(Illustration courtesy of Bosch Fawstin.)
It’s striking how many of the Bill of Rights have been casually tossed aside with little in the way of legal action or protest.
But there’s a growing pushback. Even in New York City.
Pamela Geller says in a new lawsuit that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ban on public demonstrations violates her First Amendment right to protest the shut-down.
“There is no justification, pandemic or otherwise, for a government official to revoke this fundamental right of the people,” wrote lawyer David Yerushalmi in the civil rights filing that asks a judge to rescind the directive.
These demonstrations, she argued, can be held while “maintaining proper social distancing.”
The mayor’s office defended the policy and said it is pursuant to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order.
Last time I checked, the Bill of Rights trumps Cuomo.
“If our officers see any large groups gathering, they will break it up — whether in a park or protesting on a street corner,” said spokeswoman Oliva Lapeyrolerie. “This pandemic has killed at least 13,000 New Yorkers, and will not be treated as business as usual. That is our responsibility to New Yorkers and we take it incredibly seriously.”
Your responsibility to New Yorkers was to quarantine infected people and protect nursing home patients, not to abolish the Bill of Rights. This repulsive pretense by a political establishment with blood on its hands that its war on the Bill of Rights is the only thing standing between the people and death is almost as bad as its original crime.
As Geller tweeted, “These liberties are not granted by government to then be rescinded at the will and whims of govt officials. These Gd-given liberties are possessed by the people, and they are guaranteed against government interference by the Constitution.”
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