Free Republic

Following the disastrous shutdowns in states like New York and New Jersey, lawmakers may want to emulate Pennsylvania’s constitutional remedy.Before the COVID-19 outbreak, state sovereignty was viewed as a check on federal encroachment. Americans welcomed this limit on centralized power. But amid the ongoing panic, the coercive effects of unbridled executive authority are on display in the states themselves. This authoritarian streak is evident in New York, California, and Michigan, and my home state, Pennsylvania, where Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s shutdown orders—enforced through emergency powers—have flung economic shrapnel. Wolf’s restrictions, some of the most draconian in the country, have inflicted...

In a theme that continues to be tragically borne out with each passing day of our government’s overbearing, one-size-fits-all coronavirus pandemic response, few things these days seem to actually make any logical or scientific sense. In case you missed it, last week’s “Part I” column covered the government’s draconian response, bankrupt hospitals, and the government happily hampering any future recovery by paying people more money not to work. Stopping there, however, would have lent short shrift to the seemingly endless insane and infuriating inconsistencies of the past two months. So here are a few more, just to get your...

It's reasonable to assume that the vast majority of Americans process news and data, and calculate that self-quarantining, wearing masks and social distancing make sense for themselves, their families and the country. Free people act out of self-preservation, but they shouldn't be coerced to act through the authoritarian whims of the state. Yet this is exactly what's happening. There has been lots of pounding of keyboards over the power grabs of authoritarians in Central and Eastern Europe. Rightly so. Yet right here, politicians act as if a health crisis gives them license to lord over the most private activities of...