Jeff Landry: A Guardian of Our Liberty

By Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News – Baton Rouge

In August 2020, when Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards was in the midst of his all-out assault on the Constitution and common sense, most elected officials were silent.  They were afraid to stand up to the governor, the bureaucracy, and the left-wing media.

Only one statewide elected official in Louisiana stood unabashedly for the principles that made America great and supported the Constitution and the rule of law.

That elected official, Attorney General Jeff Landry, was busier than a one-armed paper hanger in state and federal courts and in the media, demanding that the massive violation of our liberties be halted. 

He fought the lock downs, the mask mandates, the vaccine mandates, the school closures, and the forced closure of churches.

He seemed to be everywhere. While others were silent, he refused to hold his tongue, no matter what the governor did or what the bought-and-paid-for media said.

Landry was in state and federal courts all over Louisiana.  And not just here in Louisiana!  He made alliances with Attorneys General from other states, so they could stand together and challenge things in federal court with greater strength.

Significantly, Gen. Landry began to win.  Not just cases at the state level.  But federal cases that had national impact.  Among other things, he won the case that prohibited the federal government from mandating vaccines nationwide.

Here in Central, Landry’s support of Rev. Tony Spell and Life Tabernacle’s decision to continue holding church ultimately led to a sweeping decision by the Louisiana Supreme Court on May 13, 2022. That decision said everything Gov. Edwards and his henchmen in the bureaucracy had done to Rev. Spell and the members of Life Tabernacle was illegal and unconstitutional.  All criminal charges were dismissed by the Supreme Court.

But there is one part of this story that demands special attention.

Let’s go back to August 2020 when Attorney General Jeff Landry was in the middle of all these battles. It was unprecedented, and there was no playbook telling him how to combat this great assault on the Constitution and our liberties.  He and his staff had to work long hours and work through legal situations that no Attorney General in any state had ever faced before.

In the midst of all this, a call came in to Landry about a small business that was having a problem.  It wasn’t from Wal-Mart or Target or any of the giants.  The national media didn’t know about it.  In fact, the local media didn’t know much about it either.

The call was from a young woman in Livingston Parish who had just purchased a small café in Watson called Firehouse Barbecue.  The young lady was Danielle Bunch.  Despite its colorful name, Firehouse Barbecue was just a small restaurant owned by a single mom who had invested her life savings into it.  She bought the business in June and it had passed all the health, safety, and fire code inspections late that month. 

Now suddenly, the Louisiana Department of Health had placed a notice on her door ordering her to close the business!  Why?  Well, it seems that several of her employees had health problems that made it dangerous for them to wear masks.  Danielle’s position was that since the employees couldn’t wear masks, it made no sense to try to force customers to wear masks.

Besides, she knew the masks were completely useless!

At that time, Gov. John Bel Edwards was demanding that everyone who entered a restaurant had to have a mask on until they got to their table. Then they could take the masks off!  Now that’s science!

Danielle refused to go along with this cynical charade, and Edwards’ bureaucracy was after her, determined to make an example of her. They had tried and failed to close Life Tabernacle and put Rev. Tony Spell in jail for more than a couple of hours.  But Ms. Bunch was a far easier target. No big church to back her.  No First Amendment to protect her.  No money to hire big lawyers.  The Edwards Administration smelled blood.  Maybe they could finally put a scalp on their belt, albeit the scalp of a tiny small business woman.   They were determined to close Firehouse Barbecue and put Danielle Bunch in jail!  She needed help.  Somehow, the attorney general found out.

Now here is what is interesting and is one of the reasons this endorsement is being written. 

Jeff Landry didn’t call a news conference.  He picked up the phone and called Danielle Bunch and asked if he could come have lunch at her place.  He invited Congressman Clay Higgins, Rep. Valarie Hodges, and me to come along to show support for Danielle Bunch and her little team at Firehouse Barbecue.

It was a wonderful lunch, resembling a group of revolutionaries who were there to plan how to rescue one of their own who was under attack.  The attorney general gathered the facts as a good lawyer would do and then told Danielle he was onboard and would do everything he could to support her.  She had felt completely abandoned.  She cried and said thank you.  But she must have wondered… Is he for real?  Will he really do anything to help?

It turned out that Jeff Landry was true to his word! He filed a friend-of-the-court brief letting the district judge handling the case know where the Attorney General’s office stood.  He supported her publicly and encouraged her.  The governor pushed the case to the max and tried his best to put Danielle in jail.

But Danielle Bunch was represented by attorney Jeff Wittenbrink and backed up by Attorney General Jeff Landry! In the end, she won a total victory!  Danielle never had to close Firehouse Barbecue for an even day or spend a minute in jail.

Without fanfare or any personal or political gain, Jeff Landry came to aid of this courageous American woman who was under attack by her own government.

That’s why we know Jeff Landry is for real!  He’s not just another politician but a man who loves liberty and who will fight for it when the chips are down and the going gets tough. There are a hundred other stories we could tell about Jeff Landry and his tenacious battle for the rights of the people during the pandemic!  The story of Danielle Bunch is typical but just one.

Jeff Landry proved he will stand up for the little guy when there’s nothing in it for him, even if it means standing up to the whole world!

We like to think that’s what this newspaper is all about too, and it is exciting to think Louisiana could have a governor willing to do the same thing!

For the Central City News, endorsing a candidate for governor this year is an easy decision.  That’s why we are proud to endorse Jeff Landry for Governor!