Lawlessness and Civil Disobedience
FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS CANNOT BE SUSPENDED INDEFINITELY
Remember the arguments during the Guantanamo Cases a decade ago? And the Civil War Mulligan case? Fundamental Rights CAN be suspended, but only during an emergency when the Courts ARE NOT accessible.
Hey, the courts are open!
An argument can be made for abridging freedoms during an emergency, but the Supreme Court has ruled that indefinite suspensions are unconstitutional.
These executive orders are ARBITRARY because they are not pursuant a COMPELLING STATE INTEREST– since it has been shown that in almost all venues the HOSPITALS ARE NOT OVERWHELMED. Remember, that was the EXPRESS PURPOSE of the lock downs, to prevent overtaxing the health care system.
Law is different from tyranny because it is not arbitrary (which is to say without reason or enforced without reason).
In addition these executive orders are not NARROWLY TAILORED (that’s the constitutional requirement of any law that abridges a fundamental right: speech, exercise of religion, assembly, petition, habeas corpus et. al.)
To explain in a few paragraphs–when there are COMPELLING STATE INTERESTS (such as a pandemic) such laws or executive orders must be NARROWLY TAILORED to achieve that compelling state interest (the health and safety of citizens).
In this case, however, preventing people from hiking on hiking trails or going to the beach or leaving one’s house or enforcing lock downs in rural areas cannot be shown by any data to be narrowly tailored to achieving the purpose of the state action.
It appears more and more that these executive orders are being imposed without any effort to tailor them to different communities and circumstances.
Even the ugly Korematsu Decision, (which is still law unfortunately)– that horrible executive order issued by Roosevelt that interned Japanese-Americans during WWII, was limited to the West Coast of the United States. It was not universally applied.
In addition, these executive orders, are not just threats to our PERSONAL freedoms, they are threats to our POLITICAL freedom. How would a group of Americans hold a rally against the unlawful order? How would a group of Americans gather signatures to recall a governor? We should be concerned equally about our political liberties.
By refusing to acknowledge that every county and city in America has a distinctive character, these executive orders demonstrate contempt for the political system we use in this country. (Every state has counties and cities–if all political constituency are the same, there is no justification for the upper houses in every state except Nebraska! Our political system is reduced to one big blob of non-discreet people the will of which is impossible to ascertain without discreet and corresponding political bodies.) Counties and cities have distinctive interests and demographics, which must be acknowledged in the application of these executive orders. These “niceties” of constitutional governance seem to be of little concern to those issuing these over-broad and arbitrary fiats.
Christians and Conservatives must never be lawless, (lawlessness is never acceptable) HOWEVER, as Martin Luther King and Aquinas said, “An unjust law is no law at all.” And as executive orders, these powers are not actually laws, but executive actions operating under color of law.
The Constitution is the highest law of the land. No state, no county and no city can contradict in action any part of the Constitution or Bill of Rights.
For those of us wondering what to do—it is fitting and proper for Americans to refuse to cooperate with unconstitutional laws, not by forceful resistance or violence or threats, but by refusing to be coerced into compliance with acts and laws that are violative of the Constitution. We need to be willing to be roughed up, and jailed, by refusing to cooperate with injustice. But that is the way a Christian and a Conservative resists despotism.
The rule of law is fundamental to civil society. This is why we must NOT comply. By refusing to consent, you are not resisting the law. You are insisting that the law, the Constitution of the United States of America, be obeyed.
That’s the Christian way.
That’s the conservative way.
It is not enough to do the right thing. The right thing must be done the right way.
If you resist, if you ignore the executive order, do so with a mind that you are upholding the law, which is the Constitution of the United States. The American Revolution was such a revolution. We resisted arbitrary rule when it ignored and mocked our ancient established liberties.
That is how I see it.
You are not wrong to withhold consent to unjust laws. Just be certain those laws ARE unjust, and understand, that as a Christian, you must never be lawless, and as conservatives, remember that the rule of law is fundamental to just government and the life of our Republic.
Just remember and be ready and willing– to pay the price.
