Hotze et. al. v Abbott deals with three major issues. First, it challenges the constitutionality of Governor Abbott’s executive orders, which locked down and regulated most business activities in Texas and banned and then regulated church worship services. Secondly, it challenges the constitutionality of Abbott’s surveillance and contact tracing program. Thirdly, it seeks monetary damages for regulatory inverse condemnation of businesses.
Abbott violated the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by issuing a series of executive orders and implementing a surveillance and contact tracing program for COVID-19. These orders violated the First Amendment rights of free exercise of religion, and the right of the people to peaceably assemble. These orders also violated the Fifth
Amendment rights of Texans by depriving them of their liberty and property rights without just compensation, and their Fourteenth Amendment rights of equal protection under the law by choosing which businesses would be considered essential and which would be considered non-essential. Abbott denied Texans due process under the law.
Abbott’s surveillance and contact tracing program violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by allowing surveillance of citizens without a warrant. This program also violates the First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments’ rights to peaceable assembly, due process, and equality under the law.
Contact tracing is used to trace, track, monitor, and investigate personal contacts of COVID-19 infected persons in order to notify them of their exposure and to take action to allegedly prevent the spread of the disease. Contact tracing requires the quarantine of contacts, including forced detention, of individuals, most of whom are healthy. This tracking of Texan residents includes their social activities, religious attendance, and their participation in school. This will allow the state to build a public registry for future mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations. The surveillance and contact tracing program is mandatory. There is no means for any Texan to opt out of this surveillance, as others will be asked to report on everyone with whom they have been in contact, without regard to the privacy rights of those who do not want to be surveilled.
Who would want to eat at a restaurant, or shop at a store, knowing that a satellite is tracking your every move as well as everyone with whom you come within six feet of contacting? One day, some government contact tracer may visit your home and tell you that you must quarantine yourself because you came within six feet of someone at Home Depot, whom you didn’t even know, who ended up with a COVID-19 infection. You can understand how businesses will suffer a loss of clientele in this situation. New COVID-19 deaths are falling across Texas, across
the U.S. and around the world. COVID-19 is running out of steam. We sure don’t need contact tracing now. The government can only want contact tracing to be able to monitor and control you in the future.
This is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by allowing government surveillance of citizens without a warrant. The constitutionally protected rights of peaceable assembly, due process, and equal protection under the law have also been violated.
When Abbott shut down businesses, he deprived business owners of their liberty and property without due process. This is the basis of the claim for damages for regulatory inverse condemnation.
The manufactured COVID-19 crisis is the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the American public. Unfortunately, most Americans swallowed the bait, hook, line and sinker. Irrational fear, mass hysteria and panic ensued among the population. They were easily convinced to give up their constitutional rights and liberties for a false sense of security and safety.
The purpose of government is not to protect your health, the purpose of government is to protect your God-given, unalienable constitutionally protected rights.
With the exception of those with pre-existing conditions, every Texan should go back to work, back to school, and back to church. Let the virus run its course, so that the population can build herd immunity.