Liberty-Mad, Again (cont.) By M. E. Boyd, Esq., “Miss Constitution”

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVERSATIONS

Liberty-Mad, Again (cont.)

                   by

       M. E. Boyd, Esq., “Miss Constitution”

The title from Rick Atkinson’s book on the American Revolution. In 1776, after George Washington was run out of New York and down through the Jersey’s narrowly escaping annihilation, he and his decimated army of Continentals made a surprise and successful raid on the Hessians left to defend Trenton, NJ. Congress was in Philadelphia at the time and issued a Proclamation to the city to hold fast against an expected British attack, but many dozens of Congressmen ran off to Baltimore and safety leaving the population to fend for itself.

Here we are again, with another national crisis, and Congress nowhere to be found. They are evidently not deemed “essential” or they are deemed so important and so precious that the nation would not know what to do without each and every one of them. Miss Constitution will let each of you decide which it is. We have been attacked by a new virus that had the potential of overwhelming our health care systems, so the President of the United States declared a national emergency and began working on bolstering the expected mass hospitalizations. He also restricted flights from China and Europe, closed all but essential workers at the northern and southern borders, and rescued Americans overseas and wanting to come home. He created a task force to monitor and educate the public regarding what they could expect and put the full manufacturing capacity of the country behind providing needed medical supplies, tests, and drugs for the care of the sick from the virus as well as research for an appropriate vaccine. He also created an economic task force to come up with a plan to provide temporary relief while the economy was all but shut down to prevent unnecessary spread of the disease. All of this while it was still necessary to be ready for enemies of the nation who might use the crisis to become emboldened and it was also necessary to share information about the crisis with other nations and to help where possible. This was a full plate for the President of the United States and his executive branch agencies and members. He also had to remain positive yet realistic as the leader of his people. This was a 24/7 moment of leadership when we still do not know the who, the why, the how, and the when, with sufficient assuredness that other appropriate actions can be taken to prevent another attack and to hold those, if any, responsible.

At no time in this crisis period was the United States Constitution and its protections of civil, political, economic, and personal rights for individual persons in the United States suspended, negated, superseded or anything else. All actions by both the federal and state and local governments must conform to the provisions of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights attached to it.

What does this mean in practical terms?

It means that safety issues are elevated, but they are not elevated above the civil rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution, nor are safety issues elevated above the unalienable rights guaranteed not by the Constitution but by our Creator. It means that the President of the United States cannot do anything he wishes, nor can Governors of states, nor can mayors of cities and towns, nor can city councils, nor can township councils, nor or any other government actor or actors.  Here are some of the things federal and state actors can do within the confines of the Constitution:

1. They can educate the public, but their facts need be correct. If they are using models for projecting harm those models had better be accurate. If a report is issued that a certain number of persons died from the virus, those numbers better not be inflated.
2. They can temporarily announce emergency rules, but those rules must go to the reason the national emergency was declared, i.e. the overwhelming of our hospital systems. When those systems are not overwhelmed those rules must be relaxed. The entire economy of the nation cannot be shutdown, with all the deaths that will attend that decision, because government actors think something might happen in the future. If something happens in the future another national emergency might have to be declared.
3. They can mobilize the private and charitable sector to help and try and persuade as many citizens as possible regarding what might help prevent another emergency or ameliorate the one the nation is in. They are certainly able to help other states who are more seriously affected, and they are able to adjust the fiscal health of their own states so as not to burden the nation’s resources.

Here are some of the things federal and state actors cannot do within the confines of the Constitution.

1. They cannot become dictators and simply order what amounts to false imprisonment, illegal surveillance, confiscation of private property without due process of law, prohibit the free exercise of religion, abridge the freedom of the press, the freedom of speech, the right of the people to peaceably assemble or petition government for a redress of grievances.
2. They cannot arbitrarily deprive the private sector of its right to earn a living such as denying hospitals the right to perform medical procedures that provides the hospital’s income unless it can be shown that the hospital is connected to the purpose of the declared national emergency, or is in other words, overwhelmed.
3. They cannot substitute their judgment for the judgment of Sovereign citizens as it is the ordinary American citizen that is the Sovereign, not the government actor. They can suggest, they can provide accurate data, and they can lead by example.

Miss Constitution understands that many government actors are not knowledgeable about the Constitution even though they take an oath to preserve, protect, and defend it above all else even safety. We simply do not know right now who and what is behind this emergency and whether any of the reaction to it is inappropriate political machinations or legitimate governance. Absence during a national crisis is a curious way to lead, but that is what happened in 1776 with Congress and that is what is happening now.

Copyright©2020 by M. E. Boyd, Esq., “Miss Constitution”