Shelley Luther owns a Dallas Salon and had to open her shop to feed her family. Likewise, her employees need to feed their families. She opened minutes after Governor Abbott okayed the opening of salons. All her employees had masks and were stationed 6 feet apart. She also had sanitizer stations available.
She was ordered by Judge Moye to apologize to him and remain closed. Ms. Luther refused and he imprisoned her for a week, while saddling her with oppressive fines. She was immediately taken into custody.
The Texas attorney general sent a letter urging the Dallas judge to free Ms. Luther. He said she was “unjustly jailed.” He also called it a “misguided abuse of power.”
Well, the judge’s little ego was offended, after all.
Shelley Luther should immediately be released from jail. Locking her up is a misguided abuse of power, especially considering Dallas County released real criminals to “protect them from COVID-19.”
Release her now so she can return to her family. pic.twitter.com/67KrhQBEyf
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) May 6, 2020
As a mother, Ms. Luther wanted to feed her children,” Paxton said in his letter. “As a small business owner, she wanted to help her employees feed their children. Needless to say, these are laudable goals that warrant the exercise of enforcement discretion.”
Luther was given three choices by the judge: She could offer an apology for selfishness, pay a fine and shutdown until Friday, or serve jail time.
He apparently didn’t like her polite response. “I have to disagree with you, sir, when you say that I’m selfish because feeding my kids is not selfish,” she told the judge. “I have hairstylists that are going hungry because they would rather feed their kids. So sir, if you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with your decision. But I am not going to shut the salon.”
Governor Abbott agrees:
“I join the Attorney General in disagreeing with the excessive action by the Dallas Judge, putting Shelley Luther in jail for seven days,” Abbott said. “As I have made clear through prior pronouncements, jailing Texans for non-compliance with executive orders should always be the last available option. Compliance with executive orders during this pandemic is important to ensure public safety; however, surely there are less restrictive means to achieving that goal than jailing a Texas mother.”
Texas Senator Curz also commented:
7 days in jail for cutting hair?? This is NUTS. And government officials don’t get to order citizens to apologize to them for daring to earn a living. https://t.co/3rulRlN0gE
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 6, 2020
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Misguided abuse of power? Try “Criminal abuse of power.”
Give me Liberty or I will bring you Death.
So sad. When I joined the service I had to raise my right hand to promise that I would obey all lawful orders and that I would defend the constitution of the united states against …. (and here it gets dicey) foreign and domestic… threats. Well folks, we got a lot of domestic threats against the constitution. You know that living document that doesn’t really mean what it says… yaaaa that old piece of parchment… So we now have law enforcement flagrantly disregarding the constitution for a paycheck… dumb… cuz when that old scrap of paper no longer is relevent.. guess what???? yup your now screwed toooo.
Barry: This is exactly why we are where we are today. Different strokes for different folks. The lady is supposed to be blind when she deals out Justice… but she is not.
Government officials rarely punish each other. That’s one of their unspoken rules – kinda like cops very rarely give another cop a speeding ticket. They’re above the law. Only common citizens get punished.
Mr. Ripley,
You are 101% spot on ! Two sets of laws….one for der untermenschen and one for TPTB.
Since this is in Dallas, a hotbed of leftists as I understand, it’s not politically prudent to take too drastic of actions, although warranted. I could imagine near riots if he was pulled off the bench.
They would have to arrest all the rioters for congregating.
The judge would let them all back out. The AG said earlier that a crime of 750 would not face justice, so it tells the state in which Dallas is in. The sheriff was pretty animated on how serious he took the matter.
The police acted as shamefully as this tyrannical judge. Without the jackboots to enforce this unconstitutional nonsense the judge would have been a non-starter. “I’m just following orders” simply isn’t acceptable.
her apologize to the judge?? for what?? maybe she called him what he really is!! trying to feed her kids?? like he is the all mighty that sits there and receives his pay whether he hits a lick at a snake or not!! that is some sorry crap!!! sorry no morals SOB!!