06/25/2020
On Friday, April 19, 2013, Boston Police issued a shelter-in-place order. In an incredible first, they demanded residents all stay in their homes until the second bomber, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, was apprehended.
Authorities proceeded to go door-to-door, smashing into people's homes one-by-one, pointing live fi****ms at civilians, including children, in search of the suspect.
That night, the lockdown was lifted. Only then was Dzokhar found, by a citizen who, once he left his house, saw blood on his boat, and called the police.
This was the first widespread American shelter-in place order. It caused an incredible amount of economic destruction, kids missing school, and thousands of canceled events.
Today, millions of people are under shelter-in-place orders, some have been lifted, and some are being reimposed.
These shelter in place orders were not passed by a legislature or a popular vote. They were not an agreement of society to come together to protect themselves. They were passed by executive edict, gubernatorial fiat, one person with one vote.
These shelter-in-place orders vary widely, are continually modified with exceptions, carry all of the trappings of executive power our founders warned against, and far from being a peer-reviewed, scientific method to combat a deadly disease, are either inspired by an authoritarian Chinese government or a high school science project (seriously.)
There is little evidence they even work.
This is not to say the threat is not real. We've lost tens of thousands of Americans to the coronavirus, just like we lost dozens of Americans to the Boston marathon bombing.
But the first words in the Constitution are not "We the Governors of the States." They are "We the People."
Prior to 2001, shelter-in-place was never used. The idea that a single executive could order all citizens to stay home was absurd. But since the war on terror proved how easily a fearful population would accept it, it has been expanded from one invisible enemy to another, until now American governors have powers the British governors only wish they did.
We oppose shelter-in-place because it violates the 1st and 14th amendments. We oppose shelter-in-place because it has never been shown to work. We oppose shelter-in-place because of the untold number of lives it has already destroyed. We oppose shelters-in place because they were imposed by the wills of a single person with no debate or vote.
As governors prepare to re-impose shelters in place upon their populations, let us remember. We did not throw off one king to elect 50 others.
