Hartford, Wisconsin, April 29th
Hartford Mayor Tim Michalak said he is not going to stop businesses from opening their doors on Monday. “We are not flinging open the doors,” the mayor said. “What we’re doing is giving them the freedom, to use their discretion, to open.”
The mayor said he is telling the city’s police force not to enforce the state’s Safer at Home order. He said officers will go after real criminals instead.
Here we see the interposition of a lesser magistrate against the tyrannical policies of Wisconsin’s governor and Health Department.
It is the God-given right and duty of lesser magistrates (lesser in their jurisdictional geography), to interpose when the liberty and property of those under their jurisdiction is threatened by the superior authority.
Mayor Michalak is acting in defense of the liberty and property of those under his jurisdiction. He is demonstrating love for God – by whom our rights are given – and for neighbor.
America’s founders established America as a true federalism. In a federalism all four governments established by God – self, family, church, and civil government – are important, and have their own role, functions, and limits.
In a federalism, there are multiple levels of government and multiple branches at each level, so that if any one branch begins to play the tyrant – the other branches interpose against that branch and resist them.
The role of the people is massively important to the doctrine of the lesser magistrates. The people have a duty to prod and demand their magistrates act against eviland injustice. And to assure the magistrates they will stand with them if they do right in their possession, in their persons, and in their prayers – both publicly and privately.
The doctrine of the lesser magistrates is a Christian doctrine rooted in the historic Christian doctrine of interposition.
