We are beginning to see some Judges rule against State COVID-19 lock-down orders. We have seen Judges rule against the Wisconsin stay-at-home order, Massachusetts’ gun shop closures, and Kentucky’s in-person Church service ban and now we can add Oregon to the list.
According to this story a county Judge has ruled parts of Governor Kate Brown’s stay-at-home order, including a ban on in-person worship services, is null and void. Here is more:
A Baker County judge on Monday ruled that Gov. Kate Brown’s restrictions on religious gatherings as well as her other “Stay Home Save Lives” coronavirus orders are “null and void” because they exceed a 28-day limit.
Circuit Judge Matthew B. Shirtcliff granted a preliminary injunction to 10 churches that had sued the governor, finding they had shown “irreparable harm” from the deprivation of the right to freely exercise their religions.
“The governor’s orders are not required for public safety when plaintiffs can continue to utilize social distancing and safety protocols at larger gatherings involving spiritual worship,” he ruled.
He found that the churches can take necessary social distancing precautions, just as grocery stores and other essential businesses have done. He also ruled that the injunction was in the public’s interest, allowing people the right to freely worship and the ability to restore economic viability.
“This court understands that the current pandemic creates an unprecedented crisis in the state as well as in our country,” Shirtcliff said, speaking from the bench in a video conference hearing.
He said he must weigh the governor’s public health concerns against the constitutional right of freedom of worship, but he found that “the balance of equities tips in favor of Plaintiffs.”
“Plaintiffs have shown that they will be harmed by deprivation of the constitutional right to freely exercise their religion. Other plaintiffs have also shown great economic harm to their businesses and their ability to seek livelihood,” the judge said.
This was only a county Judge and the ruling has already been appealed to the State Supreme Court however if it is true that the law only allows the Governor’s order to last 28 days before needing legislative approval it seems likely the Supreme Court will have to uphold this decision, although it seems to hinge on if the higher court will decide the public safety is at risk.
As this Judge points out as long as the Churches and the small businesses adhere to the social conditioning guidelines other entities which were allowed to stay open are following there is no reason they also cannot open.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
When the COVID-19 crisis first hit the scene various States began locking down their citizens with 14 day stay-at-home orders, eventually the orders were expanded several times and in most places they are still in effect today–two months later.
People were willing to give up their rights for 14 days because we were told there was a 14 incubation period and all would be well after that, but then the goal posts moved and we had to stay at home until the curve was flattened, and on and on we go. But now the nicer weather is getting here and people are finally getting upset that they still have no freedom. (I also like to think they are a little embarrassed at having been so willing to give up their freedom so easily.)
The tables began turning a couple of weeks ago with some isolated protests but the momentum has been growing and we are seeing reports of people flocking to the beaches and to bars in New York and now a city in California has declared itself a “sanctuary city” for refugees of the State stay-at-home order. Here is more:
The rural Central Valley city of Atwater has declared itself a “sanctuary city” for businesses and churches that want to reopen in defiance of the California shelter-in-place policy aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
The City Council heard from a parade of business owners, pastors and residents on Friday who described pandemic-related hardships. Many insisted they could be responsible and keep the community safe by following safe practices like wearing face masks and keeping social distance.
“If they don’t open up, they’re going to be in a really bad state, and we’re going to have bankruptcies and foreclosures and we’re just going to have families that are decimated financially,” said Chamber of Commerce President Don Borgwardt
Like many rural areas, however, Atwater — which has nearly 30,000 residents — is frustrated with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s phased reopening schedule, with the job losses that have accompanied the weeks of closures of nonessential businesses. Council members applauded those who pressed for reopening, and without discussion voted unanimously to approve the resolution “affirming the city’s commitment to fundamental constitutional rights and declaring the city of Atwater a sanctuary city for all businesses.” Council members said the measure also pplied to churches.
You will notice they will still be following all the social conditioning guidelines but it is going to be interesting to see how Gavin Newsom responds to this, it could get very ugly real quickly.
