If ‘Congress Shall Make No Law
…’ Why Can Governors?

Perhaps our runaway goobinors should revisit the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and its judicial interpretation.

What section of state code are they using to issue summons? They can't just make rules as they go along.

The Federal Government of which Congress is a part (though they make it tough to believe at times) has strictly enumerated powers. The States, however are representatives of the People who have all the residual powers. They i.e. the Governors can do anything that is not explicitly forbidden - to them. Infringing the people's right to keep and bear arms, for example IS explicitly forbidden to the States. The First Amendment is specifically directed at Congress so there might be a penumbra of sorts there. Just like abortion. My point is that it is not that cut dried as it may seem.

A Governor can suspend constitutional rights during an emergency for a limited period of time. Unfortunately, in some cases, that limited period is not defined. After that limited period, the legislature has to go along, or reject the emergency declaration. This is looking really ugly. There is little people can do but fire the politicians involved in these tyrannies, and then get these laws changed.

The way to end this is for people to re-open their businesses and go back to work with or without the Governor’s approval. We don’t need it. In the meantime let this play out in the Courts so this doesn’t happen again. It should eventually end up in the US Supreme Court. Now that liberals have had a taste of this they will find new ways to use it again.

The Gov of Michigan May be in legal trouble- legislators denied extended emergency power- she EO an extension anyway. I am ignoring her EO/ business are starting to open.. on their own.. I can’t decide how to describe Gov HalfWitmer.. other than Lord Farquaad’s Evil Twin... the resemblance is uncanny!!

I just came back from Stop and Shop and discovered you can now buy more than two bottles of distilled water at one time. I do not know if that is an Executive Order from the Governor, or if it came down from top management at S&S. Possibly, a sign that there is some light at the end of this stupid tunnel.

IMO Federal intervention is warranted. This past Saturday, California Governor Newsome ordered CHP to disperse a demonstration of over 1,000 in Sacramento protesting his policies. 33 protestors were arrested on flimsy social distancing pretexts. That is a 1A violation no matter what. US Code Title 18 Section 242 makes it a crime for a law enforcement officer acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States. IOW, law enforcement may not arrest, threaten or intimidate citizens their right to peaceably assemble. NO ONE gets a pass on this. Not Congress, not state governors, not city mayors, not county supervisors, HOA boards, etc. Moreover, “....this offense is punishable by a range of imprisonment up to a life term or the death penalty, depending on the circumstances of the crime, and the resulting injury, if any.” DOJ is well within its authority to charge Gov. Newsome and all the officers involved with this blatant Unconstitutional violation. Without any federal legal or executive action to address these abuses, this will only get worse. Citing emergencies to suspend rights authorities can be played at higher levels too. How President Eisenhower dealt with a renegade Arkansas Governor in 1957 over the Little Rock 9 is a prime example.

There's way too much government over US everywhere and even before the virus. Government from all levels is deeply entrenched in our everyday lives. Taxes on property over and over again, gas taxes for roads and stuff that never ends, school taxes with no decrease when there's no school (think you'll get a tax rebate?), speed limits, driver's licenses, regulations that cost and limit businesses and consumers (how many shower heads a builder can put in new construction), must have a realtor to buy a house in some states, business licenses (taxation) to do business out of your home (businesses that only require use of computer and other things we already are taxed for, such as utilities, cell phones, internet), taxes on everything you buy and earn, what can be taught in schools, forcing parents to send their children to schools, oversight of school lunches, breakfasts, and now dinners, zoning laws, owning a weapon to protect yourself or just because, and there's lots more. If someone gives you a substantial gift, one or both of you will pay taxes on it. The elimination of our rights always starts with "we're here to help" and ends up screwing US instead. Dictatorial government is freaking everywhere.

Somebody better explain this to the governess of New Mexico she sent the state police storm troopers and National Guard to Grants New Mexico when the mayor decided to open up the little village. Jackbooted Nazi from Santa Fe doesn't play nice.

The prog democrats hate the Constitution, so no democrat governor is going to get elected who respects the Constitution! We are seeing it with our very own eyes.

