{"id":277471,"date":"2021-06-17T01:07:12","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T22:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/covid-showed-governors-can-wield-far-too-much-unilateral-power\/"},"modified":"2021-06-17T01:07:12","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T22:07:12","slug":"covid-showed-governors-can-wield-far-too-much-unilateral-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/covid-showed-governors-can-wield-far-too-much-unilateral-power\/","title":{"rendered":"#COVID showed governors can wield far too much unilateral power"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#COVID showed governors can wield far too much unilateral power<\/strong>”
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Pennsylvania legislators last week officially ended<\/a> the state\u2019s COVID-19 \u201cdisaster emergency,\u201d which Gov. Tom Wolf repeatedly extended after declaring it 15 months ago. While the immedia<\/a>te practical effect will be minimal, it\u2019s an important step toward reining in the vast powers Wolf and other governors have exercised during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania resolution was authorized by a constitutional amendment that voters app<\/a>roved last month, which changed the requirement for terminating a state of emergency from a two-thirds vote to a simple majority. Voters also passed an amendment that reduces the length of future emergency declarations to 21 days, from 90, and requires the legislature\u2019s approval to extend them.<\/p>\n

The election results and last week\u2019s resolution amount to a sharp rebuke of the Democratic governor\u2019s pandemic response, which a federal judge described as \u201cshockingly arbitrary\u201d and unconstitutional. The goal of the new limits, according to the state Senate\u2019s GOP leaders, is \u201cre-establishing the balance of power between three equal branches of government as guaranteed by the [state] Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u2019s governor has very broad powers once he declares a \u201cdisaster emergency.\u201d Among other things, he can suspend statutes and regulations, commandeer private property, issue evacuation orders and \u201ccontrol ingress and egress to and from a disaster area, the movement of persons within the area and the occupancy of premises therein.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolf relied on that last power when he closed all K-12 schools and all \u201cnon-life-sustaining\u201d businesses. He also cited it when he ordered Pennsylvanians to stay home \u201cexcept as needed to access, support or provide life-sustaining business, emergency or government services.\u201d<\/p>\n

By last week, Wolf had lifted nearly all of his COVID-19 restrictions, and he argues that the constitutional amendments won\u2019t affect the legality of future responses to public-health threats. In addition to his own emergency powers, he notes, the state Department of Health has a \u201cduty\u201d to \u201cdetermine and employ the most efficient and practical means for the prevention and suppression of disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

On its face, that power is even broader than Wolf\u2019s, authorizing any measure that the secretary of health considers appropriate. A bill that state legislators are considering would limit the secretary\u2019s amazingly wide discretion, insisting the health department may not close businesses, issue stay-at-home orders, restrict travel<\/a> or mandate a \u201cspecific hygienic practice\u201d such as mask-wearing or physical distancing except in cases where people have been \u201cexposed or potentially exposed to a contagious disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican State Sen. Judy Ward, who introduced that provision, wants to require legislative approval of such far-reaching policy decisions, which she said \u201cshould not be made in a vacuum by someone who was not elected by the people.\u201d According to Ward, her amendment \u201csimply prevents one person from unilaterally throwing tens of thousands of citizens out of work, barring children from school and spending millions of taxpayer dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legislators in many other states \u2014 including, in some cases, legislators from the same political party as their governor \u2014 have similar concerns. USA Today reports that \u201clawmakers in 46 states, Guam and Puerto Rico have drafted 300 proposals this year to curtail their governors\u2019 executive powers.\u201d Such limits already have been enacted in several states, including New York, Florida and Kentucky.<\/p>\n

The impulse behind such legislation is understandable, once you consider the vague, sweeping language of the statutes that were invoked during the COVID-19 crisis. After declaring an emergency, for instance, California\u2019s governor can exercise \u201call police power vested in the state\u201d; Michigan\u2019s governor can \u201cpromulgate reasonable orders, rules and regulations as he or she considers necessary to protect life and property\u201d; and Nevada\u2019s governor assumes whatever \u201cfunctions, powers and duties\u201d he thinks are \u201cnecessary to promote and secure the safety and protection of the civilian population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legislators gave governors the ability to unilaterally, dramatically and indefinitely magnify their own powers, trusting them not to abuse that authority. The experience of the last year and a half suggests that trust may have been misplaced.<\/p>\n

Twitter: @JacobSullum<\/em>\n <\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#COVID showed governors can wield far too much unilateral power” Pennsylvania legislators last week officially ended the state\u2019s COVID-19 \u201cdisaster emergency,\u201d which Gov. Tom Wolf repeatedly extended after declaring it 15 months ago. While the immediate practical effect will be minimal, it\u2019s an important step toward reining in the vast powers Wolf and other governors…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":277472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/Virus_Outbreak-Pennsylvania_Last-Call-for-Alcohol.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[109557,1545,74661,73779,71104,75331],"class_list":["post-277471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-16-21","tag-coronavirus","tag-governors","tag-legislature","tag-pennsylvania","tag-tom-wolf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}