Supreme Court Rules State and Local Government Cannot Ban Faith-Based Schools from Public Funding

June 21, 2022

A major win for parents and school choice today in a 6-3 decision from the Supreme Court [pdf Ruling Here]. The high court ruled that Maine violated the Constitution by refusing to make public funds available for students to attend faith-based schools. The ruling is broad and makes it clear when any state and/or local government choose to subsidize private schools or provide vouchers for school choice, they must allow families pay for religious schools.

Teachers’ unions, left-wing indoctrination institutions and the media are not happy with the Supreme Court decision. The ruling now makes it possible for state or local school vouchers to be used for private, faith-based schools. Those schools also have religious exemptions on the types of material and educators they allow in their education programs.

In the bigger picture the court has again affirmed ‘freedom of religion‘ not ‘freedom from religion‘. Parents who wish their children to receive a moral and virtuous education should not be blocked by state and local politicians who promote sexualization of children, immoral conduct and alternative lifestyles for kids.

SCOTUS BLOG: – […] The dispute before the court in Carson v. Makin began as a challenge to the system that Maine uses to provide a free public education to school-aged children. In some of the state’s rural and sparsely populated areas, school districts opt not to run their own secondary schools. Instead, they choose one of two options: sending students to other public or private schools that the district designates, or paying tuition at the public or private school that each student selects. But in the latter case, state law allows government funds to be used only at schools that are nonsectarian – that is, schools that do not provide religious instruction.

Two Maine families went to court, arguing that the exclusion of schools that provide religious instruction violates the First Amendment’s free exercise clause. On Tuesday, the justices agreed. Roberts suggested that the court’s decision was an “unremarkable” application of prior decisions in two other recent cases (both of which Roberts wrote): Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, in which the justices ruled that Missouri could not exclude a church from a program to provide grants to non-profits to install playgrounds made from recycled tires, and Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, holding that if states opt to subsidize private education, they cannot exclude private schools from receiving those funds simply because they are religious.

In this case, Roberts explained, Maine pays tuition for some students to attend private schools, as “long as the schools are not religious.” “That,” Roberts stressed, “is discrimination against religion.” It does not matter, Roberts continued, that the Maine program was intended to provide students with the equivalent of a free public education, which is secular. The focus of the program, Roberts reasoned, is providing a benefit – tuition to attend a public or private school – rather than providing the equivalent of the education that students would receive in public schools. Indeed, Roberts observed, private schools that are eligible for the tuition benefit are not required to use the same curriculum as public schools, or even to use certified teachers. He suggested that the state’s argument was circular: “Saying that Maine offers a benefit limited to private secular education is just another way of saying that Maine does not extend tuition assistance payments to parents who choose to educate their children at religious schools.”

Roberts similarly rejected the state’s argument that the tuition-assistance program does not violate the Constitution because it only bars benefits from going to schools that provide religious instruction.

Those rulings did not hold that states could make funding for private schools hinge on whether the schools provide religious instruction, Roberts explained. To the contrary, Roberts indicated, there is no real distinction between a school’s religious status and its use of funds for religious purposes.

Roberts also dismissed any suggestion that Tuesday’s ruling would require the state to fund religious education. Maine has other options to eliminate its need to fund private schools, Roberts noted: It could, for example, create more public schools or improve transportation to public schools…

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/06/21/supreme-court-rules-state-and-local-government-cannot-ban-faith-based-schools-from-public-funding/#more-234355

John Cornyn Pledges to Sell Out America on Amnesty After Caving on Gun Control

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) pledged on Tuesday to sell out the American people by trying to advance amnesty for illegal aliens after striking a deal on gun control.

After Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tapped Cornyn to negotiate a deal on gun control, he now promised to move forward on a deal on amnesty.

“First guns, now it’s immigration,” Cornyn told Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA).

“That’s right, we’re going to do it,” said Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ).

