Coronavirus vs The Constitution Part II

The Coronavirus Vs. The Constitution - Part II
The View from the Middle

Part I gave perspective for this crisis / challenge. Part II will begin to cover the Constitutional questions.

Our founders were not expecting or promising a “risk-free” life in America. In fact, as Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence he told his fellow signers, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately.” All the founders put their lives at risk, and so did the American people in general. Eight thousand Americans died during the Revolutionary War, and you say, that’s not so many, but that was one percent of the entire country’s population back then. That would be the equivalent of 3.3 million people dying today. But our founders and even our everyday citizens back then were willing to take that risk and fight the most powerful military power in the world at the time for the freedoms and liberty that the new American experiment promised. I’m sure they would not easily give up any of those freedoms today, even for Covid-19.

Today we live in a risk averse society that has been built on a relatively peaceful world (no world wars), the modern 24-hour news cycle and political manipulation. Rahm Emanuel, X-mayor of Chicago and President Obama’s Chief of Staff, let the cat out of the bag in 2008 when he said, “never let a good crisis go to waste.” He probably regrets saying that out loud, because he was finally admitting to this disgusting, manipulative strategy of extortion. In other words, he (and I believe all politicians) are willing to take advantage of our citizens when they are desperate or frightened or both to advance their ideological agendas. And if a real crisis isn’t handy, just create one.

And along comes the Coronavirus. I’m not denying that the Coronavirus is a bad thing. It is a challenge that we are all having to face. Will it put some of our citizens at risk? Absolutely, but does it require us all to give up many of our fundamental freedoms to mitigate the risk or put millions of small businesses out of business? That is at least a question that we should be asking ourselves. We should also be asking if our government even has the power to do many of the things they have done in the face of this pandemic? I might suggest that it does not.

We have trampled all over our God-given rights during this challenge. The first amendment to The Constitution guarantees the right to peaceably assemble in addition to the right to the free exercise of religion, and it doesn’t say, “unless there’s a virus out there somewhere.” Yet, our government has prohibited meetings of groups larger than 10 which prevents most churches from gathering. Does the government even have the right to do that? The 4th Amendment protects American citizens from unreasonable seizure of houses, papers and effects, which includes buildings and businesses. The 5th Amendment says that the government cannot deprive a citizen of life, liberty or property without due process, yet the government has forced millions of businesses to close their doors. This deprives the owners of their very livelihoods. Can our federal or state governments legally do that?