After months of stringent lockdowns, middle-class Californians are fighting for their way of life, and they are winning. But the battle has just begun. Under the draconian leadership of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, communities have been decimated and livelihoods destroyed. Residents are fed up, and change is afoot, as a massive effort to recall Newsom, led by the organization Rescue California, has garnered 1.2 of the 1.5 million signatures needed to call a special election that could oust the dictatorial leader.
Over the course of the past 10 months, the state of California has implemented a complex and seemingly ever-changing color-coded tiered system of reopening. Barbara Paul, founder of the Pizza Cookery, stated that residents have been offered “crumbs” by Newsom. They are frustrated, as they see the goalpost continually moving. For instance, California pastor Rob McCoy, in a YouTube Fireside Chat with Paul, related the story of how the lifting of a statewide stay-at-home order meant he could officiate a funeral for an elderly person, albeit with aging mourners standing outside in the bitter cold. Reflecting on the day’s proceedings, McCoy remarked, “and this is safe?”
In a statement, Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly suggested that “California is slowly starting to emerge from the most dangerous surge of this pandemic yet, which is the light at the end of the tunnel we’ve been hoping for.” However, many small business owners who have been prevented from seeing this light now stand in defiance of shutdowns by keeping their businesses open.
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Banding together, these courageous men and women refusing to shutter their businesses are in the process of building what they call the Brave Coalition — an army of small-business owners dedicated to supporting one another through offering information on dealing with legal cases and creating real community leadership.
Part of this coalition is attorney Ronda Baldwin-Kennedy, a Republican candidate for California’s 26th congressional district in 2020, who is defending two of these small-business owners who are in violation of the governor’s orders. Pizza Cookery’s Paul, and Matt Brimigion, owner of Mrs. Olson’s Coffee Hut, have never received remunerations from Ventura County. Thus, Kennedy argues that Newsom’s bans are in violation of the Fifth Amendment, that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.”
During the YouTube Fireside Chat, Kennedy, who spoke with McCoy, Paul, and Brimigion, asserts that Ventura County picks its venues to lock down. She believes they have targeted 14 businesses, and that politically predictive state judges will simply rubber stamp a verdict. To prevent this from happening, she immediately filed a motion to disqualify the state judge assigned to the case in order to get a federal judge to rule. “This is a federal issue,” said Kennedy, “a Fifth Amendment takings clause — if they want businesses to close for the greater good of the public, then exercise the Fifth Amendment and compensate these businesses.” Paul and Brimigion will have their day in court, and they very well may prevail. But having already overcome much adversity, they exemplify the resilience of We the People; it’s the American way — the pursuit of freedom and justice, and defense of the truth.
