I don't squint.
Public health has always been in the power of the States.
The Feds have NOTHING to do with health.
It's a State police power, and as such, the feds have NO say.
/johnny
No but the feds control international commerce and travel. Therefore I agree that anything on the scale of a potential pandemic is in the realm of the feds. You think for one second the differing viewpoints of various states could coordinate a unified and exact set of rules with respect to containing a potential pandemic? Good luck on that. Let me know how that exactly works out between the state’s of California and Texas
From a strictly constitutional perspective, you may be right. In the America we live in, which is one of rapid transit, public health policies differing by State will be utterly ineffective at stopping an actual pandemic.
To be sure, the feds have to date given no evidence they’re any more capable of stopping a pandemic, but at least it’s theoretically possible for them to do so.
So in the final analysis it gets down to the old saw about whether adherence to the Constitution requires the country to commit suicide. Or to the words of Jesus about whether the Sabbath was created for man, or man for the Sabbath.