Free Republic

The political drama in Michigan reveals how essential it is in a republic that the citizens defy unconstitutional and illegal orders of their government. The news broke late on Oct. 2 that the Michigan Supreme Court had invalidated Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s authority to issue executive orders related to Covid-19 after April 30. This was a victory for the rule of law, for the separation of powers, and for the liberties of the American people (okay, maybe just the people of Michigan).Whitmer had declared a state of emergency on March 10 and extended it through a series of executive orders, on...

A CORONAVIRUS vaccine may work but will need years to take effect if it does. Even in this best case scenario, Covid-19 will probably never be truly eradicated. With these beliefs, it may seem odd to find Anders Tegnell, the architect of Sweden's lockdownfree approach to dealing with the pandemic, so optimistic. Or to see Stockholm in full swing, with open bars, live music and smiling, unmasked faces. That's because state epidemiologist Mr Tegnell believes that so long as people are sensible, normal life can continue. Health officials say they want to treat the Swedish people as "subjects, not objects"...

Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) said President Donald Trump had “failed spectacularly” with his repose to the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday’s broadcast of CNN’s “State of the Union.” Whitmer said, “We know Joe Biden has been tag this virus seriously and following the virus. The Trump administration, on the other hand, is not doing that.

In 1932, Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis famously called the states “laboratories of democracy.” Different states can test out different policies, and they can learn from each other. That proved true in 2020. Governors in different states responded to the COVID-19 pandemic at different times and in different ways. Some states, such as California, ordered sweeping shutdowns. Others, such as Florida, took a more targeted approach. Still others, such as South Dakota, dispensed information but had no lockdowns at all. As a result, we can now compare outcomes in different states, to test the question no one wants to ask:...

The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday struck down a 1945 law that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has been using to keep the state locked down since April. Whitmer has repeatedly extended a “state of emergency” for the past several months and pointed to a World War II-era law to do so, most recently lengthening it until October 27. But today, the basis for the ongoing lockdown was ruled unconstitutional. WHOA. Michigan Supreme Court rules against @GovWhitmer's use of 1945 emergency powers law in #COVID19 pandemic, says 145 law "is in violation of the Constitution of our state because it purports...

Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Robert Redfield told a colleague Friday “Dr. Scott Atlas is arming Trump with misleading data” about COVID-19, claimed NBC News political reporter Monica Alba in a Monday article.Within hours of NBC posting its story, numerous ideologically allied outlets had amplified it. Here are some screenshots of the Google News results for the story just a few hours later:“Everything he says is false,” NBC News quoted Redfield as saying of Atlas’s coronavirus recommendations. That’s just not true, top epidemiologists told The Federalist.“Dr. Redfield is a prominent and respected scientist, so I respect his opinion,...

When President Trump advocated reopening the economy, he warned that the lockdowns might have more of an adverse impact than COVID-19. Some assumed he was only talking about the economic implications but he also noted the risk of drug overdoses and suicides. We have seen increases in both of those types of deaths, along with significant mental health impacts.. the tragedy of extended lockdowns is compounded by people not seeking medical care. United Kingdom is noting this trend .. Unexplained deaths in private homes are nearly nine times higher than those from Covid-19 amid fears that many people are still...

In March 2020, most of the world implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) including the use of face masks, social distancing, school closures, and teleworking to prevent the spread of Covid-19. We don’t yet know exactly how well these interventions worked to slow the Covid-19 pandemic. But we do know now that they have helped to slow the spread of influenza. Ideally, the effectiveness of an intervention (e.g. wearing a face mask), is measured by looking at the outcomes one is trying to affect (e.g. the number of cases of Covid-19). With seasonal diseases like flu, the ability to compare the current...

The battle against Covid-19 is entering a new phase, and the choice for society is whether to live with the virus or to live for it. This new phase has been marked by four developments: Many states have weathered post-shutdown outbreaks and case counts are falling; the percentage of Americans saying the pandemic is worsening peaked in July and is trending down, according to Gallup polling; the culture wars over lockdowns and distancing mandates are cooling; and inexpensive rapid testing and a vaccine will soon be available widely. These developments create an atmosphere of possibility—and an opportunity to pivot away...

This year’s stay-at-home orders and lockdowns imposed by governments on their populations represent a watershed moment in the history of the modern state. Before March 2020, it is unlikely that many politicians - let alone many ordinary people - thought it would be feasible or likely for government officials to force hundreds of millions of human beings to “self-isolate.” But it turns out governments were indeed able to force a sizable portion of the population to abandon jobs, religious practices, extended families, and community life in the name of “flattening the curve.” Whether through fear manufactured by the news media...

