Church Closures, Lancet, Rioters, Planned Parenthood …and Thomas More

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A couple of weeks ago, I uploaded a video about the coronavirus lockdowns in California, especially with regard to the closure of churches. Since that time, many governors across the nation have issued new rules dictating exactly how many people are allowed to attend church at any given time.

In all of California, for example, churches can only open their doors to 25% of their total capacity or 100 people, whichever is less. New Jersey churches can only open to 25 people. Period. In Minnesota, all religious books must be removed from churches, even though the CDC recently came out with new guidance saying the threat of spreading the virus through surface contact is remote.

And until a few days ago, religious services in New York were limited to 10 people.

A church in Southern California sued the governor in federal court to lift California’s restrictive order. When they lost at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, they petitioned the Supreme Court to review their case. And, thanks to Chief Justice John Roberts, the church lost.

It should be noted that the church is located in San Diego county—a county of 3.3 million people that has seen a total of 296 COVID deaths to date. Nevertheless, Justice Roberts gave short shrift to the First Amendment, finding that “Our Constitution entrusts the safety and the health of the people to the politically accountable officials of the States to guard and protect.” In other words, the highly questionable power of governors to lock healthy people in their homes for months on end trumps the express religious rights found in the Constitution.

And, as our VP of Legal Affairs, the brilliant Katie Short pointed out, California is still on lockdown. The governor has not rescinded the stay at home order; he has merely carved out narrow exceptions for certain activities, including religious services.

Justice Daniel Collins of the Ninth Circuit—a Trump appointee by the way—writes in his dissent in the San Diego case that California’s “Executive Order presumptively prohibits California residents from leaving their homes for any reason, except to the extent that an exception to that order granted back the freedom to conduct particular activities

He then urges us to “pause at the astonishing breadth of this assertion of government power over the citizenry, which in terms of its scope, intrusiveness, and duration is without parallel in our constitutional tradition.”

Now I’m not saying that there are not times when certain limited restrictions are necessary for public health and safety, but California’s stay at home order has been in place for three months now.

I have to tell you that when I express concerns about this, I do get some pushback from people who argue that this is a legitimate use of power to keep people safe.

But is it?

Let us remember what is at stake here. We are experiencing an absolutely unprecedented exercise of power by state and local officials over their citizenry. At no time during the history of our nation have we ever been categorically prohibited from attending church and from peaceably assembling—not even during times of war.

As if that weren’t enough, there is a virtual blackout on what can and cannot be said about the coronavirus in the media.

For example, social media platforms flagged posts about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 as “fake news.” Videos and posts were deleted. When President Trump announced that he held out hope that HCQ could be a cure for the coronavirus, the mainstream media lambasted his remarks as “unscientific.” Didn’t our President know that a leading medical journal, the Lancet, had posted two studies showing HCQ as ineffective at best and possibly even deadly?

Didn’t he know that France had banned the use of HCQ and the World Health Organization and others had halted over 130 HCQ trials based on those studies? And didn’t he know that his own top immunologist Anthony Fauci had smugly pronounced that “The scientific data is really quite evident now about the lack of efficacy.”

A couple of days ago, the Lancet—and the New England Journal of Medicine—retracted those studies because of “inconsistencies” in the claims made by the company Surgisphere, which authored the studies. Inconsistencies like the fact that according Surgisphere’s LinkedIn site, it only has four employees—and one of those died in 2018. He was, by the way, the science editor who had no scientific background, but rather was—perhaps appropriately—a science fiction writer. Surgisphere’s director of sales and marketing appears to be a lingerie model and adult entertainer.

Its founder and CEO has a history of fraudulent claims and is facing several negligence suits. There are reports that Surgisphere iteself has been in liquidation since 2015.

All of this information is readily available, yet two of the world’s most prestigious medical journals published these fraudulent studies without hesitation.

Why? Maybe it has to do with an editorial published by the Lancet last month urging Americans to “put a president in the White House who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.”

That might be written off as comedic irony, except people were denied HCQ because our top medical journals made their own partisan decision to disparage a treatment for COVID-19 that has shown varying degrees of effectiveness. And the media parotted their claims in their own rabid drive to demonize the president.

How many people were denied treatment because the medical journals and the media put their politics over their responsibility to professional ethics? How many people died because they violated the public trust and trampled over the established restraints that would prohibit publishing such garbage.

By the way, about a third of the WHO clinical trials that were halted are looking into the effectiveness of HCQ as a prophylaxis. Early data shows that HCQ could be used to prevent someone from getting COVID-19 in the first place, because it stops the virus from going into the cells.

