Tag Archives: #FreedomOfReligion

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Dictators gotta dictate! When state Governors get away with dictatorial actions once, they'll keep doing it until someone stops them

It is no surprise that those once drunk with power would again imbibe when there were no consequences for the previous drunken spells.

As we have previously noted, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) has gotten away with unconstitutional restrictions on people’s freedoms because the sheeple allowed him to do so. And now, proclaiming that COVID-19 is rising too fast, he is doing it again. From the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Gov. Andy Beshear unveils new coronavirus restrictions for Kentucky

By Grace Schneider and Emma Austin | November 18, 2020 | 4:19 PM EST | Updated: 4:42 PM EST

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced multiple new restrictions Wednesday as the state continues to see a surge in coronavirus cases, including:

  • All public and private K-12 schools will close to in-person instruction starting Monday through the end of the semester. The only exception is for elementary schools in counties outside the red zone, which may reopen on Dec. 7 if the school follows all guidelines.

Uhhh, since when does the state have authority over private schools?

Beginning on Friday and lasting until Dec. 13:

  • All restaurants and bars will close to indoor dining services. Outdoor dining is still allowed, with some limitations.
  • Gyms are limited to 33% capacity, and no group classes or indoor games are allowed. Masks are required.
  • Indoor gatherings should be limited to two families, not exceeding a total of eight people.
  • Attendance at wedding and funerals is limited to 25 people.

If the situation is so dire, I have to ask, why are gyms being allowed to open at all? After all, if dining inside a restaurant is too hazardous to be allowed, why isn’t working out inside a gymnasium?

Outdoor dining is still allowed, albeit with restrictions? The low for tonight in Lexington is forecast to drop to 36º F. While Friday, Saturday and Sunday have forecast highs in the low sixties, starting Monday it gets colder again, with daytime highs in the low fifties, and nightly lows in the thirties and, beginning Saturday the 28th, dropping below freezing. Might as well just close ’em down for everything other than take-out.

“Indoor gatherings should be limited to two families, not exceeding a total of eight people.” If the Governor is stating that gatherings should be limited, then he is simply exercising his freedom of speech to ask Kentuckians to do this. If there are some sort of executive orders mandating this, then they are in violation of our First Amendment rights of peaceable assembly.

And sorry, but weddings and funerals are (normally) religious events, and no Governor, no state, no President and no government at any level have the power to prohibit the free exercise of religion.

The General Assembly must, in its next session, this January, pass strict limits on the Governor’s emergency powers under KRS 39A. The Governor must never be allowed to attempt to restrict our constitutional rights, and in other emergency decrees must have his authority limited to only fourteen days without calling a special session of the state legislature to either pass laws to extend them, or revoke the orders.

The Governor, intoxicated with power as he is, had no intention of meeting with the legislature over his decrees:

Beshear was asked at Friday’s (July 10, 2020 — Editor) news conference on COVID-19 why he has not included the legislature in coming up with his orders. He said many state lawmakers refuse to wear masks and noted that 26 legislators in Mississippi have tested positive for the virus.

Translation: he did not believe the General Assembly would give him his way, so he was not going to allow them any say in the matter at all.[1]The state Constitution calls the legislature into session once a year, in January, for a limited time. The Governor may call a special session of the legislature at any time, but the legislature does … Continue reading

Fortunately, the 2020 elections expanded the already strong Republican control in the legislature; the GOP will have veto-proof margins in both houses of the General Assembly. But we really cannot simply wait for the legislature to act; Kentuckians need to protest now, to show the legislators that we are opposed to the Governor’s actions.
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Cross-posted on RedState.

References

References
↑1 The state Constitution calls the legislature into session once a year, in January, for a limited time. The Governor may call a special session of the legislature at any time, but the legislature does not have the authority to call itself into session.
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The Supreme Court cared nothing about our First Amendment rights . . . while Ruth Bader Ginsburg was still alive With her replacement by Amy Coney Barrett, perhaps our rights will now be respected

Is the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States controversial? Apparently to some of our friends on the left, it is. During a virtual event with the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention, Associate Justice Samuel Alito said:

For many today, religious liberty is not a cherished freedom. It’s often just an excuse for bigotry and can’t be tolerated, even when there is no evidence that anybody has been harmed. The question we face is whether our society will be inclusive enough to tolerate people with unpopular religious beliefs.

You can’t say that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. Until very recently, that’s what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now it’s considered bigotry.

