Free Republic

The governors of all 50 states and the mayors of many large cities have assumed unto themselves the powers to restrict private personal choices and lawful public behavior in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19. They have done so not by enforcing previously existing legislation but by crafting their own executive orders, styling those orders as if they were laws, using state and local police to enforce those so-called laws and – presumably when life returns to normal and the courts reopen – prosecuting the alleged offenders in court. It is hard to believe that any judge in...

Archbishop Viganò: Dictatorships arise because not enough voices oppose them The Archbishop responds to a Rabbi who was ‘shocked’ about his Appeal warning against one-world government May 26, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has responded to a German Rabbi, Jehoschua Ahrens, who called the Viganò Appeal concerning the corona crisis and its dangers for constitutional liberties a “shock,” adding that he is glad that the German bishops have distanced themselves from it.  The Italian prelate defended issuing the May 7 appeal, stating: “I think it is the duty of each one of us to express our concerns about...

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. — Friedrich NietzscheCriminal terrorists attacked us on 9/11, and nations of the world united to treat us all like criminals and turn the fun and exciting world of air travel into an experience redolent of herding livestock to market. Nineteen years later, a virus outbreak happens, and governments of the world — upon advice of the experts — treat us like infected patients, demanding we quarantine ourselves and cease all economic and social activities. Is this the first time democratic governments have quarantined...

Tucker Carlson opened Tuesday's edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" by ripping the mainstream media for shaming Americans who spent part of their holiday weekend outside and not wearing masks. "Grilling a hamburger in the fresh air. Hitting the park. Walking the beach for a couple of hours. It's essential. All of us need it," Carlson said. "Nature is medicine. Happy, balanced people understand that intuitively and don't just sit on a couch all day barking at other people on social media. Your soul will rot if you do that." "Unfortunately, it's too late for a lot of people at CNN...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Baker County Judge Matthew Shirtcliff announced Tuesday that he will not vacate his injunction that made Oregon Gov. Kate Brown's stay-at-home orders temporarily "null and void." The Oregon Supreme Court issued an alternative writ of mandamus Saturday, which said that Shirtcliff had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to either vacate the injunction or explain why it should remain in place. Since Shirtcliff chose to stand by his original ruling, the state must file a brief with the Oregon Supreme Court by Thursday, May 28 and the plaintiffs must file briefs by Tuesday, June 2. Shirtcliff's decision tossed out...

The owner of a Lehigh County gym who opened Sunday in defiance of the shutdown of non-life-sustaining businesses received two summary citations, making it the first Lehigh Valley business cited during the coronavirus pandemic. Ed G. Frack opened his gym, SuperSets in Hanover Township, and encouraged other struggling small-business owners and anyone who supported them to join him outside the gym.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The FBI has been called to investigate after a man died Monday night in south Minneapolis after an encounter with police. In a statement early Tuesday, police described what happened as a medical incident. However, a video posted on social media shows an officer kneeing a man’s neck to the ground for several minutes. Before he goes unconscious, the man, who is black, repeatedly tells officers he can’t breathe. At a press conference Tuesday morning, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey alluded to the graphic footage, saying: “I believe what I saw, and what I saw was wrong at...

“I’m never going to apologize for the fact that because there was a vacuum of leadership at the federal level, we had to take action to save people here in Michigan,” Ms. Whitmer said in an interview for “Axios on HBO” that was published this week. Ms. Whitmer recently extended her state’s stay-at-home order to June 12 even as some restrictions in certain parts of Michigan have been relaxed. . . . “There’s a slim part of the population that is showing up at the capital with their assault rifles and their Confederate flags and Nazi symbolism. But you know...

That mask isn't virtuous, nor is it going to keep you from catching the virus. Plus, various other things. It’s time to say a few things which need to be said — and to irritate some people who need to be irritated (as they are surely irritating). And on with the show… 1. Enough with the Mask-Nazi nonsense. Those of us who refuse to live our lives in fear, or to bow to those who do, have a message for the rest of you — the time has come and gone for us to continue with this idiotic charade of...

A federal appeals court has backed California Gov. Gavin Newsom's stay-at-home order banning in-church services to blunt the spread of coronavirus, rejecting an argument from clerics that the governor is treading on their First Amendment right to free exercise of their religious beliefs.

