In free societies, if the police want to enter your premises, they have to obtain a warrant. In the New Normal of the new New Jersey, Phil Murphy's Health Commissars broke into Ian Smith's Atilis gym and changed the locks - and all without a warrant. When the Catholic churches then briefly re-opened, the Coronagruppenführers of the New Jersey State Police had them closed down.
In a corner of Illinois, things are different. James Mainer of HCL Deluxe Tan in Clay City sued Governor Pritzker's lockdown regime - and won. Giving his decision from the bench, Clay County judge Michael McHaney gave a pithy summation of the new Law of Experts as one could wish. It deserves to be savored:
Before I rule, I'm advising everybody in this room, no public outbursts or displays. The court is still in session until you are told otherwise.
Since the inception of this insanity, the following regulations, rules or consequences have occurred: I won't get COVID if I get an abortion but I will get COVID if I get a colonoscopy. Selling pot is essential but selling goods and services at a family-owned business is not. Pot wasn't even legal and pot dispensaries didn't even exist in this state until five months ago and, in that five months, they have become essential but a family-owned business in existence for five generations is not.
A family of six can pile in their car and drive to Carlyle Lake without contracting COVID but, if they all get in the same boat, they will. We are told that kids rarely contract the virus and sunlight kills it, but summer youth programs, sports programs are cancelled. Four people can drive to the golf course and not get COVID but, if they play in a foursome, they will. If I go to Walmart, I won't get COVID but, if I go to church, I will. Murderers are released from custody while small business owners are threatened with arrest if they have the audacity to attempt to feed their families.
These are just a few of examples of rules, regulations and consequences that are arbitrary, capricious, and completely devoid of anything even remotely approaching common sense.
And things that are arbitrary and capricious cannot be laws - because, as I often say, it is tyranny that is always capricious. Judge McHaney continues:
Doctors and experts say different things weekly. The defendant cites models in his opposition. The only thing experts will agree on is that all models are wrong and some are useful. The Centers for Disease Control now says the virus is not easily spread on surfaces.
And then His Honor addresses one of the most repulsive aspects of the regime under which much of the "free world" has lived since March: those who make these new laws are not bound by them. For Governor Pritzker's family, as for Governor Whitmer's and Justin Trudeau's, the rules are different:
The defendant in this case orders you to stay home and pronounces that, if you leave the state, you are putting people in danger, but his family members traveled to Florida and Wisconsin because he deems such travel essential. One initial rationale why the rules don't apply to him is that his family farm had animals that needed fed. Try selling that argument to farmers who have had to slaughter their herds because of disruption in the supply chain.
When laws do not apply to those who make them, people are not being governed, they are being ruled. Make no mistake, these executive orders are not laws. They are royal decrees. Illinois citizens are not being governed, they are being ruled. The last time I checked Illinois citizens are also Americans and Americans don't get ruled. The last time a monarch tried to rule Americans, a shot was fired that was heard around the world. That day led to the birth of a nation consensually governed based upon a document which ensures that on this day in this, any American courtroom tyrannical despotism will always lose and liberty, freedom and the constitution will always win.
The Honorable Michael D McHaney, chief judge
We shall await other rulings before we share quite the confidence of Judge McHaney's last sentence.
~The new audio format for The Mark Steyn Show is not universally popular, but we'll stagger on awhile yet. Tune in tomorrow for our weekend edition - and thank you for your kind comments about our Memorial Day show.
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