As the final hours of 2023 draw to a close, and the nascent hours of 2024 begin to emerge, I sit down to write my final article of this year. I must say that 2023 has been a tremendous “awakening” for me. When I say “awakening,” I mean that in a practical more than a philosophical way. As awakenings go, this one was pretty darn rude.
In short, this year I suffered the most significant and unbelievable legal upset of my 25-year-career thus far, when the New York State Appellate Division overturned my “quarantine camp” lawsuit victory over Governor Kathy Hochul and her Department of Health on a fabricated TECHNICALITY! (For anyone unfamiliar with this case, it’s Borrello v. Hochul, and you can get details on the case and its history from my recent Substack article, here).
It was an absolutely atrocious ruling, and a blatant kick in the teeth to every New Yorker, no matter your political affiliation or beliefs. You can read my article announcing the court’s decision here. Of course I am working diligently on appealing that calamitous decision, and in fact, I stayed home this past week while my family went on Christmas vacation so that I could work on the appeal since I am up against a deadline.
After the court’s ruling in November, I had to dig very deep. To be frank, it was really a test of character. How that court could rule that way after seeing how much this lawsuit means to the people of New York, was unfathomable. Approximately 400 people showed up to the Appellate Division courthouse back in September to hear me argue the case against the Governor’s shameful appeal of our 2022 victory. Four hundred people! In real life, nobody shows up to court hearings. Ever. Maybe folks might attend a trial if it’s a hot topic in the news cycle. But oral arguments? Not even in the movies. And yet, 400 of you came, on a work day, in the middle of the week.
The courtroom was packed, the hallway was packed, the atrium was packed, and there were some supporters who didn’t even get into the courthouse and instead watched the arguments on their phones outside on the courthouse steps. At the end of my oral argument presentation, these concerned and engaged New Yorkers gave me a thunderous standing ovation that went on for several minutes!
If you watch the court’s video playback of the oral arguments, you can see at the end the judges ask the bailiff to get everyone to stop applauding so they could continue on with the rest of their docket. (You can watch oral arguments here. You can watch a video of the photo collage made by photographer Manny Vaucher here. And you can read about my first-hand account of that momentous day here).
Click HERE to read the full article on the Brownstone Institute.