We need to set priorities!

Glenn Beck likes to compare President Obama to a magician by saying that we always have to watch what his other hand is doing. The powers that be have thrown so much at the liberty movement in the last year, that it is hard to know where to direct our efforts. This could be intentional. If we split ourselves into many different directions, none of us will be effective. 

One of my most persistent critics likens me to a "gerbil in a wheel, spitting out worthless posts about secession-is-just-around-the-corner almost daily," a comparison I find laughable, but one which could become apt if we fail to focus on priorities. 

As a business analyst, I have to recognize that there are three constraints to every project: time, cost, and people. You cannot cut all three at the same time. If you want something done faster, you need more people, more money, or both. If you cut costs or people, you will probably need more time. 

Applying this to Ohio's liberty movement, we need to ask – among the many urgent needs we have to regain our freedom, which should we tackle first?

I observe that we can express most of our requirements as pairs -- actions needed in Congress that can be complemented or replaced by state actions. I list these pairs below. Note that I am ignoring the state budget and SB 5 because both are certain to pass in some form, most likely in a way that will work in the direction of smaller government.

My question to my readers is, which of the following should we be pursuing first, second, and third? Please comment; even if it is nothing more than "1.x, 2.y, 3.z."

	Actions by Congress	Actions by the State of Ohio
a	Refuse appropriations for the Libyan war.	Governor Kasich to refuse deployment of Ohio National Guard to Libya.
b	Repeal national health care, or "Obamacare."	Nullify mandatory health care in Ohio (legislation).
c	Abolish the Federal Reserve Bank.	Authorize state and local tax payments in gold or silver: "Honest Money."
d	Balance the budget.	Intercept federal taxes (through the Ohio Department of Taxation) pending a state board or legislative ruling on the constitutionality of federal expenses.
e	Repeal the USA PATRIOT Act.	Nullify the use of body scanners and aggressive patdowns in Ohio airports.
f	Modify or repeal federal gun control laws.	Nullify gun control for weapons both made and sold in Ohio (intrastate commerce). (Note: link is to bill in previous General Assembly)
g	Repeal federal drug laws, particularly those related to marijuana.	Nullify federal prohibitions on the use of marijuana as a prescription drug.
h	Repeal federal food laws that affect intrastate commerce in farm produce.	Nullify federal regulation of farm produce both grown and sold in Ohio (Manna Storehouse – but note that Manna Storehouse was an abuse of state power).

1851 Center files appellate brief in Manna Storehouse case

It's been a while since I last reported on Manna Storehouse. Here's the latest from the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law:

The 1851 Center is defending Manna Storehouse and its owners, the Stowers family (right), arguing that the Ohio Constitution does not permit the Departments of Health and Agriculture to impose a retail grocery store license upon their home-based, private-membership organic food cooperative. The Stowers' home was violently raided by these officials in December 2008.

The 1851 Center successfully obtained a court order for the return of over $10,000 in food seized from the family. However, Judge James Burge ruled against the family on the licensing issue with little comment.

The stringent requirements of the licensing law, as applied, will spell an end to the families' cooperative, which focuses on supporting local agriculture.The Stowers' appeal focuses particular attention on the unconstitutionality of attempting to license basic private activity.

Manna Storehouse Trial Rescheduled

Lynn Walsh at the Buckeye Institute advises us that the Lorain County Common Pleas Court has rescheduled the case of Stowers v. Ohio Department of Agriculture to an unspecified date. I shall keep you posted when a new date is set.

Manna Storehouse Update

The trial of John and Jacqueline Stowers, of LaGrange, Ohio (Stowers v. Ohio Department of Agriculture), whose Manna Storehouse was raided by Ohio Department of Agriculture agents last year, will go to trial in Lorain County Common Pleas Court October 8-9. I have reported on the case, which is being defended by the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law at the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions.

Docket entry

Manna Storehouse Update

I have not reported on Manna Storehouse since the beginning of the year. That was the case (formally known as Stowers v. Ohio Department of Agriculture) in which a food co-operative in rural Lorain County was subjected to a SWAT-style raid in December 2008. The Stowers family is being defended by the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law at the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions.

I had the privilege of hearing the 1851 Center’s director, Maurice A. Thompson, discuss the work of the Center Wednesday evening. I asked him about the status of Manna Storehouse. About four months ago, the defendants, the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Lorain County Sheriff, filed a motion to take the case to the U.S. District Court of Appeals. The purpose of making it a Federal case is that Article I of the Ohio Constitution contains more stringent guarantees of personal liberties than does the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Thompson anticipates that the Federal Court will return the issue to the State courts, but the Federal courts work slowly, and it may be two or three months before it is returned to an Ohio court.

There is case law to support such a return:

“… [A] State court is entirely free to read its own State’s constitution more broadly than this [the U.S. Supreme] Court reads the Federal Constitution, or to reject the mode of analysis used by this Court in favor of a different analysis of its corresponding constitutional guarantee.” (City of Mesquite v. Aladdin’s Castle, Inc. [1982] 455 U.S. 283, 293; 102 S.Ct. 1070, 1077; 71 L.Ed.2d 152, 162).

Also, “Individual States may surely construe their own constitutions as more stringent constraints on police powers than does the Federal Constitution.” (California v. Greenwood [1988], 486 U.S. 35, 43; 108 S.Ct. 1625, 1630; 100 L.Ed.2d 30, 39). These two citations are from Maurice A. Thompson, Defending Liberty in Ohio: A Roadmap for Protecting Freedom and Limiting Government with the State Constitution (Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, 2009). This document is not yet available online, but another document on the protections of the Ohio Constitution, Presuming Liberty, can be downloaded as a .pdf file.

