Judge Andrew Napolitano, on Fox News, just stated that those governors who have locked down their respective states--with restrictions upon individuals--are contravening the US Constitution.

He concluded, therefore, that individuals have no legal obligation--none whatsoever--to follow these governors' orders.

Comments?

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"In his second inaugural address, [Franklin D.] Roosevelt sought 'unimagined power' to enforce the 'proper subordination' of private power to public power. He got it…"—George Will, July 8, 2007

I'd go with a different source...Napolitano is an Alex Jones conspiracy advocate and is worse than Rand Paul with his strict, unwavering Libertarianism...

It "may" be true, but I would turn off the volume the second I heard his voice...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

There are plenty of laws on the books already unConstitutional. Disobey them at your risk, I say. Get them overturned the legal way, is what I would do.

Seems to me the Judge is Right. There's nothing in the constitution that would give anyone at the federal level authority to do anything like this. And so by default that should protect ever citizen from this kind of overreach at the state and local levels as well.
When a couple of these shut-in orders were announced I looked up the legal grounds they mentioned as authority. Often it was some State law granting various emergency powers to the governor, however even those laws seemed more limited in range than the "orders" they pronounced.

Me and a guy at work talked about how something like that could even be enforced if people decided they weren't going to obey. The number of state police are far to few, and calling in the national guard seemed a bit over the top. But I never thought I'd see local cops ticketing people for going to church, or fining and handcuffing people for walks in the park.
Sadly that kinda shows to me that cops in the U.S. (and soldiers? probably) will do just about anything they are "ordered" to do. If the gov't tells cops to arrest everyone wearing green shirts it seems like more than half would do it and the other half would just stand by and watch.

But still even with police cooperation the state's really just have to count on the compliance of most of the people. There are plenty of laws on the books that are simply ignored. And nullified by default. And IMO these house arrest orders should be among them.
But many of us citizens like to be good Americans and obey the law as well, even if it's crazy and arbitrary. And we don't often ask if a law is constitutional or not. And if it doesn't hassle us to much (just other people) we generally don't complain or even care if it's unconstitutional.
as i've mention often elsewhere, the left and right have certain parts of the bill of rights/constitution they they like to defend. But often they have no problem with or even Cheer (or turn into pretzel in defense of) certain unconstitutional actions taken by the gov't or their favorite politician.

Bottom line, most Americans really don't care that much about the constitution. We like plenty of laws to "keep us safe" and strongman politicians wrting up "orders" "executive order" etc, as long as it's our favorite strongman.
Then it's OK. And people who complain about the constitution being burned are just ... too FAR OUT to even be considered.
The Constitution just gets waved around by most people when they want something narrowly specific to stop. Few want the freedoms outlined by the whole of it. it's considered too "extreme" for most people's taste.

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"It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties.
The freeman of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents."
..James Madison
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"Live as free people, yet without employing your freedom as a pretext for wickedness; but live at all times as servants of God."
..1 Peter 2:16

Yes, Judge Napolitano is certainly a libertarian.

But I was unaware that he is "an Alex Jones conspiracy advocate."

Perhaps that is true. But I have seen no evidence to this effect.

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"In his second inaugural address, [Franklin D.] Roosevelt sought 'unimagined power' to enforce the 'proper subordination' of private power to public power. He got it…"—George Will, July 8, 2007

The governor has no legal authority to make laws, entirely on his own.

And the police in several states have already declared that they will never enforce these new restrictions upon personal freedom.

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"In his second inaugural address, [Franklin D.] Roosevelt sought 'unimagined power' to enforce the 'proper subordination' of private power to public power. He got it…"—George Will, July 8, 2007

If the governors were to call out the National Guard--and if it actually complied--we would see a rebellion that would make the recent protests in Michigan, Minnesota, and other states look like nothing at all. (In fact, it would be much closer, in my opinion, to what occurred between 1861 and 1865. The people would no longer have even a nominal respect for the government--at any level, whatsoever.)

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"In his second inaugural address, [Franklin D.] Roosevelt sought 'unimagined power' to enforce the 'proper subordination' of private power to public power. He got it…"—George Will, July 8, 2007

cnredd, I don't think pjohns was asking opinion about the source but rather the content. This is "The Constitution & The judicial Branch" forum.

I think many of the restrictions that Mayors, City Councils and Governors are instituting are violations of freedom, liberty and the constitution.
Do you think they are, or don't you?

It looks like the "emergency" powers the anal retentives take for themselves need to be looked at with scrutinizing eyes instead of political eyes.

I hope it doesn't come to that. I'd like to think that enough people doing what Martin Luther King and Ghandi did. non-violent protest, and simply refusing to obey orders would be enough for our "public servants" to get the message.

I'd HOPE that most guardsmen would not shoot people who just decided to go to work, church and the park.
But I'm sure some would....especially in some neighborhoods.
New Orleans, Waco, and other events aren't a good sign.

__________________
.
"It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties.
The freeman of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents."
..James Madison
.
"Live as free people, yet without employing your freedom as a pretext for wickedness; but live at all times as servants of God."
..1 Peter 2:16