Current coronavirus lockdowns entail “a sweeping deprivation of civil liberties” and “far exceed the uncontroverted evidence necessary to justify them,” declares an essay Monday in the Federalist.
“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,” writes Washington D.C.-based attorney Molly McCann. “Public outcry should be widespread and loud.”
Much of the essay is a legal defense of the federal government’s unwillingness to enact a nationwide lockdown, a position that has been irresponsibly criticized by mainstream media, health officials, and even some state governors like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer who do not want the responsibility of making difficult decisions for their constituencies.
The “incessant bleating” of certain leaders over a lack of federal control, writes Ms. McCann, “underscores how little they understand or respect this country’s Constitution and the freedoms it seeks to protect.”
“Ordering lockdowns, then, is within the states’ authority, not that of the federal government,” she observes. “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,” McCann notes. “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.”
On the practical level, it is much better to have emergency powers exercised at the local level, she observes, since citizens can better control the leadership making the decisions and demand accountability.
Local control “means it is easier to correct overreach,” she writes. “It is easier for the people to hold state leaders accountable if and when emergency powers are abused, than to fight the federal government.”
It would be foolish, moreover, for the same measures to be applied in Wyoming and New York City, since their situations are so radically different.
Indeed, the coronavirus has underscored “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,” McCann observes.
But even at the local level citizens have experienced “draconian enforcement measures” thoroughly unjustified by the reality of the situation, she notes. It is up to “freedom-conscious Americans” to push back hard.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.