address whether any federal law enforcement components, including FBI, ATF, DEA, USMS, or BOP, had employees or contractors wearing civilian clothing in the Washington D.C. area; at the Capitol Building; and in restricted areas on J6 in an official or unofficial capacity. We reiterate this specific request.”

The senators also want more detail on confidential human sources who were “tasked” (had an assignment)  and “untasked” (traveled to Capitol on their own initiative).

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UK Police Being Forced To Undergo Training To Accept Their ‘White Privilege’

One of Britain’s largest police forces is mandating “equity training” for officers, focusing on “white privilege”, “micro-aggressions” and the distinction between “non-racist versus anti-racist.”

The Telegraph reports that Thames Valley Police is putting officers through the training despite a tribunal last year finding that the force positively discriminated against white officers.

As we highlighted, the force appointed an Asian detective inspector without considering white officers for promotions.

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Florida Senate Passes Bill To Ban Psychedelic Mushroom Spores, As Companion Measure Also Advances In House

Florida’s Senate on Wednesday passed a wide-ranging agricultural bill that contains provisions to outlaw fungal spores that produce mushrooms containing psilocybin or psilocin. The vote came a day after a House committee advanced a companion bill in that chamber.

Senators voted 27–9 to approve SB 700, from Sen. Keith Truenow (R). HB 651 is moving through the House, meanwhile, having advanced out of the Commerce Committee on Tuesday.

The proposed ban on spores of mushrooms that create psilocybin or psilocin is a small part of the roughly 150-page legislation, which would make a variety of adjustments to Florida’s agricultural laws, including around agricultural lands, utilities and wildlife management.

With respect to psychedelic mushrooms, both measures would outlaw transporting, importing, selling or giving away “spores or mycelium capable of producing mushrooms or other material which will contain a controlled substance, including psilocybin or psilocyn, during its lifecycle.”

Violating the proposed law would be a first-degree misdemeanor, carrying a maximum one year in jail and $1,000 fine.

While lawmakers on the Senate floor and House committee spent considerable time debating various other portions of the bills—especially a proposed ban on fluoride in local water supplies—there was no mention of the provision concerning psychedelic mushroom spores.

“This bill at its core is meant to help farmers and consumers and students who want to become farmers one day,” Truenow said ahead of the floor vote.

Psilocybin and psilocin are the two main psychoactive compounds in psychedelic mushrooms. Although spores themselves typically do not contain psilocybin or psilocin, they eventually produce fruiting bodies—mushrooms—that do contain the psychedelic compounds.

Because the spores don’t contain any controlled substances, the federal government deems them legal.

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Indiana Lawmakers Approve Bill To Regulate Hemp Products

Contentious regulations for marijuana-like products advanced through the Indiana House of Representatives on Tuesday, but will have to survive closed-door negotiations before crossing Gov. Mike Braun’s (R) desk.

“I filed a dissent,” Sen. Travis Holdman, the measure’s author, told the Capital Chronicle.

“We’ve got some clean-up to do,” the Markle Republican said. “We’ll be working on it.”

Products with legally low concentrations of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol have proliferated in Indiana, alongside those containing delta-8 THC and other isomers. Attempts to regulate the nascent industry, which is booming on shaky legal footing, have failed repeatedly—but are nearing law, in the form of Senate Bill 478.

“These products, being legal under federal law, but having no regulatory structure here in the state, means that technically, it’s not illegal to sell these products to minors [or] to target youth with advertising or packaging, and that there’s no testing requirements to protect consumers from potentially dangerous adulterants,” said Rep. Jake Teshka, the House sponsor, on the chamber’s floor Tuesday.

The measure sets out advertising, age-limit, licensing, packaging, testing and other requirements over the currently unregulated substances. It authorizes the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission to oversee the industry, including approving up to 20,000 retail permits.

Lawmakers have put it through a whopping seven rounds of edits. But critics—including Indiana’s attorney general and anti-marijuana groups—still have objected, arguing the language would expand existing loopholes.

“With Senate Bill 478, I think we finally have an opportunity to rein in this market,” Teshka, R-North Liberty, said. “We have the opportunity to provide real clarity to law enforcement, to protect Hoosier youth, to empower our farmers and to protect our consumers.”

Members of Teshka’s own caucus remained skeptical.

“I recognize that…the General Assembly should take action on the current state of this product,” said Rep. Tim Wesco, R-Osceola. “[But] I don’t feel like this is the appropriate action.”

Instead, it’s “moving us further down a path of increasing—dramatically increasing—access to these products that are known to have adverse and negative effects,” Wesco continued. “We’re setting up a framework that we’re likely not going to go back on, that is just going to expand from here.”

Lawmakers from both parties crossed sides in the 60-37 vote.

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After Self-Immolations at Red Onion Prison, Virginia Prisoners Allege Crackdown

Besides an overhead light, Sidney Bowman says he hasn’t had electricity in his cell at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison for roughly three months. 

