Tom McClintock long has claimed to care about our Constitution. He trots it out when it suits him, to insist that he’s just trying to protect our constitutional rights. But as is his wont, Tom twists the Constitution to serve his political goals.
Tom McClintock has been talking about our civil rights — claiming without any support that the stay-at-home orders are unconstitutional — in opposing the orders issued in California and elsewhere. He claims that people should be left to their own devices and is even encouraging people to file complaints alleging that their civil rights have been violated, promising to follow-up with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division “to assure they are being investigated.” He cites to the Attorney General’s Memorandum on this issue, but like Tom’s public statements, the DOJ Memo is an empty threat. The Attorney General does not cite a single case to support his claim that the stay-at-home orders violate civil rights.
The reason is simple. They don’t. Time and again, U.S. courts have rejected challenges to orders just like those in California and elsewhere. As this article explains, the Constitution recognizes the rights of our leaders to infringe on our constitutional rights if the reason is important enough. And courts consistently hold that pandemics meet this standard. Governments have the right to take necessary steps to protect human life. No, they can’t use that right to unnecessarily take away constitutional rights, but despite all his accusations and bluster, Tom McClintock can’t point to any actual abuse of authority by Governor Newsom or California’s leaders. He’s just trying to stir up trouble with divisive rhetoric, as he likes to do when Democrats are in charge of government.
California’s 4th District deserves better. We deserve a representative who sees our challenges with clear eyes and takes meaningful action to fix them. We deserve a representative who truly cares about what happens in this District. We deserve a representative who will fight for us.
Join us, as we fight to send Tom McClintock back to his own District, and to finally stop him from selling us out, one vote at a time. To learn more about the alternative, visit https://brynneforcongress.com/.
Because we know, as Margaret Mead said, that “a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”