Judge Strikes Down ALL KY Gov. Beshear Covid Orders, Cites 'Uproot Liberty' 'No Cause For Alarm' [View all]

[appalachiablue]

'Circuit Court Judge Richard Brueggemann showed his true pro-COVID-19 colors today with his ruling that all of Governor Andy Beshear’s 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 Breuggemann’s 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 Breeggemann’s 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 didn’t 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