Two Rules of Law

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New York mayor Bill de Blasio is justifying his ban on public religious services while giving a pass to rioters, claiming comparing the two is a case of "apples and oranges."

Last month, a federal court ruled de Blasio and New York governor Andrew Cuomo violated the Constitution by restricting public religious services during pandemic-related lockdown measures, saying the civil leaders "openly discouraged religious gathering and threatened religious worshipers ... [and] sent a clear message that mass protests are deserving of preferential treatment."

De Blasio denied the charge in a recent interview: "The protests were an entirely different reality — a national phenomenon that was not something that the government could just say, you know, go away ... and obviously had profound meaning, and we're all acting on the meaning of those protests."

The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the government cannot prohibit the free exercise of religion.

The same amendment guarantees "the right of the people peaceably to assemble" — not violently.

Critics are alarmed by de Blasio's dual set of rules, one that disregards religious liberty and another that approves burning, rioting, looting and — in some cases — murdering or maiming.

Chirlane McCray: "In 1979 I'm a struggling writer ... I identified myself as a gay woman ... I just felt it was important for gay women to hear my voice ... ."

Mayor de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, made headlines in October 2019 for her own double standards with the Constitution.

McCray excluded St. Francis Xavier Cabrini in a statue project called, "She Built NYC." That project, ostensibly to honor women, includes Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, two gay and transgender activists who identified as "drag queens."

As a jab at Lady McCray, the diocese of Brooklyn included Mother Cabrini in the Columbus Day parade.

McCray once tweeted, "Immigration status doesn't determine a person's fundamental constitutional rights," which Catholics found particularly ironic since St. Cabrini, a woman, is the patron saint of immigrants and the first American citizen to be canonized.

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