In Kentucky, Some Schools Are More Equal Than Others
Governor Andy Beshear closed classrooms early, telling religious schools in particular that the coronavirus was too much of a risk for in-person learning.
This year’s Christmas break will be a little different for schools. A lot of students are already home — and liberal governors are working overtime to send more there, senators warn.
In Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear (D) closed classrooms early, telling religious schools in particular that the coronavirus was too much of a risk for in-person learning. The order came down just as families were getting ready for Thanksgiving, and it’s been a dogfight in the state ever since. Kentuckians, after all, have watched what’s happened in liberal dictatorships like California, where locals can’t even eat turkey with their families in peace — and they’re determined to stop the Bluegrass State from walking the same path.
Danville Christian School was so outraged by the order that it decided to sue. Within weeks, they’ve won an emergency injunction in federal court, lost it in an appellate court, and are now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Late Friday, after Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked for the governor’s rationale, Beshear’s legal team replied: “Confronting an airborne, infectious disease is a collective endeavor. COVID-19 cares little if a child attends a religious or secular school. The risks emanating from in-person instruction at K-12 schools are unique and extend to students, staffs and their families; community members who interact with these individuals; and those who are unable to obtain treatment for other illnesses because hospitals have curtailed procedures or closed operating rooms.”
Every school, the governor said later, is being treated equally. But the point, Danville Christian and state Attorney General David Cameron (R) have argued, is that schools aren’t being treated equally where other institutions are concerned. This is a “direct infringement on the First Amendment rights we all hold so dear,” Cameron insisted.
And 38 members of the U.S. Senate agreed. In a brief to the Supreme Court, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell led the battle to protect the constitutional rights of his home state. Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.), one of the signatories, says he’s optimistic — especially after what the justices did to stop Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D) ridiculous restrictions in New York.
“The court stepped in just right before Thanksgiving in New York and stated that the governor of New York can’t say that bars and bike shops can be open, but churches cannot be open in certain zones. They’ve done the same thing now to California… and said you can’t just declare that churches are higher risk than other locations, so I’m going to close them down… And then now this situation in Kentucky, where if you’re a religious school, you’re being blocked out on that. So we’re pushing back in the courts so far in California and New York … I’m confident they will in Kentucky as well.”
Interestingly enough, the California state attorney general who’s been so adamant about cracking down on churches is none other than Xavier Becerra (D), Joe Biden’s radical pick to lead HHS. “It is plain and simple religious discrimination,” Lankford insisted. “That’s what made [it] so appalling in California, especially with Xavier Becerra stepping out and saying if people sing and gather in places, [there’s a] higher risk.”
Of course, as Lankford pointed out, they don’t mind if people gather in other places. “… [I]t’s okay to be able to go to the store. It’s okay to be able to go to a bowling alley… but just don’t gather and worship places, because it doesn’t meet his preference to be able to do that.”
In Kentucky, it’s the same issue. “The governor very specifically stated that he doesn’t want schools to be able to meet — even if they’re religious institution… But he’s still allowed other preschools to be open. There’ve [still allowed] a lot of the stores to be open, other businesses to be open. And so, again, you can’t just step in and say… as the governor did in Kentucky, religious institutions have to close because that’s the governor’s preference. Thankfully, the United States Constitution supersedes the governor and people of faith, no matter what faith that may be.”
Fortunately, we finally have a court that agrees with the Constitution and will defend it. That’s all thanks to President Trump and Senate Republicans, who saw what was happening in activist courts and made it a priority to restore some balance to the bench. Now, we have it — and in cases like this, it makes all the difference.
For more on the Left’s march to shut down churches and faith-based groups, check out my interview with Newsmax from earlier in the week.
Originally published here.
The Night the Rights Went out in Georgia
What Americans witnessed on November 3rd didn’t just happen. A lot of people don’t remember, but the seeds for this election mess were planted way back in 2018 when Democrats won the House. The coronavirus didn’t hurt, of course, but the cheat was on long before Joe Biden was nominated. Why does that matter? Because — the president’s attorneys warn — if Republicans don’t keep fighting, the damage to our democracy is here to stay.
