[ April 18, 2024 ]
We are beginning to see the birth of a freedom movement. Calls for the restoration of unalienable rights enshrined in the Constitution are populating social media channels. In Germany, the people are getting violent. Let’s hope we don’t have to get there.
Arresting People And Closing Parks Will Cause More Civil Unrest During Lockdown
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Americans Need To Start Pushing Back Against Draconian Lockdowns
Bill Gates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and anyone else advocating for a federally mandated lockdown either doesn’t understand the Constitution’s structure or doesn’t respect it.
Story continues below advertisementBy Molly McCann, The Federalist, April 13, 2020
On April 11, The Washington Post ran an article about plans being made to reopen the economy. The article complains that state governors (rather than the White House) are leading the planning, which has resulted in a “mind-boggling level of disorganization,” according to a Centers for Disease Control director.
The incessant bleating of prominent health leaders over the lack of federal control in this crisis only underscores how little they understand or respect this country’s Constitution and the freedoms it seeks to protect. Although the White House certainly has emergency authority to mandate all number of efforts to respond to crisis, and obviously can pressure local leaders, the coronavirus has highlighted the structural nature of the Constitution and that one of the saving graces in the insanity we are living through is that lockdowns are local.
Our country’s structure is pretty straightforward on paper, even if things get a little complicated once all the parts start moving in real time. When the states formed the Union, they ceded power to a federal government cautiously, carefully granting to Congress enumerated powers and creating checks and balances to keep the federal government from evolving into tyranny. At least, that was the plan.
The states retained their historic “police power.” The police power is a state’s inherent authority to govern with a view toward its citizens’ health, safety, morals, and general welfare. Certainly, a state’s plenary powers are limited by the U.S. Constitution and state constitutions, but absent those restrictions, a state’s power is very broad.
Ordering lockdowns, then, is within the states’ authority, not that of the federal government. Bill Gates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and anyone else advocating for a federally mandated lockdown either doesn’t understand the Constitution’s structure or doesn’t respect it.
On the federal level, emergency measures—no matter how necessary—always pose a danger to freedom. Historically, the exercise of authority triggered by an emergency brings to life a new federal power that never returns to the fully dormant posture from which it came. (I’d go further and say the power is created, but we maintain the ruse that it was always there and never exercised.) If you need an example of radical change in federal authority brought about by an emergency, look no further than President Franklin Roosevelt’s response to the Great Depression.
A state’s exercise of its police power in a time of crisis can be very frightening, too. I find our current lockdowns particularly chilling. They effectuate a sweeping deprivation of civil liberties and, in my opinion, many of the current lockdowns far exceed the uncontroverted evidence necessary to justify them.
This is one reason it is much better to have emergency powers exercised at the local level, where citizens can better control the leadership making the decisions. If lockdowns have to be implemented jurisdiction by jurisdiction, or state by state, they can’t be imposed with the same uniformity and force, and there is the option for a state to dissent and chart its own path, as Florida’s Gov. DeSantis did for some time.
This is essentially the “laboratory of the states” at work, as Justice Louis Brandeis wrote: “It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” DeSantis got a lot of grief for bucking the trend and attempting to find less restrictive means of securing his state short of house-arrest, but he had every right (perhaps even a constitutional duty) to do it.
Local control also means it is easier to correct overreach. It is easier for the people to hold state leaders accountable if and when emergency powers are abused, than to fight the federal government.
This week we have seen multiple lawsuits crop up across the nation as citizens balk at draconian enforcement measures. In North Carolina a group of homeowners have filed suit against local leaders who are blocking their access to their vacation homes on the Outer Banks. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee is one of several homeowners in Florida suing because local authorities have told Huckabee and his neighbors they cannot use their own private beaches at their oceanfront properties.
In Greenville, Mississippi, police issued churchgoers $500 tickets for sitting in their cars at an outdoor service. The churchgoers are suing. In Kentucky, the governor announced law enforcement will record the license plates of anyone showing up to a mass gathering and then transmit that information to health officials, who will order a 14-day quarantine of those persons.
It is good to see these lawsuits emerging, but we need to collectively start objecting to statewide lockdowns, too. The herd mentality that has swept the nation and imprisoned Americans across the country does not have the proper evidentiary basis, and the precedent, if left unchallenged, can and will be abused in the future. Public outcry should be widespread and loud.
Although the president doesn’t implement the lockdowns, he has tremendous leverage to encourage or discourage them. The president is under tremendous pressure to keep the country closed and needs (and wants!) to hear that freedom-conscious Americans support his best instincts. Worried Americans should be supporting the president and governors to reopen the economy on May 1.
Molly McCann is an attorney in the Washington DC metro area.
Photo Douglas Muth / Flickr
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20 Comments
4 years ago
Should have started before now. I’m 72 and I’ll take my chances with covid-19.
Let us get back to work and start pursuing the CCP for crimes against humanity!
4 years ago
Reply to
Quantumphase
58 with COPD, and fully agree, we need to reopen NOW! This country if far more important then my life alone.
