THE 100 REPORT
AG Schmitt files suit to block mask mandates in Missouri Schools
Attorney General Eric Schmitt sought to block school mask mandates from going into effect with a new motion filed in court Friday. Schmitt filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent Columbia Public Schools’ mask mandate and others like it from being enforced, citing the new state law requiring approval from governing bodies for a health order to extend beyond 30 days.
The lawsuit specifically names Columbia Public Schools (CPS) but encompasses other school districts that also impose a mask mandate. Schmitt has estimated at least 50 schools around the state had reinstated mask mandates. Schmitt also filed a class certification in an effort to bring the challenge to every school enforcing a mandate in Missouri.
The lawsuit, filed in Boone County Circuit Court, named CPS, its board, and its superintendent as defendants.
Read Full Story Here.
It’s time for another legislative response to Joe Biden
By Ron Calzone
All through his campaign for the presidency, candidate Joe Biden promised as president that he would use every tool at his disposal to curtail private gun ownership. As recently as April, President Biden told Congress, “I will do everything in my power to protect the American people from this epidemic of gun violence…”
The Missouri General Assembly and Gov. Mike Parson responded in kind by enacting the Second Amendment Preservation Act. Using the constitutionally sound “anti-commandeering doctrine,” SAPA seeks to starve the federal government of the state resources it would need to enforce the president’s plan to take away America’s most popular guns.
Now he is hell-bent on taking away Americans’ right to make personal health care decisions.
While announcing his plan to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine on the unwilling, Biden said, “This is not about freedom or personal choice.”
Back on March 11, he said, “I’m using every power I have as president of the United States to put us on a war footing to get the job done. It sounds like hyperbole, but I mean it: a war footing.”
War on our most fundamental rights.
His plans to force COVID-19 shots on federal employees and contractors, as well as coerce private industries to do the same, would be more at home in the communist country where the COVID-19 virus originated than in the “land of the free and home of the brave.”
The powers Biden seeks to use are not legitimate.
The powers the governor and General Assembly have to resist the president’s abuse of power ARE legitimate and constitutional.
The first and easiest state power to use is the same anti-commandeering doctrine we are using to fight Biden’s gun control plans. Refuse all state participation and cooperation in enforcing Biden’s mandates. Make it against Missouri law to use any state or local resources to help him violate the right of Missourians to decide for themselves whether they want the COVID-19 shot.
Then take it a step further. If Biden insists on punishing Missouri businesses that respect their employees’ right to make personal health care decisions, withhold cooperation with the feds in other areas. For instance, repeal the 1920s era statute that gives the federal government permission to buy Missouri real estate.
There are a lot of smart people among the 197 members of the Missouri House and Senate. Give them a chance, and they will come up with other ways to do what our state constitution says is “the principal office of government” — the protection of individual liberty.
Ron Calzone is a businessman and rancher in rural Maries County. For the past two and a half decades he has been an unpaid citizen activist spending a lot of time at the capitol. Ron is also one of the founding directors of Missouri First, a free-market, constitutionally-focused think tank.
Who's running for Missouri's open U.S. Senate seat in 2022?
With nearly 11 announced candidates between the democrats and republicans, and surely more to come, Missourians are busy trying to get to know who are their options to replace Roy Blunt as he retired from the U.S Senate. The Springfield News Leader has compiled the full list of candidates with a short synopsis of each. You can see the slate of candidates Here.
Biden must not abandon Afghanistan's Christians.
By Dr. Ben Carson.
Following the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, any semblance of pluralism, including religious tolerance, has fallen as well. We must not forget the Christian population of Afghanistan. The actual number of Christians is difficult to determine, as there are no official churches and Christians have historically faced hostility, leading them to worship largely in private. Now under the Taliban, who consider conversion from Islam apostasy punishable by death, Christians are bracing for targeted persecution. Still, we know there are approximately 10,000 Christians in the country. That's a number small enough that the entire Christian population could be eradicated if the Taliban wanted.Are we to rely upon the Taliban’s sense of mercy, the very existence of which is questionable? The Biden administration has refused to provide Afghan Christians with special status similar to that given to others at risk. Unlike those who enter our nation illegally, most of whom are facing no persecution, Christian Afghans face true persecution from the Taliban government. Indeed, they face death. Sadly, this is not the first instance of American ineptitude in regards to the Afghan Christian population. In 2008 the Department of Defense confiscated and destroyed Bibles shipped to Afghanistan for fear they might be used to evangelize Afghans. This is all while the State Department actively promotes radical feminism, Black Lives Matter, and the LGBT agenda. For the U.S. government, liberal evangelism is A-OK, but Christian evangelism is verboten.
Read the full Op-Ed Here.
In Case You Missed It: Marine Veteran and Defense of Liberty Founder Paul Curtman on Remembering 9-11
This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack on American soil that took the life of 2,977 people in just a matter of hours. Many more perished within weeks and many of the first responders that answered the cries for help coming from the victims have for years continued to suffer sickness and death as a result of the smoke and debris they through in a selfless act courage and commitment. Since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, there have been over 7,000 servicemen and women killed in these countries alone and many more have been injured. Couple these figures with the families of each of those – the moms and dads who saw their child off only to receive them home in a flag draped casket. Or the little boy or girl who will never see their dad come through the door of their room at night to comfort them after waking up from a bad dream. The terrorist didn’t just kill 2,977 people on September 11, 2001, they did something far worse – they set in motion a series of events that would cost thousands of lives, civilian and military, and change the course of those left alive for ever.
Today, we need to remember a few things. We need to remember the first responders who gave up their lives and everything in their life, to run into the flames. They didn’t care about the color of your skin and the people they were rescuing didn’t care about the color of theirs – this is something worth remembering in 2021 when we think about the chaos and bloodshed twenty years ago.
Read Paul’s full thoughts Here.