Yuba-Sutter Dr. Rachet’s current Corona order to again close selected businesses is arbitrary, unscientific and a violation of the owners’ Constitutional rights. The threat of force without due process is unbridled discretion.
Where is the science or the reason that sitting in a church or Steele House Coffee is more risky than being at WalMart or the Casino? There is none! Government can crush the ‘small guy’ so it does.
According to Constitutional attorney Kris Anne Hall the government’s decision to say which businesses can be open or close is “tantamount to regulatory taking.” No warrant was issued to take the property and no means noted for the owner to challenge the taking of the business. The owner is effectively deprived of the economic value and use of the property.
Whenever government takes private property for public benefit both the state and US Constitutions require that the business receive due process consideration followed by just compensation equaling fair market value for that property.
Salem, Oregon Glamour Salon owner Lindsey Graham filed a federal lawsuit against her county and the Governor last week for violating her rights. "Before the Governor takes away my client’s ability to take care of her family and to earn a paycheck, we think that we should get some opportunity to do it safely," said Ross Day, attorney representing Graham.
Day claims the state violated Graham’s right to due process under the 14th Amendment. The government unleashed the alphabet soup of agencies on Graham including labor relations, cosmetology, occupational safety, even child protective services and nearly $20,000 in fines.
Graham just wanted to work in spite of government abuse. Now, she is taking the offensive.
Last week in Marysville, CA the government’s case against Upper Cuts Barber Shop owner Randy Mitchell was dropped. He refused to close his shop. In addition, Mitchell notified the state that he no longer recognizes it as a licensing authority over his business. Yuba County District Attorney Clint Curry had threatened to cut-off power and water to Upper Cuts until Mitchell closed.
Mercedes Brockman and Shenise Evans, co-owners of Beyond Appearance Salon, Spa and Stylique in Marysville also stayed open so far without penalty. Most businesses are conditioned via over-regulation to be afraid of the government and/or do not know their rights. Most all are closing and will likely go broke.
The government is also being arbitrary when deciding that the only “legal” assembly is 10 people or less. The right to assembly is denied when permission is needed under certain limited and confining terms to peaceably assemble. One of the most essential reasons for the right to assemble is that the assembly offers the opportunity to petition the government for a redress of grievances. It is a despotic government that can conduct unjust and unconstitutional actions and then also possess the power to set the limits and parameters upon which the people can protest those laws.
The same is true with freedom of religion. When government can tell people when, where, and how many can “legally” meet, that government is defining religion, and that is antithetical to everything that America is founded upon. Even worse, shelter-in-place orders not only do all of that, but many have also determined that the definition of freedom of religion can be relegated and confined to an ‘online meeting’ and further that all those who are unable to meet this condition are simply denied their right to worship and threatened by force of government to have no assembly whatsoever.
Attorney Hall says, America’s founders pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to throw off the very actions of government we are experiencing today. James Otis Jr., a lawyer whom the founders called the “midwife to liberty,” waged a valiant legal battle against the laws of Parliament that attempted to authorize what our governors, supervisors, city councils, and mayors are doing today. He referred to the tyrannical overreach as “the worst instrument of arbitrary power, the most destructive of English liberty and the fundamental principles of law that ever was found in an English law-book.”
It’s time to resist and keep your business open.
(Get Lou’s podcast at “No Hostages Radio” and his articles at nohostagesradio.com)
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