Columns

Racism is the practice of according rights and privileges to an individual not based on equality under the law, but rather according to what race that person was born. It is antithetical to every principle our country was founded on, from the promise of our Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” to the equal protection clause of our Constitution. It was a malignancy we fought a Civil War to remove. For generations, it has been denounced by every American of good will for the evil that it is.

There are few things that infuriate Americans more than injustice and abuse of power, and the sadistic killing of George Floyd as he lay handcuffed on the pavement, helpless and begging for his life, hit that nerve.

Quarantine is the forced confinement of a person who has contracted or been exposed to an infectious disease. Although it is a long-standing police power of governments, it is seldom used because seldom needed – sick people generally stay home on their own. When it must be used, it is subject to due process: the right to contest the order in court, to present evidence that the order is invalid, and to have it vacated. What is happening today is radically different and profoundly un-American: the indefinite and indiscriminate home detention without due process of perfectly healthy people on the pretext that they might catch a contagious disease...

The anguish in people’s voices as they call our office every day is heart-breaking. Many are wondering how they can pay their bills, whether their job will still exist in a week, whether their retirement savings have been decimated or whether they’ll lose the shop they’ve spent their lifetimes and life savings to build.