By: Bobbie Anne Flower Cox, Esq.
Lincoln Dinner American Patriot of the Year Honoree
Imagine a land where the government has the shocking power to lock you up simply because the unelected bureaucrats in the Health Department think that you might, possibly have a communicable disease. They don’t have to prove you are sick or that you might pose a threat to others. They just need to think that, maybe, you were possibly exposed to a disease. And when I say “lock you up,” I mean lock you in your home, or force you from your home into a facility, detention center, camp (pick your noun) that they get to choose, and you must stay there for however long they want. No time limit; so it could be for days, weeks, months, years….
Now imagine that there is no age restriction, so the government can do this to you personally, to your child, your grandchild, to your elderly parent. The nightmare continues because you have no recourse. No chance to prove that you aren’t actually infected with the disease. No chance to confront your jailers, see their supposed evidence against you or challenge their quarantine order in a court of law before getting locked up. And they can use law enforcement to help them carry out their forced quarantine or isolation orders, so the knock on your door could very well be the sheriff or police coming to remove you from your home.
This dystopian horror sounds unbelievable to an American. That the government has the ability to control one’s every move is unnatural to us. It flies in the face of “liberty and justice for all.”
And yet, Governor Hochul and her Department of Health promulgated a dystopian regulation that does all that, and more! It was a clear violation of the Separation of Powers because the governor is not supposed to make law, nor can an agency. Only the legislature can make law.
So, on behalf of a group of New York State Legislators (Senator George Borrello, Assemblyman Chris Tague, Assemblyman [now Congressman] Mike Lawler) together with a citizens’ group, Uniting NYS, I sued the Governor of New York and her DOH to stop their “quarantine camp” regulation. I’m very pleased to report that last summer, we won! The court struck down the “Isolation & Quarantine Procedures” regulation, deemed it null and void, and forbade the Governor and DOH from enforcing it. Tyranny denied!
The Constitution and the rule of law have been upheld, for now. Shamefully, the Governor and DOH intend to appeal our victory. They had 6 months from July to appeal, but since there was an election on November 8th, they didn’t appeal until… Last month, just a few days before their 6-month deadline, they asked for an additional 2 months to appeal the case! We objected, but unfortunately the court granted the extension. So now the Governor has until mid-March to appeal. It’s unfathomable that she would waste more of our hard-earned tax dollars to try to overturn the Judge’s decision, but this is apparently her plan.
To find out more about our monumental lawsuit, to sign up for weekly updates, or to support the lawsuit, go to www.UnitingNYS.com/lawsuit. If you want to stay informed, you can follow me or support my work on Substack at https://attorneycox.substack.com and you can follow me on Twitter @Attorney_Cox. My website is www.CoxLawyers.com
