Mandates and “guidelines” aren’t laws, only legislatures have power to make laws-Attorney Bobbie Anne Cox from group that won lawsuit vs overreach of NY State Gov. Hochul and her Dept. of Health

“In the history of mankind, no government has ever taken power from the people and voluntarily given it back. The people have to demand it back!”…NY State Supreme Court judge ruled NY State’s Isolation and Quarantine regulation ordered by Governor Hochul, DOH Commissioner Bassett, the Department of Health, and the Public Health & Health Planning Council to be illegal. “This “regulation” is really a law that the Governor and DOH are illegally forcing on the people. Only the Legislative branch has the power to make law.”

9/8/22, “Mandates vs. Laws: Is there a difference? ABSOLUTELY!” Attorney Bobbie Anne Cox Substack

“Before COVID19 was released on our shores,

most Americans didn’t really ever give this a second thought.

Yet, here in New York, when King Cuomo (as many common-sense New Yorkers dubbed him)

forced everyone into lockdown in March of 2020 [enabled by Trump decree], with the distinctly propagandized cry of

“just for 2 weeks…2 weeks to flatten the curve,”

the difference between a law and a mandate

became the difference between feast or famine

for most. Literally. As the King [Cuomo] (totally illegally) cherry picked

who was allowed to leave their homes, go to work, earn a living, move about freely,

versus

who had to lockdown for months on end

and painfully watch their life’s work

slip through their fingers,

we witnessed the birth of a monarchy here in New York,

which has continued to this day some 2.5 years later.

Did you know that in just the first few months of the pandemic,

bankruptcy filings in NYS surged 40%!?!

And in NY and NJ alone, nearly 1/3 of small businesses went out of business in that same time period?!

Let me first say that Cuomo lacked the authority to single-handedly lockdown millions of New Yorkers. Despite Cuomo’s (and now Hochul’s) misplaced fantasies, I mean notions, to the contrary,

New Yorkers need to understand

that this is not a monarchy, and

one man/woman does not get to decide who is “essential” and who is not!

Cuomo’s false justification was that it was done

in the name of public health and safety. Newsflash…

the Constitution is not suspended during times of emergency! 

The United States Supreme Court has consistently held this time and again. And it makes sense from a logical standpoint. Think about it, during an emergency, when there is fear and confusion, it is a prime opportunity for the government

to step in and infringe upon the rights of the people. It’s their age-old battle cry,

“Oh no! There’s an emergency.

Give us your power and we will protect you!”

If you take nothing else from this article, take this…

In the history of mankind, no government has ever taken power from the people and voluntarily given it back. The people have to demand it back!

And that’s exactly what we just did with my quarantine camp lawsuit against Governor Hochul and her Department of Health. We saw the government grossly step out of line, and we demanded they get back in their lane. And we won! You can check out my prior Substack for more details on that: HERE or you can check out our lawsuit web page HERE.

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Mandates vs. Laws…

What’s the difference between a mandate and a law? To put it bluntly, 

 

the difference is tremendous.

First and foremost, only the NYS Legislature can pass a law. A refresher from grade school Social Studies or History class: we have 3 branches of government –Legislative, Executive and Judicial. Each branch is co-equal with the others. Each has its own authorities and duties: the Legislative makes our laws; the Executive enforces our laws; the Judicial adjudicates disputes regarding our laws.

Breaking it down further, with regards to

the Legislative Branch here in NY,

we have 2 houses that make up our NYS Legislature – the Senate and the Assembly.

Every 2 years, New Yorkers go to the polls to elect our representatives (ie those men and women that we want to be our voice in the law-making process). Their sole purpose is to make laws,

and they are supposed to do the bidding of We the People in carrying out those duties.

How do they make laws? Well, the very abbreviated explanation is that our elected

representatives in the NYS Senate (which has 63 members)

and the

NYS Assembly (which has 150 members)

meet, review proposed laws (called “bills”), debate the pros and cons of the bills, and

then ultimately vote on the bills.

If a majority vote in favor of a bill, then it passes. If both houses pass it, then it goes to the Governor’s desk for signature. If the Governor signs it, it becomes a law.

On the other hand, a mandate

does not come from our Legislative Branch. 

It instead comes from the Executive Branch (ie the Governor and her departments).

You can see mandates in the form of Executive Orders.

Some examples of mandates we have seen here in NY over the past couple of stunningly tyrannical years are

the lockdown mandate,

the mask mandates,

the C19 shot mandate, and others.

A very common question is, 

does the Executive Branch have the power to issue mandates? 

The answer to that is, it depends. In some cases they do. In other cases they do not. There’s no blanket answer, because it’s not a black and white issue. There is a lot of gray. In legal matters, there is always a lot of gray.

Why is that? Because the facts surrounding each case are always different. Sometimes the facts and the law are different.