Liberals are getting restless. The media is impatient. Even some Republicans, men and women who believe there was legitimate fraud, want the White House to throw in the towel and move on. Why don’t they? Because at the end of the day, this isn’t about the presidential election. It’s about the sanctity of American law. We aren’t just talking about Pennsylvania’s law or Georgia’s law — but the power of every state legislature to pass laws with the expectation that they will be upheld. Right now, elected leaders in state legislatures can’t even perform their most basic function without other state officials and courts overruling them. That’s not how democracy works. So when the Left tells everyone to “move on,” they aren’t pressuring us to give up on Donald Trump — but our entire constitutional system.
Americans have laws for a reason, and when they’re violated or ignored, it should concern everyone. Trump attorney Cleta Mitchell, who’s had her eyes on the Left for two years, knows the game plan. As far as she’s concerned, the 2020 election has been a coordinated sabotage since the earliest days of the new Congress. “Don’t forget,” she said on “Washington Watch,” “H.R. 1 — the first bill taken up by Nancy Pelosi when the Democrats won control of the House in 2018, was a massive election bill that would have provided for [this mail-in balloting] everywhere in the country.” Of course, as usual, the Democrats couldn’t accomplish any of their radical election plans democratically. So they started filing lawsuits to sue their way to an absentee system that would open up new avenues for manipulation. “Even in 2019,” Cleta points out, “they started [suing]… in Mississippi, Louisiana, cases in practically every state… [They] spent literally hundreds of millions of dollars (it might not surprise you to learn that George Soros funded it, [and] Marc Elias [of Russia-gate fame] managed it.”
The strategy was to get judges to “adopt laws — quote unquote — or orders that basically threw out the duly enacted laws of the state legislatures,” Cleta explained. Then the coronavirus hit, and it was the perfect storm for the Left’s stalking horse: rewriting election laws that would undermine the election safeguards and ballot integrity the states have in place. Even Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), Cleta said, when he was sued by Stacey Abrams (D) capitulated. “Instead of fighting them, saying, ‘I have no authority, and the judge has no authority to change the law — that’s the legislature’s responsibility,’ he ended up settling with them and entering a consent decree.” And you and I both know, she shook her head, “what happens to Republican officeholders when they decide that they like to be loved by the media and the Left. It’s not good for conservatives.” And, as we’ve seen, it’s not good for the process.
For the time being, there’s at least a very compelling case in Georgia. When it comes to fraud, people keep asking, “Where’s the evidence?” Well, as the Trump campaign said in its filing on Friday: here it is. Their court petition has more than 1,000 pages of sworn testimony and nearly 100 affidavits — signed under penalty of perjury. “There’s nothing in this lawsuit that is not backed up by either a sworn affidavit by an eyewitness as to a violation of a Georgia election code or a declaration by an expert who has analyzed the Georgia state election and voting records.” It would be difficult for Raffensperger to read the petition and not understand that there are tens of thousands of illegal votes — “more than enough [to make up the margin of victory] that should be thrown out,” Cleta argues.
“That’s what’s so remarkable here…” Cleta went on. “Several of these violations — just taken by themselves — would be three to four times the number required to invalidate the election. [It’s] all in there. So… I will guarantee that the secretary of state, the number one defendant, has not read the analysis of his own data.” But whatever anyone says, she argued, “this election was not valid. Those results are not valid. And the secretary of state has a lot to answer for in my opinion.”
Her concern, like a lot of voters, is that these issues need to be cleaned up before the Senate runoff elections. The courts and certain state officials helped the Left undermine election laws, and the legislature needs to assert itself to make sure that a) that doesn’t happen again, and b) that it doesn’t affect January 5th. When almost 40 percent of the country thinks November 3rd was a rigged election, the last thing Americans need is to have the Senate thrown into the same limbo.
FRC Action’s Faith Family Freedom Fund is hosting a special Georgia event with the hopes of making the runoff results as resounding a victory as possible. Join us at Truett McConnell University’s Benjamin F. Brady Basketball Arena on December 15th at 7:00 p.m. (doors open at 5:00 p.m.) for a Pray Vote Stand rally with invited and confirmed speakers like Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.), Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Governor Mike Huckabee, Ralph Reed, Todd Starnes, and more. To RSVP, visit the website.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