The news coming out of two of the liberal bastions in the nation–New York and California–is a good sign for all freedom loving Americans who have been worried about the authoritarian orders and how willing the people were to lie supinely on their backs and take it.
These totalitarian governors were testing the limits to see how far they could push the people before they began to fight back and it looks like we might be reaching the breaking point, it is two months later than it should have been but maybe we are turning the corner.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Sunday, May 17th open thread: ‘Shut Up! Be Happy’
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
Here is this week’s open thread. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
You can subscribe to America’s Watchtower to receive email updates and you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right.
This week I bring you the intro to Ice-T’s album which was entitled “Freedom Speech…Just Watch What You Say.” This song is called “Shut Up! Be Happy” with Jello Biafra on vocals. This song was a warning and as you listen to it remember it was written over 30 years ago.
New York Democrats call for outside investigation of Andrew Cuomo’s COVID-19 nursing home Executive Order
The man whom some Democrats thought might be a suitable replacement for Joe Biden at a brokered convention because of his handling of COVID-19 in his State is now embroiled in a burgeoning scandal because of his handling of COVID-19 in his State.
Of course I am talking about Andrew Cuomo, the man the media has held up as the example of how Donald Trump should have responded to the COVID-19 outbreak. In case you do not know, and if you watch the mainstream media you probably do not know, Andrew Cuomo signed an Executive Order in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak which prevented nursing homes from testing people returning or being admitted to nursing homes from hospitals to be tested for COVID-19 before they were admitted to the homes.
Seniors are among the most vulnerable and they are a high risk group for COVID-19 so this decision made no sense, naturally COVID-19 spread throughout the nursing homes and to date 5,300 nursing home residents have died of the virus in New York.
Now there is growing outcry from New York Republicans and Democrats for an outside investigation into what went wrong. Here is more:
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo finds himself engulfed in scandal as a growing number of Democrats join state Republicans in demanding an independent investigation into his controversial policies and how questionable actions may might have contributed to the catastrophic outbreak of coronavirus in New York nursing homes.
More details have emerged in recent days raising major questions about potentially fatal decisions made under Cuomo’s watch as the death toll in New York’s nursing homes swells to over 5300 and continues to climb.
Last week, New York suddenly disclosed more than 1,700 previously unreported deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities. An Associate Press tally put the number of nursing home virus deaths at over 5300. Elderly care fatalities in New York have reportedly been on the rise by an average of 20 to 25 deaths per day for several weeks.
“It’s fine to have the Health Department and the attorney general looking at what individual nursing homes are doing. But there needs to be a professional review of not only the industry as a whole but what the Department of Health has been doing, both leading up to this situation and in the midst of this situation,” said New York Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, a Democrat. “Certainly, it would be wrong for the Department of Health to be charged with examining itself.”
“The attorney general should bring in outside counsel,” said Gottfried.
State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a Democrat from the Bronx, said the State Legislature should investigate.
“I strongly believe that the Legislature is one of the key entities that should look into this issue, which has devastated so many families across our state,” said Rivera, chairman of the Senate Health Committee. “It is imperative to hold public hearings as soon as possible to get to the bottom of what truly happened at our state’s nursing homes as the COVID-19 pandemic developed.”
You would think that in the middle of a pandemic where senior citizens are the highest risk group that you would test people before they are allowed to be admitted into a nursing home, but not only did Andrew Cuomo stop nursing homes from providing this potentially life-saving test he also shielded the nursing home from lawsuits which might arise in the wake of his deadly Executive Order. He had to have known how dangerous this order would turn out to be and he issued it anyway because he had no idea what to do.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
The battle between authoritarian governors and people who long for simple freedoms which were once guaranteed by the Constitution is starting to heat up. There are currently hundreds of COVID-19 lawsuits making their way through the various court systems and we are starting to get some decisions and they are coming down on the side of freedom.
First a court ruled Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker had to allow gun shops to open, and then a court ruled Kentucky’s ban on in-person church services was unconstitutional, and now the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Governor Tony Evers’ stay-at-home order. Here is more:
The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers’ coronavirus stay-at-home order Wednesday, ruling that his administration overstepped its authority when it extended it for another month without consulting legislators.
