LIHU‘E — A local group has filed a complaint in federal district court against the County of Kaua‘i, Mayor Derek Kawakami and Gov. David Ige, claiming the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 800,000 Americans to date “is a manufactured public-health event.”
For Our Rights, a Kaua‘i-based nonprofit opposed to vaccines that alleges the pandemic is the result of a conspiracy, accuses the defendants of violating plaintiffs’ civil rights through emergency proclamations mandating public mask use, travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders.
The 91-page civil complaint asks the court to grant money damages, injunctive and declaratory relief against Ige’s emergency proclamations, and end statewide COVID-19 protocols For Our Rights alleges are unconstitutional.
“COVID-19 is but a pretext by defendants to establish despotic totalitarian state control through the sacrifice of fundamental constitutional rights under the guise of ‘health, safety and welfare,’” the For Our Rights complaint contends.
The filing, made Dec. 12, came two days after the state Department of Health issued its latest announcement on the spread of the coronavirus variant omicron on O‘ahu, where 12 cases have been detected.
State health officials report omicron exhibits traits indicating it is even more transmissible than the delta variant that surged throughout Hawai‘i this past summer.
DOH advises residents to wear face masks and avoid large crowds, noting vaccines and boosters appear to slow the spread of the omicron variant and are effective in preventing severe illness.
Nine named individuals, in addition to 100 others “who may be joined to (the) lawsuit at a later date,” join the group as plaintiffs.
Four of the named plaintiffs, which include For Our Rights CEO Levana Lomma, are residents of Kaua‘i. The remainder hail from O‘ahu, Hawai‘i Island, Maui, Missouri and California.
A spokesperson said the county had not yet received the complaint when approached by The Garden Island for comment Wednesday.
Anti-mandate
cards disputed
Lomma addressed For Our Rights’ religious exemption cards in an October conversation with The Garden Island.
The cards, which sell for $12 on the For Our Rights website, claim wearers are legally exempt from wearing face coverings, temperature-taking, viral testing and vaccination under protections from discrimination in the federal Civil Rights Act. The cards also claim businesses that refuse to provide service may place themselves at risk of being prosecuted.
For Our Rights has sold “probably hundreds” of the cards across Hawai‘i, according to Lomma, who said demand for the cards is high.
But users don’t always meet with success when displaying the cards at businesses that limit access to customers following COVID-19 protocols.
“We don’t make any kind of guarantees that it will work for them in all situations … there’s a lot of establishments that have just set their stance that they’re going to follow the governor’s mandates and rules and orders above other federal laws which, ultimately, I have to say, can and probably will lead to legal action against them, if people feel so inclined to do so,” Lomma said at the time, in an apparent reference to the Dec. 12 complaint.
Lomma herself often does not use her religious-exemption card in public. She disclosed she has a medical exemption from a doctor that prohibits mask use.
Attorney Jeffrey Harris, a business-law specialist who argued employers should enact vaccine mandates when addressing the Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce this summer, said For Our Rights’ religious-exemption cards “are a fraudulent attempt to sabotage public safety.”
“Retail businesses are entitled to deny service to unvaccinated individuals unless accommodating disability causes less-than-substantial burden or expense, or accommodating religion causes less-than-minimal burden or expense,” he said in an email.
“Even if an accommodation may meet one of those tests, allowing unvaccinated persons to have contact with other individuals will likely directly threaten the others. Any mode of operation a retail store follows which allows that to happen on their premises risks workers-compensation claims by its employees and tort claims by its employees and customers who are allegedly infected as a result.”
•••
Scott Yunker, reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or syunker@thegardenisland.com.
What a scary embarrassment to Kaua’i this uneducated anti-vaxxer is especially now with new variant which is undeniably going to raise Covid cases. IMHO any and all local politicians currently in her corner should be asked to step down.
I feel badly for the sick, mis-guided “For Our Rights” folks.
How bizarre to think that the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 800,000 Americans (soon to be over 1,000,000 souls ) “is a manufactured public-health event.”
They allege that the pandemic is the result of a conspiracy. Do they really think that all the leaders of all the nations of the world are in on the game?
Talk about a waste of time and spreading mis-information that can kill innocent people!
I wonder how many of these folks also believe that climate change is a hoax. It is time they took their heads out of the sand and face reality.
Totally agree…. Well put
Can’t wait for the defendants counter suits of fraud and public nuisance…. against the conspiracy theorists packing bull horns and bs in blatant disregard for Hawai’ian people.
I have known RADICAL anti vac folks to die from the virus, leaving families devastated not relieved to the extent of the fraudulent misinformation that proves only how delusional people are.
“… claiming the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 800,000 Americans to date ‘is a manufactured public-health event.'” Nicely put.
Ridiculous, of course. All I can think, and from what we are learning daily, is that Omicron is going to infect virtually everyone and if you are not vaccinated we are back to taking your chances. All about choice, except by denying you are potentially sending someone to Wilcox.
What about the thousands who are immunized from delta all year?!
