Supreme Court’s Gorsuch Blasts ‘Breathtaking’ Pandemic Decrees

US Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch blasted the “breathtaking scale” of emergency decrees issued by state and federal officials during the pandemic, calling them a historic threat to freedom.

In an eight-page statement that accompanied a routine order, Gorsuch decried lockdowns, school and church closures and vaccine requirements, casting them as fear-induced overreactions that could drive a slide toward autocracy.

“Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country,” he wrote.

Gorsuch issued the statement as the court dropped a showdown over pandemic-era border restrictions after President Joe Biden’s administration ended the emergency declaration that had formed the policy’s legal basis. Gorsuch, a 2017 appointee of then-President Donald Trump, said he agreed with the decision to scrap the case.

The Covid-19 pandemic killed more than 1.1 million people in the US alone, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gorsuch consistently voted to restrict what government officials could do to stem the spread of the virus, opposing capacity limits at houses of worship and efforts by the Biden administration to require workers either be vaccinated or submit to regular tests.

In his Thursday statement, Gorsuch faulted executive branch officials for issuing the emergency decrees, lawmakers for being “silent” and judges for not doing enough to intervene.

“Doubtless, many lessons can be learned from this chapter in our history, and hopefully serious efforts will be made to study it,” he wrote. “One lesson might be this: Fear and the desire for safety are powerful forces. They can lead to a clamor for action — almost any action — as long as someone does something to address a perceived threat.”

He added: “Of course, this is no new story. Even the ancients warned that democracies can degenerate toward autocracy in the face of fear.”

To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Elizabeth Wasserman at ewasserman2@bloomberg.net

© 2023 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.