GOP lawmakers call for ‘justice’ for Michigan business owners who defied COVID-era lockdowns

A barber and a restaurant owner who made national headlines in Michigan for being penalized for refusing to abide by COVID-era executive orders and state health orders aimed to slow the spread of the deadly virus, which were later deemed unconstitutional, offered their perspective of the events to state lawmakers Wednesday.

Reflecting on his recent trip to Poland where he says he visited the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz , Rep. Jason Woolford (R-Howell) asked Marlena Pavlos-Hackney, the owner of a Holland area pizzeria who was arrested in 2021 after she refused to state health orders to enforce masking and social distancing requirements, if as a Polish immigrant if she saw any similarities in history to what she endured under the Michigan state government during the pandemic.

Pavlos-Hackney said there are “absolutely” similarities, but it would take more time than the hour and half meeting of the Michigan state House Subcommittee for Weaponization of State Government on Wednesday to fully encapsulate the experience of living under communism in Poland up until 1983 when she emigrated.

“Yes, that’s why I’m fighting for our god-given unalienable rights, constitutional protected rights that we the people have and I will do whatever it takes to fight… this is the greatest country in the whole world… thank God we have [a legislature] like you who stand up and protect us and try to do what is right for ‘we the people’,” Pavlos-Hackney said. 

More than 40,000 people in Michigan have died due to COVID-19 since the first case was found in the state in March of 2020, part of the more than 1 million deaths from the virus recorded in the United States.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a slew of executive orders during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 until the state Supreme Court ruled that Whitmer did not have the constitutional authority to continue to extend her restrictions. However, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, or DHHS, used its authority to institute its own emergency orders limiting large gatherings and requiring social distancing and mandating masks.

The COVID era in Michigan did immeasurable damage to the state, according to committee chair, Rep. Angela Rigas (R-Alto), who noted economic ruin for Michigan businesses, learning loss in students from school shutdowns and the negative social impact isolation had on residents. And after five years, Rigas added the infringement on the freedoms of residents and business owners by the governor and state agencies cannot be forgotten.

“I’d like to see legislation introduced to rein in the power of these departments. They are not elected, and they have gotten more power than our executive branch, than our legislative branch and it’s time that we bring it in, rein it in, and put these departments where they belong, and restore freedom for Michigan and put government back in its place,” Rigas said.

Increasing oversight in government is why Rigas said she ran for office, having been amongst the several barbers and professional stylists who received citations at an event at the Michigan state Capitol in May 2020 called “Operation Haircut” in protest of emergency orders for social distancing. The criminal charges were eventually dropped after the state Supreme Court’s decision that Whitmer’s executive orders were unconstitutional.

The event was largely in solidarity with Karl Manke who kept his barbershop in Owosso open despite Whitmer’s COVID-19 restrictions. Manke faced a criminal case related to his refusals to comply with COVID orders, but it was dismissed after the state Supreme Court’s decision on Whitmer’s orders.

Manke said he had to get back to work after closing his doors for a few weeks to comply with the COVID orders, but it didn’t take him long to realize that what the governor was doing was wrong.

“I’ve been accused, oftentimes, of being a little bit, maybe a little bit over the top… I don’t mind being called some type of a rascal, but to walk that path of a coward was something I just could not do. I couldn’t see myself operating that way, as a coward, not standing up for what I believe,” Manke said.

During the pandemic Michiganders across the state made sacrifices for the health and safety of their loved ones and community members, prioritizing the lives of others over self interests, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement ahead of the committee meeting. However, Hackney and Manke deliberately and repeatedly violated policies enacted for public safety.

“At a time of great fear and uncertainty when Michiganders across the State were making difficult sacrifices to protect the public health and the lives of loved ones, these two would sacrifice nothing, refused to implement any health or safety protocols, and in their total disregard for their communities’ safety amidst a deadly global pandemic, represented the worst of us,” Nessel said.