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Supreme Court declines to hear religious liberty case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday narrowly rejected an appeal over whether a private pharmacy can be forced by the state to dispense the so-called "morning after" pill, in effect refusing to expand its look into a religious liberty fight and certain reproductive health services.
At issue is a 2005 Washington state order that a family-owned pharmacy in Olympia provide so-called emergency Plan B contraception -- including morning-after and week-after pills -- that the business owners equate to abortion, in violation of their closely-held religious beliefs.
While the official vote total was not released, at least three justices dissented on the decision not to intervene. Justice Samuel Alito strongly dissented, saying the signal from the court was clear: “Violate your sincerely held religious beliefs or get out of the pharmacy business.”
“If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern,” he wrote. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas would also have granted the case for review.
The pharmacists say, as a proposed accommodation, when a customer asks for one of these drugs, they would be referred to one of more than 30 pharmacies within a five-mile radius that willingly offer these drugs.
Washington officials say their law -- similar to ones in eight other states -- ensures patient access to the medication, regardless of an individual pharmacist's personal beliefs.
The justices earlier punted on a separate but related issue over the federal ObamaCare health coverage law.
In that case a group of religious nonprofits -- including a Catholic charity run by nuns -- sought an exemption to a mandate in the Affordable Care Act to pay for, or indirectly allow, birth control and other reproductive health coverage in their employee health plans.
The high court threw the case back to the lower courts for further review without deciding the larger legal and constitutional questions.
The Washington state case had been pending at the Supreme Court for several months.
The case is Stormans v. Wiesman (15-862).

Obama administration pressed to deport illegal immigrant ex-cons

More than 2,000 illegal immigrants were turned loose on American streets after serving prison sentences last year - often because their home countries refused to take them back - and many subsequently committed crimes including rape and murder, a key lawmaker charged Monday.
The claim, by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, comes a week after a federal audit blamed the Department of Homeland Security and an uncooperative Haiti for an illegal immigrant being freed to kill a Connecticut woman.
Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on the Obama administration to put renewed pressure on countries that won’t take back their own criminals after they have been ticketed for deportation.
“Dangerous criminals, including murderers, are being released every day because their home countries will not cooperate in taking them back,” Grassley wrote in a June 27 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
“Many times, these individuals have criminal histories in addition to entering the country illegally or overstaying their visa.”
Illegal immigrants convicted of crimes typically must serve all or part of their prison sentences in the U.S., and then are sent home under diplomatic agreements between the U.S. and other countries.

When Haiti refused to admit Jacques, ICE was forced to free him under a 2001 Supreme Court ruling.

