Gov. Gavin Newsom's draconian lockdown orders are driving California into a recession. California is expected to face a $54.3 billion deficit over the next year, and who knows what San Luis Obispo County's deficit will be. Unemployment is expected to rise to 18 percent with 1 in 5 Californians without jobs. May's unemployment is expected to be 34,000 in our county.

The question to ask: Is having Newsom in the governor's office more dangerous to California than COVID-19?

Before this crisis, Newsom's oppressive tax-and-spend policies already made it extremely difficult to live and do business in California. Now, businesses are shuttering their doors, and 4.2 million Californians filed for unemployment.

The Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights states that citizens may not be "deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law" and courts recognize some restrictions only by the least restrictive means—not arbitrary and unreasonable edicts that effectively constitute house arrest without such due process.

The Newsom lockdown order challenges our God-given rights to freedom, secured by the Constitutions of the United States and the state of California, blatantly and clearly inviting not only legal challenges but civil disobedience. Gov. Newsom has failed Californians!

Andrea Seastrand

Grover Beach