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As COVID wanes, state legislatures are limiting governors' emergency powers. Why it matters
goerie.com ^ | 6/7/21 | Candy Woodall, Gareth McGrath and Brian Gordon

Posted on 06/07/2021 5:06:24 AM PDT by cotton1706

The biggest public health disaster in a hundred years is winding down, but the fight over emergency powers given to governors during the COVID-19 pandemic is escalating throughout nearly every state government in the country.

Lawmakers in 46 states, Guam and Puerto Rico have drafted 300 proposals this year to curtail their governors' executive powers, as legislative and executive branches fight for authority over school and business closures, mask orders and more.

Almost all of the measures seek to install permanent restrictions on governors' powers that were handed to them in the first months of the virus' spread as states scrambled to address the health emergency.

Now, states may change the unilateral authority many governors were given, putting more control and checks and balances with their legislative branches.

(Excerpt) Read more at goerie.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: elections
No laws have any validity or binding force without the consent and approbation of the people, given in the persons of their representatives, periodically elected by themselves. - Alexander Hamilton

The people … are not controllable by any other laws than those to which their constitutional representa-tive body have given their consent. - John Adams

1 posted on 06/07/2021 5:06:24 AM PDT by cotton1706
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To: cotton1706

Pa began this as soon as Wolf did his first extension.....our guys were livid and went right to it.


2 posted on 06/07/2021 5:16:32 AM PDT by caww ( )
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To: caww

In the May primary, we also passed an amendment to the state constitution limiting the emergency powers of the governor. The scary part to me is that the amendment vote was only 54-46 in favor. It should have been much higher than that.

The problem is that the whole debate over emergency powers was framed in overly specific terms — response to the pandemic and Wolf in particular. This really should have been about the larger problem, namely the flawed constitution of our state.

The limiting of emergency powers was brought to the forefront by COVID, but really was indicative of a fundamental flaw — the same person who gets unlimited powers during an emergency can also declare that emergency. Whether or not one agrees with a particular response to a particular emergency, surely we must realize ether danger inherent in essentially allowing a governor to seize dictatorial power based upon his own declaration that an emergency exists.

I almost hate to make this comparison since while Wolf has serious flaws, he isn’t a maniacal, genocidal megalomaniac, but those who have studied history can see a parallel. How did Hitler arise to dictatorial power in Germany? He was elected chancellor, but that was not a dictatorial position in the Weimar Republic. Hitler staged a fire in the Reichstag and used it as an excuse to seize emergency power, and the rest is history. Such is the danger inherent in having one person with the power to assume absolute power at will, even if it’s only intended to be on an emergency basis.


3 posted on 06/07/2021 5:44:59 AM PDT by stremba
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To: cotton1706

Let me know when a governor is impeached.

Then I’ll believe a legislature is serious.


4 posted on 06/07/2021 5:47:03 AM PDT by mewzilla (Those aren't masks. They're muzzles. )
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To: mewzilla

BTW, last I knew the legislature in every state in the union except Oregon has the power to impeach its gov.

Talk is cheap.


5 posted on 06/07/2021 5:48:56 AM PDT by mewzilla (Those aren't masks. They're muzzles. )
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To: cotton1706
“The biggest public health disaster in a hundred years...”

No, the biggest lie/fraud/scam in a hundred years, and possibly of all time.

6 posted on 06/07/2021 5:53:28 AM PDT by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: stremba

Good post...Good read.


7 posted on 06/07/2021 6:14:50 AM PDT by caww ( )
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To: cotton1706
I'll repeat what I wrote before and was slammed for it even here on Free Republic:

Under no circumstances should the Bill of Rights not be in force.

8 posted on 06/07/2021 6:39:44 AM PDT by libertylover (Our biggest problem by far: most of the news media is agenda driven, not truth driven.)
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To: mewzilla

The trouble is that the assumption of emergency powers by a governor is perfectly legal, and therefore is not an impeachable offense. The governors aren’t the problem; the state laws and constitutional provisions allowing governors the power to declare an emergency and then assume unlimited power in response to that declaration are the problem. Impww de arch a governor and you don’t actually solve the real problem. Other states need to do what Pennsylvania did in May and amend their constitutions to place reasonable checks and limits on a governor’s emergency power.


9 posted on 06/07/2021 6:40:40 AM PDT by stremba
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To: cotton1706

Waning, I suppose, it’s over: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_dailytrendscases


10 posted on 06/07/2021 6:42:29 AM PDT by 1Old Pro (Let's make crime illegal again!)
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To: cotton1706

and yet here in the rupublic of michiganstan, our bush league chamber of commerce worshiping repbliCAN’T controlled legislature does nothing...
hell, we citizens had to do their job for them, but creating and passing a petition to limit this hitler wanna be’s power.
According to the law, this petition becomes law automatically, bypassing legislature and governor.
The petition is approved.
So, where is it you ask???
Still sitting in our democommie secretary of states office.

bueller???? beuller???


11 posted on 06/07/2021 6:44:10 AM PDT by joe fonebone (bush league chamber of commerce worshiping republiCAN'Ts are the enemy)
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To: libertylover

Great point. It’s not a popular opinion these days, but it’s still true — tyrannical government is far more dangerous and has killed far more people than any pandemic. The BOR is a good weapon to avoid tyranny.


12 posted on 06/07/2021 6:48:08 AM PDT by stremba
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To: stremba
The scary part to me is that the amendment vote was only 54-46 in favor. It should have been much higher than that.

It probably was, given the level of fraud in PA.

13 posted on 06/07/2021 11:40:01 AM PDT by bassmaner (He y commies: I'm a white male, and guilty of NOTHING! Sell your 'white guilt' elsewhere!)
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