Andrew Surabian, a former Donald Trump administration official, said in reaction to Cornyn’s pledge for amesty, “From selling out on gun control to selling out on amnesty in light speed.”

Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Cornyn have continued to push for amnesty with the help of Democrat allies, including Sens. Padilla and Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Senate Democrat whip.

“The only way that we’re going to get real progress is to have a four-pillar discussion — so immigration reform, DACA, border security and then I think asylum reform is pretty important, particularly with that’s going on with Title 42,” Tillis said in April.

“We’ve got a starting list. There could be some more. But it’s a starting point. I’ve talked to four or five Republican senators today. There’s a genuine interest in doing something,” Durbin said.

Cornyn was recently booed at the Texas annual Republican Party convention last Friday over his work with Democrats to pass gun control.

The boos apparently did not faze Cornyn.

“After Sen @JohnCornyn was met with such hatred at the @TexasGOP convention in Houston, I’m told he said to a few people, ‘I’ve never given in to mobs and I’m not starting today,’” Cornyn’s retweet read.

Sen. Cornyn’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Republican Senators mantra: How low can we go? Much, much further, we are just getting started

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/06/21/john-cornyn-pledges-to-sell-out-america-on-amnesty-after-caving-on-gun-control/

Senate Unveils Language of Gun Control Deal: Expands Background Checks, Expands Prohibited Purchasers

AWR Hawkins21 Jun 2022

The Senate unveiled Tuesday the language of the bipartisan gun control deal Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) struck with Democrats at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) behest.

NPR reports that the gun control expands background checks for gun buyers ages 18-20. The legislation also expands the prohibited buyers list by adding dating relationships under the domestic violence clause, thus closing the “boyfriend loophole” Democrats have been arguing against for years.

The legislation also contains financial incentives for states that agree to adopt red flag laws.

Rep. Matt Gaetz anticipated the financial incentives for red laws, telling Breitbart News Saturday that theCornyn gun control package uses “federal money to bribe states to enact red flag laws.”

Demonstrators during a rally calling for action on gun safety on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, on May 26, 2022. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Gaetz then restated it, saying, the Cornyn gun control package is “literally using the federal government to bribe the states to deprive citizens of their Second Amendment rights.”

The NRA responded to the gun control by saying it “falls short at every level.”

They added, “This legislation can be abused to restrict lawful gun purchases, infringe upon the rights of law-abiding Americans, & use fed dollars to fund gun control measures being adopted by state & local politicians.”

The NRA noted, “This bill leaves too much discretion in the hands of government officials and also contains undefined and overboard provisions — inviting interference with our constitutional freedoms.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/06/21/senate-unveils-language-gun-control-deal-expands-background-checks/

Senate Gun Control Deal Applies Domestic Violence Statutes, Gun Bans, to ‘Dating Relationships’

AWR Hawkins21 Jun 2022

Section 12005 of the Senate gun control deal expands traditional domestic violence protections from spouse and ex-spouses to “dating relationships.”

This the list of prohibited purchasers in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) will include certain boyfriends and girlfriends, should the Senate gun control deal become law.

The bill says, “The term ‘dating relationship’ means a relationship between individuals who have or have recently had a a continuing serious relationship or a romantic or intimate nature.”

The legislation indicates the “length of the relationship,” “the nature of the relationship,” and the “frequency and type of interaction between individuals involved in the relationship,” all play a role in determining if the relationship is, in fact, a “dating relationship.”

The legislation does not indicate who will decide which relationships qualify as a “dating relationship.” Because of such ambiguities the NRA noted, “The NRA noted, “This bill leaves too much discretion in the hands of government officials and also contains undefined and overboard provisions — inviting interference with our constitutional freedoms.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/06/21/senate-gun-control-deal-applies-domestic-violence-statutes-gun-bans-to-dating-relationships/

Poll: Less than 10% of Americans Following January 6 Committee Hearings ‘Very Closely’

Jordan Dixon-Hamilton21 Jun 2022

Less than ten percent of Americans are following the January 6 committee’s hearings “very closely,” according to a new ABC News poll.