You might remember that President Trump took a round of HCQ for this very purpose— for which he was excoriated by the media. New York Magazine flashed the headline: “Trump Takes Hydroxychloroquine, Does Not Understand How Science Works.” The NY Times upped the ante with: “Trump’s Hydroxychloroquine Obsession Endangers Us All.”

Although studies have shown mixed results regarding whether HCQ could help prevent the virus, the studies do show that participants did not suffer any adverse effects from the drug. But what does that matter? It’s much edgier to report that the President’s use of the drug puts all of us in danger.

Rule number one: do not let the facts distract you from your narrative.

New York Governor Mario Cuomo completely banned the off-label use of HCQ for COVID patients unless they were part of a clinical trial. For the record, Cuomo has no problem with the off-label use of prostate cancer drugs to kill babies in the womb. Because… “science.”

New York has the highest rate of COVID infections and deaths in entire country. More than 30,000 people have reportedly died in New York state—nearly 25 percent of total COVID deaths in the nation.

Why then would the governor deny patients access to a drug that even had the potential to save lives?

The Arizona chapter of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons sent a letter to Arizona governor Doug Ducey begging him to authorize the use of HCQ, citing numerous international studies showing it has a 91.6% effectiveness rate in treating COVID-19. Ducey—a republican by the way, lest you think all the insanity was on one side of the political aisle—had issued an executive order restricting the availability of HCQ after Trump touted its effectiveness.

By the way, the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons recently sued the FDA for restricting access to HCQ, saying the anti-malarial drug is safer than Tylenol, Advil, and even aspirin.

Life Legal has handled several cases on involving COVID positive patients who were hospitalized. They were not given HCQ. Some of those patients died alone, without even a single family member by their side.

And I have to wonder how many of them DIED because someone thought it was more important to discredit the president than to dig a little deeper and find out the truth?

We have entered an era of unprecedented deception. Right is wrong. Up is down. Good is evil. Truth is “fake news.” It is unbelievably difficult to find one’s way through the smoke and mirrors.

And now I’m going to shift gears for a minute. Our nation is based on the rule of law. This means we are guided by a system of written laws based on our Constitution that is enforced through civil institutions—our legislature, our courts, and our executive. I would argue—though some will disagree with me—that other institutions like our media, our businesses, our medical professionals, our churches, and our families also play a role in the way the rule of law is applied and enforced.

But the rule of law requires that people act in good faith. This means all of us—of course, those who make, interpret, and enforce the laws as well as those who are subject to the laws. We have to be able to take each other at our word—whether government officials, the press, our doctors, and even our neighbors. We have to believe that others are behaving with integrity and that they are committed to justice. This requires that we have an objective standard and understanding of what integrity and justice are. It requires that laws be written and enforced according to the words and principles embodied in our Constitution. Without this common understanding, we are doomed.

Because the only alternative to the rule of law—to being governed by a system of laws pursuant to the Constitution—is government by the rule of men—which is the rule of sheer force.

We have seen this played out in disastrous ways over the past two weeks.

We saw a police officer—one whose job it is to act in good faith and uphold the public trust—violate that trust in a most horrific, abhorrent way. I think—I hope—that we are all in agreement that this was a gross injustice. A violation of the rule of law by one who was handed the authority to enforce the law.

And we have seen protests against this injustice devolve into riots, looting, and even murder. We have seen people exploit what would be righteous anger over a failure of justice to serve their own ends. And in some cases, their actions were deliberately calculated to maximize chaos and undermine the rule of law in this country.

As I watch what is happening in America I am reminded of “A Man for All Seasons,” the film about the life and death of Sir Thomas More. By way of background, Thomas More was the Chancellor of England and a good friend of King Henry VIII. Because of their friendship, Henry expected Thomas to secure the annulment of the King’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Catherine had committed the unpardonable sin of failing to produce a male heir to the throne and Henry wanted to marry Anne Boleyn. And if you know your history, you know how that turned out. Thomas—a Catholic—refused to speak on the matter because there was no ground for annulment.

Thomas More was tried, convicted, and ultimately executed for treason. He remained committed to the principle that you cannot upend the law for your own gain.

In one of the film’s most memorable scenes, Thomas is urged by his son in law William Roper to abuse the law as an instrument of political manipulation.

Thomas answered, “What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the devil?” William said he would cut down every law to do just that.

And then came Thomas More’s brilliant response: And, when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you – where would you hide, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast and, if you cut them down do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?

This is what is at stake here. If the rule of law in this country is mowed down—whether by our legal institutions, our political institutions, or the fourth estate that is our media, there is NOTHING that will stand in the way of the winds of arbitrary force—tyranny— that will follow.

