Gorsuch serves as conscience of court
The United States Supreme Court last week tersely dismissed an immigration-related case, known as Arizona v. Mayorkas, because the matter was moot. The issue involved Title 42 emergency decrees allowing the federal Centers for Disease Control to restrict immigration during COVID-19, but some conservative states wanted to keep these measures in place.
The court punted the issue — but Justice Neil Gorsuch had some pointed things to say. A Donald Trump appointee with notably libertarian tendencies, he sided with the court majority but authored an eight-page concurrent opinion that had us cheering.
Gorsuch zinged these states for misusing the law: “I do not discount the States' concerns about what is happening at the border, but `the current border crisis is not a COVID crisis.'” He is upset at those who “manipulate our docket to prolong an emergency decree designed for one crisis in order to address an entirely different one.”
But he saved his most stinging comments for local and state leaders for precipitating “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country ... They divided cities and neighborhoods into color-coded zones, forced individuals to fight for their freedoms in court ... and then changed their colorcoded schemes when defeat in court seemed imminent.”
He then blasted the feds for imposing emergency anti-immigration decrees, empowering a public-health agency to manage landlord-tenant regulations, imposing a vaccination mandate, threatening to fire noncompliant workers and pressuring social-media companies to suppress alternative views. Gorsuch bemoaned courts that failed to protect civil liberties.
Our country tossed aside cherished checks and balances and gave governors free rein. Like others, Gov. Gavin Newsom grabbed whatever powers he could. Many edicts had little to do with public health, but became a chance for them to quickly pass measures they always supported but couldn't get approved through normal legislative channels. “Fear and the desire for safety are powerful forces,” Gorsuch added. “Even the ancients warned that democracies can degenerate toward autocracy in the face of fear.” These are sobering lessons, ones Americans needed to hear.