Court Allows Christian Baker to Sue Colorado for Anti-Religious Hostility

The owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop can proceed with his lawsuit against the state of Colorado after a judge refused to dismiss the case.

Jack Phillips has accused the Colorado Civil Rights Commission of anti-religious bias because it punished him for refusing to bake a cake celebrating gender transition. Phillips, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, filed suit when the state chose to prosecute him even after he won his case at the U.S. Supreme Court in June. . .

“Colorado is acting in bad faith and with bias toward Jack,” said ADF Senior Counsel Jim Campbell. “We look forward to moving forward with this lawsuit to ensure that Jack isn’t forced to create custom cakes that express messages in conflict with his faith.”

The Colorado Civil Rights Commission said Phillips discriminated against Denver attorney Autumn Scardina because she’s transgender. Phillips’ shop refused to make a cake last year that was blue on the outside and pink on the inside after Scardina revealed she wanted it to celebrate her transition from male to female.

She asked for the cake on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would consider Phillips’ appeal of the previous commission ruling against him. In that 2012 case, he refused to make a wedding cake for same-sex couple Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins. (Read more from “Court Allows Christian Baker to Sue Colorado for Anti-Religious Hostility” HERE)

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Planned Parenthood President Acknowledges the Truth: Abortion Is Indeed Their Core Mission

On Tuesday, Planned Parenthood President Dr. Leana Wen finally admitted what Planned Parenthood has seemingly tried for years to deny: the main mission of the organization is to perform abortions.

Wen issued a series of tweets in response to a Buzzfeed article about her that ran on Monday titled, “Planned Parenthood’s New President Wants To Focus On Nonabortion Health Care.” Not wanting women who champion abortion to believe that somehow she didn’t regard their wishes as primary for her organization, Wen tweeted, “I am always happy to do interviews, but these headlines completely misconstrue my vision for Planned Parenthood,” followed by tweeting, “First, our core mission is providing, protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care. We will never back down from that fight – it’s a fundamental human right and women’s lives are at stake.”

Under prior Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, who served as the group’s president for 12 years, the group consistently tried to portray itself primarily as a health care provider, ignoring the massive abortion machine it truly is. The organization’s website totally ignores the term “abortion” in its section titled, “Who We Are,” writing, “Today, Planned Parenthood is a trusted health care provider, an informed educator, a passionate advocate, and a global partner helping similar organizations around the world. Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide.” In fact, the website’s home page never mentions the word abortion, only referring to “reproductive health care.” (Read more from “Planned Parenthood President Acknowledges the Truth: Abortion Is Indeed Their Core Mission” HERE)

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THANK YOU! Restoring Liberty is Funded for the Next QUARTER

2018 has been a banner year in Fake News, with the mainstream media feeding the American public with lie after lie. Their main focus was Trump-hate, using Russian collusion as their theme. Mueller cooperated. But just like tales of Hillary’s sainthood, all tangible evidence was omitted.

The state of free speech in America – without reasonable question – is in crisis. Most Americans now turn first to the Internet for their news, but almost every source is controlled by the Establishment.

What’s left for freedom? Only independent news sources like Restoring Liberty. But we cannot continue to exist without your generous help. Please donate HERE to fund us in the coming year.

Years ago, before the fascists at Google banned advertising on our website, Restoring Liberty was able to help cover basic costs through our ads. Now, we are totally dependent on you and our limited sponsors for financial support.

And this is the first time in a year that we’ve asked you, one of our loyal readers, to directly help fund Restoring Liberty. We are asking that you donate whatever you can to help us continue to aggressively push the Liberty agenda in 2019.

Although most of those working on Restoring Liberty are purely volunteers, we do pay one lead editor a small monthly stipend, pay our mail service several hundred dollars per month, and have other substantial expenses including Internet server fees, cloud hosting, and other costs. Please help us meet our expenses for the coming months HERE.

Your investment in Restoring Liberty will result in solid returns for liberty-minded Americans. Millions of page views each year continue to be produced by Restoring Liberty. Only your financial support makes this possible. Please donate $50, $100, or even $500 HERE today.

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High Schoolers Want to Give Bibles to Classmates During Lunch — but Weren’t Allowed

Christian students in a Pennsylvania public school recently asked permission to pass out Bibles to classmates in the cafeteria during lunch — but the principal of Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School allegedly said no, and now a law firm is getting involved.

Jeremy Samek, senior counsel of the Independence Law Center, told WPMT-TV that November’s alleged request denial was the third time in the last two years that Christians in Action student club members have run into problems with the principal. . .

