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Limitations on federal and state governments are apparently, by his own admission, beyond the pay grade of New Jersey's current governor

Once New Jersey had a real Governor 



Phil Murphy, William LivingstonCurrent New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy probably wishes he'd not made a statement during an interview with FOX's Tucker Carlson, after it went big-league viral. It happened at about the 9:54 mark in the YouTube video of the Carlson-Murphy interview. 
Carlson was pressing Murphy for an explanation of why a man sitting alone in a park, on a bench, was arrested.  Carlson asked—upon what basis in "science" does that limit the spread of the Coronavirus?  The Governor didn't have an answer. Murphy diverted to the need to limit big gatherings of people at parks. A clumsy dodge.  Carlson moved on to the arrest of several congregants in a Synagogue, and asked why that arrest wasn't a violation of their rights under the Bill of Rights.  The Governor ducked and weaved.   Then came the Tucker question that made New Jersey's Governor a media celebrity, second only to the late Tony Soprano. Carlson asked,
"By what authority did you nullify the Bill of Rights? How do you have the power to do that?"
The Governor of New Jersey answered, while smiling for the first time in the interview: "That's above my pay grade, Tucker. So, I, I wasn't thinking of the Bill of Rights when we did this." The rest of his response doesn't matter.  Just more blah, blah, blah.

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Tyrants, and potential tyrants, often surface in the midst of a real, or perceived crisis.  Their goal is always about control.  That hasn't always been true of New Jersey Governors. Take the state's first governor, for example. William Livingston (November 30, 1723 – July 25, 1790) was New Jersey's first governor. He's pictured above right. He married Susanne French in 1745 and they had 13 children. Two died very young.   One of his surviving daughters married John Jay (December 23, 1745 – May 17, 1829). Jay became one of the three authors of the Federalist Papers; one of the founders of the United States as a negotiator and signatory of the Treaty of Paris; the second governor of New York; and the first Chief Justice of the United States.    When New Jersey began to organize its defense in late 1775, Livingston, at age 52, became the state militia's ranking officer as a brigadier general.  Because of his age and lack of field experience, he volunteered to train much younger soldiers, rather than lead them in battle.  

Later, he left his seat in the Continental Congress and did enter field service with the New Jersey militia in their effort to guard the state's northern shore.  In August 1776, he resigned his commission and became the first governor elected under the new state constitution. In his inaugural speech, Livingston called on New Jersey citizens to show "a spirit of economy, industry and patriotism, and that public integrity and righteousness that cannot fail to exalt a nation, setting our faces like flint against that dissoluteness of manner and political corruptness that will ever be a reproach to any people."  In 1787, he led the New Jersey delegation to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia.  Among the Signatories of the Constitution that emerged from that convention were four New Jersey delegates. The list included William Livingston.     December 18, 1787, New Jersey ratified the Constitution with 38 votes for, 0 against. Only Delaware and Georgia had 0 no votes. On May 29, 1790, the U.S. Constitution was ratified.  Livingston died two months later.  On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights, as the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, were adopted as a collection of mutually reinforcing guarantees of individual rights and of limitations on federal and state governments.  Limitations on federal and state governments are apparently, by his own admission, beyond the pay grade of New Jersey's current governor (above left). 


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Lee Cary -- Bio and Archives Since November 2007, Lee Cary has written hundreds of articles for several websites including the American Thinker, and Breitbart’s Big Journalism and Big Government (as “Archy Cary”). and the Canada Free Press. Cary’s work was quoted on national television (Sean Hannity) and on nationally syndicated radio (Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin). His articles have posted on the aggregate sites Drudge Report, Whatfinger, Lucianne, Free Republic, and Real Clear Politics. He holds a Doctorate in Theology from Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL, is a veteran of the US Army Military Intelligence in Vietnam assigned to the [strong]Phoenix Program[/strong]. He lives in Texas.

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