In 2015, said Grassley, some 2,166 individuals were released in the United States and not deported either because their countries would not readmit them or the U.S. government did not even try. In the two preceding years, more than 6,100 inmates slated for deportation were released within the U.S., Grassley said.
Some 23 countries are labeled as uncooperative, with the five worst being Cuba, China, Somalia, India, and Ghana, and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is monitoring another 62 nations where cooperation is strained, Grassley said.
“This is a serious problem that has been festering for years, but is getting worse as countries realize that they can get away with just refusing to accept back their citizens who are criminals,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of Policy Studies for the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies.
“What is equally frustrating is that the Obama administration has continuously refused to use the tools that Congress has provided and the leverage that we have with many of the recalcitrant countries, even as the roster of victims from these criminal aliens grows longer every month.”
There are a number of horrific cases involving victims of criminal aliens, Vaughan noted, including one highlighted by The Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General last week. That report examined the circumstances that led to the murder of 25-year-old Casey Chadwick by Haitian national Jean Jacques, and found the agency’s overwhelmed Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau should have booted Jacques from the U.S. prior to the killing.
In Jacques’ case, Haiti denied his entry three times when Immigration and Customs Enforcement tried to deport him, claiming there was no proof he was a Haitian citizen.
Haiti refused to allow U.S. officials to obtain his birth certificate, and a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision limits how long immigration officials can detain people without deporting them. Jacques, who was held for a total of 205 days, was released.
A second high-profile case highlighted by both Grassley and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., demonstrates the Obama administration’s failure to deport criminal illegal immigrants to cooperative nations. It occurred June 13, when Johnny Josue Sanchez allegedly murdered five people in Los Angeles by intentionally setting fire to the building where they were sleeping.
Border Patrol agents had apprehended Sanchez, a Honduras citizen in the U.S. illegally, in November 2012, and transferred him to the custody of ICE, but he was released a week later after ICE noted Sanchez did not have a criminal history or previous immigration violation.
Since entering the country, Sanchez has been arrested on multiple charges, including in January 2016 for domestic violence, and again in May and June 2016 just days before the murders, but ICE did not detain him or place him in removal proceedings, Grassley and Goodlatte said. Sanchez has been charged with five counts of murder and could be sentenced to the death penalty.
Asked for comment by FoxNews.com, ICE Western Regional Communications Director/Spokesperson Virginia Kice said, ”Following his arrest by local authorities earlier this week, ICE conducted a follow-up review of Mr. Sanchez’s case. The review showed that, for unknown reasons, Mr. Sanchez was never placed in immigration proceedings, although the others arrested with him were. ICE’s inquiry into to matter is continuing.”
“These are preventable, needless crimes that American communities should not have to put up with,” Vaughan said.
One of the worst offending countries is Cuba. More than 35,000 Cubans, including 28,000 who are convicted criminals, have been ordered deported but remain on U.S. soil, a higher number of non-departed criminals than any other country except for Mexico, according to Vaughan.
She suggested that DHA could work with the State Department, which could withhold visas for offending countries until they cooperated.
Keeping illegal immigrants who have already committed violent crimes puts Americans at unnecessary risk, said Claude Arnold, retired special agent in charge for ICE's Los Angeles bureau of Homeland Security Investigations, who also was a deportation officer handling a high volume of criminal alien cases involving countries that did not want to take back their citizens.
“We have enough problems with our own criminals. We should not have to hold on to criminals from other countries indefinitely,” Arnold said.
Grassley said Congress addressed this problem when it amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to require the Secretary of State to discontinue granting visas to a country upon receiving notice from the Department of Homeland Security that the country has denied or is unreasonably delaying accepting a citizen, subject, national or resident of that country.
“This tool has been used only once, in the case of Guyana in 2001, where it had an immediate effect, resulting in obtaining cooperation from Guyana within two months,” Grassley said. 
Grassley told Johnson he wants answers as to why the DHS is not using the sanctions authority to get full cooperation, saying he is frustrated with the “inadequacy” of the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to persuade recalcitrant countries to cooperate.
“Lives are being lost, the public’s safety is at risk, and American families are suffering,” Grassley said. “It cannot continue.”
“Although the majority of the countries in the world adhere to their international obligation to accept the timely return of their citizens, ICE has confronted unique challenges with those countries that systematically refuse or delay the repatriation of their nationals,” ICE spokesperson Jennifer Elzea told FoxNews.com.
“Despite ICE’s continued efforts, a number of factors constrain ICE’s ability to improve the level of repatriations to those nations. Such factors include: limited diplomatic relations with some countries; the countries’ own internal bureaucratic processes, which foreign governments at times rely upon in order to delay the repatriation process; and foreign governments that simply do not view repatriation as a priority.”

Clinton claims House Benghazi report ‘found nothing,’ says time to ‘move on’

New report contradicts Clinton's assertions about Benghazi

Hillary Clinton claimed Tuesday that the final report issued by the House Republican investigation into the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi terror attack — in which Clinton is accused of knowingly misleading the American public —  “had found nothing,” and that it’s time to “move on.”
The report released Tuesday morning pointedly blamed a “rusty bureaucratic process” for the Obama administration’s slow-moving response the night of the attack. The report said that despite orders from President Obama and then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to deploy assets in response to the attack on the compound to aid Ambassador Chris Stevens, his staff and security personnel, the first military force did not do so until more than 13 hours after the attack started.
Nonetheless, Clinton and her allies worked to sweep aside the committee’s damning, 800-page report, attempting to cast the investigation as nothing more than a political exercise.
“I understand that after more than two years and $7 million dollars spent by the Benghazi committee, out of taxpayer funds, it had to today report it had found nothing, nothing to contradict” prior findings, said Clinton, who was campaigning in Denver.
In Washington, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest echoed her remarks.
“There’s only one remaining question, and it’s simply this: is the RNC going to disclose the in-kind contribution that they have received from House Republicans today,” he said, claiming the investigation was meant to “tear down Secretary Clinton’s poll numbers.”

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Republican committee members — let by Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. — insisted their work was not political.
“Read the report,” Gowdy repeatedly said.
“You can read this report in less time than our fellow citizens were taking fire and fighting for their lives on the rooftops and in the streets of Benghazi,” he also said in a written statement.
Meanwhile, accusations were flying on both sides of the aisle as the document became an inevitable political football on the 2016 field.
The Republican Party said the report demonstrates a "politically-motivated cover up" by Clinton and the administration.
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, did not immediately respond to the report -- but later weighed in on Twitter.
"Benghazi is just anotherHillary Clinton failure. It just never seems to work the way it's supposed to with Clinton," he tweeted.

