Arizona vs. Mayorkas, May 18, 2023; Statement of Neil Gorsuch

"Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country. Executive officials across the country issued emergency decrees on a breathtaking scale. Governors and local leaders imposed lockdown orders forcing people to remain in their homes. They shuttered businesses and schools, public and private. They closed churches even as they allowed casinos and other favored businesses to carry on. They threatened violators not just with civil penalties but with criminal sanctions too. They surveilled church parking lots, recorded license plates, and issued notices warning that attendance at even outdoor services satisfying all state social-distancing and hygiene requirements could amount to criminal conduct. They divided cities and neighborhoods into color-coded zones, forced individuals to fight for their freedoms in court on emergency timetables, and then changed their color-coded schemes when defeat in court seemed imminent."

For those of us that have faced these crimes, it is good to know that not all federal agents, bureaucrats, and jurists thought these were the right things to do, useful, or lawful. Justice Gorsuch later states:

"...rule by indefinite emergency edict risks leaving all of us with a shell of a democracy and civil liberties just as hollow."

There is no doubt he is right. He recommends that states reconsider laws that avail officials of power during emergencies, with an eye to preserving our liberty, our way of life, and our people. He says a lot more, and you can read it here.

As for me, I have found there are hills I cannot abandon because someone, somewhere, proclaims an emergency, and that no other considerations can apply until that threat is abated. Somehow, as Justice Gorsuch notes, the threats are never abated, the emergencies never end, and the powers seized are never relinquished.

I was born free, and I will die free. It is a sure thing that I will die, and I will not save my life by abandoning the hills I must hold, so I will not abandon them. One of them is the sole and exclusive authority over my body. It is not anyone else's body. No one but me has any claim on it. I alone can will my heavy hand to my weary brow and wipe away the dripping sweat of my hard labors. I am sovereign, and I will always be sovereign.

On that hill I will live until I die.

I hope I will not live there alone, but that I will have good people, affirmed allies in that cause, that will hold there with me.

IMG source - KarenKingston.substack.com