When COVID struck Michigan five years ago, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued nearly 200 executive orders, enacting the longest and most severe restrictions in the Midwest.
Here’s a short list of some banned activities:
It’s hard to pick the most ridiculous COVID-era rule, attorney Nick Somberg told Michigan Capitol Confidential in a phone interview.
“The whole thing is going to go down as the most absurd, hypocritical, and largest government overreach of our time,” Somberg said.
The governor divided the population into essential and nonessential workers — those who were allowed to go to work and those who weren’t.
“Gov. Whitmer said, ‘You’re not allowed to landscape,’ but if you go to her mansion, it’s perfect,” Somberg said.
In 2020, Somberg weeded the lawn of the governor’s Lansing mansion and posed outside the Capitol with a 6-foot tape measure in protest. Passionately opposed to the government overreach, he spent the lockdown representing people charged with violating COVID orders.
Across Michigan, stores and government enforced the six-foot rule fabricated by Anthony Fauci, the New York Post reported.
The government imposed “this arbitrary number that if you’re outside six feet, you’re fine, but if you’re within six feet, you’re going to get COVID and die,” Somberg said. For every business or activity that was closed or banned, something very similar was allowed to remain open or proceed as usual.
Barbershops were closed, but chiropractors were open. Strip clubs in Lansing were open, but bowling alleys were shuttered. Michigan deemed marijuana dispensaries essential, but police raided a Lincoln Park gym for operating during the shutdown.
The rhyme or reason for certain bans was indiscernible, leading the Mackinac Center’s own Legal Foundation to join the fight.
