Here’s a 24-minute short documentary covering what we saw and what we learned. In short, one can cross to Canada with only a driver’s license and despite what the US federal government claims, you don’t need a passport to cross back into the US, but they might hassle you. Also, Derby Line, VT and Stanstead, Quebec have been hurt economically by the border-tightening that happened around 2007. Derby Line’s commercial property is nearly completely empty, and several homes are on the market for sale. Stanstead is in somewhat better shape.
Who would want to live where most of the cars on the streets are Border Patrol vehicles? That’s life in the ghost town of Derby Line, a microcosm of what will happen to the United States if the borders continue to tighten – freedom and the economy will suffer.
Hoping to overturn the illegal, discriminatory town ordinance, Lilley and MacKinnon teamed up with Free State Project early mover and attorney Dan Hynes.
Hynes’ line of questioning was interesting, specifically asking the state’s witnesses, which included three snitches and a few cops, how they determine someone is a woman. The all answered something about breasts, which is inconclusive. Without inspecting genitalia, which the police did not do, there would be reasonable doubt that the person is female.
Hynes argued, in a ten-page motion to dismiss (complimented by jovial Judge James M. Carroll) the ordinance is unconstitutional and violates equal protection and the right to free expression. Further, he argues the ordinance is also illegal because New Hampshire is not a “home rule” state and unless the state legislature authorizes towns to pass laws of their own, they cannot legally do so.
Now, in just over a week’s time, the percentage is up to 91%! That’s 200 signers (from 18,000 to 18,200) in 1/3 the time it took for the previous 1% (about a month).
If you’ve been thinking about signing up, why wait any longer? You don’t want to be in the second batch of 20k, do you? Take a moment to join the Free State Project! Once we reach 20,000 signers, the official move begins in which you have five years to make the move to NH, so start planning now. See you in the Shire!
The last time we heard about how many taxpayer dollars the city of Keene has spent on their frivolous lawsuit to try to crush the rights of Keene’s Robin Hooders, it was December of 2013, the year they filed the suits against us.
Keene’s Robin Hooders were feeding expired parking meters in relative obscurity until the city filed its suit in May of 2013. That suit blew up into a huge storm of publicity, making Keene’s government the laughingstock of the world.
Attorney Charles Bauer is getting very rich from taxpayer dollars.
Determined not to show any good sense, the city gang continued to lavish tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on failure after failure in this case. They hired the go-to law firm for all NH municipalities, “Gallagher, Callahan, and Gartrell” (the same firm that lost the Gericke case, which upheld the right to record police). Hey, it’s not like it’s the city’s money – they stole it from Keene’s productive class – the people.
Now the case is going back to the NH supreme court on appeal, but mayor Lane claims the law firm is going to cut them a break on this appeal and do it pro-bono. How generous of Bauer’s firm! (Robin Hood attorney Jon Meyer has been pro-bono from day one.)
Now, mainstream media is picking up the news via an AP story (apparently sourced from NH’s Valley News) that is popping up in places like the Washington Post, FOX News, and dozens more outlets nationwide.
With two months to go and other speakers to be announced, the 2016 Liberty Forum is looking like it will be an amazing event.
2016 is also the year that the FSP will reach its goal of 20,000 people pledged to move to New Hampshire to work toward more liberty. The only question is when. Just this weekend, the Free State Project crossed 90% of its goal. In order to push to the goal faster, they’ve launched a fundraising campaign to buy facebook ads. Here’s the pitch video produced by Free Keene blogger JJ Schlessinger:
After ten years of service, Shire Free Church minister Mark Edge is leaving the airwaves of Free Talk Live, where he spent eighteen hours per week on-air creating entertaining radio with a variety of co-hosts and callers.
Now, he’ll no longer be behind a microphone on Free Talk Live and will be spending an indefinite period of time with his family each night. He is leaving it in listeners’ hands to decide when he can return to the show.