Here’s the story from The New York Times:

In Unusually Political Speech, Alito Says Liberals Pose Threat to Liberties

The conservative justice’s pointed remarks, which he made in a speech to the Federalist Society, reflected thoughts he has expressed in his opinions.

By Adam Liptak | November 13, 2020

President Donald Trump, Justice Samuel Alito, and Senator Ted Cruz at te White House in 2019. Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — In an unusually caustic and politically tinged speech, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told a conservative legal group that liberals posed a growing threat to religious liberty and free speech.

The remarks, made at the Federalist Society’s annual convention Thursday night, mirrored statements Justice Alito has made in his judicial opinions, which have lately been marked by bitterness and grievance even as the court has been moving to the right. While Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has tried to signal that the Supreme Court is apolitical, Justice Alito’s comments sent a different message

Coming as they did just weeks after Justice Amy Coney Barrett succeeded Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, giving conservatives a 6 to 3 majority, the remarks alarmed some on the left. But legal experts said there were few clear lines governing what justices may say off the bench.

The left were never alarmed, of course, when Associate Justice Ruth Ginsburg criticized then-candidate Donald Trump, but that’s different, don’t you know?

Naturally, the left waxed wroth over Justice Alito’s remarks:

Uhhh, just because you don’t like what someone says does not make it illegal. The First Amendment specifies:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Back to the Times/’ article:

On Thursday, Justice Alito focused on the effects of the coronavirus, which he said “has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty.”

“I am not diminishing the severity of the virus’s threat to public health,” he said. “All that I’m saying is this, and I think that it is an indisputable statement of fact: We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020.”

Justice Alito was particularly critical of a ruling from the Supreme Court in July that rejected a Nevada church’s challenge to state restrictions on attendance at religious services.

The state treated houses of worship less favorably than it did casinos, he said. Casinos were limited to 50 percent of their fire-code capacities, while houses of worship were subject to a flat 50-person limit.

“Deciding whether to allow this disparate treatment should not have been a very tough call,” Justice Alito said. “Take a quick look at the Constitution. You will see the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment, which protects religious liberty. You will not find a craps clause, or a blackjack clause, or a slot machine clause.”

The ruling was decided by a 5-to-4 vote, with Justice Ginsburg in the majority. Her replacement by Justice Barrett may alter the balance on the court in similar cases, including a pending one from Brooklyn.

Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett (Photo by Olivier Douliery / AFP) (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

In Calvary Chapel, Dayton Valley v Steve Sisolak, Governor of Nevada, the Court’s four liberal Justices, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, denied injunctive relief, but did not issue an opinion. The four conservatives, Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Alito, strongly dissented. What Justice Alito stated at the Federalist Society’s meeting was essentially what he wrote in his dissent. In the upcoming case, Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v Andrew Cuomo, Justice Ginsburg has gone to her eternal reward, and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a devout Catholic, has replaced her. With the Brooklyn case, we can hope that the freedom of religion will once more be respected.

While no opinion was issued in Calvary Chapel v Sisolak, in a similar case, South Bay Pentecostal Church v Gavin Newsom, the Chief Justice wrote a concurring opinion, in which he simply deferred to the judgement of “local officials (who) are actively shaping their response to changing facts on the ground.” The fact that the free exercise of religion and the right of the people peaceably to assemble as they choose were of no moment to the Chief Justice.

I suspect that they will be of some moment to Justice Barrett.

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What would the left see as going too far?

I often wonder: among those who support the various state governors’ and city mayors’ actions curtailing our constitutional rights to fight the spread of COVID-19, is there any step they could take that they would consider a step too far?

