The pushback against the COVID mandates issued by the Biden administration and numerous state governors continues to grow in intensity.
Five days after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tightened his vaccine mandate to include every worker without exception or exemption, more than 5,000 of those workers — from the FDNY to the Department of Sanitation, from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Environmental Protection — flooded the Brooklyn Bridge on their way to City Hall to protest. Many carried signs. including some that declared de Blasio’s order “medical tyranny,” and ”We will not Comply,” while others waved Gadsden flags (“Don’t Tread on Me”) along with American flags.
That demonstration on Monday followed a demonstration outside the Barclays Center on Saturday supporting Nets basketball player Kyrie Irving, whom the team is not allowing to play because he has not been vaccinated.
The Police Benevolent Association of New York filed a suit on Monday against de Blasio’s mandate, and then asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order against his mandate to allow unvaccinated police officers to continue working for pay while the suit is pending.
Pro-freedom governors and other state officials have made known their opposition to such mandates, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who stated:
Your right to earn a living should not be contingent upon COVID shots. On a principle basis, we have the responsibility to stand up for people’s individual rights and individual freedoms, and make sure that in the state of Florida people can make those decisions.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the federal government is exceeding its constitutional bounds by issuing the mandate:
Neither the President of the United States nor the federal government have any legal authority … any constitutional authority … to issue their vaccine mandate.
Newly elected Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said the federal government is guilty of vast overreach, adding:
People are losing their jobs. It’s going against some people’s religions.
I have friends who have underlying conditions [so] that their doctor tells them do not take the vaccine. But they’re still being told by Joe Biden and the federal government to take it.
It is wrong.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey issued an executive order on Monday calling for the state to oppose the Biden administration’s mandate requiring that businesses that employ more than 100 people require them to either be vaccinated or tested weekly. She tweeted:
The federal government’s overreach has given us no other option but to begin taking action, which is why I am issuing this EO to fight these COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
As long as I’m governor, AL will not force anyone to take the vaccine.
Ivey has asked Alabama’s state attorney general to issue an “immediate challenge to stop the egregious and illegal federal overreach.”
In Illinois, Kankakee County Judge Nancy Nicholson just granted a temporary restraining order against Riverside Healthcare over the hospital system’s vaccine mandate. The managing attorney with Liberty Justice Center, which represents five nurses in the suit, declared Nicholson’s temporary order as a step forward toward victory against the hospital’s mandate. Said Daniel Suhr:
Today’s ruling marks an important step toward victory for these nurses — and it sends a message to all Americans about the importance of fighting for your rights.
Employers and government officials should take note that forcing people to violate their conscience not only is wrong, it’s illegal. No one should be forced to choose between keeping their job and sacrificing their beliefs.
The nurses had applied for exemptions, but they were refused by the hospital. As a result, if they don’t get vaccinated by October 31, they will be terminated.
Citizens are increasingly pushing back against the mandates being imposed by government officials at the state and federal levels. They do not only fear losing their jobs; they also recognize that, in the absence of resistance, they will soon realize they are no longer sovereign citizens but merely serfs bending to the will of their masters.
(NOTE: To push back against COVID-19 vaccine mandates, go to “Countering COVID-19 Government Overreach.”)
