SANTA CLARA, Calif.—A Northern California city declared itself a constitutional republic in November after disagreeing with COVID-19 mandates. The declaration symbolically affirms citizens’ inalienable rights as the state extends emergency health orders and issues a new round of state-wide mask mandates. Scott Thomson, vice mayor of Oroville, has been the main proponent. He said the California COVID-19 mandates infringe on people’s rights. “It’s a public declaration of saying … we disagree … with the way this pandemic is being handled. I put it up, we voted on it, and it passed, 6–1,” Thomson told NTD Television. Many of its 20,000 residents—a balance of Democrats, Republicans, and independents—supported the move at the public meeting on November 2. “It just continually felt like there was a carrot dangled in front of our face … ‘just do this now, and we’ll give you your freedom back … we’ll put things back to normal,’” …