Last month, Bowman told a federal court that prison employees cut the electricity to his cell after he refused to sign what staff call a “Safety Agreement for Inmates.” The document offers incentives to prisoners—such as movies, group recreation, free commissary bags, and a fish fry—provided they don’t harm themselves. However, if they repeatedly hurt themselves, they may lose “access to television, recreation time, or other amenities.” The Appeal obtained a copy of the agreement through a public records request. 

Bowman’s statement is part of an ongoing class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia that alleges that the state’s Step-Down program—which purports to help prisoners earn their way to a general population assignment—traps people in solitary confinement for months or years on end.

The legal team has asked the federal court to restore plaintiffs’ electricity and to prohibit staff from retaliating against people who refuse to sign the agreement or participate in the lawsuit. The Virginia Department of Corrections declined to answer The Appeal’s questions.

Last year, at least six people at Red Onion self-immolated in what incarcerated journalist Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson called “desperate attempts” to escape the prison’s inhumane conditions. But rather than offer them help, emails obtained by The Appeal show prison officials discussed how best to punish them. Then, in January, prison staff began distributing the Safety Agreement to people in Red Onion’s Step-Down program.

If someone refused to sign, staff cut the electricity to their cell’s outlet. The ACLU says this prevented prisoners from charging their tablets, watching television, or listening to the radio. Bowman told the court that he accesses religious programming through his television and tablet because he cannot leave his cell for services. He says his tablet is his primary tool to communicate with his family. 

Red Onion’s assistant warden confirmed in a court statement that there have been nine self-burnings—eight last year and one in January. The assistant warden said no one had burned themselves with a power outlet since the prison distributed the agreement on Jan. 20. 

“Security leadership and mental health leadership collaborated on potential solutions, and we ultimately decided that if an inmate agreed not to use the cell’s power outlet to bum himself, the power outlet in that inmate’s cell could remain active,” he said in his statement. “Inmates who refused to agree not to bum themselves would be placed in a cell where the power outlet had been deactivated.”

The warden said prisoners can use kiosks during recreation to charge their tablets and message family members. He said the prison has also set up TVs outside the cells to view religious services. 

In addition to threatening to punish people for acts of self-harm, the agreement also requires signers to affirm that they have “access to mental health and other local resources.” The plaintiffs say compelling them to agree with or espouse statements they believe are untrue or objectionable violates their First Amendment rights. 

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Florida Lawmakers Unanimously Approve Bill To Make Medical Marijuana Cards Free For Military Veterans

A Florida House panel on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill that would exempt military veterans from state registration fees for medical marijuana cards, allowing them to obtain the certifications for free.

The House Health and Human Services Committee advanced the legislation, HB 555 from Rep. Alex Andrade (R), on a vote of 21-0.

As originally filed, the measure would have made more significant changes to the state’s existing medical cannabis program, for example allowing home cultivation as well as reciprocity for out-of-state patients. But earlier this month the House Health Professions and Programs Subcommittee replaced its language with a two-page substitute that instead would make only small changes to the medical program.

First, it would change how often patients need to renew their medical marijuana cards, from the current annual process to once every two years.

Second, it would waive the $75 registration and renewal fees for veterans, specifying that the state “may not charge a fee for the issuance, replacement, or renewal of an identification card for a qualified patient who is a veteran.”

A handful of supporters testified ahead of the panel’s vote on Tuesday, and no one spoke against the measure.

Melissa Villar of Tallahassee NORML said that when Florida’s medical cannabis program launched, “it was the most expensive in the country for patients and for business entrance.” She asked lawmakers to expand the bill to go beyond helping military veterans and to additionally provide for discounted or cost-free patient cards for people who are disabled or low income.

If HB 555 becomes law, the changes would take effect July 1.

Separately, House and Senate lawmakers are considering legislation that would outlaw fungal spores that produce mushrooms containing psilocybin or psylocin.

The proposed ban on spores of mushrooms that create psilocybin or psilocin is part of the roughly 150-page bills, which would make a variety of adjustments to Florida’s agricultural laws, including around agricultural lands, utilities and wildlife management.

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Indiana GOP Senators Block Another Attempt To Legalize Marijuana Through Budget Bill

Indiana Republican senators have rejected another attempt to legalize marijuana in the state.

On Monday, the Senate considered numerous amendments to a two-year budget, defeating many Democratic-led proposals including one from Sen. Rodney Pol (D) to create a regulated adult-use cannabis market.

Pol stressed that Indiana is “losing out” to neighboring states such as Illinois and Michigan that have already enacted legalization, with tax revenue from marijuana sales being diverted to those states as Indianans patronized their licensed businesses.

He said it’s “frustrating” to watch Indiana “lose on an opportunity to keep our dollars in our state and provide relief to those individuals that are dealing with cancer, PTSD, chronic pain and other ailments that prefer cannabis for needed relief, as opposed to pharmaceuticals.”

