Retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax on Monday that the federal government has made it "nearly impossible" for itself to be held accountable for "its own misbehavior."
Case in point: Marine veteran Lance Cpl. Catherine Arnett, who was kicked out of the service for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine and then arrested and detained for 113 days for alleged trespassing. Arnett stood on principle and resisted an unlawful order.
"Rule number one: it is unlawful to obey an unlawful order. And when the military is giving unlawful orders, you are complying with the Uniform Code of Military Justice by disobeying it," Napolitano said on "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE." "Now, sometimes you have to face the consequences, and sometimes it takes a courageous federal judge to free you from those consequences.
"Does the government have the power to order you to be vaccinated? In my view, absolutely not. Not the civilians, not the military, not to police, not to EMS, not the firefighters, not to anybody. They do have the obligation to keep you employed and find you a position where it doesn't matter to their needs if you've been vaccinated or not. But that's not what happened. What happened was horror stories like this Marine in Japan," he added.
"How this will end, if she'll get her job back, if she'll get her salary back, I can't predict," Napolitano told Higbie. "Except this brings you and me back to a place that neither of us wants to go: for the most part, the government has made it nearly impossible to sue the government for the consequences of its own misbehavior. You can thank the Congress for that."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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