Piers Morgan Defends Soda Ban and Once Again Proves His Idiocy

This shouldn’t come a shock to anyone, but Piers Morgan, CNN’s resident moron, is a bit upset. Yesterday, his fellow nanny statist Mike Bloomberg’s soda ban was dealt a legal blow and will not go into effect today. Here’s what Piers had to say:

If a Mayor can’t do things to make his city’s populace healthier – what’s the point of his job? Bloomberg’s 100% right on supersized soda.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 11, 2013

First of all, Piers does what Piers always does: erect a strawman. No one, not even the judge that put this soda ban on hold, is saying Mayor Bloomberg can’t do things to help make his city healthier. What the judge did say was that there were some real problems with the ban and there are certain ways Bloomberg has to go about doing things. Like this:

Tracing the Board of Health’s powers more than 300 years to the late 1600s under Britain’s King James II, the judge said the city agency simply had no authority to issue it. Only the City Council had that power, he said. “One of the fundamental tenets of democratic governance here in New York, as well as throughout the nation, is the separation of powers. . . . No one person, agency, department or branch is above or beyond this,” the judge said.

And this:

The rule “would not only violate the separation of powers doctrine, it would eviscerate it,” the judge said.In his 37-page decision, Justice Tingling seized on the fact that the rule would have applied only to food-serving businesses regulated by the city, such as restaurants and movie theaters, and not to state-regulated establishments, like 7-Eleven stores.

And let’s not forget this:

He also pointed out that it would have applied to some sweetened drinks, such as sodas, but not others. Milkshakes, for example, would have been exempt.

“The loopholes in this rule effectively defeat the stated purpose of the rule,” the judge said.

“It is arbitrary and capricious because it applies to some but not all food establishments,” and because it applies to some sweetened drinks but exempts others, he wrote.

The judge also said that only the legislative branch of city government, the Council, had the power to approve such a ban. The Health Board can promote rules to prevent the spread of communicable diseases but it has no power to attack obesity, he said.

Shorter judge: You can’t bypass city council to enact, by decree, a ban on sodas that only includes certain beverages, certain beverage sellers, has a million loopholes, and will not be evenly enforced.

See? Nobody said he can’t do things to help his city be healthy, he just said there is a legal standard to be met when doing so.  People like Piers Morgan and Mike Bloomberg think the world should be run by banning anything they deem to be unacceptable or unnecessary without any regard to the rule of law. If they don’t like it? It has to go. If they like it? It can say. Rule of law be damned.

Oh, one last thing. Mayor Bloomberg said at a news conference yesterday that he still has no plans to bring the measure before the City Council. Of course he doesn’t. Some people just never learn.