My Fight Against the Quarantine: The Backstory 

I was speaking at an event earlier this week, as I often do, with the intent of trying to educate the attendees about the authoritarian “Isolation & Quarantine Procedures” regulation that New York’s Governor, Kathy Hochul, and her Department of Health (DOH) snuck through, right under the noses of 19 million-plus New Yorkers. 

Over the course of the past several months that I have been fighting a legal battle to strike down this dystopian regulation, the reg has taken on a nickname of sorts. People refer to it as the “Quarantine Camp regulation.” 

Technically they are not wrong, as the regulation clearly gave the DOH the power to pick and choose which New Yorkers to forcibly lock up or lock down, for however long the government wanted, whether in your home or at a “facility” of their choosing, with your every move monitored and controlled by them. All that, without any proof that you actually had a communicable disease! 

Since the mainstream, legacy media is fully censoring any talk about my lawsuit and the reg in general, (see my prior article about the incredible censorship), more often than not, I am speaking to a crowd that has never heard about this wholly unconstitutional power grab of Executive Branch quarantine camps. As such, my speeches need to give audiences some detailed background information to set the stage.

My speech the other day was the standard format that I typically present, where I begin with describing Hochul’s abhorrent Quarantine Camp regulation, how I brought a lawsuit against Hochul and her DOH, the tricks they pulled and games they played to fight back against me, how I defeated them by winning little battles along the way, how the judge ultimately ruled in our favor striking down the reg as unconstitutional, and how Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James shamefully plan to appeal. 

I spoke in some detail about all this, to an audience full of people who (for the most part) had never heard about any of this. So after the shock of what I was describing to them dissipated a tad, as per usual, I was greeted with numerous questions. People always want to know: how I found out about this almost secret regulation? Have I been to any of the quarantine camps? Where are they located? What are the Governor’s and Attorney General’s chances of winning on appeal? And so on…

But this time, a woman in the audience asked me a question that, thus far, no other (non lawyer) has asked me. It was surprising, as I have been giving speeches and doing interviews on this topic for the better part of 2022, and I literally cannot count how many presentations, speeches, interviews, articles I have done to date. Yet, here she was with a quantitatively unique question.

 A question that pleased me because it showed that people are starting to understand how the game is played. “What game is that,” you ask? The game of catch-me-if-you-can. It’s played when the government is doing whatever it wants, however it wants, Constitution be damned, and they are waiting for a lawyer to dare to challenge them in court. They well know that to do so, the lawyer must have a plaintiff that has standing – something that can be difficult to establish. 

Alas, here was her question, “But how did you get standing to sue the Governor?” Such a clever question! Why? Because most people do not understand that you cannot just bring a lawsuit against the government because you do not like something that they did. You must have an injury, and then you can sue them for redress. If you do not have standing, your case will get thrown out of court without a judge ever considering the actual merits of your case. 

Standing is a confusing topic for many people, and rightfully so. Not only can it be confusing, it can be frustrating to citizens who want to take legal action. If I had a dollar for every time a person has asked me if I will sue over this or that thing that the government did, or is doing, or said they are thinking of doing, then I could easily fund my quarantine camp lawsuit, and many others! 

Putting it in another more familiar context, if someone steals your mother’s car, you cannot sue them, because you haven’t lost anything (it wasn’t your car that was stolen). Alternatively, if someone steals your car, now you can sue them because you have suffered an injury. This is called standing.

Reverting back to this woman’s question at this recent event, I happily explained to the crowd the legal theory I used to establish standing. Since Governor Hochul and her DOH were not yet pulling people out of their homes and forcing them into detention camps pursuant to this regulation, I could not use an injured, quarantined citizen as the plaintiff. So, I had to find others who were injured instead. I had to be really creative to establish standing another way. How I did that was by using the government against the government.

(The details on how I crafted this are not for an article, and are much better explained in a live presentation or speech, especially one that provides for Q&A afterwards. This was a private event the other day, so my speech was not taped. However, I will be doing an event open to the public which you can attend in person or virtually, on Saturday October 29th. It will be a terrific afternoon of speeches and Q&A by, not just me, but Senator George Borrello (the lead plaintiff on my quarantine camp lawsuit), Mayor Deb Rogers (who publicly stood up to this draconian regulation while I was fighting the Governor in court), and more! Seating and live Zooming is limited, so pre-registration is required. You can register HERE. There is a small fee to attend, as we try to raise some funds to help defray the costs of this lawsuit.)

At this private event the other day, one of the other speakers was my colleague, the brilliant author, founder of the innovative and brave Brownstone Institute, and one of the masterminds behind the Great Barrington Declaration, Jeffrey Tucker. After I had answered a round of questions in the Q&A, the audience was visibly both deeply engaged and utterly flabbergasted at the same time. We could see their minds churning this through… 

How could our government be so cruel so as to concoct a regulation that aims to forcibly isolate law-abiding citizens, and, as NYS Assemblyman Chris Tague says, “is reminiscent of actions taken by some of the ugliest tyrannical regimes history has ever known. It has no place standing as law here in New York, let alone anywhere in the United States.” 

Everyone’s minds kept reeling… 

And how could the government do this in the cloak of night, without a word to the public, almost in secret, such that unsuspecting citizens (and VOTERS) are unaware of this tragic assault on our basic human rights?!

There was a pregnant pause when I finished my last sentence, a strange silence fell over the room for just a few seconds, yet it seemed so much longer. Jeffrey broke the silence. All eyes were on him. “I want to point out that Bobbie Anne is not a lawyer with some large, well-established or well-funded, national, nonprofit law firm. On the contrary, she sued Governor Hochul and defeated her all by herself, and she did it pro bono.” 

Now all eyes shifted back to me. I explained to the audience that Jeffrey was correct, but then I went a step further and I shared with them the unknown fact that not only am I handling this case by myself, and doing it pro bono, but I had to essentially give up my successful law practice (which had taken me 20+ years to build up) in order to do this quarantine lawsuit. There was a collective gasp from the audience. 

This isn’t information I typically share. I don’t publicize the sacrifices I’ve made to bring, fight, and defend this quarantine camp lawsuit these past several months. Why not? Probably because I never thought it was an important fact for people to know. I think I figured it was just important that people knew that the reg existed, I fought it and won, and that they are now safe from unconstitutional, forced isolation and quarantines, unless and until Hochul appeals as she has vowed to do. 

But afterwards, before I left the event, a number of people came up to me to shake my hand and thank me, and they specifically told me that people need to hear the human side of my battle against authoritarian rule. They encouraged me to tell more people the hurdles I have jumped and the challenges I have surmounted in this fight to deny tyranny to a government that has spun out of control. They told me that by sharing this information, it will inspire others to get involved, to stand up, to take part, to also do great things for humanity. 

So this is why I have shared this with you – in the hope that it inspires you to get involved.

A version of this piece appeared on the author’s Substack