The public has the right to assemble and due to Covid-19 we have been striped of this right and others. What is wrong with our publicly elected officials? From Governors Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California all have one thing in common, they all are a bit paranoid about the corona virus.
I have to admit that I think that Cuomo is a tiny bit more realistic than either of the other two governors. Both Murphy and Newsom are really weirded out by this virus. Maybe they feel that they do not have any real control about it.
From Snopes, “The police power of a State embraces such reasonable regulations relating to matters completely within its territory, and not affecting the people of other States, established directly by legislative enactment, as will protect the public health and safety.
While a local regulation, even if based on the acknowledged police power of a State, must always yield in case of conflict with the exercise by the General Government of any power it possesses under the Constitution, the mode or manner of exercising its police power is wholly within the discretion of the State so long as the Constitution of the United States is not contravened, or any right granted or secured thereby is not infringed, or not exercised in such an arbitrary and oppressive manner as to justify the interference of the courts to prevent wrong and oppression.
The liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States does not import an absolute right in each person to be at all times, and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint, nor is it an element in such liberty that one person, or a minority of persons residing in any community and enjoying the benefits of its local government, should have power to dominate the majority when supported in their action by the authority of the State.
It is within the police power of a State to enact a compulsory vaccination law, and it is for the legislature, and not for the courts, to determine in the first instance whether vaccination is or is not the best mode for the prevention of smallpox and the protection of the public health.”
Under the US Constitution we have the following- “The First Amendment to the United States Constitution states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances” (Bloom p. 81).
The right of a citizen to peacefully 1) parade and gather or 2) demonstrate support or opposition of public policy or 3) express one’s views, is guaranteed by the freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble.”
These rights have been suppressed by these three governors (and others) in the name of ‘Flattening the curve.’ From an article on Sweden by the New York Times, “From the first signs of the pandemic, the Swedish Public Health Authority decided that a lockdown would be pointless. “Once you get into a lockdown, it’s difficult to get out of it,” the country’s state epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, said. “How do you reopen? When?”” So who is wrong?
I think and many others agree that we should have used the model that Sweden has followed, it works and it does not involve a shutdown of the economy as we now are experiencing here right now.
We have to force these ‘Chicken Little’ governors to stop with their nonsense and restart their state economies by lifting the arbitrary draconian measures they have put in place in the name of public health. I know that Murphy never considered the constitutional questions that he should have addressed before acting like he did.
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
PS I am only writing one blog this week. I feel that the above addresses both local and national issues. Plus I have been feeling run down from the lack of sleep, mainly due to stress over this whole craziness over covid-19.