  • A Louisville judge has ordered a man who has been exposed to — the article did not specify ‘tested positive for — COVID-19 be fitted with ankle monitors, the type used to track some criminals and sex offenders on parole, but who has refused to self-quarantine. Two other Louisville residents who live in homes with someone who has tested positive are under similar ankle monitoring, including one who tested negative.
  • Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) has had a hotline set up for informants neighbors to snitch on people non-compliant with his orders. Mr Beshear has also ordered that anyone entering the Commonwealth from neighboring states to self-quarantine for fourteen days, placed an armed deputy to enforce house arrest outside the home of a Nelson County man who tested positive but refused to self-quarantine, and ordered the state police to photograph license plates in church parking lots to see which parishioners are violating his orders suspending church services.
  • The state police in Pennsylvania are enforcing Governor Tom Wolf’s (D-PA) stay-at-home orders by citing a woman for ‘taking a drive’ for no ‘approved’ purpose.
  • The Philadelphia Police, whom the appropriately-named Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has ordered not to pursue petty crimes during the coronavirus emergency, pulled a man not wearing a mask off a SEPTA bus after he refused to debark.
  • Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City) has stated that “the city could shut down certain places of worship if people continued to violate the state’s stay-at-home mandates and continue congregating for religious services there,” and that if religious leaders to not obey his orders, city officials “will take additional action up to the point of fines and potentially closing the building permanently.”
  • Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ) stated that the police will break up any big parties and that the party-givers will be heavily fined.
  • Governor Gina Raimondo (D-RI) ordered the police to stop anyone with New York plates for questioning, and sent police and the National Guard “going door-to-door” in coastal communities, asking people if they’ve been to New York and requesting their contact information.
  • The sheriff of Wake County, North Carolina, ordered his department to stop processing background checks for new applications to purchase firearms.
  • Tarrant County, Texas, Commissioners, the majority of whom are Republicans, set fines and a jail term for up to 180 days for anyone who violates their emergency orders.
  • Mayor Jim Kenney (D-Philadelphia) issued ‘stay-at-home’ orders and banned “outdoor gatherings of any kind will be allowed unless they are related to essential businesses like food or medicine.”

These things are all violations of our First Amendment-guaranteed right of peaceable assembly and free exercise of religion, our Fourth Amendment-guaranteed right to be secure in body and property from government intrusion absent due process and a warrant, and our Fifth- and Fourteenth Amendment guarantees against deprivation of liberty and property absent due process of law.

Given that the majority seem to be cheering these authoritarian actions, these suspensions of our constitutional rights, because they are supposedly necessary, by elected state and municipal officials, I have to ask: just what would be a step too far even for the supporters of such actions?

  • An example: If someone said on social media, in response to Governor Beshear’s order that those entering the state must self-quarantine, “This is why we have the Second Amendment,” — note that I expressed that in terms which do not constitute a direct threat against anybody — would the left believe Mr Beshear went too far if he sent the state police to search the man’s house for weapons?
  • A nurse posted on Twitter that she quit her job because the hospital didn’t have enough Personal protective Equipment (PPE) and she was being exposed to COVID-19 patients, would the supporters say the governor of her state went too far if he said she could not resign and ordered her back to work?
  • If a state had too many people under self-quarantine orders to be able to enforce such against them, could the state then round up those people and place them in ‘camps’ where they could be monitored by guards?
  • If someone who had been exposed to the virus refused to be tested and refused to self-quarantine, could the state force him to be tested, and incarcerated until the test results came back, and keep him incarcerated or under house arrest for two weeks if the results came back positive?

Other scenarios could be constructed.

If we assume that those who support the actions of the various officials are intelligent people, concerned about our constitutional rights but believing that the protection of society somehow outweighs them, they must have some idea of what would be a step too far. I, for one, am interested in how such people think.

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COVID-19: It is our Constitution which is at the greatest risk of death

I have been critical of the illegal and unconstitutional actions some of our nation’s governors and mayors have taken during the COVID-19 crisis, who believe that they can use the COVID-19 emergency to violate the Constitution, but Mayor Bill deBlasio (NSDAP-New York City) takes first prize in the fascist authoritarian derby:

NYC may close churches, synagogues that don’t comply with coronavirus orders, de Blasio warns

By Vandana Rambaran | Fox News | May 29, 2020

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio warned Friday that the city could shut down certain places of worship if people continued to violate the state’s stay-at-home mandates and continue congregating for religious services there.

“A small number of religious communities, specific churches and specific synagogues are unfortunately not paying attention to this guidance even though it’s so widespread,” de Blasio, a Democrat, said at a news conference on the coronavirus outbreak.

City officials have continued to work rigorously to control the spread of COVID-19 as cases climbed over 1,000 on Sunday despite statewide closures of schools and non-essential businesses.

His Dishonor said:

No faith tradition endorses anything that endangers the members of that faith. So, the NYPD, Fire Department, Buildings Department, and everyone has been instructed that if they see worship services going on, they will go to the officials of that congregation, they’ll inform them they need to stop the services and disperse. If that does not happen, they will take additional action up to the point of fines and potentially closing the building permanently.

The First Amendment to the Constitution specifies:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The Fourteenth Amendment has been used by the Supreme Court to ‘incorporate’ the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, to include state and local government action. Yet His Dishonor would prohibit the free exercise of religion, the way that some others have attempted to abridge the right of the people peaceably to assemble.

