Never before has our government been more eager and willing to take away freedoms from the citizenry. Mayor Bryce Hamblin of Eagar, Arizona
Fear is building over a perceived viral threat that created a 100-year pandemic. But there is a much more serious political pandemic playing out, set up to lockdown freedom for everyone.
From state governors to prime ministers, the lockdown of nations is happening in coordinated lockstep. Yet, in America, there is no Constitutional protection that has ever afforded a governor in any state the right to suspend civil liberties on the “threat” of a thing. For more detail on what governors can or cannot do, see Let Them Be Held Accountable.
Behind the political narrative, more than 1,300 state and federal lawsuits have been filed over COVID-19, including 240 dealing with civil rights, according to Hunton Andrews Kurth, a law firm tracking the cases. For example, In May, Wisconsin Supreme Court blocked Governor Evers’ stay-home extension. Then on July 1, a Racine, Wisconsin judge ruled that the city’s coronavirus safety ordinance was too broad for citizens to understand and violated the state’s constitution. Separately, the law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty is considering a lawsuit that seeks to to rein in the governor’s partial veto powers.
If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed. – Thomas Jefferson
Image by Lothar Dietrich
If Americans, and other nations, are to retain their rights, they must remember that freedom must be defended against tyrants, both foreign and domestic. There are no mandates in a free society. There is always the freedom to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Several law-savvy people are speaking up. While counties and municipalities in Arizona are making mask-wearing mandatory, the Mayor of Eager, Arizona has released a statement declaring their city will not join the lunacy and tyranny. Here is the a portion of the mayor’s speech. See entire speech here.
As grim as Covid19 is portrayed under the most drastic scenario, I dare say that we are facing a much more serious pandemic here in America. We are currently in the midst of the nation’s first political pandemic. Never before in the history of America has ignorance and bigotry been more celebrated. Never before has our government been more eager and willing to take away freedoms from the citizenry. Never before has the citizenry been more willing to give them up. Benjamin Franklin warned that “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety”. I believe his warning is as applicable today as it ever was. Some will say that these safety measures have not impacted individual liberty. To them I would quip Thomas Jefferson: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” The right to move about freely in public is one of the cornerstones of American democracy. In a panicked frenzy, created by the media, state and local governments trampled that right wholesale. History will not judge us kindly for our actions over the past several months.
In closing, where would America be if our ancestors that pioneered the countryside, facing a mortality rate that would make the coronavirus look like a scratch, had simply given up, turned back, or laid down and died out of fear? Where would America be if its brave service men and women, who throughout history have on occasion faced odds of almost certain death, simply refused to fight out of fear? When did we stop being the land of the free and the home of the brave? Take charge of your own life. Nobody owes you anything. The government has never been more ill equipped to solve your problems nor is it its function to do so. This is America! Stand up and be somebody! Be brave and live free. – Mayor Bryce Hamblin of Eagar, Arizona
Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery – Miles Davis
Judge Andrew Napolitano, a judicial analyst, declared on June 29th that federal and state governments “do not have the authority” to mandate the wearing of face masks.
The federal government certainly can’t do it because the federal government is not charged with public health or public safety. That is an area that is reserved by the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution for the states.
The federal government could compel wearing masks on federal property. A military facility, the post office, government buildings, and the state government could compel wearing masks on state property. The DMV, state colleges, things like that. But on property that the government doesn’t own, the feds have no authority to compel wearing a mask, and the states can only compel it when people are sick.
Federal money to States often convince States to adopt mandates, but in that case, Napolitano says:
The answer again is no. If a person is known to be contagious, the state could require that person to be quarantined or wear a mask, but anything short of that, the state cannot interfere with that person’s freedom of movement or freedom to wear or not to wear a mask, so the government’s authority is really rather limited here no matter how aggressive the pandemic may become.
Image by PublicDomainPictures
Napolitano said that “force of public opinion” could do “what the law cannot do” if the vast majority of people in an area shame those not wearing masks. “But in terms of police stopping you on the street or giving you a summons or a court imposing a fine, absolutely not,” he concluded. “First of all, these mayors and gubernatorial edicts are just suggestions. They are not the law.”
The power is with the people who are aware and cognizant of their rights. Only and informed and fearless people can consent, or not consent, to mandates. As the mayor of Eagar, AZ reminds us at this critical time, “This is America! Stand up and be somebody! Be brave and live free.”
Ignorance is always afraid of change. – Jawaharlal Nehru
