straightUp wrote:
I understand that's a common sentiment among the deplorables but the facts don't agree with you.
For instance...
1. The executive orders that stand at the ready to suspend the Constitution was signed by Nixon, a Republican.
2. Since 1970 every national effort to restrict personal freedom has been championed by Republicans... gay people can't get married, women can't get abortions, no one can smoke weed... the list goes on.
Don't confuse the shame you feel when you see liberals leading healthier lives with prohibition. No one is forcing you to eat right.
I understand that's a common sentiment among the d... (
show quote)
What did Nixon sign into law that suspends the Constitution?? Martial law?? Nothing can suspend the Constitution.. EOs can channel directives etc but please clarify what you are speaking of???
Federal government has important quarantine powers. Under section 361 of the Public Health Service Act, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services has the power to take measures to contain communicable diseases from foreign countries into the United States and between states. The CDC acts on behalf of the Secretary in these matters.
Federal public health and welfare statutes also give the federal government authority to isolate and quarantine persons with certain diseases, based on an executive order issued by President George W. Bush in 2003. The federal government also has a seldom-used power to impose large-scale quarantines. For example, the federal government issued isolation and quarantine orders during the Spanish Influenza pandemic in 1918 and 1919.
But under the Constitution, individuals have rights in quarantine and isolation conditions. Under the 5th and 14th Amendment’s rights of Due Process and Equal Protection, public health regulations used to impose such conditions can’t be “arbitrary, oppressive and unreasonable.”
There are precedents where courts have ruled that states or local governments didn’t meet a burden of proof to justify a quarantine. For example, in 1900 courts ruled against the city of San Francisco when it tried to inoculate and then quarantine Chinese residents against the bubonic plague when the courts had doubts that plague conditions existed.
And there also precedents that authorities should provide confined people with an explanation about why they are confined and notify them they have a right to counsel and other constitutional provisions.
A current example of a federal quarantine order related to the COVID-19 virus on the CDC website outlines many of these principles for people arriving in the United States and “reasonably” suspected by the CDC of exposure to or infection with the coronavirus. Those quarantined have the right to a medical review and “to ask a federal court to review your federal quarantine, including any rights to habeas review.”
Also, the federal government does have an updated plan to cope with a national influenza pandemic. First developed in 2005 and last updated in 2017, the National Pandemic Influenza Plans deal with isolation and quarantine options if needed.
Of course, one final question is how can the government enforce isolation and quarantine conditions?
Perhaps this explains better~~
https://www.google.com/amp/s/constitutioncenter.org/amp/blog/constitutional-powers-and-issues-during-a-quarantine-situation