Protest Against Gov. Murphy's COVID Rules Set In Morristown

MORRISTOWN, NJ — We the People NJ — a new organization whose spokesperson and legal counsel is Morris County Surrogate Heather Darling — will lead a protest Sunday in Morristown against some of Gov. Phil Murphy's coronavirus restrictions. The "March for Your Rights" will begin at Morris Township Police Department and move to Morristown Town Hall by noon.

We the People NJ started recently in hopes to advocate for New Jerseyans' "right to choose personal safety and responsibility in the face of Covid-19 rather than lockdowns," according to its mission statement.

The organization told all attendees to wear masks and practice social distancing, because they don't want their marches to be "super spreader" events.

New Jersey has hit a second wave of the pandemic, according to state health officials. As a result, Murphy has implemented several restrictions in November alone.

Murphy announced last week that bars and restaurants could no longer serve customers indoors from 10 p.m. through 5 a.m., while indoor capacity during allowable hours remains at 25 percent.

He also imposed new restrictions for gatherings with the holidays approaching, limiting crowds to 10 people indoors and 150 people outdoors.

We the People NJ will hold their event Sunday, because that's the last day crowds of 500 can gather in New Jersey. However, the state has allowed "First Amendment gatherings" such as protests to religious services to exceed outdoor limits.

But the state's current coronavirus restrictions put many businesses at risk of closure, according to Darling.

"What these people are asking for is it have their rights under the Constitution upheld for the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness and putting reasonable restrictions on operations of businesses," Darling said. "But not the closure of businesses, not these enhanced lockdowns that everybody seems to be afraid of."

Darling runs a small real-estate business and says pandemic restrictions have hurt her industry because of the lack of mortgage relief. Although New Jersey hasn't imposed universal rent forgiveness, Murphy has prohibited landlords from removing tenants until two months after the state of emergency ends.

Darling also serves as Morris County's surrogate, an elected position. She said there is no issue with her dual roles as surrogate and representing the protesting group.

"I’m doing this outside of my hour’s in the surrogate’s court, because one has absolutely nothing to do with the other," she said.

Darling is speaking on the group's behalf, because We the People NJ members with to remain anonymous.

"Members of the group wish to remain anonymous in light of public threats by at least one elected official, AOC (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), against private citizens whose opinions differ from those of the electeds."

Asked which public threat(s) she's referencing, Darling said the following:

"It was a recent famous AOC tweet that a lot of citizens were concerned about concerning compiling lists of people. I have no further comment on that for myself or as a representative of the group."

See more event information here.