Civil Liberties in the Era of Covid-19

The United States was built on and has worked toward the idea of civil liberties for its citizens throughout its history. Throughout our nation’s history, these liberties have been questioned. Sometimes the result has been to expand them, as in the cases of women, minority and LQBTQ+ Americans, but at other times it has been to limit them as was true of communists during the Cold War.  For the past two decades, many Americans have felt that their civil liberties have been  “sacrificed” in exchange for safety. COVID-19 has reinforced this belief among some Americans thus turning a health crisis into a simultaneous political crisis.

COVID-19 has reshaped our social, economic and political reality. Health based restrictions on civil liberties led to anti-mask protests, arguments about scientific evidence and appeals to religious freedom. The idea that the government is using COVID-19 as an excuse to push a more authoritarian agenda is becoming more prevalent  as people become more wary about tech companies harvesting personal data for contact tracing and more aware of the extent of their surveillance generally. In addition, the way states have chosen to close some things (churches, gun ranges) while leaving others open (bars, abortion clinics) are furthering political polarization. In late April, when citizens were protesting the mask regulation, the Trump administration praised them. Yet, during June when the ‘BLM’ protests intensified, the same administration fought against it, and currently has US troops in some cities (i.e; Seattle and Chicago). This proved to exemplify the power that the federal government has gained throughout the years. Normally, police powers are left to the state and local government, however, after 2002, federal officers can now be deployed for “the protection of property owned or occupied by the federal government”. In Miami-Dade, Florida; a current major hotspot for the virus, local officials announced a county-wide curfew, forcing many businesses to cut their hours. This controversial mandate has many questioning which they find more important; the economy or their health.

Understandably, COVID-19 may cause some laws to change but such changes shouldn’t become a vehicle through which established social progress might be undone. It could be argued that a desire to do so drove the decision by the Commonwealth of Kentucky to close all but one polling place in predominantly black Jefferson County based on  ‘covid-19’social distancing guidelines. Given the racial history of that state, it would be easy to interpret this decision as an attempt to suppress the black vote and that would amount to turning the clock back on racial progress.  It is important that COVID not become a pretext to move society in a backwards direction. It is likely that the pandemic experience might become an opening onto a new understanding of civil liberties and dramatic changes in the way in which American society .

Works Cited

Civil Liberties and COVID-19. (2020, April 02). Retrieved August 04, 2020, from https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/podcast/civil-liberties-and-covid-19

Kelly, J. (2020, April 24). A Consequence Of COVID-19 Could Be A Loss Of Civil Liberties-Resulting In Career Restrictions. Retrieved August 04, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/04/24/a-consequence-of-covid-19-could-be-a-loss-of-civil-liberties-and-the-implementation-of-career-restrictions/

Tao, R. (2020, July 04). Opinion: A Side Effect of COVID-19 Could be Weaker Civil Liberties. Retrieved August 04, 2020, from https://citylimits.org/2020/07/04/opinion-a-side-effect-of-covid-19-could-be-weaker-civil-liberties/