In a dramatic turn of events similar to what many non-political Americans have experienced during the COVID lockdown-jab-mandate madness, Republicans in the New Jersey Assembly and Senate defied a recent “get-jabbed-or-get-lost” edict from the Democrat majority. And they not only saw NJ State Troopers at the State House acknowledge their rights, they emerged victorious in court.
As Mike Catalini reports for The Associated Press, the mandate was not a statute. It was not an “executive order” from unctuous NJ Governor Phil Murphy (who last year told Tucker Carlson that paying attention to the Bill of Rights was “above” his “pay grade”, and who just proposed even MORE anti-constitutional gun grab statutes). It wasn’t any of those, and even if it had been, it is important to remember that such moves, themselves, would have been unconstitutional and immoral.
Instead, this was a “security” dictate: to be jabbed or repeatedly show a negative test (said tests to be purchased by every Assembly member or Senator who refused to be jabbed) in order to enter the Assembly or Senate. And it was arranged by the Dem majority through the State Capitol Joint Management Commission – which typically handles how the building, its maintenance, parking, and security will be run.
If you get the impression that maybe, just maybe, the Dems were eager to make it more expensive and difficult for conservative GOP Reps and Senators – especially those who oppose taking a jab that was made through the use of aborted fetus cell lines – to vote, you’re in good company.
State Senator Steve Oroho and Assemblyman John DiMaio, the Republican minority leaders of the NJ Senate and Assembly fought back -- in court, and in the State House.
… All, while crickets played in the halls of the Governor’s palace.
As matters reached a boiling point Thursday, Nov 2, it appeared that the Dem plotters would get their way. Writes Catalini:
Disorder and confusion erupted in the halls outside the New Jersey Assembly on Thursday as several Republican lawmakers defied a new requirement to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test and were blocked by state troopers— albeit briefly — from entering the ornate chamber.
But those standing up for their rights would not be cowed.
’You have no right to stop us,’ Assembly member Erik Peterson said. ‘You see this? You see this, folks? Denying us entry into our house.’
“’This is America!’ Assembly member Hal Wirths added. Lawmakers compared the situation to something that might happen in a dictatorship.
Actually, it’s something that can and will happen in a state – and a nation – where the fundamental understanding of Natural Rights has been clouded into near invisibility and morphed into the belief that a polis is a defender of natural rights, rather than what it is: a predator of, and opponent to, individual sovereignty and free will.
It’s what inevitably will arise when the populace embraces a fallacious political tendency to claim that control of the state via the “majority” or loudest vocal minority (aka “democracy”) is the zenith of political intercourse, rather than what it is: gang violence that we’ve been told would be constrained by a constitution.
Clearly, those constitutional constraints don’t matter to a lot of politicians, especially when they can aggrandize power unto themselves and block opposition.
And that appears to be precisely what the Dems in NJ were trying to do.
’A handful of the GOP lawmakers cleared the doorway after Assembly member Brian Bergen asked troopers, ‘I can go 30 feet that way, 30 feet that way, but not that way?’ signaling toward the chamber.
Moments later, some other Assembly members — who had earlier declined to show vaccination cards or a negative test — walked into the room unblocked. An email seeking an explanation was sent to the state police.
Later, what appeared to be close to the full 28-member Republican minority were sitting in their seats in the Assembly.
And that got some of the Dems angry. No. Not just “angry” – this is politics, after all, so it has to rise to the level of “OUTRAGE!”
Democratic Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin called it ‘a colossal failure of security’ in a speech from the floor that chastised Republicans, saying that people throughout the state have made similar concessions during the pandemic. He said he was outraged.
Because, ya know, “OMICRON!” … “SECURITY!” (or add whatever scaremongering rhetoric you like)…
And to think that Dem Assembly Speaker Coughlin can employ the Hegelian Dialectic, citing the idea that, as Catalini words it, “people throughout the state have made similar concessions during the pandemic,” is nearly as offensive as the jab-or-papers mandate.
Those people, Mr. Assembly Speaker, had the fundamental right to be left alone. Their “concessions” were – on the whole – involuntary, coerced from them, dictated to them, by people like you and your pal, Governor Phil “above my pay-grade” Murphy.
Your behavior and words indicate that you lack of any semblance of understanding about how you and your political ilk have stripped away rights. You act as if it’s perfectly natural, perfectly quaint and customary to whip the skin off the backs of your citizen serfs.
Your cupidity is breathtaking, your audacity wild. You herald and promote the political power that opposes all that is natural in man. This is not hyperbole. This is established philosophical history and God-given fact.
And the status?
Hours later, a state appellate court handed a victory to Republicans who had sued to block the proof-of-vaccination requirement, granting the GOP's application for a stay of the order and setting a potential hearing date for later this month. It was not immediately clear what effect the ruling would have on the requirement.
But it is clear that the battle in NJ tells us two things:
Many people do not have the faintest clue about the rights of their neighbors, or, if they do, they don’t care.
The battle over courts will be perennial in the United States, because the government pits people against each other, and makes them want to control it.
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