Posted on 11/27/2020 5:36:23 AM PST by Kaslin
You have "no constitutional right to walk around without a mask," says the Republican governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan. You'll invariably hear such declarative statements as a line of defense by those who support government mask mandates. The problem with such statements is that they are a response to the wrong question.
You see, the salient question is not about which individual rights have been so granted by the powers of government (the Founders were clear that God, not government, grants rights to citizens), but about how the powers of government are limited by the Constitution.
In short, the question is not "does an individual American have the right to walk around without wearing a mask?" The appropriate question is, "where in the Constitution is the power for the government to coerce Americans to wear masks explicitly defined?" When framed that way, it should be obvious to even the most dimwitted totalitarian that the truthful answers to both questions are inextricably linked.
Do Americans have the right to walk around without masks in public spaces? Without question, they do. How do we know that? Because the Constitution does not explicitly grant the government power to institute or enforce laws around masking in public. Nothing about this is rocket science, but nothing could be more vital to the principle of self-governance.
--snip--
To put it mildly, when you make dissenting arguments against that government mask mandate that your governor enacted via executive decree (because legislating such a mandate infringing upon your liberty would be too politically difficult to achieve), you couldn't be on firmer legal ground.
Even at the state level, these mask mandates can often be proven unconstitutional.
-- snip --
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I am watching people have a meltdown on Twitter, and then I look at South Dakota and see that in spite of no mandates, it’s 39 out of 50, and if you only consider continental, then it’s 39 out of 48, that means a majority of all states do worse than South Dakota, now to be fair, there’s also population density, but even that makes other factors statistically less significant if the population density is what is really contributing.
Couldn’t agree more.
Thankful for Governor Ron DeSantis
Burn them in defiance.
Obviously, the author of this article is woefully ignorant of the US Constitution.
AMENDMENT XXVIII - Originally proposed Sept. 25, 1789. Ratified July 4, 2010.
In the event of national emergency, war, pandemic, or when citizens get uppity, the Constitution of the United States, laws Federal government and the Several States shall be suspended until correct order is returned.
The mask was another way where our great leaders in government showed action in the face of a crisis, while empowering the individual to participate in the solution.
Ozone hole - don’t use hair spray
Deforestation - use recycled paper
and the list goes on...
The idea is you make people feel like they matter and participate in some sort of solution while you get them to rally around you as their great leader saving the world from acid rain, global warming, whatever other nonsense they think up.
Of course government bureaucracies love to jump on these bandwagons since it always means more power, personnel and budgets for them, for example: “a war on drugs” where you have billions poured into special task forces for the police, FBI, and the creation of an entire government agency, DEA which after 30-40 years have accomplished what exactly? But like the ad council which is still telling us about how we will all run out of water some day unless we save every drop (big theme in the 70s), once you create a government program and funding for it, it is about as perpetual as anything man-made can get on this earth. However, it is funny when you see a water conservation commercial running on TV while you have a hurricane and flood tearing through New Orleans...
Now that’s funny.
I ask my mask-wearing friends to please cite a state or locality that has imposed a mask mandate and has seen a corresponding drop in cases... I’m still waiting...
Six months in some places. But hey, it will start kicking in, any day now.
You don’t have the constitutional power to deprive citizens of life, liberty or property without due process of law. That means you can’t force citizens to wear masks. We do have the constitutional right to say GFYS, so long as we don’t also throw a brick at you.
When he first broke his oath to both the Federal and Maryland Constitutions many months ago, many of us in Maryland began referring to Hogan as the former governor.
Like King George, who through his tyranical actions against the colonists “Un-kinged” himself, Hogan “un-governored” himself.
The few of us here who actually understand what an oath is no longer claim him.
Oh-
Is that the US Constitutional amendment that allows 15 different government agencies to write “regulations” with the force of the law behind them without any legislative process or true judicial review?
You know, where the EPA just decides that a toilet can’t use more than one gallon per flush...
50 volumes of federal code.
>23,000 pages
Font size 10, double column, double sided
And not even the lawyers in the agencies responsible can tell you directly and with certainty how to interpret this code that their own agency wrote!
However, from one morning to the next you might wake up and suddenly find that buy a frigging nasal decongestant the DEA wants that reported to them - because they decided so.
Who knows, you might find out that now a toy drone needs registered to the FAA, or else face fines and potential imprisonment... or that a government agency which is all scientific and all deems marijuana equally harmful with LSD, heroin, etc. as a schedule I drug.
If our government didn’t have the impact into our daily and personal lives, and if government stupidity wouldn’t have the economic impact it has (see how Covid paranoia destroyed probably the best economy since WWII), it would be funny.
I freaking despise our guvnah.
I freaking despise our guvnah.
bump
Yesterday I saw a family taking an afternoon walk. The short little preschooler was wearing a mask while riding a scooter.MD Governor Hogan is crazy. Bring back common sense.
I have not seen any state legislatures and city councils stand up to the governors and mayors.
Great question - going to start asking it myself! Thanks.
It’s only a mandate if you wear one.
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