“We have hundreds of people in the hallway that are concerned about money that we are spending,” he said. “And this is an easy way to turn what is in an illicit market that is funding more crime right now into a regulated and safe taxed market that we reap the benefits of.”

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The Circumvention of Habeas Corpus

The most profound and ominous aspect of the controversy surrounding the deportation of Kilmar Ábrego García to El Salvador is that the Trump administration has figured out a way to circumvent the right of habeas corpus, not just for foreigners but also for the American people.

Why is that important? Because without habeas corpus, a right that stretches all the way back to Magna Carta in 1215, there is no free society. As British and American legal scholars have maintained for centuries, habeas corpus is the linchpin of a free society.

For example, freedom of speech is a fundamental right that the federal government is prohibited from taking away. Let’s assume that one day, an American citizen castigates President Trump for policies he has adopted. A few days later in the middle of the night, Homeland Security agents bash down his door, take him into custody, and incarcerate him.

That’s where habeas corpus comes into play. The victim, through his lawyer, files a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with a federal judge. The judge issues the writ, which a U.S. Marshal serves on the person who is holding the critic in jail. The writ commands the custodian to immediately produce the critic in court. At the habeas hearing, the judge orders the government to show just cause as to why it is holding the critic. When it fails to do so, the judge orders the immediate release of the critic. The critic walks out of the courtroom a free person.

Thus, it is the right of habeas corpus that enforces the right of freedom of speech and the exercise of other rights. Without habeas corpus, people’s rights become a dead letter. That’s how important habeas corpus is.

The Framers understood the critical importance of habeas corpus to a free society. That’s why they enshrined it in the Constitution.

The right of habeas corpus developed over centuries of resistance by the British people to the tyranny of their own government. For example, after Magna Carta, English common law courts developed and applied the writ against the king’s arbitrary imprisonment of English citizens. In 1679, Parliament adopted the Habeas Corpus Act, which clarified and codified much of what English courts were doing from the 13th century through the 17th century.

Needless to say, rulers who have dictatorial proclivities hate habeas corpus. They don’t want any judicial interference with their decisions to incarcerate people who question their decisions, who they sometimes refer to by the label “terrorist.”

In the midst of the Civil War, for example, President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, which enabled military officials to arbitrarily arrest and incarcerate critics of Lincoln. When the Supreme Court declared Lincoln’s act unconstitutional, Lincoln simply ignored the ruling.

After the 9/11 attacks, the Pentagon and the CIA established a torture and prison camp at their base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The reason they established it in Cuba was because they figured that it would be totally independent of U.S. judicial interference and the U.S. Constitution, including habeas corpus. The Supreme Court ultimately held otherwise, declaring that Gitmo remained within the jurisdiction of the federal judiciary.

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Pennsylvania Lawmakers Push To Protect Medical Marijuana Patients In Child Custody Cases After Father Loses Rights Over THC Test

Pennsylvania lawmakers are taking action to clarify that a person’s status as a medical marijuana patient cannot be used against them in parental custody rulings in family court.

While state statue clearly stipulates that lawful use of medical cannabis “shall not by itself be considered by a court in a custody proceeding,” a father’s recent experience losing custody rights after testing positive for THC metabolites has exposed an apparent implementation issue.

After David Levi—a registered medical cannabis patient with severe arthritis—sought financial support from his daughter’s mother in family court, his use of marijuana became a determining factor, contrary to what’s prescribed under state law.

“By the time they were done with me, I became a drug user—not a prescribed user—and that’s my tagline” in the eyes of the court, Levi told Marijuana Moment. “And two days before my father died, I got an email, and it was that the judge had ordered to take away all of my rights as a father.”

“I went from 50-50 custody to not being able to drive my daughter, and I’m only allowed to have overnight visits with her every other week,” he said.

Sen. John Kane (D) learned about his constituent’s story and, last week, circulated a cosponsorship memo to build support for forthcoming legislation to both clarify the existing statute and also make it so a person’s medical cannabis patient status cannot be used to determine child custody or to justify a drug test in a custody case.

“To treat his pain without using addictive opioids, my constituent obtained a medical marijuana card and began using this medication to treat his arthritis,” Kane wrote. “Medical marijuana has allowed him to manage his pain, maintain his work, and remain an attentive father to his three-year-old daughter.”

“Despite following the guidelines set forth by Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Act, the constituent found himself in a custody battle that has threatened his rights as a father and penalized him based on his status as a medical marijuana patient,” he said, adding that current statute “prohibits the lawful use of medical marijuana as a determinant of child custody.”

“However, in my constituent’s case, his use of medical marijuana was used against him to determine child custody,” the senator said. And to address the issue, he will be filing legislation to “amend Title 23 Section 5328 to prohibit the use of medical marijuana from being used to determine child custody or the sole reason to order a drug test in child custody cases.”

The text of the bill hasn’t been filed yet. But on the House side, a Republican lawmaker has since committed  to work on the issue as well, Levi said.

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