ABC News, in conjunction with Ipsos, found that just nine percent of Americans are following the January 6 committee’s televised hearings “very closely.”

The ABC News poll comes after the committee finished its first full week of televised hearings. The committee has held three public hearings, with four more on June’s congressional calendar.

So far, the committee’s efforts have only made a six percent difference in the amount of Americans who believe former President Donald Trump should be held criminally liable for the January 6 Capitol riot.

Although the committee portrays itself as “bipartisan,” ABC’s poll found the hearings are divided along party lines. For example, while 91 percent of Democrats think Trump should be charged with a crime for the Capitol riot, less than 20 percent of Republicans think so.

Additionally, the two Republican members seated on the nine-member committee were handpicked by House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) after she rejected the nominees submitted by House GOP Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

Trump blasted the “unselect” committee on Friday at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference.

“There’s no clearer example of the menacing spirit that has devoured the American left than the disgraceful performance being staged by the unselect committee,” Trump said. “They’re con people, they’re con artists.”

Trump also criticized the committee, led by Democrat Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), for taking witness testimony out of context.

“The committee refuses to play any of the tape of people saying the good things, the things that we want to hear, It’s a one-way street. It’s a rigged deal,” Trump added.

Trump’s criticism echoes comments made by former Trump adviser Jason Miller, who called out Cheney and the committee for deceptively editing pieces of his testimony during the committee’s first primetime hearing.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/06/21/less-ten-percent-following-january-6-committee-hearings-very-closely/

>>16488063

They have been working on that for a couple of years, stating memes are subversive & disinfo! And who is pushing that hard?

Our very own crazy witch and disinfo agent that wants to fucked, Nina “The Insane” Jancowicz

Sen. John Cornyn Attacks Criticism of ‘Civics’ Bill as ‘Russian’ Disinformation

Cornyn drank the Coolaid, and now works for democrats

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has attacked criticism of his new civics bill by comparing it to a “Russian” disinformation campaign — all for pointing out that the legislation is vulnerable to Democrats’ efforts to impose Critical Race Theory.

Cornyn’s outburst appeared on Twitter on Sunday, in response to an article by respected conservative author Stanley Kurtz:

Kurtz had written an article, “Bogus ‘Civics’ Bill Will Push CRT on States,” in the National Review in which he pointed out that despite some of the good intentions behind the “Civics Secures Democracy Act” (CSDA), it gave federal bureaucrats the power to impose left-wing ideology, using billions of dollars in federal funding to entice states to adopt a preferred curriculum. Kurtz compared it to Common Core, which began with conservative support but was abused by the left to impose its radical ideas.

Kurtz warned:

It doesn’t matter that federal law and the bill itself disclaim the authority to formally impose a curriculum on the states. The strings that Biden’s bureaucrats will attach to these massive federal grants will suffice to lure states into adopting CRT. The left-leaning bureaucrats who staff education departments even in red states already favor CRT (those bureaucrats will write the grant applications and divvy up the money). And Biden long ago signaled his intention to prioritize applications that promise CRT.

If CSDA passes this summer, as its sponsors hope, a Republican victory in the midterms will come too late to prevent the federal imposition of CRT. But what will happen when voters discover just months before the midterms that Republicans have betrayed them by using federal power to push CRT on the states? The Civics Secures Democracy Act is education madness and political suicide all wrapped up in one.

In an earlier article, Kurtz noted that Cornyn had first tried defending his bill against criticism that first emerged at Breitbart News. The problem, Kurtz wrote, was that the bill’s formal language against establishing a formal federal civics curriculum, left-wing activists could still do so: “The danger that I and others have long warned of in both Common Core and the present case is that of a de facto national curriculum, not a legally literal one.”

