One of the victims of Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s overreaching executive orders is 77-year-old Owosso, MI barber, Karl Manke, who defied the governor’s shutdown order after he realized he was going to lose his business if he didn’t reopen.

After being denied twice by unemployment, Karl Manke said he had enough.

“The governor decided she was going to go another two weeks, and then another two weeks, and now this last time when she said we weren’t going to come back May 1st, that we were going to be secluded here until the 28th– it brought me to my knees.,” Manke said.

“I had a policeman stop by this morning, and I thought, okay here it is—it’s done. He said, ‘I love you,’ and walked out,” Manke said.

In early May, Owosso police cited Manke for a civil infraction and two misdemeanors. A court date is set for June 23, and he faces a more than $1,000 fine.

Governor Whitmer made it clear that Manke will face the consequences of defying her order.

“Most businesses in the state have a license that is granted from the state, and they are putting themselves at risk by putting their customers and themselves at risk by opening prematurely,” Whitmer said.

Manke promised to fight the restrictions on his business “until Jesus comes.”

On May 13,  a Michigan judge denied an attempt by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration to immediately shut down an Owosso barbershop whose owner has been cutting hair in defiance of the governor’s coronavirus shutdown order.

The judge denied the state’s claim that the 77-year-old Karl Manke was to close his shop because he was allegedly in violation of Whitmer’s executive order to shut down all non-essential businesses amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The Michigan Court of Appeals has now stepped in to close the doors of the 77-year-old barber in Owosso, MI, who’s simply trying to survive.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that the Michigan Court of Appeals has now overturned the lower court order, saying the state of Michigan has the authority to shut down an Owosso barber.

In an order based on a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel overturned a May 21 refusal by the Shiawassee County Circuit Court to issue a preliminary injunction that would have stopped Karl Manke from cutting hair.

Judge Matthew Stewart said the state failed to demonstrate that Manke — who has become something akin to a folk hero among opponents of the stay-home order — posed an imminent threat to public health or safety by continuing to give haircuts.

But the Michigan Court of Appeals sent the case back to Stewart to issue a preliminary injunction against Manke “to immediately cease all operations.”

“Uncontroverted evidence clearly revealed that COVID-19 is a highly communicable illness,” said the majority opinion signed by Judge Stephen Borrello, who was joined by Judge Amy Ronayne Krause.

“Uncontroverted evidence revealed that COVID-19 is spread by infected persons showing no symptoms that could serve to warn others of the possibility of infection,” and “clearly revealed that COVID-19 can be spread from person-to-person quickly and reach people separate from an area of contamination.”

Borrello was appointed to the court by former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2003. Krause was also a Granholm appointee, in 2010.

Judge Brock Swartzle, a 2017 appointee of former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, agreed with part of the majority opinion but dissented on a key issue.

 

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