Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) was a featured speaker at the Federalist Society’s convention in Florida late last week. DeSantis participated in a “fireside chat” with former President Donald J. Trump’s White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany.
During the conversation, DeSantis criticized judges and justices for not correctly enforcing constitutional law regarding illegal immigration.
“I kind of feel that it’s always our side where you will have somebody just not have the fortitude or the backbone to faithfully apply the law and Constitution in situations in which it will not be popular with the elite rung of our society, where you will get smeared by corporate media, where you will have law professors screeching and all of this other stuff,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis lauded the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and current Justice Clarence Thomas.
“You know, someone like Justice (Clarence) Thomas, (the late Justice Antonin) Scalia, they didn’t give a damn what any of those other people thought and I think they were better justices as a result,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis was asked by McEnany about his approach to First Amendment religious liberty policies during the COVID pandemic, when numerous governors across the country shut down churches and houses of worship.
“You do not throw people’s rights out the window and that was just something we didn’t want to do,” DeSantis said. “Particularly when you saw states closing houses of worship but liquor stores could operate, strip clubs, you name it. And I just saw that as being something that was very dangerous.”
The governor continued by addressing the narrative around the COVID pandemic and the seeming inability to question the orthodoxy of a pro-lockdown approach.
“It seemed like the narrative was no one could talk about individual rights. It’s all about lockdown. You can’t have an open state. You can’t have kids in school. You can’t do all that,” DeSantis said. “We viewed it the opposite. The default needs to be freedom.”
DeSantis summarized his other positions through the pandemic, such as protecting individuals’ rights to decline the COVID shot and restrictions in schools.
“In Florida what we did is say you’re not going to have to choose between a jab and your job. We’re going to protect you. We’re going to make sure that you’re able to earn a living and that you can exercise your rights,” he said. “If it wasn’t for me, the kids would have been locked out of school in 2020 in the state of Florida. That’s just the reality … . We stood in the breach. We fought back. We stood up for our kids and now people are trying to rewrite history, saying ‘Oh, no, no … everyone wanted the schools open.’ That is just not true. And so we were right on that and they were grievously, grievously wrong.”
– – –
Grant Holcomb is a reporter at The Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
Photo “Ron DeSantis” by Federal Government of the United States of America. Background Photo “Person in Mask” by Jill Carlson. CC BY 2.0.
.jpg){kind=link}