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Breaking: Anti-Gay Marriage ‘Religious Freedom’ Bill Bobby Jindal Pushed Is Defeated In Committee

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Another “religious freedom” bill, this time in Louisiana, is now all but dead despite Gov. Bobby Jindal’s efforts to pass it.

Last month, as he delivered a speech opening this year’s session of the Louisiana state legislature, Governor Bobby Jindal focused on three issues: balancing the state’s budget without raising taxes, improving education in Louisiana by killing Common Core, and passing a sweeping anti-gay “religious freedom” bill labeled worse than Indiana’s.

“There is a nationwide push by the far left to weaken the First Amendment to the Constitution,” Jindal charged. “We either believe in religious liberty or we don’t. In Louisiana, I believe we do,” he touted, as NCRM reported. 

“Let me be crystal clear – I absolutely intend to fight for the passage of this legislation,” Jindal said of HB 707, “and any other that seeks to preserve our most fundamental freedoms.”

“And here in Louisiana, as long as I’m your Governor, we will protect religious liberty and not apologize for it.”

Minutes ago, the Louisiana House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure voted 10-2 against HB 707, the Louisiana Marriage And Conscience Act.

“Bills that run the risk of legalizing discrimination, even inadvertently, undermine the core American value of religious freedom and turn neighbor against neighbor,” Equality Louisiana President Baylor Boyd said in a statement. “We’ve said all along that this bill does not reflect the Louisiana we know and love, and today’s vote confirms that.” 

HRC notes that representatives from “Marriott Hotels, the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Greater New Orleans Inc. testified today against HB 707.”

UPDATE: Breaking: Bobby Jindal Issuing Executive Order To ‘Accomplish The Intent’ Of Failed Anti-Gay Bill

ThinkProgress earlier had reported that the bill “seeks to explicitly cement discrimination against same-sex couples.”

“This state shall not take an adverse action against a person, wholly or partially,” the bill reads, “on the basis that such person acts in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman.” According to this language, the bill only protects those who have a belief against same-sex marriage, essentially endorsing one set of religious beliefs over others.

 

Image by Derek Bridges via Flickr and a CC license

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‘This Is a Big Deal’: Top Hegseth Advisor ‘Escorted’ Out of the Pentagon Amid Leak Probe

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A top advisor to U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly was escorted out of the Pentagon after being identified in a leak investigation into an “unauthorized disclosure.”

Reuters, which exclusively reported the development, named the advisor as Dan Caldwell and stated that he has been placed on administrative leave.

Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin added that Caldwell is being “investigated for ‘unauthorized disclosure’ of classified information.”

Reuters noted that a “March 21 memo signed by Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, requested an investigation into ‘recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications.'”

READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene to Constituents: ‘Sit and Listen’ at Town Hall or Be ‘Thrown Out’

“Kasper’s memo left open the possibility of a polygraph, although it was unclear if Caldwell was subjected to one.”

Meanwhile, Military.com’s Pentagon reporter Konstantin Toropin provides more context.

Caldwell was a low key but vital official,” he wrote, noting that Secretary Hegseth “said he was the best point of contact for the National Security Council in the Signalgate chat regarding the strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.”

Experts are weighing in.

Maybe overdue accountability is finally starting after SignalGate. Dan Caldwell is well-known in Washington as the former head of Hegseth’s former partisan political group, Concerned Veterans of America,” wrote Paul Rieckhoff, a veteran and veterans’ activist. “He also has loved to troll me on this platform over the years. A lapse of discipline or judgement would not be surprising. They are not just radical. They are sloppy and incompetent. That puts our national security at risk. And has our enemies celebrating.”

“This is a big deal,” adds Eric Bianco, Reuters National security correspondent focusing on intelligence. “Caldwell was integral to the Pentagon/admin’s Ukraine policy, especially when it came to discussions around continued military support for Kyiv.”

Developing…

READ MORE: Trump Agenda Mirrors Founders’ Grievances Against ‘Mad King’: Legal Experts

 

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Marjorie Taylor Greene to Constituents: ‘Sit and Listen’ at Town Hall or Be ‘Thrown Out’

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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has declared her Tuesday night town hall is for constituents only, who must submit questions only in advance, must sign up, and then “sit and listen.” The Georgia Republican declared protesters, whom she alleged would only be “paid” Democrats, will be ejected.

In a social media video, Congresswoman Greene stated, “this is a town hall that’s strictly for constituents. That means you have to live in my district, and you had to sign up on the sign up link. That’s important. Make sure you bring your ID, as we will be verifying that you actually live in the district and have signed up to be in the town hall.”

Greene, under scrutiny over recent stock purchases she allegedly made, is holding the town hall in a county Vice President Kamala Harris carried in November by 15 percentage points, according to Fox News. The GOP Congresswoman established additional rules, namely, no protesting—despite First Amendment protections.

READ MORE: Trump Agenda Mirrors Founders’ Grievances Against ‘Mad King’: Legal Experts

“Also, this is important for everyone attending the town hall,” she said. “You need to understand this is not a place to protest. This isn’t a place to stand up and scream and yell. This is a place to sit and listen, and we have your questions if you signed up.”