4 years ago
Reply to
Quantumphase
AMEN to that! I’m 78 and they don’t DARE mess with an old woman who has NOTHING to lose!! I told them that at Walmart this morning when they tried to shove me into a 1-way aisle!! I will NOT comply and I WILL fight back!!
4 years ago
Reply to
Dorrie_
You’re a part of the greatest generation. YO may want to shop at other than Walmart. Here’s why:
Walmart Outsources Almost 600 Accounting, Finance Jobs to Indian H-1Bs
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2019/08/29/walmart-outsources-mba-jobs-to-indian-h-1bs/
Here are two other reasons, recall when Walmart was requiring employees to work extra hours after punching out? A friend of mine, who worked in retail,made what I called a religious pilgrimage every Saturday. He worked for K-Mart and did not like some of what he endured. The other reason avoid Walmart, the WSJ investigative reporter David Cay Johnston, wrote the book “Free Lunch – How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You With the Bill).” It;s been a while since I read it, but I recall him pointing that municipalities where Walmarts existed actually lost tax money for fire and police protection, because asked to collect sales tax for itself. How many other businesses have they driven to China for the savings of a buck? I still recall GHW Bush giving the Medal of Freedom to Sam Walton. Medal of Freedom?
4 years ago
Reply to
Rusty
I DO shop at another store – WINCO. But my prescriptions go to Walmart pharmacy, because they’re less expensive than other pharmacies. I agree that Walmart’s methods are underhanded and that they sell massive amounts of Chinese garbage, which I don’t buy. I buy MOST of my clothing at thrift shops because I’m poor. And I agree about Bush. BOTH bush presidents were globalists. No point in continuing. We’re in massive amount of trouble as a country, financially at this point, and there’s really no way we can recover. Stay prayed up!
4 years ago
Gee, what’s next? Everybody has to wear pink underwear and stand on their left foot only, every Thursday at 2pm?
3 years ago
Reply to
Isabellathecrusader
Good Sunday Isabella! Sorry I just got to reading my mail and saw you reply! I have to be honest with you. This corona thing and shutdown is a complete hoax! Now I see Bill gates talking about a forced vaccination of the entire world. With guess what?? A tracking chip in the vaccine! I heard him say it in a video days ago. I been praying,seeking guidance! I maybe wrong but I do believe were entering the start of the beast system. GODs word never changes he promises if you dont obey him he will deliver you to your enemies. The entire country with all the unconstitutional abuses going on. Were headed for nothing good! We must continue to pray! Its all we have! I have said being on the trump train,obama train,bush train. its all foolishness. Our problem were not on the JESUS train!
3 years ago
Reply to
mrtazman
Hi Tazzy,
I couldn’t agree with you more. I’ve been watching Dustin Nemos and Amazing Polly on You Tube and they have all the dirt on Gates, WHO, this bogus virus and the destruction of the middle class: no small businesses, no middle class and poof! We all become slaves workers and the elite rules our lives. Thanks but no thanks.
Listen my friend, this fake thing about the good supply chain breaking down is all bogus too. Tysons has tons of already processed frozen meat packed away so the president of Tysons is lying. Be safe and protect your family. I’m filling my freezers with bacon, ground beef and butter for the next couple of months. I have several Home Depot buckets full.of beans and another couple with rice, just in case. I’ve also started a large veggie garden in case they start screwing around with produce. But most importantly, I’ve ramped up my prayers and talking to Our Lord. You are right, He is the answer. Hugs from Virginia!
4 years ago
Way back in the day, I remember a “60 Minutes” piece that aired where, through the use of audio actors, it was effectively demonstrated that you could staff a gulag or stalag with everyday characters by simply plucking them off the streets anyplace in America.
4 years ago
This article is pretty dead-on correct. I hope that lawsuits begin to get filed, to force the states to back off from the violations of the Constitution that have gotten completely out of hand
4 years ago
USA has 4.5% of the world’s population and it has roughly a third of the world reported cases.
Why poor self discipline on the part of many who think their ‘freedoms’ are more important than saving lives, even their own!
4 years ago
Reply to
leonore35
Assuming the statistics you cited are accurate, is there a particular conclusion you believe should be drawn?
(Thanks.)
4 years ago
Reply to
leonore35
Educate yourself instead of wringing your hands. Dr. Scarf Lady explained why the numbers are “skewed” the way they are. If you die from getting run over by a bus, cancer, gunshot, gang green, brain tumor, lung cancer, heart attack. breast cancer and you test positive for corny virus then your death certificate will say you died from corny virus. No autopsy is performed no other test performed. USA is the only country doing it this way according to Scarf lady and Dr. phooey. Remember NYC is a city of 8 millions. The deaths per day are some 125 to 150 per day. FROM ALL CAUSES. And has been for years.
4 years ago
The Tyrannical Government and Fake Media perpetrated this Chinese Wuhan virus, Hoax.
4 years ago
Where does it say in the First Amendment (freedom of religion and assembly) that it is suspended if we get the flu?
4 years ago
I have been shouting this for about 10 days or more. BACK TO WORK MAY ONE FOR EVERYONE
