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Join us for a live (online) event: Constitutional Rights in the Age of Government Overreach

Join us for a live (online) event: Constitutional Rights in the Age of Government Overreach

New date and time: SUNDAY, April 26, 8:30 p.m. Eastern

NOTE: Event originally planned for Thursday night April 23, but has been moved to Sunday Night, April 26. at 8:30 p.m. Eastern

We will have a new post with the live feed on the website here, you also can save this link to the Facebook event page that will have the live feed as well.

We’d hoped to have have our next and third speaking tour and a handful of Reader Receptions in Florida this past March. But, like the rest of the world, our plans were foiled by a Chinese lab experiment gone wrong (or right).

In person events are out of the question for the foreseeable future, depending on the fascist level of state governance, so in the mean time, we’ll be joining the droves of online conference goers and will host our first ever online webinar Sunday, April 26th at 8:30 PM ET.

It’s a brave new world and a new experience for us, but we’re excited to keep the ball rolling, even if the modern world is shut down.

Petty tyrants are flexing their tiny muscles to put the squeeze on individual liberty in the midst of a global crisis (because that’s what cowards do) and all in the name of safety. But what about our rights? How do they square with safety issues in the midst of a global pandemic?

I’ll be hosting Professor Jacobson’s discussion of Constitutional Rights in the Age of Government Overreach.

More information is forthcoming TOMORROW, so be sure you have subscribed to Morning Insurrection for all the details on our upcoming live event.

Professor Jacobson will be taking some (not all, because time is finite) questions from our wonderful readers. If you have questions pertaining to government overreach during the COVID-19 pandemic, leave them in the comment section beneath (ON THIS POST). If you’ve left comments on the previous post, don’t worry, we’ve gotcha covered there, too.

We’ll do our best to get to as many questions as possible. It’s not quite the same as being able to meet you in person and bump elbows, but we’re excited nonetheless.

Thanks for being part of the Legal Insurrection family. We look forward to taking your questions!

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Comments

A question for you legal scholars out there:

Do the emergency powers asserted by our Gov. Cuomo carry any time limitations? Would be defined in the state constitution, I imagine.

I’m okay with maybe 5-10 days of emergency powers if I can be convinced of genuine emergency need, but after that I’d like to see formal legislative action to either authorize or deny.

Our County Executive here in Onondaga has described his emergency powers being limited to 5 days. Though apparently renewable, and it’s not clear whether there’s any limitation on times renewed. He seems to have done mostly okay with these new public-health challenges. But by now there’s been plenty of time for the legislature to convene and formally consider continued “emergency” actions … or constrain them … or cease them. And I’m not hearing much of any substance from any of them.

Thanks, all. Keep yourselves healthy and safe.

    Disco Stu_ in reply to Disco Stu_. | April 22, 2020 at 9:22 pm

    Oh yeah, and p.s.: #FreeUpstateNY! ✊

    at what point in time does the stay at home order become illegal incarceration. thought about that after reading the thread on the commissar from NYC releasing those prisoner. the only difference between house arrest and the stay at home order in an ankle bracelet, but then again they monitor you mobiles

    gospace in reply to Disco Stu_. | April 23, 2020 at 6:36 pm

    This is part of the NY Constitution: Ҥ25. Notwithstanding any other provision of this constitution, the legislature, in order to insure continuity of state and local governmental operations in periods of emergency caused by enemy attack or by disasters (natural or otherwise), shall have the power and the immediate duty (1) to provide for prompt and temporary succession to the powers and duties of public offices, of whatever nature and whether filled by election or appointment, the incumbents of which may become unavailable for carrying on the powers and duties of such offices, and (2) to adopt such other measures as may be necessary and proper for insuring the continuity of governmental operations.

    Nothing in this article shall be construed to limit in any way the power of the state to deal with emergencies arising from any cause.” Gives the state UNLIMITED powers to deal with emergencies.

    Apparently, the governor is the one who declares emergencies.