Kurtz has been writing about such problems for decades. In 2012, in his book Spreading the Wealth: How Obama is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities, Kurtz warned that then-President Barack Obama intended to use federal policy to reduce suburban self-government and redistribute resources from suburbs into the failing cities from which many residents had fled.

In that case, too, as Breitbart News noted at the time, Kurtz warned about the consequences of concentrating too much power in the federal government.

The use of the term “Russian disinformation” to dismiss legitimate criticism has been a familiar tactic of the left in recent years. It was used most infamously to deny the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s recovered laptop.

Last weekend, Sen. Cornyn was booed at the state convention of the Republican Party over his support for bipartisan gun control measures in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. These include “red flag” laws that theoretically allow guns to be taken away from people who are a danger to themselves and others. Critics suggest that such laws could be abused by political opponents — as Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), among others, has suggested critics’ guns be taken away.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/06/21/sen-john-cornyn-attacks-criticism-of-civics-bill-as-russian-disinformation/

Breitbart Business Digest: Kellogg’s Is Dying of Wokeness

John Carney21 Jun 2022

The Kellogg Company announced today that it was breaking itself up into three companies: a cereal business, a plant-based food business, and a snack business.

It’s hard to think of a starker admission of corporate failure. The company’s shares basically sat out the great bull market that ended recently. Shares peaked in April of 2016 just short of $82 and never came close again. Shares mostly traded below $70 over the next six years, sometimes much lower. At their trough in 2019, you could pick them up for less than $54 apiece.

The company now says that its basic structure is unworkable. The growingsnack business is, somehow, being weighed down by the stable, mature, and boring cereal business. There’s also the plant-based food business that does not seem to fit into either snacks or cereals. Certainly, the structure has been unable to produce returns for shareholders. Now management hopes that the parts might be worth more than the sum. Naturally, the chief executive is going with the growing snack business rather than staying with the cereal business that management helped destroy.

Kellogg did real damage to its brands—cereals such as Special K, Kellogg’s Raisin Bran, Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Rice Krispies, and Frosted Mini Wheats—when it decided to take sides in American politics by boycotting Breitbart. The company had long been suspected of basically beingcontrolled by the the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the far-left social justice operation that is its largest shareholder. Declaring that Breitbart—and by extension the entirety of center-right politics in American—did not conform to its values sealed this impression. Suddenly, Snap, Crackle, and Pop and Tony the Tiger were the self-declared opponents of ordinary Americans who preferred, say, Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton.

“Every time an American family picks up a box of Kellogg’s cereal at the grocery store, it is contributing to the wealthy radical leftwing foundation that agitates for open borders, supports George Soros’s Open Society Institute, and pushes a host of leftwing causes,” we wrote back in 2017.

Now that company is on its deathbed, its business model declared by its managers as untenable. Perhaps the emergent smaller descendants will be a bit less eager to act as aggressors in the culture wars.

Americans Are Not Buying the Putin Price Hikes

As recently as Monday, the White House was tweeting about “Putin’s prices hikes,” claiming they were the single biggest contributor to inflation. That is nonsense, of course. At most, the invasion of Ukraine likely contributed to higher oil, natural gas, and gasoline prices. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, however, tells us that inflation is up 6.6 on an annual basis excluding energy. What’s more, inflation was high and rising a year ago, long before Putin sent tanks into Ukraine.

To take a more concrete example, the price of ice cream is up 9.6 percent year over year. Whatever evils Putin has undertaken in Ukraine, surely they do not include cornering the market on American ice cream. Did Vlad drink all the coffee? Prices are up 15.6 percent. Is he secretly running America’s pet groomers? Pet services prices are up 7.4 percent.

