And they only hold up to court challenge if they’re in line with the powers vested to the government under the Constitution. The city of Stillwater tried to morph those recommendations into mandates by issuing an order.īut executive orders are not laws. And, an unprotected person who contracts the virus can infect their own loved ones and others.”Īs McNickle himself said: Face coverings are recommendations. The wearing of face coverings is little inconvenience to protect both the wearer and anyone with whom they have contact. As mentioned, there is clear medical evidence the face coverings prevent COVID-19 spread they are recommended by both the CDC and the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Read his next words, as reported by Fox News: “It is further distressing that these people, while exercising their believed rights, put others at risk. He was hoping the citizens would be so blowed over by the force of government they wouldn’t dare protest. He was just trying to turn a recommendation into an order, and hoping the good citizens of Stillwater wouldn’t notice. There has never before been a time when free American citizens were ordered by their public servants to wear face masks - so it’s not been challenged in court. What that means is the American legal system does not specifically address the idea of government ordering citizens to wear face masks as a condition of entering places of business - because there has never before in American history been an issuance of such an order. City Manager Norman McNickle then issued a statement saying that many of those who objected to the face mask order “cite the mistaken belief the requirement is unconstitutional and under their theory, one cannot be forced to wear a mask,” NBC News reported.Īnd on that, McNickle also said, ABC News reported: “No law or court supports this view.” Mayor Will Joyce quickly revised the mask order so that it applied only to store employees. Store employees soon after reported verbal and physical confrontations with mask-wearing customers, including one involving a firearm. In Stillwater, Oklahoma, city officials put in place an emergency order that required both business workers and customers to wear face masks. Governors in the varying states subsequently issued their own declarations of emergencies, invoking their own special and specific executive powers in the process.Īll this emergency declaration doesn’t suspend the Constitution, however.Īnd that’s been kind of the forgotten caveat among the political fallout from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. These orders are based on President Donald Trump’s declaration of national emergency under four statutes - two under the Stafford Act, two under the National Emergencies Act - as well as on his invoking of national emergency powers through the Defense Production Act. Take the face mask orders that have been issued with rising frequency by state officials and private businesses alike. The whole executive order system relies on a complicit and cowed citizenry being too blowed over by government to question, challenge or fight. Truly, really, if viewed through the lens of Founding Father intents with the Constitution, they hold little legal weight - in fact, they are outright blots to this system of limited government America is supposed to represent.Īnd guess what: Nobody knows that better than the very government sources issuing these orders.
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