The parties involved are always different….

To draw an analogy,…not every crime committed is a felony.

Not every breach of contract is illegal. Not every dispute between people is valid. And so,

not every mandate is legal. Nor is every mandate illegal.

Not to muddy the waters, but we also need to touch on

the topic of “guidelines”,

since that’s another unsuspecting way that Governor Hochul (and the King before her) get away with

controlling a whole host of people and things

that they have absolutely no authority to control.

Guidelines are suggestions. That’s it. They are recommendations made by a government entity.

They are not a law passed by the Legislature,

and they are not a mandate

issued by Executive Order.

But the problem becomes that most people do not know the difference,

so when a government actor issues a “decree”,

most New Yorkers snap to attention, salute, and forward march. This is soooo dangerous.

Now, to be clear, I am not telling you to ignore guidelines and/or mandates. (My critics will have a field day with this post if I don’t very clearly lay that out for you). However, what I am saying is that you need to use your critical thinking skills and not blindly follow the sheep in front of you.

Here in NY, the Executive Branch has so despicably violated our rights and freedoms these past couple years in the misleading name of “public health and safety”, that most New Yorkers have lost their ability (or courage) to think critically. 

 

This is extremely dangerous. Just as in science and medicine a healthy discourse from opposing sides is required to preserve the safety of our species, so in law there must exist the ability to question, engage and challenge government actions. Otherwise, we will undoubtedly find ourselves marching to the beat of the totalitarian drum.

The Answer is… 

 

So, are you exhausted yet? All this deciphering, analyzing, word salad galore… why do we have to be skeptical of our own government?! It’s a terrible feeling, is it not? Well the answer to how to end the uncertainty and mistrust is to vote them out!

Do you realize that November 8th is a monumental opportunity for New Yorkers to wipe the slate clean and put into government power positions those New Yorkers who share our values and who honor our Constitution and our unalienable rights?

Not only is Governor Hochul up for election,

but so is Attorney General Letitia James,

and every single NYS Senator and NYS Assembly member.

We must vote on November 8th, and we must bring with us as many of our friends and family as we can. The question is simple: do you want freedom for the next 4 years? Or do you want mandates, decrees, and authoritarian rule?”

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Inspirational Quote:

“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

Ben Franklin”

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Added: Two citations for March 2020 Trump admin. declarations of “National Emergency,” neither mentions an end date:

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3/13/2020, “Proclamation on Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak,” TrumpWhiteHouse.archives.gov

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3/25/2020, “President Trump Declares State of Emergency for COVID-19," ncsl.org (National Conference of State Legislators)

“National Emergencies Act

On March 13, [2020] the president also declared an emergency for COVID-19 under Section 201 and 301 of the National Emergencies Act. The National Emergencies Act (NEA)

generally authorizes the president nearly unlimited discretion to declare a national emergency.

These sections allow the Secretary of HHS to exercise the authority under section 1135 of the Social Security Act to temporarily waive or modify certain requirements of the Medicare, Medicaid, and State Children’s Health Insurance programs and of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule throughout the duration of the pandemic. The Secretary of HHS must provide certification and advance written notice to the Congress. These waivers can loosen restrictions on the use of telehealth and certain requirements for hospitals and healthcare providers to improve their response efforts.

The NEA was enacted by Congress in 1976 to formalize presidential and congressional power—and related checks and balances—surrounding national states of emergency.

However, this formalization

does not include definitions for or requirements

of the national emergency itself.

The law does not itself provide authorities associated with a state of national emergency,

though it does allow activation of powers provided the president

in other statutes.

A national emergency under NEA was also activated by President George W. Bush for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. For more information on the NEA, see NCSL’s blog.

Public Health Service Act…

HHS Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31 [2020] in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, as did President Barak Obama for the H1N1 influenza virus outbreak in 2009.

The administration established the Coronavirus Task Force to lead the response effort shortly thereafter

and HHS has since issued multiple policy modifications and waivers to support response efforts of the health care community. For more information on the Public Health Services Act, visit the HHS webpage.

Defense Production Act

The president issued the Executive Order on Prioritizing and Allocating Health and Medical Resources to Respond to the Spread of Covid-19 but had not immediately taken extensive action under the Act. Section 101 of this Act allows the president to require that private companies prioritize and execute government contracts—to allocate materials, services and facilities—that promote the national defense over any other contracts or orders. For COVID-19, he plans to use the Act to ensure that the U.S. healthcare system is able to surge capacity and capability for outbreak response by requiring that all such health and medical resources—including ventilators, as well as personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, and other medical supplies—are properly distributed to health workers on the front lines of the response….

The EO also invokes Title 3 of the U.S. code, which provides loans or purchases to bolster critical domestic production capabilities. This authority was also delegated to Azar.”

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