Federal Judges Are Souring on Lockdown Orders
It’s a new phase in America’s Covid-19 pandemic.
Patrons in Milford, PA at the beginning of June, when lockdown restrictions eased.
Photographer: Preston Ehrler/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesA Trump-appointed federal district court judge in Western Pennsylvania has issued a ruling declaring Pennsylvania’s coronavirus lockdown restrictions unconstitutional. It gives an unfortunate boost to Donald Trump’s efforts to depict Covid-19 safety measures as overblown, but it could well be reversed on appeal — after all, most of the restrictions the judge struck down are currently suspended.
Nevertheless, it is worth emphasizing that the court’s judgment isn’t completely unexpected at this stage in the pandemic. As the immediacy of the emergency waxes and wanes in different places, there is reason to expect that courts in zones with relatively low numbers of Covid-19 cases will start holding that more aggressive restrictions are situationally inappropriate. It’s therefore sensible for states to calibrate their emergency responses carefully, and provide concrete justifications for emergency policies as soon as it is practicable to do so.