      Disco Stu_ in reply to gospace. | April 23, 2020 at 7:08 pm

      So unlimited powers, then, it sounds like. And no limits on time?

      Sounds a whole like a MONARCHY. Or even a dictatorship.

      For the benefit of GOVERNMENT, even?

      IF a State legislature even exists now (I know, Demoncrap majorities) maybe they could take a close look at these provisions for consideration of future constraints.

Fox and Friends just had a segment about drone surveillance, that it was (according to Judge Nap) a violation of our privacy.

That is a huge issue. He made the point about going to an airport and going through all the security, that it was a person’s choice to travel, and that is why people agree to the invasive privacy intrusion… But walking down the street, we should not be spied on..

Note, I don’t like Judge Nap.. but he has made a few good points recently.

    amwick in reply to amwick. | April 26, 2020 at 7:42 am

    Some police are using this to make announcements when they see people are too close..

    Other departments stopped using them because they felt it was an invasion of privacy..

    How can one both police departments be right?

nordic_prince | April 23, 2020 at 5:38 pm

I’d like the issue of forced vaccinations addressed, or vaccinations that are mandatory in spirit if not by law (e.g. vaccine requirements for issuing a driver’s license, even though it would be a stretch to argue that unvaxxed drivers pose a threat to public health). One problem I have with mandatory vaccinations is you have the government saying you MUST submit to intrusive, inherently unsafe medical procedures just to be able to carry on normal functions in society (drive, shop, vote, whatever the fascists dream up) that have nothing whatsoever to do with matters of public health.

If an individual makes the decision to get vaccinated, fine. But if an individual decides to forego vaccination after giving due consideration (“informed consent”) then that should be equally fine. My body, my choice.

    TY Mr. Prince

    My husband came down with a rare medical condition. Many medical professionals believe that it can be triggered by the flu or the flu vaccine. So they told him, never ever get a flu shot.

    If he has this issue, you can bet there are many other people in the same boat… A vaccine requirement.. I hope not. But I know there are people pushing for this..

Will this be recorded and available for download. On the west coast this will start at 11:30 PM on Sunday. Despite the lock down I still have to work Monday.

Here in Colorado, the Health Department is obliged to have emergency plans, and the items in the plan are somewhat detailed. Among them are:
– the goals of the declaration;
– a timeline of key events during it;
– an estimate of the costs involved;
– measurements to determine if the plan is working or not.
When I challenged the State government for these, they first brushed me off by stating that those are only required in the overall planning. I replied that I would be astonished to learn that these elements had not been considered before launching such a major event as this lock down. After some more back-and-forth, it became clear that there really hadn’t been much planning to this, and certainly no means or manner for the citizens to hold them accountable for it.

What this lock down has shown us is that the State Governors’ emergency declaration powers are too open-ended; that there is very little constraining regulation, or event limitations that can be invoked or even monitored. Would the LegalInsurrection team care to comment on that?

Can some model legislation be developed that would allow the Governor to declare an emergency, but to make it onerous on the State to keep perpetuating it?

How can we get Ethics Committee or Dept of Justice to investigate and hold accountable our allegedly corrupt state governor and his officers? California.

A Punk Named Yunk | April 24, 2020 at 5:34 pm

1. I didn’t see any information on how to actually tune in to the speech. I hope this is provided in an obvious link on the day of the speech.

2. I would express the ideal hope of police refusing, en masse, to continue enforcing tyrannical orders. Like those three sheriffs in Michigan. Police need to be reminded of the constitution and to be protected from prosecution when they [grow the gonads to] stand up for the constitution against the petty tyrants in office; those whose catch-phrase seems to be “Your rights are suspended.”

is LI going to mention that #Failifornia’s illegal ammo background check & ban on on line orders has been blocked by a judge?

if you live here, get your orders in while you can: the state has already stated they will appeal, so the door will only be open a little while, just as with average size magazines.

https://michellawyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2020-04-23-Order-Granting-MPI.pdf