The 4-3 ruling essentially reopens the state, lifting caps on the size of gatherings, allowing people to travel as they please and allowing shuttered businesses to reopen, including bars and restaurants.
The decision let stand language that had closed schools, however, and local governments can still impose their own health restrictions.
Chief Justice Patience Roggensack wrote for the majority that health secretary Andrea Palm’s order amounted to an emergency rule that she doesn’t have the power to create on her own.
“Rule-making exists precisely to ensure that kind of controlling, subjective judgement asserted by one unelected official, Palm, is not imposed in Wisconsin,” Roggensack, part of the court’s 5-2 conservative majority, wrote.
It will be interesting to see how the cities and towns will react to this decision because according to the article the decision will allow them to implement the same restrictions at the local level, but this is still a pretty big victory and I hope this will lead to more totalitarian State restrictions being ruled unconstitutional all across this once free nation.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Despite the exoneration of Michael Flynn with the news the Department of Justice will no longer pursue charges against him because the FBI tried to set him up, it looks like the saga is not quite over for him just yet.
According to this story the Judge presiding over the case wants to give more time for somebody, anybody, to come forward with information they can use against Michael Flynn. Here is more:
D.C. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan issued an order Tuesday indicating he’ll soon accept “amicus curiae,” or “friend of the court” submissions, in the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn — drawing immediate scrutiny and a planned ethics complaint against Sullivan, who had previously refused to hear amicus briefs in the case.
Sullivan’s order indicated that an upcoming scheduling order would clarify the parameters of who specifically could submit the amicus briefs, which are submissions by non-parties that claim an interest in the case. Sullivan specifically said he anticipated that “individuals and organizations” will file briefs “for the benefit of the court,” as he prepares to rule on the government’s motion to dismiss the case.
“Judge Sullivan, who denied leave to file amicus briefs when he knew third parties would have spoken favorably of Flynn, now solicits briefs critical of Flynn,” independent journalist Michael Cernovich wrote on Twitter Tuesday evening. “This is a violation of the judicial oath and applicable ethical rules. We will be filing a complaint against Sullivan. … [He] is acting as a politician, not a judge.”
The people who have an “interest in the case” would be Barack Obama, Joe Biden, the FBI, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and anybody else who participated in the spying on and framing of an American citizen in the attempts to take down a President, they all have a vested interest in keeping Michael Flynn from ever talking, by any means necessary…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
We have seen some downright scary stories out there about tracking American citizens in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as authoritarian governors begin to flex their muscles while the people just lie supinely on their backs and take it.
Most of the stories revolve around cellphone tracking but New York is talking about creating a “tracing army” of thousands of people and New Jersey is already using drones to enforce social conditioning distancing.
Now Kentucky, which just lost a court decision on banning in-person church services, is getting in on the act. According to this story some COVID-19 patients are being forced to wear ankle bracelets as if they are common criminals. Here is more:
Kentucky is taking severe measures to ensure residents exposed to the coronavirus stay at home. Louisville residents who have been in contact with coronavirus patients but refuse to isolate themselves are being made to wear ankle bracelets.
Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Angela Bisig ordered the Department of Corrections to fit D.L. with a global positioning device for the next 14 days. If D.L. leaves the house again, he or she could be criminally charged, WDRB reports.
D.L. is not the only Louisville resident ordered to wear ankle monitors to contain the spread of the coronavirus. According to WDRB, there are three other known cases so far. Two other people who live in the same home — one who has tested positive, and the other who has not — were ordered to remain in their home last week after both refused to stay isolated.
And another man was put under house arrest after he went out shopping despite having tested positive for the coronavirus, according to WDRB.
This is getting out of control, the states are pushing us to see how much we are willing to take and by and large the American people are failing this test. It is time to say enough is enough because this is only the beginning, the more the American people take the more they are going to push the limits.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
We are beginning to see literally hundreds of lawsuits against the various usurpation of our rights by the State governments starting to make their way through the court system. Just how far are these authoritarian governors allowed to go during a time of a self-proclaimed state of emergency? That is what we are going to find out.
