A judge in Texas has effectively criminalized "selifish"ness. When Shelley Luther wouldn't comply with a court order to close her hair salon - which would leave her children hungry and 18 other people out of work, some of whom also had hungry children - the judge cited her with contempt. Imposing fines and imprisonment, he offered to accept increased fines in leiu of imprisonment if she would repent of her real crime, and "apologize to the elected officials whom you disrespected" - by which he likely meant himself.
Judge George Moye in his tirade accused Luther of being "selfish", a personality trait he clearly is incapable of identifying in either himself or others. He encouraged Luther to save herself a week in jail by selling out her children, her employees and her customers. That's NOT the way to reduce the amount of selfishness in the world, Your Honor. Judge Moyé (D) is running for re-election for judge of the Texas 14th District Court. Moyé is on the ballot in the general election on November 3, 2020. (In case you're wondering, no, this ruling - overturned by the Texas State Supreme Court within days - does not currently appear on his campaign website.)
He further advised Luther that the she should "... hire a lawyer and advocate for change, an exception or an amendment to laws that you find offensive" as the reasonable and proper way to address the fact that she can't feed her family. Absurd on the face of it given that:
- The infraction would be mute in about a week, when the order was scheduled to be lifted
- The order she violated was imposed essentially (or, in my county, literally) overnight with "emergency" as justification... but apparently "emergency" is unavailable as justification in her case
- Hungry people can, quite literally, starve to death in the time it takes to follow this advice
... not to mention human nature.