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice-President Joe Biden told CNN's Anderson Cooper and town hall viewers that "China is not our enemy. If they were they wouldn't have given my son a billion dollar deal. I'll grant you that China hasn't been a perfect global citizen. From time to time they've stolen our technology. And every deadly respiratory virus seems to emanate from there. But these are all minor flaws—mistakes and bad luck that could've happened to anyone." In a response to a potato farmer's question about why there are so many unnecessary regulations impeding her work, Biden advised the woman...

Van Morrison has described the British government as “fascist bullies disturbing our peace” in one of three new tracks he has written to protest against safety measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. On No More Lockdown, Morrison sings: “No more lockdown / No more government overreach / No more fascist bullies / Disturbing our peace … No more taking of our freedom / And our God-given rights / Pretending it’s for our safety / When it’s really to enslave …” The song also condemns “celebrities telling us what we’re supposed to feel”, although the 75-year-old Northern Irish songwriter denied...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — The Monroe County Department of Public Health says it’s seeing a growing number of COVID-19 cases that could be directly or indirectly connected to houses of worship. The department is asking communities of faith to review best practices for services, including mask-wearing at all times, six feet social distancing, putting markers on the ground, blocking off every other row of seating and encouraging frequent hand washing and sanitizing.

Does the Wuhan virus, which arguably escaped from a Chinese virology lab, supersede the rights guaranteed to American citizens under the U.S. Constitution? U.S. Federal District Judge William Stickman IV has ruled in a case brought before him that there is no pandemic exception to the U.S. Constitution and that the Bill of Rights cannot be trampled with impunity whenever there is a health emergency leftist ideologues try to exploit to impose their desired control over every aspect of our daily lives. As Reason Magazine reports: A federal judge on Monday has ruled that lockdown restrictions imposed by Pennsylvania Gov....

“You think you got the horses for that? Well, good luck and God bless, but I tell you this…the last place you want to see me is in court.” (attorney Arthur Edens, in the film, Michael Clayton, 2007) Memo to lawyers: What are you waiting for? File big cases now. by Jon Rappoport September 16, 2020 (To join our email list, click here.) I’ve been covering the decision in the Pennsylvania COVID case and the court filing in Ohio. They give us the templates for potential victories in other states and countries. (‘Lawsuit’ article archive here) In Pennsylvania (ruling), a...

Riots and Covid Restrictions: Is it time to go there and ask the following questions? I'm no mental health professional but just curious. What are the Covid restrictions like and how long were the lock-downs and are the lock-downs still in place in these democrat cities where rioting is taking place?" Is this all partly the result of being locked down? I realize that yes the left, the media and the democrats support this and encourage it and incite it all but have many of these people become vulnerable mentally due to extended lock downs and Covid restrictions? Like to...

Six months after he first issued a disaster proclamation tied to the coronavirus pandemic, followed quickly by a stay-at-home order that shut down businesses and kept people inside for months, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he wouldn’t hesitate to act in similar fashion if COVID-19 cases bloom exponentially this fall. “We were the second state in the United States by a few hours, I think, to put a stay-at-home order in and if we needed to do that, the answer is, it worked," Pritzker told the Tribune in an interview earlier this month about the state’s response to the pandemic at...

Dr. Anthony Fauci just spilled the beans: contrary to the implicit promise numerous politicians made that COVID-19 restrictions would only last “until there’s an effective vaccine,” Fauci says the arrival of a vaccine won’t mean life will return to normal, perhaps for more than a year. “If you’re talking about getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to COVID, it’s going to be well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021,” said the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Friday. A safe and effective vaccine produced this quickly...

Large crowds of people rallied in Auckland on Saturday against the government’s social distancing restrictions imposed on the country’s largest city after an outbreak of the novel coronavirus last month. Local television footage showed tightly packed crowds, with many people not wearing masks, with estimates of the attendance varying in reports between a thousand and a few thousand people. “We are all here today because we believe we need to stand up for our rights,” the public Television New Zealand cited Jami-Lee Ross, the leader of the Advance New Zealand party, one of the organizers of the protest, as saying....

A Democrat bureaucrat finally said what we all have known to be the truth: the Wuhan virus limitations that Democrat politicians and bureaucrats have imposed on Americans will go away after the election because that was the plan all along. As 2019 ended, the Democrats knew that Trump was cruising to re-election. He'd kept his base because he kept his promises about the wall, trade deals, the military, abortion, and our Second Amendment rights. Best of all, he'd supercharged the economy with tax and regulation cuts. The surging economy enticed other Americans who had not voted for Trump in 2016...