I suspect part of the reason for AG Barr's statement this past week is because he too is starting to see the light of the tunnel's end. It is a true shame that it is going to take some serious rebelling of the people before authorities like state legislatures and Barr come to their senses and grow a spine. It is indeed cut and dried with regards to Amendment #1. Nowhere in the constitution does it give governors the right to abandon any parts of the constitution. The constitution is THE founding document which is the basis for all our laws, both state and federal. Just because things are being ignored right now in the state houses, doesn't make it right, or even legal. What should define any suspension of rights like now, is the crisis at hand. Apparently the governors choose to ignore that too. When the crisis goes away, the state should be opening back up, and there should be no questions needed. With the exceptions of the most populous blue states like NY/CA/NJ, the rest of the nation should have opened up weeks ago. What is motivating them in all of this is their hatred for our president. Nothing more, nothing less. So the governors are indeed acting illegally and unconstitutionally and let us hope Justice Alito sees it this way as well.

Sieg Heil, y’all :-(

If you look at the debate and history of the 14th amendment, you'll discover it imposed the BOR on the states. The entire BOR. Not just some that the black-robed would-be dictators say, but all. And it would also be profitable to review history regarding the Founders answer when asked if the scotus was the final arbiter of the constitution. Hint: They aren't, we are.

Officials at any level of government acting to unilaterally suspend Constitutional rights, should be subject to termination via body bag. Those rights came at a huge price and is the fundamental glue that has held our Nation together. Public officials at all levels of government must take an oath to support the US Constitution, first and foremost; no state law or local ordinance has primacy over our Constitution. Although the people may allow deviations, it is never wise to cede any one of the rights that despots wish to chip away at their discretion. If the people wish to allow such deviations under well-defined exigent circumstances, then the Constitution should be amended accordingly. Allowing leftists to pick and choose the circumstances for and the degree of suspension of the Bill of Rights is national suicide and should be resisted by any and all means available. Otherwise, this CCP virus crisis is just a warm up for what's coming under the false banner of climate change or any other excuse de jour to impose rule by the wannabe totalitarian elite.

Legally they can't. But, the failure to teach the U.S. Constitution in our schools has left the majority of the people ignorant of what it says. The Constitution easily fits on 12 pages and all the amendments on 12 more. By not teaching the Constitution the politicians can claim it says whatever they want it to say, and get away with it. The few people that point out the Constitution prohibits what they are doing, the politicians Claim the Constitution is a "Living Document" that they can change to meet their needs of the moment. They ignore the fact that the Constitution provides a procedure for making changes which are called Amendments. There have been 27 Amendments approved over the years. For a lone politician or a minority of politicians to take it upon themselves to change the Constitution is against the law.

Much of the Bill of Rights has been 'incorporated' via the Fourteenth Amendment. Unfortunately the courts have vigorously resisted the push to FULLY incorporate all of the first eight of the Bill of Rights, especially the 2nd Amendment. That would pretty much cancel all state gun control laws, as they have been cancelled in many states which are currently recoginzing the 2nd Amendment. Incorporation means that the restrictions of the Constitution are applied to state and local law enforcement, not just the Feds. The First Amendment has been considered to be fully incorporated for quite some time. https://constitutionallawreporter.com/amendment-14-01/incorporation-of-the-bill-of-rights/ I have hunted with a Constitutional Law professor, a name which most of you would know, and we have had three hours or so several times when driving back from western Kansas to discuss these issues, which was me mostly asking questions and getting reasoned, law professor explanations. I learned a lot, and a lot of what I learned was initially infuriating....but things are what they are, until we change them. Knowing what they actually are is important. I am no expert in constitutional law, but I have had a bit of education over the years doing 2nd Amendment lobbying and learning from people who are experts. These governors are WRONG and I think that there will be a bunch of lawsuits which will prove it, and make precedents which will prevent them from ever doing this crap again. And with the governor of Oregon, if she tries to stick to a July opening date, I predict that something is going to pop, that order seems to have no possibility of standing. Whether she just folds, or whether the people just start ignoring her, I don't know. I'll bet that a lot of county sheriffs will refuse to carry out her orders.

The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish! If this is true, it is a serious fact, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it

#18, yes, and Bastiat was right when he first wrote it, and it is still true.

Historically this usually ends with an enraged mob dragging some official out of bed and doing nasty things to them. That often leads to a change in official decrees.

There should be a load of federal prosecutions after this virus BS settles down. One can only hope.

How can a *state* governor suspend *federal* law, e.g. the Constitution of the United States? I could see that they may have *state* laws that would allow them to suspend their *state* constitutions in times of emergency but not the US Constitution!