Manna Storehouse gets legal help

The Buckeye Institute's 1851 Center for Constitutional Law today took legal action in Lorain County Common Pleas Court against the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) and the Lorain County Health Department for violating the constitutional rights of John and Jacqueline Stowers of LaGrange, Ohio.

"'The use of these police state tactics on a peaceful family is simply unacceptable,' Buckeye Institute President David Hansen said. 'Officers rushed into the Stowers' home with guns drawn and held the family - including ten young children - captive for six hours. This outrageous case of bureaucratic overreach must be addressed.'

"The Buckeye Institute argues the right to buy food directly from local farmers; distribute locally-grown food to neighbors; and pool resources to purchase food in bulk are rights that do not require a license. In addition, the right of peaceful citizens to be free from paramilitary police raids, searches and seizures is guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Section 14, Article 1 of the Ohio Constitution."

Text of the complaint (.pdf file)

All posts on Manna Storehouse.

Virtual buckeye to JBZ at the Ohio Freedom Forum.

Further update on Manna Storehouse

My friend Ed has given me a personal update on the Manna Storehouse situation, reported here last Wednesday and yesterday:

"Reading the blogs as well as local press reports gives us differing accounts of the incident. I spoke with a co-op member and friend of the Stowers' who talked to them shortly after the incident. I was skeptical about the blog reports, so I asked about some of the details. She assured me that indeed there were large weapons that were drawn and aimed at the family, based on information given to her by family members she spoke with. She said, also, that the family seems to be well, and the children were about their normal activities."

As I wrote yesterday, the trial should be very interesting.

All posts on Manna Storehouse.

Update on Manna Storehouse

According to the Lorain County Sheriff, as reported in the Plain Dealer's cleveland.com, last Wednesday's account of the Manna Storehouse raid was a bit overblown. The sheriff states that his force has no automatic weapons, and the raid took four hours, not nine as was reported by my sources. He considered the raid "uneventful", and stated that no one was held at gunpoint, but were confined to one room of the house as part of a standard procedure when searches are conducted.

"Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Scott Serazin said 'any business that sells perishable foods must be licensed and follow regulations covering those who store and supply food. There is no exception in the law for a co-op,' Serazin said, and Manna cannot ask customers to waive safety regulations."

The Stower family has no comment, probably because a suit is being prepared, but even this account does not explain why a raid was necessary to enforce a law requiring a license to sell food, and one wonders, in the light of the Ohio Department of Agriculture's past record of using excessive force, whether the sheriff is telling the truth or covering up.

I suspect that a very interesting trial is in Lorain County's near future.

All posts on Manna Storehouse.

Virtual buckeye to Ed.

Halloween in Lorain County

Frequent readers to this blog have noted that I use "Halloween" as a rubric for major and egregious governmental intrusions on the rights of the people. Usually, it refers to an act of arrogance by the Federal Government.

Unfortunately, the following story refers to an act of arrogance by the Ohio Department of Agriculture. I have been slow to report it, in the hope that it would be more extensively reported in the mainstream media; however, I believe there is enough truth in it to report here, and further delay in reporting it will only serve to erode our rights further.

As reported by the Lorain Morning Journal December 3:

PITTSFIELD TOWNSHIP — An Ohio Department of Agriculture agent seized food, electronic devices and documents from a Pittsfield Township organic and natural food cooperative believed to be unlicensed, according to a search warrant filed yesterday in Lorain County Common Pleas Court.Jacqueline and John Stowers, owners of the Manna Storehouse, 43565 SR 303, were inspected in November 2007 by the Lorain County General Health District, according to court records.

On Monday, ODA enforcement agent William Lesho confiscated hundreds of pounds of processed beef and large amounts of lamb, turkey and other perishable products in addition to office files, a computer, two cell phones and other electronic devices, according to the search warrant inventory. The items were taken to establish the Stowers' ownership in any property, records of hidden wealth or illegal income and anything that would establish illegal activity, according to the search warrant affidavit.

However, this is not the whole story. A thoroughly-investigated piece in a Christian blog adds the following details:

On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized. At some point, the “bad cop” SWAT team was relieved by another team, a “good cop” team that tried to befriend the family. The Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called Manna Storehouse on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years.

There were agents from the Department of Agriculture present, one of them identified as Bill Lesho. The search warrant is reportedly supicious-looking. Agents began rifling through all of the family’s possessions, a task that lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down.

There was no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation of Constitutional rights.

Presumably Manna Storehouse might eventually be charged with running a retail establishment without a license. Why then the Gestapo-type interrogation for a 3rd degree misdemeanor charge? This incident has raised the ominous specter of a restrictive new era in State regulation and enforcement over the nation’s private food supply.

(The source linked above also contains some interesting and very scary quotations suggesting that this kind of activity is likely only to increase in the months ahead).

Please note:
* The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) agents did not state what allegedly illegal activity was being investigated.
* The Stowers contacted the ODA requesting information on how to comply with the law. Their request was never answered.
* This is not the first time the ODA has been chastised by the courts for its flagrant disregard of Constitutional rights.

There is an irony to this story as well. Mr. Stowers was not home when the raid took place because he was serving in Iraq.

I cannot put a secessionist spin on this article, except to suggest that the ODA is being encouraged by Federal use of police-state tactics and Federal contempt for the rights of the people.

The time may soon come when we will have to openly protest against "repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny," if there is to be any hope that absolute tyranny can be averted.

This story has several updates, which may be found in the category Manna Storehouse.

Virtual buckeye to PeaceChicken.