Then she served up “one word of warning for you: If you’re planning to act up scream and protest, you’re going to be thrown out. And that’s the way it goes. We know how the Democrat Party is organizing and funding these protests for Republican town halls, all across America. And I’m just going to tell you, I don’t tolerate it.”

“America voted for President Trump, they voted for Republicans to be in charge of Congress and the Senate, and they voted to put America first, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” she concluded

Speaking to Fox News, Greene added she expects her constituents to “behave well. And we expect them to be, you know, respectful.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Call It What It Is’: Trump’s Latest Moves Are ‘Full Blown Fascism’ Experts Warn

 

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Trump Agenda Mirrors Founders’ Grievances Against ‘Mad King’: Legal Experts

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President Donald Trump’s key signature policies—the ones that will define his second administration’s early and perhaps entire tenure—echo the very abuses America’s founders listed in the Declaration of Independence as grievances against King George III, legal experts are warning.

“On Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, let’s recall the grievances he wrote in the Declaration of Independence against the abuses of the Mad King,” wrote George Mason University Professor of Economics Alex Tabarrok on Sunday.

“For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world”

“For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent”

“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury”

“For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences”

“Sound familiar?” he asked. “Makes me angry. Should make you angry too.”

READ MORE: ‘Call It What It Is’: Trump’s Latest Moves Are ‘Full Blown Fascism’ Experts Warn

Similarly, attorney Tristan Snell, who successfully prosecuted the $25 million Trump University case for the State of New York, wrote that Trump is “literally re-creating the list of grievances from the Declaration of Independence.”

Tabarrok, Snell, and others, including retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, who served as Commanding General of United States Army Europe, have all listed several of those grievances that they suggest apply to today’s Trump administration.

“One of the complaints that we had in the Declaration of Independence, at the beginning of the American Revolution was that King George was sending criminals to faraway prisons,” Georgetown Law Professor Steve Vladeck told CNN Tuesday morning (video below). “It’s almost like history doesn’t repeat but it rhymes.”

“There’s no legal authority to send a U.S. citizen to serve a U.S. criminal sentence in a foreign prison,” he continued, saying that “it would be pretty striking if there was, because that would mean any of us could be effectively ‘disappeared’ into a prison with no U.S. legal constraints, with no potential human rights limits.”

Those last two grievances in the list were underscored on Monday, when President Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele—appearing to act in a pre-arranged, tag-team fashion in the Oval Office—framed the situation as if returning a U.S. legal resident, whom American courts had explicitly barred the government from deporting, was now impossible. The individual, 38-year old Kilmar Abrego Garcia, had been sent to a Salvadoran maximum-security prison reserved for terrorists, in what legal experts suggest is a direct defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S Senator Chris Murphy, one of the most outspoken anti-Trumpism activists, explained the situation.

“Bone chilling,” the Connecticut Democrat begins. “A court ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia to stay in the United States. The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that he was illegally removed. Trump is pretending he won the ruling 9-0. You may not think this case means anything to you. But let me tell you why it does.”

Indeed, Trump and his White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, Stephen Miller, falsely claimed the Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion, ordering the administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia to the U.S., was in their favor.

RELATED: ‘Dystopian’: Miller Makes ‘Outrageous’ Claim as El Salvador Refuses to Return US Resident

“Abrego Garcia came to the U.S. over 10 years ago. He married a U.S. citizen and has three U.S. citizen children,” Murphy continues. “He denies any gang affiliation.”

Trump and Bukele both said or suggested he is a terrorist, of which they have provided no evidence.

“You can think whatever you want about the merits of him staying (his U.S. family, his steady job) or being deported (the alleged gang affiliation), there’s really only one key fact: A court ruled he CANNOT be deported to El Salvador bc he would face threat of death there,” Murphy continued. ” In the United States, the executive is REQUIRED to follow a court ruling. Trump did not. He put Abrego Garcia on a plane to El Salvador. And worse, despite no allegation of criminal behavior, Abrego Garcia was put in a heinous El Salvador prison.”

He charges Trump’s team with being “engaged in nuclear grade gaslighting.”

“They say it’s up to El Salvador if they want to send him back. Bullshit. We bring people back all the time when we wrongfully remove them. They could get this guy in a hot second if they wanted to.”

“You may not think this case matters to you. But Abrego Garcia was legally in the U.S., just like all the rest of us. His status as an immigrant doesn’t matter as a matter of law. If Trump can lock up or remove ANYONE – no matter what the courts say – we are all at grave risk.”

Senator Murphy warns: “This is a watershed moment, as Trump thumbs his nose at a Supreme Court ruling, gaslighting the public by pretending his won 9-0 when he lost 9-0. If we normalize this, there’s no end. He can lock up or remove anyone. We will no longer exist in a democracy.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump Rages Against Critics, All But Silent on Alleged Terror Attack on Dem Governor

 

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