Pete Serrano

Yeah, so Silent Majority Foundation is a nonprofit. I'm fortunate that I'm one of the three founders of the organization. We're just over three years old. Mid-COVID, I was watching my kids really struggle through school. I'm sure anyone else that had kids had the same experience where they were in, they were out, they were wearing masks. I've got a kid that's dyslexic.

She was in second grade at the time, and she was really, really struggling. I happened to be the mayor of the city of Pasco where I live, which is about 80,000 people.

I was on city council at the time and I wanted to bring an ordinance that said, hey, we're not gonna force our different businesses to shut down, whether it's small or large businesses, we're gonna let people stay open and use kind of their will to navigate the pandemic as they see fit. I tried to bring that motion, got to a floor conversation, but didn't even get to a real vote.

And I had one of my council members say, you know, Mr. Serrano, you're an attorney. Why don't you do something, but don't drag the city into it. And at first I kind of took that as a harsh dig. And then I really thought of it as a challenge. And so we started with, um, Our two early cases were based in Washington state. We're against Governor Jay Inslee.

The first was a vaccine mandate for prison guards in a local prison facility here in eastern Washington. And the second one was the mask mandate for the children. Unfortunately, the prison guard one didn't end out in our favor with the mask mandate. Eventually, we got dragged out. through litigation for over a year, and the mask mandate ceased.

And that was the night before we had our final hearing. And the judge asked me, he said, well, you know, at this point, it seems that this is moot. In other words, the case is done and over with, mask mandate's gone. I said, well, I want some assurances from the state that if they are to reenact the mandate, that we're going to come right back here.

And the state and the judge actually kind of gave us that preference. And so, you know, it was nice to be part of what I believe helped end the children's mask mandate here in Washington state. But, you know, fast forward three years, we're about 45 cases in. Allison's being one of the preeminent ones right now, making sure that, you know, individuals have the right to speak.

on their own time and on their own dime. As you've laid out well, Allison, you have a really strong background in journalism. And part of that was why Department of Natural Resources liked her and her role. But on her own time, she was producing videos. And they say, that's a basis for termination. We can't have the government or any employer telling us what we're doing

not only outside of work, but inside when it comes to our speech. So that's why we brought this lawsuit. You know, we're working with some other great clients, both on Second Amendment issues and folks like Dr. Ryan Cole and Renata Moon are, you know, looking at us for help. So, you know, Allison is just one of our awesome stars, I guess.

Well, it's supposed to be protected, you know, not only from the government, but by the government, from other outside actors. And here we have a situation where the government's saying, hey, again, you know, in Allison's case, it's not just you can't speak, but you can't speak when you're not wearing our polo shirt that says DNR, when you're wearing, you know, the moral media brand.

And I mean, to me, it's just ridiculous that It should be an open and shut case, you know, but obviously as a lawyer, I'm not supposed to say that because when you look at it, this right is so highly protected and so freely protected.

And it is such a foundational principle that we have free discourse, that we have the ability to utilize tools, whether it's a cell phone or whether it's a YouTube page or a that we have the ability to communicate with one another. And that's really like the foundation of humanity.

But to your point earlier, you know, if you're able to crush the few that speak, you can control the narrative entirely. And, you know, that's why silent majority foundations actually sued the state of Washington Department of Health for its COVID misinformation position statement, in addition to the work we're doing with the individual clients.

Because if you can't attack, and I think this is part of what you were discussing earlier, when it's the government playing whack-a-mole with five or six or ten or a couple dozen doctors, it's easy to shut the science. There's no discourse there. It's one or two people who are the Allison's, the Aaron's of the world, who are in the use of the world, who have a platform and the ability to speak.

But it's easy to crush that. Had we all said, hey, pause a minute, you know, let's give deference to human thought and collectivism. That might have been a little different than all of a sudden we'll just, you know, listen to what the government says and do what we have to.

Yeah, I do think there are appropriate opportunities to bring it in. I mean, there are certain, again, whether it's Allison's case or whether it's one of the doctors that either Silent Majority Foundation or other organizations are representing, I do think there's an opportunity to bring it in, which is why we fought so hard.

so vehemently against the notion that misinformation or disinformation exists. I mean, it's all information. It just depends on which one's branded by the U.S. government, which one's not. And obviously, the part that's not is, quote, disinformation. And that's for us. That's why these fights are so important.

Because if we want to just live in a 1984-esque world where the government controls the narrative, we accept it, and we slowly rot into that lusterless, you know, quasi-sleep.

Yeah, you know, anyone that would like to support, like I said, we're a nonprofit of 501c3. And so everything that we do is on the back of our donors with their support at silentmajorityfoundation.org.

And we, you know, we're here to protect these rights, whether it's the First Amendment, whether it's the free speech element, religious freedom, whether it's firearms, people who are terminated for refusing a vaccine that wasn't a vaccine. You know, we're still working on these cases. And the only way to hold government accountable is to actually do something about it.

I'm very grateful for the time that you've shared with us, Dr. Drew. I really appreciate that.