Tom McHale

Current SCOTUS case could chip away at religious discrimination

Oral arguments were made last week in a Supreme Court case about equitable treatment of tax dollars for private schools. The case was brought by Kendra Espinoza, a Montana single mother struggling to keep her children in better (private) schools and thwarted by a state rule banning tax credit scholarships. This article by friend Star Parker summarizes immediate and broader issues in play, in particular for minority parents in districts with failing schools. We anticipate an outcome in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue that upholds religious and education freedom.

Tom McHale2020-02-05T21:46:49-05:00Categories: Front Page, News|Tags: Montana, Private Schools, School Choice, Supreme Court, Tax Credit Scholarships|

The liberal plan to use government to punish faith-based schooling

Liberal progressives love to swing the axe of government tyranny over individual choice—particularly against people of faith. Anti-faith bias is flourishing amidst Democrat presidential candidates. Senator Elizabeth Warren has decided that if she becomes president, she will give herself the right to pick which private schools receive federal subsidies and which private school donors are allowed deductions. She has a simple calculation—if your school teaches “traditional family values” you are excluded. Liberals like Ms. Warren yell “separation of church and state!” while using government to punish church.

Tom McHale2020-02-05T21:41:59-05:00Categories: Front Page, News|Tags: Elizabeth Warren, Faith Based Schools, Federal Subsidies, Private Schools, School Choice|

NM sheriffs raise red flag on red flag laws

New Mexico Sheriffs Association members take their oath to uphold the rule of law seriously. Last year they halted state red flag legislation. They plan on doing the same this year, as their spokesperson noted, “This bill violates (the Constitution) and due process. It violates the 4th Amendment and 5th Amendment without (the accused) committing a criminal act.” They will refuse to enforce red flag warrants. Without law enforcement officers like these, liberal legislators would have full reign to restrict our rights.

Tom McHale2020-02-05T21:36:59-05:00Categories: Front Page, News|Tags: gun control, gun rights, New Mexico, red flag laws, Second Amendment|

ACRU Editorial: Bloomberg’s Big Money Shenanigans in Virginia

Writing for RealClearPolicy, ACRU/ACRU Action Fund Senior Fellow Kerri Toloczko identifies Virginia’s 2019 elections as the canary in the liberal coal mine for the November 2020 elections. Michael Bloomberg spent $2.5 million to turn the state blue by instilling fear in voters about lawful gun ownership—and it worked. Kerri notes that liberals are looking to turn the majority of state governments and the White House blue, and Virginia is now pushing an armful of leftist bills through the legislature after their win. Going forward, their VA plan deserves careful scrutiny.

Tom McHale2020-02-05T21:24:57-05:00Categories: ACRU Commentary, Front Page, News, OPED|Tags: Michael Bloomberg, virginia, voter influence|

Winning the ID Derby

Last week a bill with enhanced voter integrity provisions passed the GOP-led Kentucky Senate and is now at the state House, where it is likely to pass. Kentucky Democrats are saying two things about the law that make no sense to say at the same time —there is not enough voter fraud to require a photo ID law, and photo ID laws suppress votes (“suppress” is right up there with “purge.”) The new rule has flexibility—even an expired photo ID can be used. No one is sure whether Democrat Governor Andy Beshear will sign the bill as he has been more concerned with restoring voting rights to felons since his inauguration last month.

Tom McHale2020-01-28T11:37:10-05:00Categories: Front Page, News|Tags: Election Integrity, Kentucky, Photo ID, Voter Fraud, Voter ID|

Driving is not a free pass for voting

It is apparently a surprise to Illinois election officials that when you automatically register a person to vote when they get a driver’s license—regardless of citizenship status—they might just (illegally) vote. Nearly 600 non-citizens showed up in the most recent review of Illinois 2018 votes. We love this quote from Secretary of State Henry Haupt: “A technological programming error did not properly remove the (foreign national) individuals. The individuals who are applying for driver’s licenses were inadvertently pooled into the automatic voter registration.” Did we mention that Illinois is one of fifteen (blue) states that allows illegal immigrants to receive drivers licenses? “Programming error?” “Inadvertently?” Hardly. Read State [...]

Tom McHale2020-01-28T11:32:55-05:00Categories: Front Page, News|Tags: Election Integrity, Illinois, Voter Fraud, Voter ID, voter registration|

Purge this

Progressive activists love to use scary words to persuade people that good is really bad and lawful is unfair. Nothing is more true than their use of “purge” as a disingenuous euphemism for clearing voter rolls of illegal or deceased voters, or those who have moved. The Brennan Center for Justice is a left leaning advocacy group openly funded by George Soros. Their recent short analysis uses “purge” 20 times in discussing states’ efforts to comply with NVRA mandated guidelines on removing the dead, illegal or relocated from rolls where they shouldn’t be in the first place. It appears the leftists at Brennan don’t want any voters removed from anywhere, demonstrating a tacit acknowledgment that non-legitimate voters are inclined to vote for progressive candidates that Soros and the Brennan Center favors.

Tom McHale2020-01-28T11:28:29-05:00Categories: Front Page, News|Tags: Election Integrity, George Soros, Voter ID, Voter Rolls|

Redistricting; reapportionment, we can’t call the whole thing off

If you sometimes are befuddled by the intersection of the census, redistricting and reapportionment—what each means, how they all talk to each other—don’t feel bad; it is confusing. This article uses Pennsylvania as a demonstration of what census numbers mean for redistricting (“how areas will be divided into districts based on the number of seats a state has”) and reapportionment (“the process of deciding how many seats a state will have in the House of Representatives based on changes in population.”) Things that don’t need explanation: census collection will be infiltrated by liberal activists looking to skew Congressional districts in their favor.

Tom McHale2020-01-28T11:24:15-05:00Categories: Front Page, News|Tags: census, Election Integrity, gerrymandering, redistricting, Voter Fraud|

Hypocrisy of the anti-voter ID crowd

Russia! They altered votes! They interfered! They elected Republicans! They moved my cheese! Although the ridiculous Russian collusion hoax has fallen into the lake of fire where it belongs, progressive activists, media and politicians could not have harped on it more in 2017 and 2018. And yet, as ACRU Issue Expert Christian Adams points out, domestic voter fraud is just fine with liberals. He notes that voter ID is supported by around 80% of Americans. So, liberal friends, if our voting programs are being targeted by the Russians … why don’t you want to make sure legal votes are protected?

Tom McHale2020-01-28T11:19:09-05:00Categories: Front Page, News|Tags: Election fraud, Election Integrity, Russian meddling, Voter Fraud, Voter ID|

Double double, fraud and trouble

Thanks to ACRU Policy Board Member Hans von Spakovsky and Kaitlynn Samalis-Aldrich, a researcher at the Meese Center (founded by ACRU Board Member Ed Meese,) for doubling up on this great article about double voting. Listing numerous recent, demonstrable cases of double voting in several states, they note in particular a history of double voting in Ohio, a state where 56 elections between 2013 - 2017 resulted in a tie vote and 86 were decided by only one vote. There are a lot of cases of double voting that we know about —how many do we not? Voter ID matters. Matching your face to your name to your ballot is a simple fix and the only reason we can think anyone would be against it would be to encourage cheating.

Tom McHale2020-01-28T11:15:30-05:00Categories: Front Page, News|Tags: double voting, Election fraud, Election Integrity, illegal voting, Voter Fraud, Voter ID|

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