Judge Strikes Down ALL KY Gov. Beshear Covid Orders, Cites 'Uproot Liberty' 'No Cause For Alarm'
'Circuit Court Judge Richard Brueggemann showed his true pro-COVID-19 colors today with his ruling that all of Governor Andy Beshears actions against the coronavirus are unconstitutional.' Daily Kos, July 21, 2020.
* For those not in the know, a group of businessmen and Republican State Attorney General Daniel Cameron went forum shopping for a judge who would rule against Beshear, and they hit pay dirt. The good news is that Breuggemanns ruling is stayed by the Kentucky State Supreme Court until they can hear the case. But you have to read some of the reasoning that went into Judge Breeggemanns decision.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. In a written order referencing ancient sages, an English playwright and soldiers perishing at Valley Forge, Boone Circuit Judge Richard Brueggemann declared Gov. Andy Beshear's emergency COVID-19 orders unconstitutional Monday night
In his 38-page order filed Monday evening, Brueggemann cited state and federal Supreme Court decisions along with philosophers, historians and statesmen going back more than two millennia to argue that Beshear violated the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs through his executive orders to slow the spread of the pandemic.
Stating that the questions at issue in the case are not about politics, Brueggemann wrote they are rather about "whether the constitution applies during a virus." "Under our constitutions, government may not uproot liberty on a hope that it can hide society from pathogens," Brueggemann wrote. "Individuals, not government, should decide if the risk of walking out their front door is worth the potential reward." Writing that "with freedom comes risk," Bruggemann cited the risk and sacrifice of soldiers at Valley Forge in the Revolutionary War that "bequeathed to us our freedom," adding that "many died alone, with the dirt of the battlefield drinking in their blood."
Emboldened is my doing.
The order also questioned dire projections about the effects of COVID-19 by state health officials in Kentucky and reports of danger in other states in the South and West going through a spike in cases and hospitalizations. Writing that the large emergency hospitals built in Louisville and Lexington never had to be used, Brueggemann stated this "also is cause to question the projections on which Defendants relied when imposing restrictions having such breathtaking scope."
While attorneys for the governor cited reports of intensive care units recently nearing capacity in Arizona and Texas as COVID-19 cases spiked upward, Brueggeman wrote that "like the studies, not all press reports agree. Other news sources suggest this is not cause for alarm."
This is just stunning to me. First, those individuals who Brueggemann is holding up as some paragons of virtue are people who are spreading a CONTAGIOUS deadly virus that will take my life or that of my elderly Mom. Since when did their right to walk out their front doors without a mask or practice social distancing trump my right to life? And since when did wearing a mask become such a threat to liberty?
Oh, I didnt know that the men who died at Valley Forge were fighting for the right to spread a communicable disease? The judge should read his history...
More,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/21/1962694/-Circuit-Court-Judge-In-KY-Strikes-Down-ALL-Of-Governor-Andy-Beshear-s-Orders-To-Deal-With-COVID-19
regnaD kciN
(26,044 posts)...I should be allowed to drive after drinking, and even drink while driving. My body, my choice! If I wind up getting into an accident and dying, that was my decision and I'll gladly pay that price but, in the meantime, no government can take away my rights to do what I want with my own life. And, if you don't like it, you can always stay home and not go out on the roads!
Ferrets are Cool
(21,106 posts)unblock
(52,243 posts)People should be free to flail their fists in crowds! If someone else's nose gets in the way, that's the price of freedom!
elleng
(130,925 posts)unblock
(52,243 posts)Phoenix61
(17,006 posts)the risks and accepted them. Really poor argument.
DBoon
(22,366 posts)and responded with public health measures similar to Beshear's. See the 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia for an example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1793_Philadelphia_yellow_fever_epidemic
appalachiablue
(41,140 posts)and actions of merchants and supporters of commercial enterprise remain consistent over time.
In the early 20th c. plague in San Francisco, it was the same with business and political leaders suppressing info. and more to avert panic and financial losses from trade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_plague_of_1900%E2%80%931904
(Yellow Fever, 1793 Phila. Epidemic)
- Cause: Merchants worried more about Rush's theory that the fever arose from the filth of Philadelphia and was not imported from the West Indies. They did not want the port's reputation to suffer permanently. Doctors used his treatments while rejecting his etiology of the disease.
Others deprecated his therapies, such as Dr. Deveze, but agreed that the fever had local origins. Deveze had arrived on the refugee ship from Saint-Domingue which many accused of having carried the disease, but he thought it healthy. The doctors did not understand the origin or transmittal of the disease.[63] Historians believe it was brought by refugees from Saint-Domingue, where it was endemic, and transmitted by mosquitoes between the infected and healthy persons.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,491 posts)Even if the KY-SC strikes down this ruling, the MAGAts will still be emboldened to break the rules at will, many of which are already doing so in stores and restaurants.
Our rules don't have much legal teeth and this just makes things worse, not to mention that Kentucky is surrounded with red states that still are not taking the pandemic seriously.
Republican care only about business interests - always have, always will.
KY......
appalachiablue
(41,140 posts)appalachiablue
(41,140 posts)out of the far right, anti government Libertarian and Federalist Society ideology that's been imposed since Thatcher and Reagan. It has to end.
Mgt. Thatcher: 'There is no such thing as society. There are only individuals and families.'
Dutch Reagan: 'Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.' 1981 Inaugural Address.
BComplex
(8,053 posts)brains.
B Stieg
(2,410 posts)stops six feet before the other guy's nose
Bayard
(22,075 posts)When KY did have one of the lowest rates in the country.
Beshear has done a good job for us, and these assholes are trying to undermine it.
dalton99a
(81,513 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)I assume Gov Beshear is taking it to the next level.
marble falls
(57,097 posts)head is insane. How about a single cohesive response? How hard is that? On Jan 21 we'll finally get it. Biden will also have the availability of Carter, Clinton, Bush, and Obama.
I just don't see how we don't sweep him. We need to organize voter turnout.