Although I have started a new video channel on Rumble, “Two Old men in Chairs,” and kept up a torrid pace of posts to social media, I just realized that I have not yet written a comprehensive account of my federal law suit in this blog. The case “Strong v. Zucker” was first filed in the Western District of New York in Rochester on Aug. 10, 2021.
Howard Zucker was the infamous Director of the NYS Health Department who resigned shortly after his partner-in-crime Andrew Cuomo did in August. Since I sued him in his “official capacity,” the lawsuit lives on against whomever the next Commissioner is.
The impetus of the suit were Emergency Regulations decreed in July by Emperor Andy that among other things said that Vaccinated people could stop wearing masks, while those dirty Unvaxxed people had to keep wearing them. This annoyed me because I already had Covid in Nov. 2020, and therefore had decided that I didn’t need a jab because I had “Natural Immunity.” I also had known from my reading that the jab was not really stopping people from getting and spreading the virus, it was never intended to.
My lawsuit was filed under Sec. 1983 of the federal code alleging that the regulations were a violation of my rights to Equal Protection under the 14th Amendment. In September I received a call from an Attorney from the state Attorney General’s office, who defends these suits, informing me that the regulations I had complained of had been repealed.
I was surprised to hear this since there had been no media coverage about it. That seemed to be intentional, because looking at the NYS Health Department web site, there was no announcement of the changes and our new Governor was mum on the subject. Quite diabolical! Repeal the regs so you don’t have to defend them in court, but don’t tell the people so they keep complying.
The AG lawyer also told me, to my surprise, that there was another similar lawsuit filed in the same court against the same regs by another Livingston County resident. The case of Ouweleen v. Zucker was filed just 5 days before mine by Will Ouweleen, proprietor of the Eagle Crest winery in Conesus.
The AG offered me a deal. If I wanted to file an amended complaint, she would agree to that so long as I gave her 60 days to respond (instead of the usual 30). Otherwise she was going to move to have my complaint thrown out as moot. I took the deal and filed an amended complaint on Oct. 13. That complaint can be found here: http://www.geneseegraphics.com/AmendedcomplaintStrongvZucker.pdf
Will’s suit had been handled by the Gibson Law firm of Ithaca, who was being funded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Childen’s Health Defense group. The attorney, Sujata Gibson, was an experienced Civil Rights litigator, something I most definitely am not, so I was able to borrow freely from her complaint to beef up my legal arguments, especially with respect to the illegality of coercing the jab under the Nuremberg Code and numerous other international, national and state laws and regulations.
Since the regs were repealed (at least temporarily) I focused my attack on New York’s Excelsior Pass system and continued discrimination against the Unvaxxed with requirements for extra testing. The Pass is designed to be used to bar the Unvaxxed from certain venues and I argued this made no sense under the existing science, especially for those of us with “Natural Immunity.” Not to mention that it was a high-tech version of what the Nazis tried back in the 1930s-40s.
As some know, I was admitted to the bar in NY back in 1981 and practiced for about 4 years before “retiring” about 35 years ago. For purposes of this lawsuit, I am considered to be acting “pro se,” (on one own’s behalf and without an attorney.) I had never been a litigator, much less in federal court, so for the last 6 months I have been giving myself a crash course in Constitutional Law and Civil Procedure, two subjects I last studied over 40 years ago at Albany Law School.
Despite pleas on social media for an attorney to assist me, I have had no help yet, so everything is being done on a steep learning curve. Fast forward to Dec, 9, 2021, just 3 days before the answer was due to my amended complaint, when I was again contacted by the AG attorney asking for a 30 day extension. Figuring that the Judge would probably grant it anyway just a few weeks before Christmas I agreed.
The very next day on Friday Dec. 10, Gov. Jokel kicked over the apple cart by announcing a new set of “Emergency” regulations. The new emergency was said to be a result of hospital bed shortages (which were actually a result of mandated firing of Unvaxxed health workers), and the supposed lethal threat of the new variety Omnicron, (which so far hasn’t killed anybody!)
In my opinion the new regs were worse than the ones I originally objected to in July, because now the state was encouraging businesses to check for vaccination cards at the door (or the handy Excelsior Pass), and then bar those who were not vaxxed, while the blessed Vaccinated could cavort inside without masks!
This double pissed me off, and I worked all the following weekend fashioning a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and/or a Preliminary Injunction against these latest regs which I filed on Monday Dec. 13. Here is a link to that motion: http://www.geneseegraphics.com/TRO-1.pdf
Again, being somewhat of an amateur in this field, I was unaware that under Rule 65 of the Federal Procedure, I was supposed to also file a legal memorandum in support of the motion, a list of expert witnesses and what they will testify to, and a proposed order in the unlikely result that I might actually win my injunction. The Judge gave me an extra week until Dec. 27 to correct the record and I worked non-stop through Christmas meeting the deadline.
By this time, I had signed up for PACER, the Federal Court database of all paperwork filed in all courts in the country. Let’s just say I borrowed liberally from the work of many fine attorneys around the country. I also dug into many law review articles, particularly on when the so-called “Strict Scrutiny” standard of proof would apply to the state.
I had figured out that if the less rigorous “Rational Basis” standard was applied, I would probably lose my case, because the courts show great deference to the State’s right to manage public health. In order to get to “Strict Scrutiny” I had to show that the state was infringing on a “fundamental right.” Can there be anything more fundamental than the right to participate in society and be free from having your body invaded with an experimental gene therapy?
There was another road to “strict scrutiny” which I explored as well. If I could show that the Unvaxxed were being discriminated against because of prejudice or hostility, the court might take a closer look. Luckily for me, but perhaps unfortunate for all of us, Government officials have been less and less circumspect in tarnishing the Unvaxxed lately.
From the President implying we are all unpatriotic, to the Governor giving a sermon in a Brooklyn church telling the folks that the Unvaxxed were “Not listening to God” and were “Not smart,” the denigrating of the Unvaxxed has been steadily increasing. Not only are we being increasingly barred from travel, work, bars, restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues, but now the medical profession is starting to limit medical care for the Unvaxxed! This is starting to look a lot like Medical Apartheid.
Finally I did my best to destroy the precedent value of the landmark case of Jacobson vs. Massachusetts decided in 1905, that some modern courts are clinging to. In this case from the horse and buggy days of medicine, Mr. Jacobson was found guilty of breaking a law that required smallpox vaccination. The Supreme Court affirmed his $5 fine.
It’s a long was from a $5 fine to the system of enforced vaccination today in which those found guilty of being Unvaxxed these days are penalized by a form of medical segregation. Besides that, medical technology has changed so much, that it unlikely that the court could have foreseen gene therapy being described as a “vaccine.”
In any case, all those points and more are covered in my legal memorandum at:
http://www.geneseegraphics.com/TRO-1.pdf
As for my expert witness, I decided that I only needed one, The Great Dr. Peter McCullough, a Dallas cardiologist who may be the world’s foremost practicing physician on Covid-19 and the dangers of the vaccine, having published more than 60 medical papers on the subject. My filing about him and what I expect him to testify to is here:
www.geneseegraphics.com/expert.pdf
The Judge has ordered the State to respond to both my Amended Complaint and my Motion by Jan. 12. The AG’s attorney was not happy about that, and is trying to get more time, but so far, the Judge has not granted it. I have some reason for hope, only because I drew Judge David Larimer, who is the senior judge in the Rochester region, a conservative appointed by Ronald Reagan.
We shall see. I will update this post as things develop.
The Clarion Call 