On Monday night’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Judge Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News senior judicial analyst, defended the right to protest government overreach, and warned against the threat of American civil liberties.
Host Tucker Carlson asked Napolitano about the ramifications of law enforcement arresting peaceful protesters who break state-wide stay-at-home orders.
“When politicians start arresting people who disagree with them, and the media applaud, what sort of moment is that?” Carlson asked.
“It’s a very depressing and fearful moment Tucker. The media could not exist in this country without the First Amendment, and they are applauding it being used, it being crushed, because they disagree with the message with those who are being crushed,” Napolitano said.
Napolitano pointed out rights enumerated in the Constitution are not subject to change because of a pandemic.
“The Constitution applies in good times and bad. There’s no pandemic exception to the Constitution,” he said. “The rights articulated in the Constitution are guaranteed. So, the rights of everyone listening to us now, to tell the government to go to hell, is an absolute, personal, fundamental liberty that the government cannot punish you for exercising.”
Napolitano said the oath taken by governors, police officers, judges, and public servants alike is to uphold and maintain the Constitution. To undermine the Constitution in times of a pandemic would be undermining their oath.
“From a governor, to every cop on the street, that oath is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States which includes all the amendments, the first 10 which are the Bill of Rights,” Napolitano said.
Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, Utah, New York, and Washington have all seen protests unfold as residents express their frustration with prolonged stay-at-home orders. Police departments are shutting down protests, and one woman in North Carolina was jailed for protesting on the street without a mask.
Surfers in both California and North Carolina have been removed from the water for engaging in physical activity on closed beaches.
The coronavirus pandemic is not just costing us human lives, but American civil liberties.
