Posted on 01/20/2021 9:05:56 AM PST by Kaslin
"If I'm your president," Joe Biden promised at the Democratic National Convention last summer, "on day one we'll have a national mask mandate." Now that Biden is the president, his policy has changed from a general requirement to an executive order that applies only on federal property and interstate transportation.
While supporters of a nationwide face mask mandate to combat COVID-19 may be disappointed, constitutionalists should be pleased. The switch is a hopeful sign that Biden acknowledges limits to presidential power, even during a public health emergency.
Until he backtracked in September, Biden had been promising that he would "do everything possible" from "an executive standpoint" to "make it required that people had to wear masks in public." Donald Trump criticized that plan, saying Biden "wants the president of the United States, with the mere stroke of a pen, to order over 300 million American citizens to wear a mask."
Trump noted that Biden "does not identify what authority the president has to issue such a mandate." He warned that it would violate federalism by "stepping on governors throughout our country."
As Biden now admits, Trump was right. Yet, Trump's defense of constitutional limits sat uneasily with his administration's nationwide moratorium on evictions, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention purported to impose in September under the authority granted by the Public Health Service Act.
A regulation issued under that statute says the CDC's director may "take such measures" he "deems reasonably necessary" to stop the interstate spread of communicable diseases, "including inspection, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation, pest extermination, and destruction of animals or articles believed to be sources of infection." The CDC argued that evicting tenants who fail to pay their rent would promote the spread of COVID-19 by forcing many of them to "become homeless" or "move into close quarters in shared housing."
As South Texas College of Law professor Josh Blackman noted, such a broad reading of the CDC's authority was highly implausible in light of the specific examples cited in the regulation on which the agency was relying. George Mason law professor Ilya Somin likewise warned that the eviction moratorium undermined property rights, federalism, and the separation of powers.
If the CDC can, in the name of disease control, force landlords to house people who do not pay their rent, it can impose pretty much any requirement under that heading -- including the mask mandate that Biden now agrees cannot be imposed by the executive branch. Last month, Congress extended the eviction moratorium until the end of January, which at least avoids the separation of powers problem, and Biden wants Congress to renew the moratorium through September.
Many critics of the Trump administration's COVID-19 policies think the federal government should take a more assertive role. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, complains that "the states are very often given a considerable amount of leeway in doing things the way they want," while The New York Times blames the COVID-19 death toll on the lack of "a unified national strategy," which it says led to a "fracture(ed)" response.
At bottom, that critique is an objection to the American system of government. Under the Constitution, the federal government is limited to specifically enumerated powers, which do not include a general authority to protect the public from communicable diseases.
That responsibility lies primarily with the states, which retain a broad "police power" that goes far beyond the authority vested in the president or Congress. Federalism leaves most decisions in this area to officials who are more accountable and more familiar with local conditions, allows instructive policy experimentation, and avoids concentrating power in a national government whose response to COVID-19 has been characterized by striking incompetence, bureaucratic intransigence, bewildering inconsistency and lethal foot dragging.
I'm not sure that Biden's retreat from a nationwide face mask mandate means he appreciates the wisdom of that design. But I hope so.
That’s the only good news I expect today but thanks for filling us in.
Helps when dealing with fools in the great outdoors.
Say it ain’t so, China Joe!?!?!
Some people were counting on you!
How does that work exactly? Are FBI jackboots going to be at all state border crossings with binoculars to make sure all occupants are face-diapered up?
The author does not seem to “get it”—Bidet is a drooling idiot.
“Biden policy” is an oxymoron.
And—Biden is a moron.
We really should have an inauguration thread.
I can’t object to his speech because it’s all platitudes no substance not even a drop of substance.
Systemic racism climate crisis all bs.
Anyone who wants to wear a mask is welcome to. Don’t try to force me to wear one.
You are to report your neighbor to the authorities, citizen.
Any similarities to Communist or Nazi policies are purely coincidental.
(Remember, don’t leave home without your yellow star.)
Probably just didn’t want to embarrassed when half the states simply openly ignored it.
Promises made.
Promises broken.
From the article: “...destruction of animals or articles believed to be sources of infection....” Anyone bothered by that statement? Asking for a pal.
They will request more federal authority and “emergency powers” in cases of pandemics....so that future events can be all staged.....I mean managed....from Washington DC.
He was over-the-top with all this “come together” pablum. They’re going to put it to us hard, no doubt about it. Get ready.
Does interstate transportation include OTR truckers being required to wear a mask while driving alone for hours? I’m sleepy just thinking about that.
At the grocery store yesterday the checkout clerk and a customer were commiserating about masks...I finally said, “don’t worry, it’ll all change next week”...they sorta agreed.
Yeah.
The fact that they say they want to throw us into re-education camps, but then back off, well, that is hopeful too.
So he’s already breaking a campaign promise. 🤣
He just said those things for the Karen vote.
I’m not sure that Biden’s retreat from a nationwide face mask mandate means he appreciates the wisdom of that design. But I hope so.
—
The withdrawal of a punishment is not a benefit.
On the radio news this morning, they reported that he WAS going ahead with the mask mandate for all federal buildings and properties, as well as for “interstate travel”. So I don’t know what to believe. I suppose if I drive across the border from NE into IA, I could be arrested if not wearing a mask.
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