Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm
“Justice Neil Gorsuch says all three branches of government share some of the blame for what he calls the ‘breathtaking scale’ of emergency powers wielded by public officials during the COVID-19 pandemic. … ‘Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.’ … As some Gorsuch critics have been quick to point out on Twitter, it might be a bit of an exaggeration to call this the ‘greatest’ attack on civil liberties in American history. There are unfortunately more than a few other contenders for that ignominious crown: slavery, Jim Crow, the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. All were, like COVID-19 emergency powers, the result of legal exercises of state power that violated basic civil rights. But what the country experienced over the past few years does not have to top that list to be worthy of serious disdain.” (05/19/23)