Mechanicsburg Area School District issued the following statement to WPMT in regard to the Bible controversy:

MASD is aware of the concerns presented by the Independence Law Center. We received a letter yesterday from the center alleging that a student group was denied permission to distribute Bibles. MASD respects the rights of students to express themselves and distribute materials. MASD also recognizes that exercise of that right must be limited by the District’s responsibility to maintain an orderly school environment and to protect the rights of all members of the school community. Accordingly, students do have the right to distribution of non-school materials prior to the start of the school day and after the end of the school day if they develop a plan for time, place and manner of distribution that is reviewed and approved by the administration. We plan to investigate the claims set forth in this letter and work with the students in accordance with the law and our local policy.

. . .

“The school has told these students that they cannot distribute Bibles to their classmates at any time during the school day,” he added to Fox News, “but students don’t lose their constitutional rights to speech when they enter the schoolhouse gate. Schools certainly have the right to limit it to non-instructional times and reasonable places but not to institute absolute bans during the school day, which is what they’ve done here.” (Read more from “High Schoolers Want to Give Bibles to Classmates During Lunch — but Weren’t Allowed” HERE)

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Zero Trump Mentions at 2019 Golden Globes

Hollywood dispensed with what now constitutes years of tradition and declined to even mention Donald Trump at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday. Not only was the president left out by hosts Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh, but he also went unmentioned by all the evening’s award recipients.

To be sure, there were a few nods made in Trump’s general direction. “Assassination of Gianni Versace” producer Brad Simpson provided perhaps the most overtly political moment of the night by calling on the audience to “resist in the streets, resist in the ballot box.” Christian Bale managed to get in some quick digs at Dick Cheney and Mitch McConnell. But that was about as direct as anyone got.

This marks the first Trump-free Globes ceremony since 2015. By comparison, both the 2017 and 2018 broadcasts were peppered with rebukes of Trump. Meryl Streep delivered her infamous “football and mixed martial arts” jab at the ceremony two years ago. All the way back in 2016, Ricky Gervais joked that Trump couldn’t wait to deport America Ferrera and Eva Longoria. . .

Either way, I suspect audiences will agree with Samberg, who in a preview of the show contended, “Everyone is depressed, and maybe that’s as good a reason as any that everyone could use a little time to laugh and celebrate. Not to ignore anything, but we spend so much time every day wallowing in a lot of things that are happening in  our world that are really depressing… but there’s also power to being positive and celebratory in the tougher times as well.” (Although to accomplish that feat, Samberg and Oh would have actually had to give us some reasons to laugh.) (Read more from “Zero Trump Mentions at 2019 Golden Globes” HERE)

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Liberals Calling for Boycott of Massive Music Festival – Here’s Why

The owner of the famous Coachella music festival, Philip Anschutz, is a conservative. Despite the fact that his political leanings have been well-documented over the years, 2019 is apparently the year liberal fans of the event intend to make a fuss about it.

Anschutz, who is also the CEO of AEG, donated more than $1 million to conservative causes in 2016, and gave nearly $200,000 to Republicans in 2017. He has donated to Republican candidates dating back nearly 30 years.

Some people appear to just be finding out about this for the first time, and even though his personal political views and activities seem to be perfectly normal and have no impact on the festival itself, calls for a boycott began swelling on social media.

(Read more from “Liberals Calling for Boycott of Massive Music Festival – Here’s Why” HERE)

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Another Man Found Dead at Home of Democratic Donor

In less than two years, two men have been found dead at prominent Democratic donor and LGBT community member Ed Buck’s West Hollywood home, a development that has West Hollywood council members and local LGBT leaders urging authorities to launch a full investigation.

At 1:05 a.m. Monday morning, West Hollywood sheriff’s deputies responded to a report that a person was not breathing at Buck’s Laurel Avenue apartment. Authorities say the person who called attempted to perform CPR, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene, the cause of death yet unknown.

“The dead man’s name has not been released, but Nicole Nishida, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department, said he was black,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “Buck previously was investigated for the death of another black man, the 2017 overdose of Gemmel Moore, 26.”

Authorities stated Monday that Buck was present for both deaths and announced that they are conducting a “thorough investigation” into the second death and that they will now reopen a “followup” investigation into Moore’s death, which occurred in July 2017.

“Investigators are conducting a thorough investigation, which includes follow up interviews and a secondary review of the July 27, 2017 incident,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement Monday. “As with the previous incident, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office was intimately involved in reviewing the facts of the case, and will be so in this case as well.” (Read more from “Another Man Found Dead at Home of Democratic Donor” HERE)

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30 Transgender Regretters Come out of the Closet

. . .[Walt] Heyer has written several books on transgender regret, but his sixth and newest book, “Trans Life Survivors,” is not his personal story. It’s a compilation of the stories of many others caught up in today’s “transmania.” They specifically sought out Walt to get some much-needed support. They’ve shared their lonely, surreal experiences falling down the trans rabbit hole, hoping to escape as he did.