People are growing weary and are beginning to ask questions, they are beginning to awaken from their states induced comas, and the tide might finally be turning. Recently a Federal Judge ruled that Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker overstepped his bounds when he declared gun stores to be non-essential businesses and shuttered them with the swipe of a pen, and now a Federal Court ruled that Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s ban on in-person Church services during the COVID-19 outbreak is unconstitutional. Here is more:
A federal court halted the Kentucky governor’s temporary ban on mass gatherings from applying to in-person religious services, clearing the way for Sunday church services.
U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove on Friday issued a temporary restraining order enjoining Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration from enforcing the ban on mass gatherings at “any in-person religious service which adheres to applicable social distancing and hygiene guidelines.”
Did you ever think we would see a day in America when a court would have to remind the government that it cannot ban Church services? You will note that Churches still have to adhere to social distancing guidelines, you know the same guidelines Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, and others follow because they were allowed to stay open.
The ruling from the Eastern District of Kentucky sided with the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Nicholasville, but applies to all places of worship around the commonwealth.
The federal judge’s order in the Tabernacle Baptist Church case said Beshear had “an honest motive” in wanting to safeguard Kentuckians’ health and lives, but didn’t provide “a compelling reason for using his authority to limit a citizen’s right to freely exercise something we value greatly — the right of every American to follow their conscience on matters related to religion.”
“The Constitution will endure. It would be easy to put it on the shelf in times like this, to be pulled down and dusted off when more convenient,” Van Tatenhove’s opinion read. “But that is not our tradition. Its enduring quality requires that it be respected even when it is hard.”
I believe this is a just and responsible decision, the Church can reopen following the guidelines big businesses have been following all along and people who feel safe can attend while people who do not can stay home and watch the streaming services.
This is another step in the right direction, slowly but surely we seem to be turning a corner, but we still hear this talk about a “new normal” and that has me worried.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Sunday, May 10th open thread: ‘Assassin’
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
Here is this week’s open thread. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
You can subscribe to America’s Watchtower to receive email updates and you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right.
Here is Muse performing “Assassin” live in 2015:
While shutting down businesses and depriving people of their ability to earn a living during the COVID-19 pandemic many States have declared that gun shops are non-essential businesses and have ordered them to close.
Massachusetts was one of the States which ordered gun shops to close but today a Federal Judge ruled that gun shops can reopen in the Bay State, here is more:
A federal judge on Thursday ordered that gun shops across Massachusetts can reopen this weekend, ruling that Governor Charlie Baker’s decision to shutter them along with thousands of other “nonessential” businesses infringed on people’s Second Amendment rights.
The decision from US District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock marked a rare rebuke of Baker and the broad emergency powers he’s wielded to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, during which he’s also shut down school buildings and required millions of people to wear face coverings if they can’t distance themselves from others.
But Woodlock said Baker’s inclusion of firearm retailers among those businesses ordered to close — and his lack of a public explanation for why — created an “improper burden.”
“There’s no justification here,” Woodlock said during a two-hour virtual hearing, arguing he doesn’t see a fit “between the goals of the emergency declared by the Commonwealth and the burdening of the constitutional rights of the defendants in this narrow area.”
“I have enough information to say, in this very small corner of this emergency, we don’t surrender our constitutional rights,” the judge said. “These plaintiffs . . . have constitutional rights that deserve respect and vindication. And it becomes necessary for a court to do that.”
This is a major victory for the second amendment and our Constitutional rights, however I would say a whole slew of our rights have been violated and I would like to see more challenges in the courts, but I digress.
The NRA already has lawsuits pending in California and New York over the same issue and this should be an indication that the NRA is going to win those cases as well. If so the three States which are most hostile to the Second Amendment will all suffer humiliating defeats in their attempts to use this crisis to thwart the Second Amendment.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
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