Op-Ed: Pennsylvania Voters Fight Back Against Power-Hungry Governor Abusing Emergency Powers

Originally published in The Federalist.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, state sovereignty was viewed as a check on federal encroachment. Americans welcomed this limit on centralized power.

But amid the ongoing panic, the coercive effects of unbridled executive authority are on display in the states themselves. This authoritarian streak is evident in New York, California, and Michigan, and my home state, Pennsylvania, where Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s shutdown orders—enforced through emergency powers—have flung economic shrapnel.

But as Pennsylvania shows, protecting the vulnerable shouldn’t require an unprecedented loss of civil liberties.

 

Wolf’s restrictions, some of the most draconian in the country, have inflicted the Keystone State’s communities with mass unemployment, social disorder, widespread despair, and overall economic decline. Other states should view Pennsylvania’s course as an alarming model for how their own governors and local officials can seize unlimited “emergency” executive governance.

In response to Wolf, Pennsylvanians—beginning with their representatives in the state’s General Assembly—are pursuing…

Read more at The Federalist.