This is a republish of Peggy Hall’s Substack. Free Now Foundation is suing the Orange County Board of Supervisors. This was our first case against a County Board abusing its authority during the Covid era.

Because the governor says so.

by Peggy Hall, originally published in The Healthy American Substack

The following is not a joke. It is the logical extension and explanation of a flabbergasting ruling by a California Superior Court judge in my case, Hall v. Orange County Board of Supervisors, which was filed in September 2021. Our first hearing in September 2022 (yes, is took a year to get in front of a judge) was ruled in our favor, whereby the original judge ordered the county to hold a public meeting (as REQUIRED BY LAW) to determine whether or not the local covid emergency should be continued. The county refused to do so and embarked on a circus-like song and dance routine that resulted in a revolving door of judges, new court dates, canceled court dates, new filings, delayed proceedings and every other manner of slimy tactics they could think up. Sad!

Fast forward nearly two years later, and several judges and court dates later, Judge McConville (I think the correct spelling is “C-o-w-a-r-d”) issued a ruling that basically stated, “Oh no, the County doesn’t have to follow the law. The Governor can tell the county what to do, and the county does not have to have public meetings or take action, even though it’s required by law.”

Can you see how this is historic news?

Orange County Superior Court Judge McConville has canceled our Constitutional Republic

That’s right — we never have to worry about electing our representatives, participating in public meetings, or creating positive waves of change again because in one fell swoop Orange County Judge Thomas S. McConville has ruled that a dictator — I mean a “governor” — calls the shots.

Isn’t that great? We no longer have three separate branches of government; we only have ONE. We only need ONE tyrant, one slimy serpent who will tell you what to do. Why? Because Judge McConville (now, no jokes about his name…) SAID so.

According to McCONville, having one ultimate ruler dictate what the government does, instead of a legislative body making laws, is a much better way to run a country. This is what Mao did in China, Stalin did in Russia, and Hitler did in Germany… All of them paved the way for this kind of government, which is now in place because of Judge McCONville’s decision in my lawsuit. With the stroke of a pen, he just canceled our Constitutional Republic.

A quick refresher as to my simple, factual and open-and-shut petition to the court: California Health and Safety Code 101080 requires each county to hold PUBLIC HEARINGS to determine whether or not to continue or terminate the local health emergency. In fact, this law was written to describe what should be done in an emergency. The County says it doesn’t have to follow this law because — wait for it — “it’s an emergency!”

That’s like saying you don’t have to stop at a stop sign, because, well… it’s a STOP sign!

Perfect logic for these brainiacs! Their intellectual prowess towers over ours, so of course we can’t understand it.

But our forefathers did. You see, they knew that the accumulation of power in one serpent’s hands may lead to enslavement, totalitarianism, authoritarianism, communism, and every other “ISM” that runs counter to our God-given need for liberty. To prevent this, our founding fathers devised a political system so novel that it remains unmatched even today. No other nation has the same political structure as the United States DID. Yes, once upon a time, the United States functioned as a Constitutional Republic. Unfortunately, there are many (like McConville, Newsom, Chau and others) who fail to recognize the difference between a Constitutional Republic and a democracy (code for socialism). I wrote an entire substack about this topic here.

Our Constitution (which used to exist) deemed the legislative branch so vital that it was described first in our Constitution. The reason, I believe, that the framers of our Constitution described the Legislative Body in such great detail, down to how many representatives and senators there are, when they are elected, what their powers are, what they aren’t, when you can get rid of them, and so on, is that no other country in the world had such a system. All previous kinds of government were ruled by a single individual.

The founding fathers settled on a system of checks and balances with three separate branches of government so that power wouldn’t be concentrated in the wrong hands — but that system has been thrown out the window by a (corrupt did you say?) superior court judge in California.

You see, he ruled that the County government is unnecessary, and that the governor gets to call all the shots. No more need for pesky meetings and public testimony. In fact, following McCONville’s logic, all elected officials and government boards are superfluous. Just listen to the governor instead and do what he tells you!

That means you won’t need to attend these local meetings to promote transparency in government. Judge McConville has ruled that the meetings are unnecessary and totally streamlined the process. In his decision (issued on April 6), he made it clear that we don’t have to do all these public hearings. Why should a local Board of Supervisors take public input into consideration?

According to McConville, this board is completely powerless anyway; the governor has all the authority to tell them what to do. Yes, the governor will instruct you on what to do, that much is for certain. Amazing! There will only be one ruler. With this decision, Judge McConville has changed the course of history.

Perhaps my own fatal flaw was that I relied on TRUTH. On REALITY. On the FACTS. On the LAW.

Apparently the law doesn’t matter. That is why for the last three years they never used the word “law” they used their favorite word… “MANDATE”

You’re mandated to stay home

You’re mandated to close your business

You’re mandated to keep your kids out of school

You’re mandated to suffocate yourself

You’re mandated to have a nasal rape

You’re mandated to become a human pin cushion if you want to keep your job, travel, or participate in society

Yes, they LOVE that word “MANDATE” and they never used the word “law” because none of it was ever a law.

As mentioned previously, we won the lawsuit in September of 2022 and Judge Lee ruled in my favor and ordered the county to HOLD a meeting… and guess what? They never did. And they didn’t even get a slap on the wrist, but now I know it’s because of this new great system in which their votes don’t matter, their meetings don’t matter, because Judge McConville stated the governor can tell the county what to do. That must mean the President can tell Congress what to do. He did away with that pesky, outdated constitutional republic and is bringing in a lot more streamlined, democratic, socialist, totalitarian one-person rule.

So strange that he ordered this because just a few weeks prior, Judge McConville ruled in our favor also. He admitted, in his tentative ruling, that the County had violated California law by NOT holding a public meeting. But, since the Governor declared the emergency was “over”, that was good enough for McConville! That’s like saying you don’t have to pay the parking tickets you got for parking at the red curb, because in the meantime, the curb got painted white! McConville should be pitied for not having the intellectual capacity to understand that the law must be upheld, regardless of what the governor says.

Here’s the kicker: Orange County is still in a COVID EMERGENCY. IT HAS NOT ENDED. CA law requires that this Board have a public meeting and VOTE to terminate the emergency. Instead, their county attorney just issued in internal “memo” saying the Governor ended the STATE of Emergency. These dingbats don’t even understand the difference between a state of emergency and a local emergency. Legislative action does not come from a memorandum from the county attorney.

Yes, I do plan on an appeal because we have already gone this far and the corruption is so pervasive, that I have to see this through.

If you would like to tell Judge McConville what you think of his ruling, this is the case info:

Court: Superior Court of Orange County, Department C28

County: Orange County

Name of Case and Case Number:

Hall v. County of Orange

2021-01220678

An official act of a Board of Supervisors can only be performed in a regularly or specially convened meeting. (See Gov. Code § 54952.2 et seq.) The individual members have no power to act for the county merely because they are members of the Board of Supervisors; rather, meetings of the Board of Supervisors are subject to the restrictions of the Ralph M. Brown Act. (Ibid.)

The county Board of Supervisors approved the local health emergency, and they must also approve its termination. A county attorney’s memorandum is not a lawful substitute for the legislative process.

About the Author, Aria Morgan

Aria Morgan is the Managing Editor of Free Now Foundation. Aria is a passionate and accomplished editor with a diverse background in writing for various industries, including music, film, health and yoga, and with published covers and feature credits in national magazines. Aria is dedicated to protecting civil rights and promoting health and medical freedom, and is thrilled to be a part of the Free Now Foundation team.