A new poll from Rasmussen Reports shows that this attempt to blame inflation and gas prices on Putin has completely failed. Just 11 percent of Americans say Putin is responsible for high gas prices. Fifty-two percent blame Biden’s energy policies…

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2022/06/21/breitbart-business-digest-kelloggs-is-dying-of-wokeness/

Democrat Henry Cuellar Wins Texas Runoff Against Socialist Jessica Cisneros

Incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) won the Democrat nomination for Texas’s twenty-eighth Congressional District on Tuesday against socialist Jessica Cisneros following a recount for the primary runoff battle between the two, according to the Associated Press who called the race.

(A lot of recounts going on in the US elections, proving no one trusts the voting system)

Cuellar, a nine-term congressman, defeated Cisneros by 289 votes, according to their recount results. On the runoff’s May election night, Cuellar was only winning by fewer than 200 votes.

He picked up more votes in the recount. The Associated Press (AP) previously did not call the race for either side because of how close it was, even though the incumbent declared himself the winner on election night.

The 29-year-old Cisneros, who once interned for the incumbent, lost the challenge. Cuellar has a more moderate record, which appealed to Texas’s heavily Hispanic southern border district, and he has aligned himself with Republicans on some issues.

The AP previously noted this runoff could “offer clues” into how abortion rights may affect the midterm election. Before the runoff, Cuellar had come under attack as abortion rights groups poured money and resources into their campaign on the ground and the airwaves. Cuellar is one of the last pro-life Democrats.

The Associated Press noted:

This time Cisneros got even closer than in 2020, when she lost by 4 percentage points behind national support from the party’s progressive leaders, including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. They endorsed her again in the rematch along with abortion-rights groups that swooped into the race as the U.S. Supreme Court signaled it might overturn Roe v. Wade.

The incumbent’s campaign said Cuellar won the primary runoff battle and looked forward to representing the twenty-eighth Congressional District. However, he still has to get through the general election in November against Republican Cassy Garcia.

Following Republican Mayra Flores flipping the congressional seat in a special election last Tuesday in the thirty-fourth district, there is growing Republican confidence in South Texas, a longtime Democrat stronghold, to pick up more seats.

In a lengthy statement, Cuellar said:

As I said on election night. “the margin will hold”- and it has not only held but grown. After counting every vote across the 9 counties in the 28th district for a second time I have won this election by 290 votes, and I am proud to be your Democratic nominee for the 28th district were heard.

…

To those who did not vote for me, as your Congressman I will continue to work diligently for you in Washington. While we may differ on certain positions, we share a common ground on many issues to improve our communities and strengthen families.

I am an American, Texan, then a Democrat- in that order- and I will continue to fight for Texas values and not let coastal elites bring their failed agenda to our communities.

Cisneros accepted defeat after the AP called the race.

“With this close of a margin, it’s clear that without their aggressive interference in the lives of South Texas families, we would have won,” Cisneros said in a statement. “The biggest thing holding us back from pursuing the change we deserve is their fear. Fear of change, fear of the future. But the only way you defeat fear is with courage and determination that in the richest nation in the world, we all deserve to thrive.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/06/21/democrat-henry-cuellar-wins-texas-runoff-socialist-jessica-cisneros-expanding-lead/

WaPo Gloomy over the Texas Abortion Law Saving Twins: ‘Glimpse of What Much of the Country Would Face’

Texas’s six-week abortion ban, which went into effect last year, has saved lives, but the Washington Post chose to showcase one such instance in a gloomy light, featuring the story of a Lone Star State teen who found out she was pregnant two days before the law went into effect.

“Brooke Alexander turned off her breast pump at 6:04 p.m. and brought two fresh bottles of milk over to the bed, where her 3-month-old twins lay flat on their backs, red-faced and crying,” the Post began, giving a peek into the life of the 18-year-old who gave birth to twins Kendall and Olivia.

The Post explained that the teen discovered she was pregnant August 29, two days before the Texas heartbeat bill, which bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, became law. After discovering her pregnancy, she went to her best friend’s house where they discussed options, telling him that abortion could be on the table. However, her friend reminded her of the new law taking effect. A nearby abortion clinic reportedly had no openings before the law went into effect, and her remaining options were 13 hours away in New Mexico.

