What was really scary is that he was unable to see that breaking the Constitution was a problem because they “needed to” and he consulted with other government folks, so it must be OK. The Rabbis need to sue his ass off.
It’s one thing for a religious leader or institution to stand up on principle and conduct these religious services in open defiance of the government. I would actually commend this. But would also say that any religious leader who makes a stand like this while he’s got a congregation filled with Medicaid and Medicare recipients is a charlatan and a fraud. This is an important distinction between (for example) the Amish and a Baptist church in Harlem or a Hasidic synagogue in Lakewood.
What’s really scary is that neither he nor Tucker understand what he’s doing.
The Declaration of Independence says we have unalienable rights “among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, and goes on to say that “to secure these rights governments are instituted among men.”
The First Amendment covers freedom or religion and of assembly.
The Tenth Amendment states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
So maybe a State government does have power to temporarily restrict religious expression or assembly of other types when the rights to those things come in conflict with the right to life and possibly the pursuit of happiness during a lethal contagion.
Maybe.
When rights come into conflict we normally settle the issue through legislation and the courts and sometimes voting. I don’t know what laws and decisions have been made in regard to all this in any particular state but they may be inadequate, both to protect the people from lethal contagion and to protect the people from abuse of the state power.
If enough people sufficiently oppose how legislation and the courts settle any conflict of rights, the Tenth Amendment does say “or to the people” and the people have most of the guns.
At the very least, the position of these governors violates not only our Constitution, it conflicts directly and completely with the most basic principle of our Republic and of the Founders -- the thing they feared most of all -- consolidation of power into one person or into one branch of the government. Think about this: These governors, each one unto himself, has more unchecked power and authority over United States citizens residing in their state than the President, the Speaker of the House, the leader of the U.S. Senate and any U.S. Supreme Court justice combined!
How these state tyrants will be moved to respect our founding principles and compelled to bring their ever-expanding authoritative actions into alignment with the liberties protected under the U.S. Constitution and our Bill of Rights is a mystery to me. But one thing is certain: If this situation isn't addressed quickly -- the Chinese Flu be damned -- America, our beloved Republic that was the envy of the world just one month ago, will dissolve into chaos and into the naked hell of totalitarianism very quickly. This situation with the governors is accelerating to a point of no return; and today this is a wake-up call to citizens and to our President and Commander-in-Chief.
May God Save America.
ML/NJ