Justice Gorsuch on COVID-19 and Emergency Government
Arizona v. Mayorkas is one of the cases dealing with “Title 42 orders” that “severely restricted immigration to this country for the ostensible purpose of preventing the spread of COVID–19”; today, the court issued a procedural order in the case, and Justice Gorsuch wrote a statement regarding that decision. It began with laying out the “tortured procedural history,” and noting the problems posed by nationwide injunctions; but it then added:
Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country. Executive officials across the country issued emergency decrees on a breathtaking scale. Governors and local leaders imposed lockdown orders forcing people to remain in their homes. They shuttered businesses and schools, public and private. They closed churches even as they allowed casinos and other favored businesses to carry on. They threatened violators not just with civil penalties but with criminal sanctions too.
They surveilled church parking lots, recorded license plates, and issued notices warning that attendance at even outdoor services satisfying all state social-distancing and hygiene requirements could amount to criminal conduct. They divided cities and neighborhoods into color-coded zones, forced individuals to fight for their freedoms in court on emergency timetables, and then changed their color-coded schemes when defeat in court seemed imminent.
Federal executive officials entered the act too. Not just with emergency immigration decrees. They deployed a public-health agency to regulate landlord-tenant relations nationwide. They used a workplace-safety agency to issue a vaccination mandate for most working Americans. Th
Article from Reason.com