Walt’s correspondents describe a wide range of frustrating and confusing experiences. Some are nudged into transgenderism by social pressures and emotional manipulation. Many are hastily sent into surgery without adequate counseling (or any counseling at all), or are misdiagnosed. Some of those regret their decision very shortly after having irreversible surgery.

So “Trans Life Survivors” is a godsend for people struggling with trans regret, no matter what stage of transition or de-transition they are in. The book highlights 30 stories gleaned from among the many hundreds Heyer has received from his readers. Many more transgender people have contacted Walt over the years. Walt has been trying valiantly to keep up with the increasing volume of contacts. . .

In “Trans Life Survivors,” you’ll also read about “Blair,” who holds a Guinness World Record for most gender-reassignment surgeries: 167 surgeries to make him feel more like a woman. Needless to say, it didn’t work out. But we can easily suspect in his case the existence of surgical predators who take advantage of vulnerable people. Many others, like Michael, recognize that it’s all “a sick money-making industry.”

Others who have communicated with Walt include parents whose children are being pressured into gender transition by public school officials, social media, and pop culture. “Trans Life Survivors” also includes chapters on the medical realities of sex change as well as the politicization of medicine and psychiatry that locks people into a transgender identity. (Read more from “30 Transgender Regretters Come out of the Closet” HERE)

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Investigation Into Drive-By Shooting of Child Takes a ‘New Direction’

Investigators are now calling the shooting of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes a case of mistaken identity after witnesses believed a white man in a red pickup truck was responsible for her Dec. 30 murder, but officials said Sunday that two different men have been taken into custody and one has been charged with capital murder.

Barnes was killed while sitting in the backseat of her mother’s car with her three sisters as they drove out of a Walmart parking lot in northeast Houston on Dec. 30. Her mother, LaPorsha Washington, was also shot when a car pulled up and began spraying bullets.

The case garnered national attention after Washington said she believed the case to be a hate crime after she and her family identified the shooter in the apparently random attack to be a white male. . .

Authorities originally reported the suspect to be a white man driving a red pickup truck based on accounts of the shooting from Barnes’s family, but the Harris County Sheriff’s Office tweeted late Saturday that the investigation had “taken a new direction.”

Homicide investigators subsequently filed a capital murder charge against Eric Black Jr., 20, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office, who had been identified as a suspect based on a tip. He later admitted to taking part in the shooting.

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‪I’ll go ahead and state the obvious. 24 y/o Larry Woodruffe doesn’t fit the description offered by the 4 different witness statements or composite sketch. Accordingly, this tip was difficult to believe. Assuming the confession elicited is reliable— it is possible the previously identified suspect seen fleeing by several independent witnesses was a bystanader attempting to escape the shooting. To observers, however, he appeared to be the shooter himself. ‬More information will have to be drawn out before there is a conviction. Nonetheless, the community is collectively responsible for obtaining evidence that has led to a credible arrest and we are closer to answers. That much is laudable.

A post shared by S. Lee Merritt, Esquire (@leemerrittesq) on

(Read more from “Investigation Into Drive-By Shooting of Child Takes a ‘New Direction'” HERE)

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Actress Wants Fat-Shaming To Be Considered Hate Speech

“Body positivity” has been a rallying cry for many celebrities and women’s organizations that claim being overweight is not unhealthy. Now one celebrity in particular wants to make “fat-shaming” — remarks intended to make someone feel bad over their weight — to be considered “hate speech.”

Actress Jameela Jamil from “The Good Place” announced last week that she would start a company based on her Instagram account, “I Weigh,” which focuses on body positivity. She announced her new company in a tweet last Wednesday and said one of the company’s “main goals is to work towards a policy change that means this way of talking about people’s bodies is considered hate speech.”

The tweet was a response to one from another Twitter user who posted photos from a tabloid depicting two female celebrities in bathing suits with captions. In one photo, Rebel Wilson wears a one-piece bathing suit with the caption: “The stand-up comedian, 29, made a big splash in Pitch Perfect, and does the same when she hits the surf!”

One might not necessarily see this as cruel, but the comment is made among other photos mocking celebrities for their looks, including Tara Reid’s “botched surgery.”

Another photo posted by the account shows “Glee” actress Lea Michele in a bikini bending over with the caption: “The 28-year-old singer’s most famous role was on Glee, but her biggest rolls are…” the photo cuts off. The image includes a circle around her torso and the words “roll player.”

(Read more from “Actress Wants Fat-Shaming to Be Considered Hate Speech” HERE)

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