Lawsuit filed against county; emergency injunction requested
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
On Friday, May 8, the Childers Law firm in Gainesville filed the first complaint challenging Alachua County’s mandatory mask requirement. The complaint alleges that the mask requirement is presumptively unconstitutional as a taking and an invasion of citizens’ right to privacy and that the County lacked authority under the Alachua County Charter and Code.
The complaint asks the court to declare the mask requirement to be void and to enjoin the County from enforcing it.
Jeff Childers, lead partner with Childers Law, said that “while my client appreciates that the County is trying to help protect its citizens, it is going too far with the mandatory mask requirement, especially where healthy citizens are concerned.”
The suit also names Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as a defendant because “In his May 5, 2020 Facebook post, BOCC Chairman Robert Hutchinson identified the Governor as the source of BOCC’s authority for the mask mandate: ‘Local governments, under the current state of emergency, have the authority to enact more protective measures than those rolled out by the State. This has been confirmed by the Governor’s office…'”
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Justin Green, and Childers has requested an emergency temporary injunction, which he said could be heard as soon as Monday but almost certainly next week.
Bravo. A very concise and well-pleaded complaint I might add. Hopefully the Governor will illuminate and enlighten the Board of County Clowns regarding their disconcerting conduct in short order.
Retire Hutch! Do Alachua County a favor.
Here’s the filing, if anyone is interested:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K_DwfobFnAw2BksdgS0jq-1aq2oAP0zR/view?fbclid=IwAR1SaVnKzZhbKP_jXvEA7lLUtMT32nRFVX0vsI2MoT-URxPkaUMbDSoRMAI
Rest assured the county will try to slow roll this re-opening as much as possible. Even though infection rate is LOWER in Marion, where they had a less strict lockdown, we’ll press on here, b/c reasons.
I appreciate what this attorney is doing. There is evidence suggesting that mask that are reused can breed significant levels of bacteria. There’s also a reason to believe that, in real world settings outside of a medical facility, people wearing masks are more likely to touch their face or the mask more often, without washing their hands before her afterwards. The bulk of evidence also suggests that even under ideal circumstances, with trained and supervised people incontrol medical facilities, the masks do little to reduce the spread of viruses.
So we have something, that even under the best of circumstances, has very little upside. The general public should not be required to wear masks.
God bless America! These tyrants who are politicians
Need to reaffirm their loyalty oaths to the US constitution..
If they don’t, they should be kicked out of office & fined.
This is not communist China. I am in charge of my own
Medical decisions.
Covid-19 Czar, Andrew Fauci recommends against wearing masks
https://youtu.be/PRa6t_e7dgI
The White House @ 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is now requiring all staff and visitors in the West Wing to wear masks. This unconstitutional tyranny cannot stand. Workers of the West Wing Unite! Resist this fascist intrusion into your life. Do not let the Republican administration order you around. Do not let Donald Trump treat you like his commie pals Putin and Kim treat their subjects. Insist on your American Freedom to catch the virus of your choice.
No matter how small Hutchinson may think it is, there are definite costs to forcing people to wear masks: including psychological costs, monetary costs, and health and sanitary risks, especially for cloth masks that are improperly worn or cared for. Whether they help stop the spread of covid-19 is controversial at best, but if even if they did the effect would be very marginal. I imagine that mandating full hazmat suits might be more effective than a homemade mask, so I hope the County doesn’t decide to impose that requirement too. Before forcing people to wear something they don’t want to wear, the County should have the burden of proving that asymptomatic people pose a significant risk to other people and that wearing a mask can substantially reduce that risk. It is obvious that the officials who voted for mandatory masks, don’t take their oath to support the constitution seriously.