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Day 99: COVID-19(84) The Western States Pact Prison
Key: Red (Republicans control governorship and legislature); Blue (Democrats control governorship and legislature; Purple (divided control of executive and legislative branches)
Five states led by progressive governors and controlled by the Democratic Party have banded together in a Western States Pact to coordinate the criteria under which they will resume economic activity in their respective states. In other words, “we’ll decide together when our people can be free.” Of course, the language of the pact sounds elevated:
As part of the Western States Pact, the Governors commit to working together toward the following four goals:
- Protecting vulnerable populations at risk for severe disease if infected. This includes a concerted effort to prevent and fight outbreaks in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
- Ensuring an ability to care for those who may become sick with COVID-19 and other conditions. This will require adequate hospital surge capacity and supplies of personal protective equipment.
- Mitigating the non-direct COVID-19 health impacts, particularly on disadvantaged communities.
- Protecting the general public by ensuring any successful lifting of interventions includes the development of a system for testing, tracking and isolating. The states will work together to share best practices.
When progressive governors “share best practices,” civil liberties are a secondary consideration. And doubtless, central command of the state economy will be one of those “best practices.”
Attorney General Barr issued a memo to US Attorneys around the country yesterday detailing the need to monitor state and local governments in their jurisdictions for violations of civil rights:
I am directing each of our United States Attorneys to also be on the lookout for state and local directives that could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens,” Barr wrote. “As the Department of Justice explained recently in guidance to states and localities taking steps to battle the pandemic, even in times of emergency, when reasonable and temporary restrictions are placed on rights, the First Amendment and federal statutory law prohibit discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers.”
“The legal restrictions on state and local authority are not limited to discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers,” Barr continued. “For example, the Constitution also forbids, in certain circumstances, discrimination against disfavored speech and undue interference with the national economy. If a state or local ordinance crosses the line from an appropriate exercise of authority to stop the spread of COVID19 into an overbearing infringement of constitutional and statutory protections, the Department of Justice may have an obligation to address that overreach in federal court.”
The Western States Pact has helpfully self-identified California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and Colorado as places to “be on the lookout for state and local directives that could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens.” Even as other states are re-opening their economies, the “Pact” states will be continuing house arrest for its citizens until their safety surveillance system is completely operational.
“Undue interference with the national economy” is going to be an interesting issue. With about a fifth of the US population incarcerated in these states, it seems that “undue interference with the national economy” is sort of a given. Powerline provides a timely reminder of how “undue interference” works:
I don’t think our political class in Washington or the state capitols have the slightest idea of how they have disrupted the workings of our economy beyond the mere measure of the (huge) number of people filing for unemployment, which they think can be fixed simply by printing more money and sending out checks.
The good folks at CEI produced [the embedded] six-minute video of “I, Pencil” a few years ago, and it makes for salutary viewing just now as our government contemplates “plans” for “re-opening” the economy. Give it a look, and contemplate the effects the shutdown is having on the millions of daily decisions made by producers and consumers alike. Maybe our political class just needs to just get the hell out of the way.
And that may happen sooner rather than later in some parts of the country. But the Western States Pact Prison is likely to remain closed for a while even as health data demonstrates that, although not defeated, COVID-19 is waning in those jurisdictions — beach parties or not.
[Note: Links to all my CoVID-19 posts can be found here.]
Published in General
Maybe that is a “best practice” that Governor Polis can share with the others, and most particularly for my needs, Governor Newsom.
Message from my sister in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (Pop; 750,000).
I asked: So is this a real emergency in Winnipeg or just a nothingburger?
Her reply: Nothing. Lots of preparation for when things get bad but not a lot of new cases. They opened testing to everyone but don’t expect a lot of positives. We have an average of maybe 2 new cases a day. The hospitals are empty.
Her husband is chief of staff at a local hospital. They oughta’ know.
Outside its a beautiful day to take the dog for more walkies…..
Marci, I’m not an expert on this, but I suspect that the Indians did build up herd immunity. It just involved a lot of people dying, tragically. I think that they were facing diseases that were much more deadly than COVID-19.
They actually talked about that and admitted the (too) many privacy issues.
Is SFH construction dominated by non union firms?
And the Michael Moore brand of climate warmists.
So this is a 14th Amendment thing?
Gee isn’t “privacy” just one of those pesky constitutional rights that can be ignored in an emergency?!
I suspect we won’t be one, fifty-state country for much longer. The left never gives up until it destroys a country.
People’s Republic
by Kurt Schlichter (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
Book 1 of 4 in Kelly Turnbull America’s growing political and cultural divisions have finally split the United States apart. Now, as the former blue states begin to collapse under the dead weight of their politically correct tyranny, a lethal operative haunted by his violent past undertakes one last mission to infiltrate and take out his target in the nightmarish city of Los Angeles, deep in the heart of the People’s Republic of North America.
National Review’s Jim Geraghty calls Kurt Schlichter’s “People’s Republic” “a surreal, fast-paced journey through a dramatically different America but less than a generation away. … Violent, imaginative, full of mordant humor and dark, gritty details, you won’t want to live in this People’s Republic…but you’ll feel a chill as you wonder how different our real future will be.”
Author and television host Cam Edwards says “Kurt Schlichter’s ‘People’s Republic’ is a roller coaster ride through a post-election Hellscape that will leave you wanting more.” Radio host Hugh Hewitt say “Schlichter puts a whole flight of Black Swans in the air –each of them plausible– and the result is a riveting, page-turner, and a demand from Schlichter for…more.”
“People’s Republic” is the first novel by Kurt Schlichter, a retired Army infantry colonel, a conservative radio and television commentator on the Fox networks and elsewhere, a Senior Columnist at Townhall,com, and a popular and hilarious Twitter raconteur. He’s also a trial lawyer, so he has an intimate understanding of evil and deception.
Radio host and commentator Ben Shapiro calls “People’s Republic “chilling,” and author and columnist David Limbaugh calls it “a thought-provoking action thriller set against the backdrop of a shattered America.”
Fox News contributor and author Katie Pavlich says, “They say conservatives are terrible story tellers, but Kurt Schlichter destroys that stereotype in his new novel People’s Republic and issues a dire warning about the future of America.”
As with his prior book “Conservative Insurgency: The Struggle to Take America Back 2013-2041,” “People’s Republic” takes today’s news and projects the trends out into the future. Funny, frightening and action-packed, “People’s Republic” is a thriller that will make you think as well as keep you turning the pages.
I have read the first two in the series. Fantastic books, not only exciting but a good warning to the left and naive right who haven’t learned from history.
@alfrench
I think there are indeed many small contractors who build up to maybe five houses a year, and I suspect they are largely non-union. But the move to ban all future new SFH construction via zoning changes is more about so-called “progressive” social engineering, to force more people into multifamily dwellings.
@saintaugustine
There is also civil rights legislation, 42 USC Section 1983, whereby officials acting “under color of law” deprive someone of their civil rights. It authorizes a civil lawsuit with potentially large damages awards and in some circumstances, personal liability on the part of the officials. I believe either the DOJ or the affected individuals can pursue the action, and successful recovery includes damages and attorneys fees.
That’s still a 14th Amendment thing, right? Only the 14th is able to limit the 10th and give the federal government any such power over the states.
(Right?)
Yes.