I looks like Kurt Andersen will have to append quite a few addenda to his barely 4-year-old “Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History” to encompass the bumper crop of mass insanity and hysteria sweeping across America even more rapidly than Omicron.
Waste of everybody’s time.
Everyone who wants to get the Covid shot should get the Covid shot! Everyone! But there is nothing in the Constitution to allow for Government to champion a somewhat ineffective “vaccine for all” under any circumstances! The 1905 U.S. Supreme Court ruling during the “Smallpox was killing almost everyone who got it” era applied to real vaccines that “Prevented” disease. What we have for Covid is not one of those! The CDC actually changing the definition of a “vaccine” in 2019 to only “Helps Protect Against a disease”, because the 118-year-old “Prevents Disease” definition didn’t fit their shot, will not stand up!
The People’s Constitution was written to prevent Government from usurping unjust power over its individual citizens. Believe me, if there was a pathogen like Smallpox that killed half of the people who got it, and there was a vaccine that prevented it like the smallpox, typhoid, measles etc. “vaccines”, 100% of us would be sleeping on sidewalks 6 ft. apart to hold our positions in line to get the real “vaccine”! It would be the people’s obvious and unanimous choice! Anyone who takes that same stance on a pathogen that kills almost no healthy individuals up to the age of 80, the “Science” has only produced a disappointing shot that doesn’t fit the definition of a real “vaccine”, doesn’t prevent anyone from getting the virus, doesn’t prevent anyone from spreading the virus around, doesn’t last any longer than a few months, and doesn’t work on variants very well, is not something 100% of the people would sleep on sidewalks for! Anyone who tries to mandate a new and disappointing shot, cajole others to take it or else, or who denigrates anyone for refusing to go along with a Government that has been demonstrating in many ways over the past several years to be corrupted, should stop, think, and realize the slippery slope they’re trying to force everyone, including themselves, to stand on.
Ahh, love to read common sense comments!! Perfectly said!
Why don’t these people use their money to fight for something more realistic, say, like food for kupuna?
“Four of the named plaintiffs, which include For Our Rights CEO Levana Lomma, are residents of Kaua‘i. The remainder hail from O‘ahu, Hawai‘i Island, Maui, Missouri and California.”
So they have no problem wasting County & State funds on this nonsense, including some from out of State, but can’t comply with the simple requirement of wearing a mask around others. Just goes to show how little respect they have for residents, and the limited medical resources in Hawai’i.
This article neglected to mention that ‘For Our Rights’ is also selling fraudulent Medical Exemption cards on their website. Only medical professionals are entitled to issue medical exemptions. They’re not Doctors, so I hope that will be addressed legally in the near future.
We all have COVID fatigue, but it’s people like Levana, and her ilk, that make this harder than it has to be with their constant denial. Yawn. They should all move to Florida where DeSantis would welcome them – maskless, with open arms!
Let’s be real and be clear. Why are the vaccinated folks so worried about or terrified of their unvaccinated neighbors? If you are vaccinated and wear your smother device you should be protected, yeah? Florida seems to be doing awfully well. I wonder if we are so far out from the rest of society if the brainwashing is much easier here. I had the coronavirus and was just fine. I’ve also been hearing a lot of stories of others who had the virus and it was asymptomatic or like a flu for them. Did you happen to see the news story a month or so ago about the Amish population saying they weren’t aware of COVID-19 because they don’t watch the tv. They said they all probably had the virus and just rested and took their herbs. The simple people of the world are confounding the “wise”. If there were no news there would not have been a pandemic.
Thank you
I Couldn’t agree with you more. Kai.
Turn off
Your TVs stop being sucked in and brainwashed i
I walk in faith not fear And I
Believe GOd has a plan for each and everyone of us
when it’s my time it’s my Time
Oh, I forgot to add: Mahalo nui loa to Mayor Kawakami here on Kauai and all the brilliant scientists and health care experts who have worked tirelessly in an attempt to salvage the best possible outcome of this pandemic. It’s such a shame they have been hampered every step of the way by groups such as For Our Rights who try to disguise their own self-centered ignorance as some sort of fight for freedom. Whose freedom? Certainly not mine or my family and friends, some of whom have died of COVID. I wonder if any of you “deniers” will still be denying the reality of this scourge if you find yourselves (God forbid) desperately trying to suck your last breaths of precious life out of a ventilator in a lonely hospital room.
Remember that your Health is only in your own hands! Government, doctors, scientists are all secondary and can not make anyone healthy! Please educated yourself, exercise, breath fresh air, eat healthy foods, stay positive and strong and you won’t get sick. If you get a virus or flu or re-branded flu “covid”: rest, hydrate, use powerful natural remedies.
If you let government (pretending to be doctors and to care about you) create an emergency to take away your freedom, they will always have a state of emergency to keep you enslaved!
Look what happened to “14 days to stop the spread”… what day are we on now?
America is country of the Free! Be proud of that and stand for Freedom!
Medical Freedom is Important! There is So much information on this if only it weren’t censored! Check out the book “The Real Anthony Fauci” There are many Doctors and scientists that have documented Everything!