California Governor Gavin Newsom must respond in court Wednesday to explain the “science and data” behind his decision to close Orange County beaches.
The closures were a result of science all right. Political science.
In a fit of pique, Nancy Pelosi’s nephew shut down all 43 miles of Orange County beaches when he fell for a fake news account of the crowds at Newport Beach two weekends ago. Instead of calling the Newport Beach mayor or the Newport Beach police or the Newport Beach Lifeguards to get the inside scoop, Newsom believed a compressed photograph of crowds made with a powerful telephoto lens going around on Twitter at Newport Beach. Twitter boo birds rained death wishes on the OC. Newsom bought the brouhaha.
After seeing what the Left did with Jacksonville, Florida crowds and spotting that Newport Beach photo, I called my shot and predicted exactly what transpired on the Orange County beach issue.
When he could, Newsom did what he could to punish all Orange County. He circulated a memo announcing he would close all California beaches and instead the next day only shut down OC beaches.
2/4 Here’s an overhead of the same area. https://t.co/ovEg3Ni8tu pic.twitter.com/FK4GzwXeG6
— Victoria Taft (@VictoriaTaft) April 30, 2020
4/4 OC has flattened the curve and is on the downside of COVID 19 cases. It’s reopening. Cases have dropped precipitously.
California cases also dropped. But @GavinNewsom closes OC beaches. Why? It’s not based on science, but on fake news – and political spite? pic.twitter.com/oHOACvLoZK— Victoria Taft (@VictoriaTaft) April 30, 2020
The cities of Dana Point, Huntington Beach, and private parties in Newport Beach called Newsom’s bluff. They sued, and though they were denied a writ enjoining the closure, demanded Newsom show the judge his “science and data,” behind keeping the beaches closed.
Wednesday is Newsom’s day to put up or open up.
On Tuesday the governor gamely announced that the affected beach communities had “collaborated” with his “team” and “I couldn’t be more complimentary of … local elected officials.”
Two cities, Laguna Beach and San Clemente, chose to kiss Newsom’s ring to get their beaches open for minimal hours – convenient for locals but not for people derided as “day-trippers.”
And Dana Point, Huntington Beach – cities suing him, and Seal Beach were ‘allowed’ open by Newsom who never had a rational reason to close them in the first place.
I also want to update you on some very positive developments in Orange County. Those are opening back up and for their local elected officials that worked so closely with our teams over the weekend and over the course of the last 24 hours it’s the spirit of collaboration and cooperation that Huntington Beach is reopening. Dana Point is reopening and Seal Beach is reopening and we’re working with the county supervisors of Orange County.
We’re hoping for new developments there shortly as well as Newport.
Ah yes, “Newport.”
Attorney Harmeet Dhillon of the Center for American Liberty told me that tomorrow, Newsom has to respond to the state lawsuit and Dhillon told PJMedia that she’s got a lot of questions.
We do intend to keep fighting both cases to get all the beaches open and to establish that the Governor has to follow some type of process or logic, not just punish millions of people in a county or even the state on the basis of a deceptive photograph.
Where is the evidence? Where is the process? Where is the consideration of the important California and US constitutional rights implicated by these hasty and haughty actions? What is to stop the Governor from irrationally and illegally shutting beaches again when he doesn’t like the views of the local community leaders?
And, not only is her public interest law firm suing in state court, but her law firm is also bringing a federal civil rights lawsuit.
I filed a complaint in Federal Court this morning asking AG Barr to intervene and join in the action against the Governor’s unconstitutional use of emergency powers to close down beaches in Orange County #newportbeach #orangecounty #reopenoc
— Kevin Muldoon (@KevinMMuldoon) May 4, 2020
The lawsuit, on behalf of former Newport Beach Mayor and Councilman Kevin Muldoon, accuses Newsom of frivolous political score-settling. Dhillon says in a news release that Newsom’s his “abuse of power” defy logic, data and science, not to mention abridge the First and 14th amendment rights.
“This is another unfortunate example of Governor Newsom abusing his power by seizing on the coronavirus pandemic to expand the government’s authority to unprecedented lengths without scientific justification. Businesses, houses of worship, protesters, and now beach-goers have all fallen in the path of Governor Newsom’s overboard, blunderbuss approach to handling this crisis, which thankfully has now been shown to have been vastly overestimated by various government leaders. Now that the scope of the crisis is known, broad restrictions on our civil rights are unjustified and unconstitutional. Governor Newsom needs to go back to the drawing board and narrowly tailor his orders to achieve a compelling government interest based on data and hard science, not emotion and overreach.”
The federal lawsuit it being heard on Monday. Maybe Californians will get some answers from the governor about his logic, science and data of keeping the state closed. And maybe kick a little sand in his face at the same time.
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