Oregon salon owner is done playing; files lawsuit against Dem gov over ‘retaliation’

The COVID-19 lockdowns imposed by blue-state governors and mayors have often been as ham-handed as they are heavy-handed.

The rules often seem arbitrary, rooted more in politics than science, and enforcement of them has been applied to everyday Americans while elites, including some of the these same politicians, have felt no such constraints on their own behavior.

But an Oregon salon owner is taking allegations of lockdown tyranny to a new level. Lindsey Graham says Oregon Gov. Kate Brown “terrorized” her and her family after she dared to open her business in the wake of Brown’s lockdown orders. She has filed a $100,000 lawsuit against Brown for what Graham calls retaliation.

Appearing on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle” on Monday, Graham said the battle with the governor began after she reopened in May.

“As soon as I tried to open my doors against the governor’s mandate back in May, she came at me with the full weight of the state,” Graham said. “She terrorized myself, she terrorized my stylists, and she terrorized my family. She took every government agency she could, and she put her full weight into intimidating me into closing, including sending Child Protective Services to my home and threatening the removal of my children.”

Graham shared that investigators appeared at her home, citing a vague, anonymous complaint, to interview her children without her present.

Graham also told guest host Tammy Bruce that Oregon’s occupational safety administration threatened her with a $70,000 fine the day before she reopened, accusing her of creating a hazardous work environment for her employees. The fine was later reduced to $14,000 and is still pending, Graham said. Still, she maintained the complaint is not merited because her stylists are independent contractors not employees.

“She’s running Oregon like a complete dictatorship,” Graham said of the governor. “She isn’t up for re-election, and so she doesn’t need to earn any brownie points from anyone. …  What she has done to Oregon residents is appalling. Clearly she believes she has the authority to do so. She came after me with everything she had.”

In the lawsuit, filed on Dec. 18, Graham maintains that Brown’s shutdown orders have “caused greater negative health effects on Oregonians in the form of increased stress, anxiety and depression.” Graham also asserts that the governor’s action has hurt her business, and caused “damage to her reputation and goodwill.”

In court records, Graham further argues that she and others like her “have a fundamental right to earn a living. They have a right to take care of and provide for themselves and their families. They
have a right to protest the government. They have a right to question the government. They have a right not to believe the government. They have a right not to trust the government. And (they) have a right – indeed a duty – to stand against the government when the safety and security of their families are put at risk by the very government that is supposed to be there to protect them.”