According to the Post, the abortion law has served as a “major inconvenience” for women, as they have to search for abortion clinics out of state (thats kind of the point WAPO, where babies die in darkness if you got your wish) to sidestep abortion restrictions in their home state. Not to mention, the outlet added, the rising price of gas.

However, she found a place, Pregnancy Center of the Coastal Bend, that performed an ultrasound to see how far along her pregnancy was. According to the Post, “she had no idea she’d walked into a facility designed to dissuade people from getting abortions.”

As it turned out, she was 12 weeks along with twins:

Brooke felt like she was floating above herself, watching the scene below. Her mom was calling the twins “my babies,” promising Brooke she would take care of everything, as the ultrasound technician told her how much she loved being a twin.

If she really tried, Brooke thought she could make it to New Mexico. Her older brother would probably lend her the money to get there. But she couldn’t stop staring at the pulsing yellow line on the ultrasound screen.

She wondered: If her babies had heartbeats, as these women said they did, was aborting them murder? Eventually, Arnholt [Angie Arnholt, a counselor at the pregnancy center] turned to Brooke and asked whether she’d be keeping them. Brooke heard herself saying “yes.”

“Who’s to say what I would have done if the law wasn’t in effect?” Brooke Alexander said. “I don’t want to think about it.”

“I can’t just really be free,” she added. “I guess that really sums it up. That’s a big thing that I really miss.”

She also ended up marrying her boyfriend, which might not have happened if she was able to easily abort her twins, completely altering her current reality.

The Post concluded that the story offers a “glimpse” into what women across the nation would face if, indeed, the Supreme Court overrules Roe v. Wade, framing the entire story with an air of uncertainty and gloom of what could have been, if not for the abortion law taking effect.

That could have, very possibly, changed Brooke’s mind and the outcome of having her babies.

Indeed, the Post’s story comes as the nation awaits the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade following a leaked draft opinion penned by Justice Samuel Alito overturning the landmark ruling, which would thereby put the decision in the hands of the states, each of which could make its own abortion laws.

Most Americans believe abortion should be “mostly” or “always” illegal, a Fox News poll released last month found. And according to an October study by the University of Texas at Austin, Lone Star State abortions declined by 50 percent in September compared to the prior year, after the law took effect, saving countless lives.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/06/21/wapo-gloomy-over-texas-abortion-law-saving-twins-glimpse-much-country-would-face/

Whitaker: ‘I’m Concerned that the Radical Left Is Going to Resort to Political Violence to Try to Make Their Voice Heard’

Trent Baker21 Jun 2022

Tuesday on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker voiced his concern with possible political violence coming from the “radical left” with some upcoming U.S. Supreme Court rulings looming.

Whitaker warned that with the makeup of the court and the pending cases that there could be violence “like we saw in the summer of 2020” so the radical left could “make their voice heard.”

“[F]irst of all, I’m concerned about this political violence when the Dobbs opinion does issue, which is the Mississippi abortion case. You know, there have already been threats in Washington, D.C. and other places that we are going to have more violence like we saw in summer of 2020,” Whitaker outlined. “But there’s a lot of important cases.”

He continued, “I think about Coach Kennedy’s case in his ability to pray after football games. I think about theWest Virginia EPA case, which could be a major development in putting the administrative state back into its … restrictions of the lawand making Congress specifically pass these major issues to address, you know, climate change as perceived by the left. And there’s so many other important cases, including the New York concealed carry case, that could come out. So, you know, there’s going to be a series of cases. I think the left, because of the makeup of the court, is going to be very disappointed in those outcomes, and I’m concerned that the radical left is going to resort to political violence to try to make their voice heard.” (They already have been violent)

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/06/21/whitaker-im-concerned-that-the-radical-left-is-going-to-resort-to-political-violence-to-try-to-make-their-voice-heard/