These idiotic mayors, and Mr deBlasio is but one of those who believes he has the right to be an authoritarian dictator, need to be slapped down, slapped down hard. They think that they are saving lives, but what they are doing is killing our constitutional rights. If we surrender them, ‘temporarily,’ because it’s an ’emergency,’ who can know when the next ’emergency’ will see them surrendered again.

Apparently we have learned nothing from history, nothing. In 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg, at the urging of Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler, issued a decree suspending the freedom of speech and of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, and the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications. Warrants for house searches and orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property were also made less difficult to get, all because of the ’emergency’ of the Reichstag fire. Scream “Emergency, emergency!” and it seems that you can get anything passed, in 1933 Germany, and 2020 America.

It wasn’t long after, slightly less than a month actually, that the Reichstag and Reichsrat passed the Enabling Act, which allowed the cabinet, technically, but the Reichs Chancellor, in practice, to issue decrees which had the full force of parliamentary-passed law, making Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship legal and official.  In the United States, in 2020, we haven’t even taken that step, but are allowing governors and mayors to get away with ruling by decree, and they are doing so to almost universal praise by the very people on whose rights they are trampling.

It is incredible, really. The left have been screaming that President Trump is a fascist and a dictator ever since November 9, 2016, but they are meekly accepting dictatorial actions and authority by several Democratic governors and mayors. Sadly, a few Republican executives have done the same things.

Der Führer’s dictatorship was a popular one.  He took strong steps to fight the Depression, dramatically cutting unemployment (though workers’ rights were greatly curtailed), he ended what the people saw as the injustice of the Versailles Treaty, put on the spectacular show of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and incorporated Austria and part of Czechoslovakia into the Reich, all without war. Oh, certain people didn’t like it: homosexuals, Gypsies and, most of all, the Jews, but the vast majority of the public were not homosexuals or Gypsies or Jews, and much of the public helped the Nazi regime by pointing out who the ‘undesirables’ were.

And the authoritarianism of our mayors and governors seems to be popular here as well. There are 1,600+ responses to Governor Phil Purphy’s (NSDAP-NJ) tweet, in which he said,

NO CORONA PARTIES. They’re illegal, dangerous, and stupid. We will crash your party. You will pay a big fine. And we will name & shame you until EVERYONE gets this message into their heads,

and the vast majority were positive. It had 71,200+ “likes” on Twitter, and idiots like Vanessa Shives responding:

Dear @GovMurphy  why can’t you just arrest them so they have a criminal record that follows them for the rest of their lives?

In Kentucky, we have been treated to the spectacle of fawning adoration of Governor Andy Beshear (NSDAP-KY), who had ordered the virtual house arrest, enforced by armed guards, of a COVID-19 positive man who refused to self-quarantine.

Gun grabbers like Governor Murphy, Tom Wolf (NSDAP-PA) and John Carney (NSDAP-DE) included gun stores in their ‘non-essential’ business closure orders, trying to restrict people’s Second Amendment rights, though the latter two eventually backed off.

This will not end well. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, so many have surrendered essential liberty in the hopes of some temporary security from COVID-19. Dr Franklin was literally risking his life to sign the Declaration of Independence, while Americans today are mostly risking far less. While potentially deadly, most of those who do contract COVID-19 survive it, though uncomfortably for a couple of weeks.

The greater risk of death is to our constitutional rights, not because the Constitution has changed, but because so many have proven so willing to surrender their rights.

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COVID-19 is the New Reichstag Fire

Following the electoral victories of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei in 1932, and the parliamentary chaos that resulted from no able to form a majority government, General Kurt von Schleicher was replaced as Reichskanzler by Adolf Hitler, appointed by President Paul von Hindenburg on January 30, 1933. Reichskanzler Hitler quickly began accumulating power — the Chancellor’s position was actually rather weak under the Weimar Republic — and then, following the staged Reichstag fire, President von Hindenburg, on the urging of his Chancellor, issued the Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutz von Volk und Staat, the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State, which suspended many of the civil liberties of the German people. Since the positions of power in the government were held by the Nazis, this decree, along with the subsequent Ermächtigungsgesetz, the Enabling Act of 1933, enabled Reichskanzler Hitler to stifle individual liberties and rule by decree.

On the basis of Article 48 paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the German Reich, the following is ordered in defense against Communist state-endangering acts of violence:

§ 1. Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. It is therefore permissible to restrict the rights of personal freedom, freedom of expression, including the freedom of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications. Warrants for House searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.

