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Read this: https://reason.com/2020/03/16/can-the-government-just-close-my-favorite-bar/ https://reason.com/2020/03/16/can-the-government-just-close-... "Americ

Read this: https://reason.com/2020/03/16/can-the-government-just-close-my-favorite-bar/ https://reason.com/2020/03/16/can-the-government-just-close-... "American constitutional jurisprudence has long recognized a vast authority on the part of the states to regulate private social and economic activity in the name of the public welfare. Dramatic measures to address the spread of disease has long been a part of those police powers..." That's coming from a libertarian writer in a libertarian magazine that both likely wish the truth were otherwise.

fennecfoxen 7y ago
If you're going to drop links to Reason at me, you should also take a look at https://reason.com/2020/03/11/would-italian-style-lockdowns-to-curtail-the-spread-of-coronavirus-pass-legal-muster-in-the-u-s/ https://reason.com/2020/03/11/would-italian-style-lockdowns-... which is less recently published but addresses the question of a "China-like lockdown" more directly, rather than simply looking at questions of "can the government close my favorite bar?" It almost certainly can close the bar, but personal liberties — the freedom to not be under some sort of house arrest — tend to get a lot more scrutiny than commercial activity, for good or for ill. Where specific quarantine powers exist, the language authorizing these quarantines often hinges on whether the persons quarantine are actually a substantial risk to public health; here, we are talking about the freedom of movement of ~7000000 people, due to the (known) infections of approximately 200. Just by these numbers, this is an exercise of quarantine power that is without precedent.