Remember when all the media folks were telling Trump to use his power to Do Something about COVID19, even when he didn’t actually have that power? Well, now, Vox seems upset
Trump claims he will “override the governors†who closed churches in the pandemic
At a press conference Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump announced he would order churches reopened despite the coronavirus pandemic — something he almost certainly does not have the power to do.
State governors, Trump claimed, need to allow churches to reopen “right now, for this weekend.†He added that “if they don’t do it, I will override the governors.â€
State governments, not the White House, have the primary responsibility to decide how their states will react to the pandemic.
Wait, wait, I thought Trump was in charge, that the president was in charge? Isn’t that what outlets like Vox were telling us? Now, suddenly, when it involves churches being forced to stay closed while people can run around willy nilly at Home Depot, Trump doesn’t have the power?
But even assuming churches have a substantial enough impact on interstate commerce that Congress could order them reopened, Trump is not Congress. Trump can invoke existing laws that give the federal executive branch some power to help manage a public health crisis, but those statutes largely permit the federal government to support ongoing state efforts to control a disease, or to quarantine people seeking to enter the country or to cross state lines.
Notably, when reporters asked White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany to identify which provision of federal law permits the president to override a governor’s public health order, McEnany did not do so. Instead, her answer — “the president will strongly encourage every governor to allow churches to reopen†— appeared to concede that Trump only has the power to try to persuade governors to change their policies.
Which is exactly what Trump was trying to say. That he would try and persuade them.
Yet while Trump almost certainly does not have the lawful authority to order churches reopened, he is the head of the Republican Party and his words are likely to shape the views of many GOP partisans — some of whom are sitting judges.
Suddenly, Vox is concerned about judges being partisan. Even when they are following the Constitution.
So, while Trump does not have the lawful authority to order churches reopened, his rhetoric is likely to influence politicians and at least some Republican judges. That means the courts could require churches to reopen long before the virus is under control — potentially leading to new outbreaks like the ones in California and Arkansas.
You know one thing Vox has forgotten about? There are 51 Constitutions. A federal one and one for each state. You know this. Liberals forget about it. And they all include provisions about protecting the right to worship as one sees fit. Even in liberal California.
Governors, particularly the Democrat ones, would have been better served asking religious institutions to be careful, appealing to their better natures, rather than locking them down. Same with the leftist media. Anyhow, it’s amusing that they are losing their minds over Trump wanting churches to reopen and claiming he doesn’t have the power.
