An Ohio lawyer who is at the forefront of the national COVID-19 debate says President Joe Biden’s proposal to give power to the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare virus pandemics is a legal ploy to the Constitution bypassing the United States.
“I think it absolutely is. It’s not as easy as giving up our sovereignty. This is a very complex legal step,” attorney Thomas Renz said in an interview with The Epoch Times.
“This is horrific. To even propose something like this is overwhelming,” said Renz.
Renz is the lead attorney on several high-profile cases brought in Ohio, New Mexico, Maine and nationally over enforced COVID-19 vaccines, illegal lockdowns, big-tech censorship, questionable death counts and other pandemic-related issues .
He currently represents America’s Frontline Doctors and Make Americans Free Again, organizations opposing unconstitutional federal health mandates.
Renz recently began speaking out against Biden’s 13 proposed changes to the United Nations International Health Regulations (IHR), which govern WHO’s operations.
Such a move, he said, would give the WHO the power to declare public health emergencies in the United States, using any evidence it wants.
The IHR amendments, if adopted, would give sweeping powers to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanhom Ghebreysus, a former Ethiopian government minister who has been in that capacity since 2017.
It’s “more than a little suspicious,” Renz said, noting that any treaty ratified by Congress has about the same legal weight as federal law.
“Federal law has more authority than state law. If there’s a dispute between federal law and state law, federal law wins,” he said.
“A treaty, if ratified, would generally trump state law. In relation to the US, this is how it works. The question is not whether the WHO can do this, but what effect [will it have]how does it affect the US – things like that.
“In that respect, it could have indirect powers.”
opposition builds up
This week, opposition from African delegates at the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland, has fueled ongoing discussions over Biden’s proposed amendments.
Under the US Constitution, Renz said Biden could use his executive powers to delegate power to the WHO during public health emergencies, sparking constitutional challenges.
“The constitution trumps any treaty – period,” said Renz. “When there is a dispute between the Constitution and any other law – including a treaty – the Constitution always wins.”
WHO’s primary role is to contribute to public health issues, but it does not have the legal authority to guide public health policy at the national level.
However, the IGV changes could change that.
“You’re suggesting having more powers to do things within a nation,” Renz said. “Does this mean the nation is losing its sovereignty? no The WHO could not come to the United States and do something that the United States constitutionally could not do, because the Constitution would be the line in the sand as to what it can and cannot do.”
Renz said the constitution is broad regarding a public health emergency.
“I see what we have seen in the last two years as a gross abuse of power by the federal government. We’re still working on the constitutionality of what happened. We haven’t done all this in court yet. Many of these things have not yet been judged. We don’t know where much of this will end,” said Renz.
“[President Donald] Trump tells [the WHO] hammering sand” during COVID-19. “Biden would likely do as he is told under the guise of what he is authorized to do as president. The President could claim that this is through contract power and hence his power as President. He authorizes the WHO to take this or that measure to help the US
“One of the things I would be very concerned about is what information he has on Americans [would] share under the guise of public health. We know they collected genetic data. We suspect they have quite a bit of information about our genetics from PCR testing – we don’t know what they got. You didn’t say it. We know they collect it.”
COVID-19 Epic Fail
Renz slammed the WHO as “the same crew that epically failed at everything COVID-related”.
“The WHO is still not sure if this was developed in a Chinese laboratory. The WHO was a disaster. Why in God’s name would we want to empower them to do anything?”
Although international agreements weigh differently in each country, he said, “if enough countries sign up [with the IHR changes]50 countries could produce garbage science that is not accurate and not peer-reviewed in any meaningful way.”
“What if the WHO and 50 other countries decide that there is a crisis and that the United States is contributing to this crisis because we don’t let the WHO come in and do what they want? These 50 countries could say, “You know what? We will sanction the US. This could have a huge impact on the economic supply chain.
Citing the Biden administration’s failed efforts to use the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to mandate COVID-19 vaccines in the workplace, Renz said the WHO, which is pushing a monkeypox vaccine in the United States, for example, faces a similar constitutional hurdle would stand.
“If the federal government could not commission [vaccines], the WHO could not prescribe it either. But they would try – they would certainly try. I think what they’re trying to do is leverage what we know as the enormous powers of the President over international relations. They are trying to use this as an indirect means to coerce Americans – to coerce the public into doing something that would be difficult to challenge in a court of law.”
“I don’t think Biden knows what’s going on. I think he sells himself to whoever pulls the strings. We need to look at who is promoting this. The whole thing smells like theft of money and power,” said Renz.
consequences
Allan Stein is an Epoch Times reporter covering the state of Arizona.
