When the going gets weird….
On a beautiful spring Saturday, housebound Seattlites made their way to parks, where police reminded them to spread out and, in some cases, clear out voluntarily, or risk full closure of all parks.
On Friday night, Seattle Parks and Recreation and King County Parks announced the closure of all playgrounds, sports courts and picnic shelters, joining other local jurisdictions, and following the guidance from Public Health — Seattle & King County.
An officer at Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill requested citizens disperse Saturday to help end the public health emergency:
“Your current conduct is placing yourself and your fellow Seattleites in danger,” the officer said over a loudspeaker, repeating his request that people leave the area. “Lack of voluntary compliance could result in a full closure of all parks, which will eventually result in trespasses, and possibly criminal prosecution.”
Citing county “social distancing” guidelines, the community park near here closed off parking areas Saturday to limit usage. People self-isolating here were there in numbers Thursday enjoying the blooming dogwoods for the same reason as Seattleites 2,200 miles away.
A county of 8,500 deep in North Carolina’s western mountains declared a state of emergency and a curfew Saturday. Citing the advice of the President of the United States, Commissioner Dale Wiggins wrote on Facebook that the county will be restricting highway access to local residents starting Friday. Drivers should be prepared to show a local address “or proof of property ownership for non-residents to be able to enter.” There is local precedent. Reportedly, the county seat was once a “sundown town.”
Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick worries how that same POTUS might use emergency powers to violate civil liberties he is not known for respecting. On the one hand, Donald Trump is the last person we want to trust with more power. (Attorney General Bill Barr is the second-last.) On the other, the man now selling himself as a wartime president has resisted using his power under the Defense Production Act to address already desperate shortages of medical supplies.
A “freaked out” Lithwick discussed the future of civil liberties and free and fair elections with Georgetown Law professor Joshua Geltzer, former senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council under the Obama adminstration. She asked Geltzer about the interplay of “wartime” powers and November elections:
Before coronavirus, many of us were concerned about and critical of Trump’s invocation of emergency authorities. Now, many of us are concerned about and critical of Trump’s failure to invoke emergency authorities. I don’t think that’s actually inconsistent: before, Trump was invoking emergency authorities for fake emergencies, such as at the southwest border; now, he’s refusing to invoke fully emergency authorities like the Defense Production Act to mobilize the private sector to make sorely needed medical equipment in the face of a real emergency. It’s bad to invoke emergency authorities when no emergency exists; it might be even worse to refuse to invoke such authorities when a genuine emergency does exist.
That said, he’s still Donald Trump; he’s still a serial abuser of executive authority; and he’s still just about the last guy I’d trust with additional power. So, even as many of us urge Trump to invoke authorities that can help us address a grave national emergency, I think we need more discussion—quickly—about how we constrain his reliance on those authorities. That can include articulating where we think the authorities’ boundaries are; time-limiting their use; and ensuring there’s oversight of their implementation, so they’re not abused.
It is “pretty perverse” that Trump might invoke emergency powers to remediate the impact of a pandemic his own foot-dragging has made worse. Still, it is “simply textbook law” that he cannot change the date of or cancel the upcoming elections. The U.S. held elections even in the depths of the Civil War.
But on the subject of sundowns, Geltzer recommends Congress prevent extraordinary executive powers from becoming “sticky”:
… we don’t want the executive branch—and many of us especially don’t want a Trump-led executive branch—to get comfortable with authorities that may well be appropriate here and now for dealing with a truly life-and-death situation but should end there. So, Congress should be using tools like sunset clauses, reporting requirements, and other forms of constraint and oversight to try to confine to the current circumstances exercises of power we may need now but regret if they persist later.
As if the pandemic was not enough to worry about. But we cannot let Trump get away with his wartime president spin. Geltzer says, “Bungling a response so badly that it takes a wartime toll on the American people doesn’t earn a president the honor of being treated as a wartime president rallying the country against an outside adversary.”
“We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them,” a movie president once said, adding (I take liberties here), “And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you [Donald Trump] is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who’s to blame for it.”
Even in a pandemic, life imitates art.
Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, P. A.?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
Somebody’ll see you up there
I got some groceries, some peanut butter
To last a couple of days
But I ain’t got no speakers, ain’t got no headphones
Ain’t got no records to play
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
For The Win, 3rd Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide election mechanics guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.