It’s time Gov. Roy Cooper hears from North Carolinians about his Executive Order 121, which was never constitutionally sound in the first place. Many businesses that followed the order are now bankrupt. To make matters worse, Cooper has compounded the problem of arbitrarily designating businesses as “essential” by arbitrarily policing those that are not. I know because I recently challenged his unlawful order and got away with it. Here is an email letter I sent to Roy Cooper on April 18th:
Governor Cooper: I am sending this brief message to inform you that I have decided to violate executive order 121 – and to do so intentionally. My purpose is twofold:
- To get arrested and thus initiate a legal challenge to the order, and
- To encourage widespread disobedience of the order among my fellow North Carolinians.
Accordingly, I will begin holding religious services at my home on April 19th at 6 p.m. EST. The meetings will not conform to your ten-person quota. Nor will we respect your so-called social distancing requirements by remaining six feet away from each other. In fact, we do not intend to obey any of the so-called requirements of your invalid law.
I am sending this advanced notice so that you will have ample time to alert law enforcement officers so they may be dispatched to carry out my arrest. You already have my address, as it is the same one to which you mailed a settlement check the last time I defeated you in federal court on a First Amendment claim. I look forward to renewing our rivalry. I predict you will lose again.
If you lack the resolve to contact law enforcement in an effort to enforce your order then I will contact both the New Hanover County Sheriff as well as the Wilmington Police Department on Monday April 20th prior to re-offending with another infringement of the order on April 26th.
As soon as you receive this correspondence, it will be posted to my Facebook account in order to encourage others to violate your unlawful order. In the meantime, make sure to wear a mask in all of your public appearances and keep safe at all times.
P.S. I noticed the fresh haircut in your last press conference. Who is doing your hair these days?
Your old friend,
Professor Mike S. Adams
In order to provide some context for those not familiar with the Governor’s actions, Cooper has deemed churches (unlike state-run liquor stores) to be non-essential businesses. But his order has gone ever further than that. It also bans church small group meetings in private homes if those meetings involve more than 10 people. Even group meetings of less than 10 must occur with members sitting at least six feet apart. These requirements are unlawful – as is the entire executive order – and thus needed to be challenged.
So challenge them I did. After informing Cooper directly of my intention to violate the order, I followed through on my promise to post the letter on Facebook. It went viral among North Carolina patriots resulting in my receipt of 3000 friend requests in 24 hours – none of which I could accept as I am already over the limit of 5000. Naturally, in addition to reaching patriots, my letter also fell into the hands of my collectivist liberty-shunning opponents. The results were predictable.
Within minutes of reading my letter defying Cooper, leftist lock-down proponents based in Raleigh contacted local law enforcement officers here in New Hanover County. Thus, when 6 p.m. rolled around on Sunday, I was prepared to meet law enforcement on my front lawn, refuse to conform to the order, and go to jail as promised. But things did not play out that way. In fact, law enforcement flatly refused to respond to the calls. And that’s just not fair. Why should one man be allowed to violate Executive Order 121 while another man obeys and loses his livelihood in the process?
Shortly after I began writing this column, I paused to go join fellow citizens who were converging on Raleigh to protest a governor who has been violating his own executive order by leaving the state to fundraise for his reelection campaign. The protestors are clearly right, as Cooper is now a criminal by the terms of his own edict. But they are not going far enough.
The fact that Cooper refuses to enforce the law against himself and refuses to enforce it against people whom he fears (yours truly) shows two things: He is a hypocrite and he is a coward. And that second thing is far more important. The fact that he has blinked shows that the great intimidator can himself be intimidated.
Upon the widespread dissemination of this article, I am asking business owners to do something very simple. Actually, I am asking them to do two things. First, as soon as you finish reading this article, go open up your business. Second, hang a sign out front that says the following:
GO TO HELL, GOVERNOR.
YOU VIOLATED YOUR OWN ORDER.
NOW IT IS MY TURN.
THIS BUSINESS IS OPEN.
Put simply, Governor Cooper will never end the lockdown. It will end when the people decide to end it. Just hang the sign and people will come. Only the courageous will survive tyranny. The others deserve to live in chains.
The time has come to separate the men from the Roys.