You are about as likely to get this bug as the flu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfLVxx_lBLU&feature=emb_logo

    cktheman in reply to lynner. | April 25, 2020 at 5:52 pm

    EVERYONE needs to watch this. It’s long (and has a second part where the interview completes)

    It appears it was broadcast on an ABC affiliate, which is shocking. Validates a lot of what people already know. The only point I have a minor quibble with is the necessity of testing at this point. But, just incredible overall. They also state a couple of times that the lockdown requirements make no sense – I can go to Costco or stand in line with 25 other people waiting for a pizza, but not the Mom and Pop store across the street, etc, and that “something else is going on” which they don’t elaborate on, but we all know…

With the government facing severe revenue shortfalls, how can we keep a lid on them from applying significant increases for things like building permits, car tags, license fees or traffic tickets.

Any chance we can get this for non-facebook-users? I can’t stand facebook, I’ve never had an account, and I can’t access any ‘open’ content without ‘logging in’. Facebook is evil, you should not use it.

Blaise MacLean | April 26, 2020 at 3:26 pm

Dear Prof. Jacobson: My question relates to the First Amendment, and an internal problem within it which is affecting the people of the US to govern themselves as contemplated by the Founders.

The US is a republic. It is a self-governing republic in which the people are the government and who govern themselves through representatives. In order to govern themselves the people need information, which is the role of the media.

The First Amendment recognizes individual (as opposed to group) rights…religion, speech, assembly etc. The only protected First Amendment right that conceptually is “group-like” is the press. And clearly its function is about allowing the people to govern themselves.

The press, however, under the guise of its First Amendment shield has begun operating AGAINST the other rights. Before the pandemic it had attacked religion and speech and since the pandemic began it has ratcheted up those attacks and augmented them by attacks on assembly.

At the same time it has used its greatest power, that of suppression, to prevent the public at large from being informed of facts/information that run counter to their narrative. And they are monolithic.

President Trump accused “fake news” (a specific genre of online lies) as being an enemy of the people but, of course the media distorted this to say he meant this to apply to all media.

And yet, I suggest, it COULD apply to all media because the entire monolithic media is preventing the public from having good information by which they can inform AND GOVERN themselves. Apart from suppression is distortion and falsehood (as seen very recently with the bleach injection lie).

As such the media HAS become the enemy of the people. In their malignancy they are a real obstruction to the self-governing by the American people. And, unlike the three branches of government who supposedly have checks and balances upon their power, the media has none. Indeed it is completely shielded by the First Amendment as it wages war against the others.

So my question is (apart from declaring the media a branch of government or a political party) how can individual rights protected under the Constitution…and the republic form of government…be protected and preserved when one impune entity is at war against the others?

Will the event be on the LI site, so we can watch it later, for those of us who can’t tune in live?

A Punk Named Yunk | April 26, 2020 at 8:39 pm

I had hoped there would be a URL posted so I could join the meeting. I am not on FaceBook and will not join that life-sucking site just for the sake of Dr. Jacobson’s lecture.

If that URL is hiding somewhere in the announcement, I wish you’d have made it more obvious. 🙁

    I’m not a Facebook fan, either, but I am watching it on the website just fine. Do you have ad blockers, etc. on? You may need to temporarily disable them to view the presentation (I had to). I hope this helps! The presentation is very informative and interesting! 🙂

      Sally MJ in reply to Fuzzy Slippers. | April 26, 2020 at 9:07 pm

      Please tell us how to get in. I’ve been on for 50 minutes!

        Sally, I am not sure what you are seeing. When you go to the post, what happens? Can you not see the embedded livestream video at all? If not, try disabling ad blockers (you should have an option to do this on the bottom of your screen). Once you do that, you will just reload the page by clicking the reload icon by the address bar. Once you do that, you should see the embedded livestream video, to start it, just click on it.

Ugh! I’ve been tuning in since 5:15 pm!

Please help us get in, please. Nothing happening!!!

I click every link you give us…and nothing!