With this weekend’s demonstrations apparently having not resulting in the desired outpouring of frustration, anger and commitments to open wallets for the campaigns of Donald Trump and his acolytes, several restless Republicans have decided to cook up more schemes for thumbing their noses at Governor Inslee.
Franklin County Commissioner Clint Didier — a failed Republican candidate for statewide and federal office — put together a resolution on April 20th to “…end the Stay at Home Emergency Proclamation…” and pronounce it unconstitutional (something that legislative bodies ironically have no authority to do).
In Gbbons v. Ogden, decided all the way back in good old 1824, the United States Supreme Court stated that a given state has the ability to regulate interstate commerce within its jurisdiction through its power to quarantine.
Back when Ebola was a grave concern in 2014, Professor Michael Dorf, a Constitutional scholar at Cornell University, gave a more extensive explanation of the decision and what’s come to pass since which is worth reading.
(This activity of the Franklin County Commission is concurrent with the announcement by Franklin County Sheriff J. D. Raymond, also announced today, that he would not only decline to enforce Governor Inslee’s stay at home orders, but also any guidelines ”that infringe on your constitutional rights.”)
Didier appears more interested in rallying the troops, fundraising, and getting news coverage than he is in actually practicing civil disobedience.
Meanwhile, in Cowlitz County, officials took the more sensible approach of lodging a request to Governor Inslee that asks him to modify his orders to permit a greater number of activities, particularly hunting and fishing.
What vocal right wing activists and elected officials don’t seem to want to acknowledge is that we’re not dealing with just any contagious disease.
This virus (SARS-CoV‑2) is capable of killing twenty to thirty times more people than an average outbreak of influenza. There is no vaccine available.
And many people who have the virus have no idea that they have it.
Even it were possible, returning to the past would not make people whole. We can’t forget that before COVID-19, income inequality and climate damage were problems that were going unsolved. We cannot forget that our economy was in no way made more resilient after the Great Recession that began twelve years ago.
We cannot forget that our society has suffered from structural weaknesses for decades that have gone unaddressed, with tremendous ramifications.
And finally, we should not forget that women, the black community, and Latninx people are suffering most from the novel coronavirus.
No one should fall victim to false canard of economy versus health.
We must collectively recognize that by making responsible choices, we can save most everyone and can have an economy to which we can return.
I realize that, like NPI’s executive director said a few days ago, Inslee has the power under RCW 43.06.220 to issue an emergency proclamation, which includes being able to prohibit, “The sale, purchase or dispensing of other commodities or goods, as he or she reasonably believes should be prohibited to help preserve and maintain life, health, property or the public peace.” However, I don’t see how Gibbons v. Ogden can be used to justify this law.
As you say above, in Gibbons v. Ogden, it was decided, “that a given state has the ability to regulate interstate commerce within its jurisdiction through its power to quarantine.” The problem with what Inslee is doing is that he is not the state Legislature. Even though the state Legislature in years past gave the governor the authority to regulate commerce involving our state, this is not consistent with the decision in Gibbons v. Ogden that you have described. As far as I know, Inslee has been making many decisions about what is an essential business and what is not in a unilateral manner, meaning that the state legislature isn’t involved in the decision making, as it should be.
I don’t disagree that the governor has the power to do what he’s doing right now, but in my mind, the aforementioned law should be either repealed or modified. Giving one person the power to make such impactful decisions unilaterally is dangerous. Instead, the state legislature should be passing bills to do things like deciding what’s an essential business and what is not, and then the governor could either veto such bills or sign them into law.
Health is wealth and in this hard time, we have to take care of ourselves, use hand sanitizer, and masks properly.
There will be no strong economy if there are no strong and healthy people to promote it. In this way, life and well-being will always be more important, since a people without health does not produce, has no quality of life, has no motivation, in short, “has no life”!
I would like to thank you for this important post, which I want to share with my clients and friends! I will continue reading your posts.