Clinton and her campaign dismissed the document outright.
"The Republicans on the House Benghazi Committee are finishing their work in the same, partisan way that we've seen from them since the beginning,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said in a written statement. “In refusing to issue its report on a bipartisan basis, the Committee is breaking from the precedent set by other Congressional inquiries into the Benghazi attacks.”
The report faulted the Obama administration for a range of missteps before, during and after the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya that led to the deaths of Stevens, foreign service officer Sean Smith and former Navy SEALs Ty Woods and Glen Doherty.
The report said one anti-terrorism security team known as the FAST unit sat waiting for three hours in Rota, Spain, as Marines changed “in and out of their uniforms four times,” and even debated whether they should carry personal weapons, according to one witness. All together, the report said, “it would take nearly 18 hours” for that team to move.
The report described a web of internal debates and hold-ups, including apparent State Department guidance that “Libya must agree to any deployment,” though Panetta would later say Libya approval was not necessary.
And while various officials debated how to proceed — and U.S. personnel were under attack at two sites in Benghazi — the report said Clinton and other officials were occupied with pushing a narrative that an anti-Islam YouTube video was the reason for the attack, a claim the administration later retracted.
The report also said Clinton told the Egyptian prime minster they knew the attack had nothing to do with the film and was a planned attack – despite statements being made by her and others referencing the video.
At the press conference, Gowdy and other GOP lawmakers lamented that none of the assets placed on the ready by Obama and Paneta were ordered to Benghazi.
“Nothing was ever coming to Benghazi,” Gowdy said.
Lawmakers contrasted the "heroism" of those on the ground with the discussions in Washington. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., described the D.C. attitude as "near fecklessness." He said, "They were more concerned about how they’re going to offend the Libyan government than how this rescue is going to take place.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus blamed Clinton outright, saying she was “in charge, knew the risks and did nothing.”
“Together the report’s findings make clear we cannot afford to let Hillary Clinton be our next commander-in-chief,” he said. Appearing on MSNBC, Gowdy said Democrats “will be shocked when they read the report, if they do bother to read the report.”
The report also showed:

• During a White House meeting convened roughly three hours into the attack, “much of the conversation focused on the video.”
• The forces that came to evacuate State Department and CIA officers that night were not fellow Americans, but a secret unit of former military officers from the Qaddafi regime, which the Obama administration had helped overthrow. 
• “Security deficiencies plagued the Benghazi Mission compound in the lead-up to September 2012.” 
• Panetta told the committee “an intelligence failure” occurred, while former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell also acknowledged an intelligence failure.

Special Forces soldier denied Medal of Honor suggests system may be 'broken'

A Green Beret credited with fighting off Taliban attackers in Afghanistan spoke out Monday in his first interview since the Army denied his commanders' recommendation for a Medal of Honor, awarding him a Silver Star instead.
"I kind of have a lot of trust in the system, but if somebody says it’s broken, maybe it is," Staff Sgt. Earl D. Plumlee told The Washington Post. "But I'm always leery of decisions like this getting reversed."
He said senior commanders in Afghanistan -- including Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- wrote that he deserved the Medal of Honor, but the Army's Senior Decorations Board recommended the Silver Star, an award considered two levels lower. Army Secretary John McHugh approved the Silver Star.
Plumlee rushed to the site of a car bombing outside a coalition military base in central Afghanistan in the summer of 2013, the Post reported. As many as 10 armed Taliban attackers reportedly tried storming Forward Operating Base Ghazni through a damaged wall. At least one attacker detonated a suicide vest.
Troops including Plumlee returned fire. One soldier died and other troops were injured, the newspaper added. Plumlee said he later helped the wounded receive medical aid.
Other troops received Silver Stars, including a posthumous award for Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis, who died in the attack.
Plumlee said some of his friends had a "bitter" reaction to hearing that the Army opted to give him the Silver Star instead of the Medal of Honor. “I think there are plenty of Medal of Honor recipients out there whose actions surpassed mine. But I think a downgrade to the Distinguished Service Cross wouldn’t have got everyone stirred up."
The Distinguished Service Cross is one level below the Medal of Honor. It was unclear why the Army's leadership did not select that award for Plumlee, the Post added.