On Sunday, Chicago’s first openly gay mayor, Lori Lightfoot, mounted a raid on a black South Side church for holding services in defiance of her coronavirus lockdown orders. Lightfoot reportedly sent three marked squad cars and two unmarked cars full of officers to the Chicago Cornerstone Baptist Church in the South Side’s Woodlawn neighborhood. Woodlawn is just south of Hyde Park, the area in which the Obamas lived for a short time before Barack became president. Who’s growing tired of this lunacy?https://t.co/LXfabUIdBB — Prov356🇺🇸 (@cujo_14) May 24, 2020 The pastor of the mostly black congregation, Courtney Lewis, reportedly shut and...

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The Oregon Supreme Court on Saturday issued a deadline to the Baker County judge who this week granted a preliminary injunction nullifying Oregon governor’s emergency coronavirus orders: Either throw out the injunction by 5 p.m. Tuesday or explain why he should not do so.

A day at the beach at Coney Island has been a traditional start of summer for many New Yorkers for many decades. However, Mayor Bill de Blasio is determined to ensure that "this year will be different. I know a lot of our residents are itching to get outside into the sunshine. But I'm here to remind everyone that the pandemic is still with us. I will continue to dictate what is and isn't permitted until I decide whether it is safe to go outside." De Blasio was unmoved by evidence showing that the coronavirus is vulnerable to the ultraviolet...

This video got me very angry and upset. If you don't know who Nick Koumalatsos is, he's one bad ass Marine, who was in Marine Corp Special Operations as a Raider, he served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.... Search for his name with google and youtube he's been on many podcasts with other special operators about their wartime experiences. Now out of the military he opened a gym in North Carolina and recently had a very bad experience with the local police. In the video Nick Koumalatsos posted, someone else posted his encounter with the local police on the...

The Capri Drive-in Theater in Branch County, Michigan, was packed on Friday evening, as moviegoers flocked in defiance of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order The Capri opened for business Friday night, just hours after governor Whitmer held a press conference slamming businesses in Michigan defying her orders. Despite Whitmer’s executive orders for people to shelter in place, and for all “non-essential” businesses to remain closed, The Capri opened, and vehicles — roughly a quarter mile long — lined up to get into the drive-in theater on Friday evening. Magocs said that they have made changes to The Capri in an...

“If you’d told me six months ago that the governor of Illinois would declare churches ‘nonessential’ and shut them down, while liquor stores are ‘essential’ and open, I’d have asked what blend of weed you were smoking,” Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society told me. The ministry serves the homeless. State and local social welfare agencies refer ex-convicts and others in dire circumstances to the ministry. The Jesus House had been offering food and clothing and church services indoors. But with coronavirus, and wanting to maintain proper social distancing, Brown took his operation to a private outdoor parking lot....

In a scathing nine-page decision, Lake County Common Pleas Judge Eugene A. Lucci excoriated Acton and her health department for exceeding their authority, saying the director “has no statutory authority to close all businesses, including the plaintiffs’ gyms.” Acton, the judge said, “has acted in an impermissibly arbitrary, and oppressive manner and without any procedural safeguards.” Judge Lucci went on to say that fundamental liberties—the right to own and use property and earn a living—are at stake in this case. Acton has “criminalized lawful businesses, imposing strict liability for violations, including severe criminal, civil, and equitable penalties,” the judge opined,...

Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed another Executive Order extending Michigan’s stay-home order until June 12. “While the data shows that we are making progress, we are not out of the woods yet. If we’re going to lower the chance of a second wave and continue to protect our neighbors and loved ones from the spread of this virus, we must continue to do our part by staying safer at home,” said Governor Whitmer. “If we open too soon, thousands more could die and our hospitals will get overwhelmed. While we finally have more protective equipment like masks, we can’t run...

DOJ has filed a Statement of Interest in an Illinois case challenging more general restrictions imposed by Governor J.B. Pritzker. The DOJ position is that the Governor’s last minute removal of the case from state to federal court, on the eve of a decision in state court, was improper. You can read the state court pleadings and motion papers here...DOJ’s involvement is helpful, but the more important aspect of the case is how the Governor feared a negative state court decision so he pulled the case, likely improperly, up to federal court at the last minute. An Emergency Motion to...