That does not mean we don’t try to change the laws. It doesn’t mean we don’t work for reforms in our justice system. It doesn’t mean there is not a place for non-violent civil disobedience. But we cannot abandon the rule of law because we don’t like its results.

And that is what I see happening all around us.

A medical journal that publishes a sham of a study because it supports the partisan political views of its editor is saying it is acceptable to act in bad faith, to violate the public trust in order to get what it wants. It is saying it can operate outside the boundaries created to protect people from false information—even if that means some people will die.

Governors continue to restrict constitutionally protected activities even in areas where the data shows that the risk of contracting or dying from the coronavirus is very, very low. For the past two weeks tens of thousands of people have been protesting in the streets. People are permitted to march standing shoulder to shoulder for days on end, but they are not allowed to sit in church together for a few hours each Sunday. Whatever the intent, the effect is that the crisis is being exploited to suppress the free expression of religion. This is, pardon the pun, bad faith.

Antifa is a movement that is allegedly “anti-fascist” or anti-authoritarian, anti-tyrannical rule. Its objective is to mow down—to annihilate—the rule of law. Ironically, the rule of law is the one thing that is protecting them from the devil of tyranny.

And we have seen the media engage in selective reporting, intentional misrepresentation of the facts, and reporting outright lies to achieve its objectives. Do you need evidence? Google the word Philippines and see what major media outlets are reporting. Do you see anything about the fact that the Philippines just reinstated its Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States? Yet, this could prove to be the single most significant geopolitical event of the year so far, especially with China looming as a serious threat to stability in the region.

Why is this important to us—to Life Legal? We are a law firm. We rely on the rule of law and on the good faith of those who interpret and enforce the law to ensure just outcomes.

For example, we are representing two young black women who were arrested last week for violating social distancing rules in front of a Planned Parenthood in New York City. Do you think NYPD issued even one citation to any of the thousands of people who were protesting last week? Did they tell anyone who was looting or rioting to stop violating the mayor’s stay at home order? I highly doubt it.

Now, I believe we will get justice for these young women, but the fact that they were arrested to begin with is deeply troubling. There should not even be a question that they had the right to be on the sidewalk. For the record, they were not violating social distancing. They were not approaching any Planned Parenthood clients or staff. Planned Parenthood called the police because its escorts wanted to stand in the spot where the young women were standing—even though the women were there first. These women are prayer warriors and effective voices against the genocide that happens inside abortion mills in black communities. Planned Parenthood had to make sure their voices are silenced.

Of course, Planned Parenthood’s social media feeds are littered with the abortion giant’s so-called commitment to racial justice. Never mind that Planned Parenthood is the single largest killer of black lives anywhere at any time. Life Legal recently filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court outlining the history of Planned Parenthood’s institutionalized bias against blacks—in and out of the womb. I will link the brief below if you’re interested.

What I’m saying is that Planned Parenthood sees no problem whatsoever in declaring its allegiance to black lives matter while simultaneously decimating the black population. It sees no problem with calling for an end to police brutality against black protesters in New York City while simultaneously calling the police on two black women who are engaged in a perfectly legal protest in New York City.

Planned Parenthood was founded to stop poor blacks from becoming pregnant. It quickly expanded its business model to include abortion “services” to ensure that any pregnancies that did occur would not result in the birth of black children. That is not rhetoric. That is fact. Read our brief. Yet Planned Parenthood continues to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-payer funding. It killed over 300,000 human beings last year alone in this country alone and bills itself as an organization that provides health care. That, people, is the definition of FRAUD.

Black’s Law Dictionary says good faith—or bona fide—is acting without a desire to deceive, defraud, or take advantage of others.

It’s not like people haven’t acted in bad faith throughout history. But what we are seeing now is an alarming shift in terms of the widespread willingness of not only individual people, but entire institutions to intentionally deceive and defraud.

They are mowing down the laws and basic principles of justice that would otherwise constrain them solely to achieve their own ends. And, as Thomas More warned, the result will not be justice. It will certainly not be truth. It will unleash a whirlwind that will knock us to our faces.

I don’t say this to scare you, but to encourage you.

This is not a time to be asleep. In Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians he told his brothers and sisters not to be deceived by empty words. Test what you hear. Ask questions.

He told them to walk as children of light. Why? Because the only thing that can overcome deception is light.

Paul also exhorted them to “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead EXPOSE them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says,

‘Sleeper, AWAKE! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”

That is my prayer for you and for our nation during this time. God bless you.