This is all well known, so surely no free and democratic state would make take such actions again, right?

“Govern me, daddy”: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear a clean-cut sex symbol for the coronavirus age

People are now lusting after Kentucky’s “hot Mr. Rogers” because of his calm and empathetic leadership

by Erin Keane | March 21, 2020 | 6:54 PM EDT

Of all the wild turns 2020 could have taken, I doubt anyone had “Kentucky’s new governor becomes a sex symbol during the coronavirus crisis” on their bingo card, but here we are. Or rather, here we were until Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, 42, delivered a loving yet stern call-out during his press briefing Wednesday to defiant bingo halls that weren’t closing to enforce social distancing to reduce the spread of COVID-19. These updates, live-streamed daily at 5 p.m. Eastern time, have become must-see and -listen events for Kentuckians thanks to Beshear’s combo of trustworthy information, empathy, and uplifting we’re all in this together messages. “If you are a bingo parlor in Pike County, you ought to be closed by the end of today,” he said, with unmistakable concern in his eyes. “Those parlors cater to an older and more at-risk crowd.” Forget being brave enough to face the toilet paper-hoarding supermarket crowds, there’s a new benchmark for courage: Andy Beshear’s not scared of angering stir-crazy grandmothers in order to protect his people.

“Govern me, daddy,” cracked Natasha Collier of Lexington on a Reddit thread in response to Beshear’s decisive leadership. When I reached out to ask her about her post, Collier told me that was her response to “a lesbian friend of mine who said that she was starting to develop a crush” on Gov. Beshear too. They’re not alone; just in my social circle I’ve noticed Andy Thirst where before none existed. Turns out competence and empathy, perhaps, are the biggest turn-ons.

Erin Keane is the Editor in Chief for Salon, the very liberal e-zine for which Amanda Marcotte writes, which lets you know just how kooky-left the place is. Mrs Keane grew up in the Bluegrass State, so I suppose it isn’t surprising that she would have paid additional attention to the Commonwealth’s Governor, but her article is truly fawning.

Plenty of the love for Beshear is fatherly or platonic, of course. A Facebook group, “andy beshear memes for social distancing teens,” has become a go-to repository for images comparing Beshear to everything from the Mandalorian (babysitting Kentuckians, represented by Baby Yoda) to Disney’s “The Lion King” father Mufasa (Kentuckians are Simba, of course). He’s cast as Jason Momoa tackling Henry Cavill standing in for a bingo parlor. By decree of the admins, the memes are supposed to be wholesome, and mostly they are. Nevertheless, innuendo persists. In one post, “SNL” star Pete Davidson is cast as Andy Beshear with Kentuckians represented by Ariana Grande, licking a lollipop and looking up at him in unfiltered lust; an image of Jeff Goldblum suggests that while Beshear is focused on keeping Kentuckians safe, some constituents wish he would, um, sexually choke them at the same time.

Yeah, “sexually choke” is probably the right description, because, like so many other Democratic — and sadly, a few Republican — Governors out there are trampling on the civil liberties of the public. As we have previously noted, Mr Beshear has placed a 53-year-old Nelson County man into what amounts to house arrest, forcing a COVID-19 positive individual who refuses to self-isolate to remain in his home, with an armed guard outside to prevent him from leaving. This was done without any due process of law, without any day in court for the man, and the left are cheering this!

What will the armed deputy do if this man decides to leave his home? Will he shoot him?

The Fourteenth Amendment states, in part:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Yet the Commonwealth of Kentucky, led by Führer und Reichskanzler Beshear, are using existing state law to deny this man his liberty, without any due process of law, ans Salon’s Editor in Chief is apparently getting sexually excited over it. Should we have to remind Americans that the German people were getting very, very excited and happy over Reichskanzler Hitler’s strong and decisive actions during the Depression? Mrs Keane seems to be absolutely gushing about Mr Beshear “sexually chok(ing)” his fans . . . and other Kentuckians as well.

Of course, it’s not only in Kentucky where governors are simply suspending civil rights to fight COVID-19. Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) is doing similar things, ordering all ‘non-essential’ businesses to close down, including the possibility of imprisonment for failure to comply.

Today’s left just love some strong leadership, and that it tramples upon our civil rights, well they don’t care about that, not as long as the leadership is being shown by a Democrat, and not that evil fascist dictator Donald Trump! Mrs Keane is right there, her right arm raised in salute, shouting “Seig heil!” right along with the rest of the crowd.