Posted on 05/07/2020 4:33:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
There are countless heroes in the coronavirus pandemic, but most of them won’t face jail time. Some, however, will. And one in particular has gotten herself seven days and a $7,000 fine for the unforgivable crime of trying to feed her family by opening her perfectly legal business: Shelley Luther.
Ms. Luther lives in Dallas, Texas, and is owner of Salon A La Mode, a state-determined “non-essential business.” Missing from the state’s declaration was a notification of Luther’s essential bills that they should take a break or any magic clause that food should magically appear in the cupboards and refrigerators of Luther and her employees so their families could eat.
With the reality of hunger and financial destitution opening their front door, Luther defied the state’s command and offered her services to those who wanted them. She did not rent a van and snatch people off the streets, cutting their hair against their will while emptying their wallets at gunpoint. Her customers, like her employees showing up to work, were voluntary. For this “crime,” she was arrested.
The judge in her case, someone named Eric Moyé, lectured Luther as “selfish” after finding her guilty of acting like a free person. If she’d just apologize for “defiling” a court order – she’d ripped up a cease and desist order at a protest – and defying the will of public officials who, at every opportunity, call themselves “public servants” who claim to “work for you,” she would avoid jail and only be subjected to further financial hardship through a stiff fine. (Who knew cease and desist orders were sacred? Must we frame them, or something?)
After telling the destitute Luther she should have hired a lawyer and gone through the long, expensive process of legal appeals if she wanted to operate her legal business to avoid losing her business, home, and starving her children, the salon owner told the judge to go to hell.
OK, she didn’t use those words. She was much more diplomatic in the face of tyranny. But tyranny doesn’t respect diplomacy. “Judge, I would like to say that I have much respect for this court and laws. And that I’ve never been in this position before, and it’s not someplace that I wanna be,” Luther said when given the time to apologize. “But I have to disagree with you, sir, when you say that I’m selfish because feeding my kids is not selfish. I have hairstylists that are going hungry because they’d rather feed their kids. So, sir, if you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with your decision, but I am not going to shut the salon.”
With that, at a time when liberals are calling for the release of prisoners across the country in the name of “compassion” in the face of the pandemic, Moyé, a Democrat, sent her immediately to jail.
Luther chose to not “bend the knee” to authority and sparked outrage around the country.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz said, “7 days in jail for cutting hair?? This is NUTS. And government officials don’t get to order citizens to apologize to them for daring to earn a living.”
The state’s Attorney General followed suit, saying, “I find it outrageous and out of touch that during this national pandemic, a judge, in a county that actually released hardened criminals for fear of contracting COVID-19, would jail a mother for operating her hair salon in an attempt to put food on her family’s table.” He called it “a political stunt” and called for her immediate release.”
By the time you read this, she may be free. Maybe Republican Governor Greg Abbott has expressed his disgust over the case as well. I don’t know the pardon laws in Texas, they appear dependent on the recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, but if an expedited emergency meeting can’t be convened in this case, what’s the point? A statement is nice, action is better.
Whatever happens in the Luther case, she has drawn a line on which others will stand, and for that we all owe her. A GoFundMe account has been established, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars already.
No matter how much money is ultimately raised, Luther is owed a debt of gratitude well beyond it.
In 1968, had you asked people if they’d like to walk on the moon, they almost universally would have said yes. If, a year later, those same people, after answering affirmatively, were given the opportunity to strap themselves to the top of a 36 story tall rocket filled with explosives to do just that, the number of takers would dwindled to near zero. But three men – Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins – did just that. They did what seemed impossible, and was impossibly dangerous, because it had to be done. Someone had to be first.
Shelley Luther did the same thing, albeit terrestrially. She could have chosen not to strap herself onto that rocket, it would have been much easier to apologize. But she knew she was right and so, to steal a phrase from the left: she persisted. She won’t be celebrated by the liberal intelligentsia the way a blathering Elizabeth Warren was for breaking Senate rules and not caring, quite the opposite, but what she did was exponentially more important for the cause of liberty. She joins the truck drivers, grocery store clerks, and food delivery drivers who don’t get the attention of accolades medical heroes do, but who’ve been just as important in keeping the country and spirit of America alive during the pandemic. Not all heroes wear capes, but maybe they should (and we should tip them like they do).
He has to Famously live with the Trump Curse now. The Judge will die of TDS.
The judge is a Clinton appointee and not Obama.
Atty General Dan Patrick and Governor Abbott have issued orders to get her out of jail.
Why is Shelley Luther still in jail?
Yer dern tootin’! Yes-sir-ee-bob! That’s ol’ Gabby.
You’re 100 % right.
People in this country seem to forget that there are 3 separate , but equal branches of government.
An elected member of the Executive branch (the Governor)
could release her.
If there was a clash over this between the Judge( Judicial branch) and Gov. (Executive) the Legislative branch would be asked to decide.
This never happens but it;s the way our country was set up.
If the roles were reversed and it was a Republican judge and democrat governor, she would have been out of jail.
In our weekly town paper, there is a Police Report. This week there were10 report filings, only 2 of them for something other than ‘reporting individuals for violating the Governor’s social-distancing order’.
I guess the number of Leftist Germans who blindly followed Hitler no longer surprises me.
Ballsy & beautiful is a winning combination in a woman!
The GoFundMe campaign for her raised half a million dollars. The contempt for this narcissist judge’s ruling is clear and people put their money up to show it.
Gov. Ann Richards(D) appointed Judge Moye in 1992. He has been a militant Black judge ever since, so they knew that he would rule against a White woman. The crooked Democrat voting machine will make sure he is reelected in Nov., because that’s how it rolls in every urban area of Texas.
If the FBI weren’t so busy investigating Republicans, they could find lots of corruption in Texas Democrat voting.
I hear the flood gates opening.
Not likely. Dallas County is a solid blue wall and I’m sure the Rats agree with this idiot’s ruling. Every civil district court in that county is currently occupied by Rats.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_County,_Texas#cite_note-:0-13
Brava!
The judge needs to go. Is he in an elected position or appointed?
Release felons because of the pandemic, then refill the prisons with ordinary citizens. Madness.
Oh yeah. And I’m in the same situation.
Neither Clinton nor Obama ever appointed a state or local judge in Texas. This mutant Moye was appointed by former governor Ann Richards.
Yours is the kind of post that really diminishes this website as a source of good information.
Reminds me of the Polish counterfeiter who tried to victimize his next-door neighbor in Warsaw ...
"Do you have change of an $18 bill?" he asked.
"Sure," his neighbor said, "How do you want me to break it -- with three 6's or two 9's?"
:-P
I always ask for 6 threes. The bills that have Obama on the front.
LOL.
When I see that figure, I see MAJOR APPRECIATION for Shelly’s
character.
I also see MAJOR CONTEMPT for the judge’s court!
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