It’s not just the central government that’s seized on the latest “crisis” to extend its power, state governors are, too.
Governor Noisome insists that the state of emergency will never end
"We're still in a state of emergency,” the governor said. “This disease has not been extinguished. It's not vanished, it's not taking the summer months off."
The extent of the emergency powers here is genuinely breathtaking. Per KCRA3, Newsom’s emergency declaration has allowed him to unilaterally allocate billions in “emergency spending” and change or suspend more than 200 state laws and regulations.
It’s perhaps unsurprising that the governor doesn’t want to give up such vast and unchecked power. However, with this forever-emergency mentality, Newsom is stretching state law so far he deserves an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics.
Under California law, the governor can declare a state of emergency only amid “conditions of disaster or of extreme peril” that are so grave as to “likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single county, city and county, or city.” State law further requires the governor to “proclaim the termination of a state of emergency at the earliest possible date that conditions warrant.”
Of course, upon doing so, Newsom’s emergency powers go away. His political critics are crying foul.
… [A]ny acute period of true emergency during this pandemic passed many months ago. Many problems linger, yes, but the coronavirus and ensuing economic decline have become manageable parts of everyday life—not a bona fide emergency like a hurricane or earthquake.
But Newsom is setting a timeline on his “emergency” powers that could let him hold onto them for years or even the rest of his time in office. Insisting that the state of emergency can only lapse when the coronavirus is “extinguished” or “vanished” gives the governor license to cling on to his expanded powers essentially forever.
It’s unlikely we’ll have zero coronavirus cases in the near future, but a few dozen infections in a population where almost all vulnerable people have been vaccinated does not an emergency make. And it’s even possible that the coronavirus could become a recurring seasonal part of life like the flu.
So, Newsom is setting standards that could allow him to never “hang up his crown.” This is an unacceptable act of authoritarianism that has no place in a free society.
“This isn’t a game,” the Orange County Register’s editorial board concluded. “The deliberative legislative and regulatory processes that the governor considers an impediment to necessary orders are, in fact, the protection of the rights of all Californians from arbitrary government actions.”
Critics are right, and we should all hope that Newsom’s tyrannical power grab isn’t allowed to stand. But the takeaway here is broader than any governor, state, or even the coronavirus. Time and time again, we see that “emergencies,” both real and manufactured, are used as cover for would-be tyrants in government who want to break the crucial restraints on their power that keep us free.
“‘Emergencies’ have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded – and once they are suspended it is not difficult for anyone who has assumed emergency powers to see to it that the emergency will persist,” Nobel-prize-winning economist F.A. Hayek famously wrote.
So, don’t just look at what Newsom is doing in California right now with horror. Remember it next time an emergency comes around and your politicians promise that if you consent to their power grabs it will just be “temporary.”
And up north in the land of George Floyd Square, we have another banana republic dictator.
EMERGENCY!
The Covid war is over, but Minnesota Governor Tim Walz carries on the fight. Tomorrow he will continue his one-man rule of the state by declaring another “emergency.” He will accordingly extend his emergency powers for another 30 days. Doing the arithmetic, Alpha News reports that this makes it the fifteenth month in a row that Governor Walz has ruled with emergency powers.
The relevant statute limits the circumstances under which the governor is delegated the power to declare an emergency: “A peacetime declaration of emergency may be declared only when an act of nature, a technological failure or malfunction, a terrorist incident, an industrial accident, a hazardous materials accident, or a civil disturbance endangers life and property and local government resources are inadequate to handle the situation.”
The circumstances that might justify the declaration of an emergency have not obtained for a long time, if ever. The continued “emergency” is utterly lawless.
