State Officials Target Hobby Lobby for Refusing to Close During Coronavirus Lockdown
Shane Trejo
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State officials are flexing their muscle during the coronavirus pandemic and targeting Christian retail giant Hobby Lobby for staying open for business in spite of lockdown orders.
The Colorado Attorney General’s office has demanded that Hobby Lobby close all their stores throughout the state, claiming that the business is nonessential.
“For the avoidance of doubt, and as you have been previously notified, Hobby Lobby is not a ‘critical business,'” stated the letter from attorney general Phil Weiser’s office, according to ABC News. “You are directed to immediately close all Hobby Lobby locations within the State of Colorado.”
“Craft stores including Hobby Lobby are not considered essential businesses under the order,” a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Public Health said to ABC on Wednesday. “Breaking the order is breaking the law.”
The Ohio Attorney General is targeting Hobby Lobby as well for their resistance of edicts meant to shut down storefronts capriciously throughout the state.
Hobby Lobby properly closed its stores during Ohio’s stay-home order.
Now they’re open again — what’s changed? Neither the order, nor the seriousness of the health threat, for sure.
I sent a cease & desist letter to their general counsel. https://t.co/HVqDhFfhqo
— Attorney General Dave Yost (@Yost4Ohio) April 1, 2020
Hobby Lobby locations that remain operational maintain that they are “essential businesses” because they are “offering PPE masks, supplies, educational supplies, office supplies and various components for home small businesses.”
Hobby Lobby’s founder and CEO David Green has kept his Christian principles throughout the crisis and has not lost sight of what really matters amidst the coronavirus hysteria.
“While we do not know for certain what the future holds, or how long this disruption will last, we can all rest in knowing that God is in control,” Green wrote in a letter to his employees on March 19.
“To help ensure our Company remains strong and prepared to prosper once again when this passes, we may all have to ‘tighten our belts’ over the near future,” he added.
In addition, Green sent out memos to managers letting them know that the company intended to “continue to make every effort to work the employees” throughout the coronavirus pandemic. He also coached them on “how to respond and communicate if visited by a local authority that asks why we are open.”
Police have already physically shut down Hobby Lobby stores that have refused to comply with the state-level edicts.
“We made contact with the business around 11 a.m. and found that it was open,” West Allis Deputy Police Chief Christopher Botsch said about his agency’s forced closure of a Hobby Lobby store in Wisconsin.
“We took this as an opportunity to educate the business on the specifics of the governor’s order. The business was cooperative and closed without incident,” he added.
The coronavirus pandemic, used as an excuse to shut down the country and revoke the Bill of Rights by opportunistic government bureaucrats, may signal the death of the American Dream forever.
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