A conservative group named Tennessee Stands put up billboards in various Tennessee cities encouraging people to return to normal and stop wearing face masks.
This comes after they filed a lawsuit against Governor Bill Lee and insisted his lockdown orders were unconstitutional. The billboards read “Your Compliance is prolonging this nightmare. Ditch the mask.”
Founder Danielle Goodrich led the effort in three cities with an attempt to allow kids to attend in person school and not require them to wear masks. Goodrich told The Federalist that Americans should not have to “bow down to these absurd, slavish, and oppressive rules, which the government doesn’t have the authority to do.”
“The government can’t tell you not to work,” Goodrich also said. “You need to eat. These are unalienable rights. The government’s only purpose is to uphold and protect the unalienable rights of the people, not to infringe upon them.”
The group filed against Governor Lee in August, claiming that giving him emergency powers and ability to grant these powers to counties is unconstitutional.
State law allows governors to “assume direct operational control” in a declared emergency with no oversight from the legislature. The group believes this law gives Lee too much power and lets him overstep unnecessarily.
Tennessee Stands plans to add billboards in Knoxville next, shortly followed by Nashville. Outside groups from states such as Kansas and Arizona have also contacted them asking to use the billboard design and incorporate their own logos.
“I hope this encourages people that are tired of complying with arbitrary rules that there are other people like them,” said executive director Gary Humble.
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