I’m suing Gov. Bill Lee out of a Christian obligation, as it were as a deacon in the church.
By David Tulis / NoogaRadio 92.7 FM
My lawsuit filed Friday is part of my duty as a Christian who loves God’s law and also all those elements of God’s law that are contained in the laws of men. That’s Tennessee Code Annotated in my home state, and the limits it imposes on the state.
The godly influence on American jurisprudence is unmistakable, especially the doctrine of due process, which prohibits absolutism and tyranny of the kind under which people in my state have suffered. I am arguing due process in my petition for mandamus, saying the state has ignored black-letter law that restrains its acts, restricts its erstwhile liberty of movement and action — prohibits its free exercise of power.
The liberties in the constitution and implied in the way the law strictly controls what the state does to “save us” from CV-19 are part of our inheritance from earlier generations and are intended to increase the strength and beauty of human life and human society.
My suit to overturn all arbitrary powers of Gov. Lee and local health departments is an argument for Christian liberty and the fulfilment of Christian duty. The key one: The right to earn a living, and to travel and enjoy commerce. This right is under thumbscrews in every state except South Dakota.
I represent the state
I’m suing also because this deaconal role requires that I look out for the week the ignorant, the poor, and all those unable to defend themselves.
Especially delight to me is the styling of my case, State of Tennessee ex rel David Tulis. I am in the role of the state of Tennessee, speaking of on my relation, with my lips.
My suit doesn’t demand discovery or a jury trial. It indicates Gov. Lee ignored the law, and asks the court to compel him to obey it. It is the first approach of its kind in the U.S., as far as I can determine. My burden is light, and the entire burden of the case is upon Lee and Becky Barnes of the health department. What evidence do they have to show they obeyed Title 68, the health law? There is no evidence they obeyed it, according my reliance to their response to my inquiries.
There exists no authority at law to have evoked the police power against the entire economy.
It is about 200 days since the governor ordered a state of emergency and shut down the state economy, or at least mightily “interfered with” it, as I argue in my complaint. Only Friday did he declare an end to restrictions on business.
My reasoning in suing him and making a remedy is the future. The crisis seems just about over. CV-19 is the first of a probable wave of purported epidemics and pandemics. So much is promised by Dr. Anthony Fauci in his most recent academic paper on pathogens. Muslim terror passes as the global bogeyman. Medical emergencies are the new threat under which ear all must shrink.
No mina in napkin
I’m suing because God has given me the capital of knowledge and interest in the law, beginning in my early 20s with a study of reformed theology and the works of the greatest theologian of the 20th century, R.J. Rushdoony and also the works of his son-in-law, Gary North. These magnificent writers and thinkers have produced a great body of work from which I have prospered all my life as a Christian.
This work of Christian rebuilding in Tennessee is in obedience to Christ as taught in the parable of the minas in Luke 19. The lawsuit and all the reporting and undergirds its analysis is my work to create value and strength from the Word of God as delivered to the church (to Christians).
My court action is part of “trading” in the word of God. Trading is what the good servant does in the parable. Christ says the master is delighted at the servant who put the investment capital with which he was entrusted to work in the larger world. The master rewards him with government of 10 cities. The wicked servant does just the opposite. He keeps his mina in a napkin, alleging that he feared the master and didn’t want to put it at risk. The king condemns him.
The Christian who believes confidently in God and has faith in the overarching claims of God upon human existence is the good servant. His capital — his Christianity — is one he puts into the economy, puts it to work. It is in labors such as this lawsuit that I can make the case for godliness, for commerce, for trade, for liberty, for service and productivity, for public worship, for open courts, for open and public government. These were outlawed by the governor.
Christians who believe that God’s word is applicable only to individuals, and that the work of the gospel is merely individual conversion, are those who refuse to trade, as it were, in the Word, who refuse to put it out into all the areas of life, from law, education, commerce, banking, technology, medicine and so on.
I would say, as a “church refugee,” that most of the evangelical church in my part of the country believes as the wicked servant does, that we are not to put the minas out into the world, and to trade with them.
‘Reformation’ demanded
It appears that the CV-19 crisis is almost over. My concern partly legally is of mootiness that the Attorney General may ask for dismissal since the emergency is perhaps less than a month from being extinguished.
I’m also asking for the judge to order the governor and the commissioner to revise the rules for the health department to prevent future ignoring of the statute. This proposed work is called reformation and rectification as a matter of law. It commits the officials holding office to honor the statute and the enabling regulations written within the health department.
I argue that Gov. Lee acted the part of criminal in terrorizing the people under color of law and without warrant, without any lawful or legal authority. This sensational act has far-reaching consequences upon the hearts and minds of the people. They have an attitude of subjugation, humiliation and dread. Judging by the ubiquity of face masks, the American people are duly terrified and many will probably wear masks when the “emergency” is ended.
If only Dr. Fauci could generate a new way or a new cause of apprehension and dread. The most affected are the people who shop at Wal-Mart. Among commoners like me who are thrifty and poor, the strength of the bright sports drink we have been imbibing on Dr. Fauci’s watch is great.
Degringolade
