Trump says he can reopen states from COVID-19 lockdowns. Here’s what experts say
President Donald Trump tweeted on Monday that it’s up to the president, not governors, to re-open states from coronavirus shutdowns, media outlets reported.
“(S)ome in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect,” Trump tweeted.
“It is the decision of the President,” he continued. “With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue. A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!”
At least one expert who spoke to The Hill said Trump can implement federal regulations but doesn’t have the power to reverse public health orders on the state level.
“The president can issue reasonable necessary federal-level quarantine orders,” Elie Honig, a legal analyst and former federal prosecutor in New York, told The Hill. “I don’t see any mechanism or constitutional principle that would apply here that would allow the president to come in and overrule the governors.”
State governments are in charge of “police powers,” Professor Glenn Cohen, faculty director for the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics at Harvard Law School told USA Today in March. If Trump lifts social distancing on a federal level, states “may decide to follow suit or not, but typically have significant discretion as to what to do,” he said.
State “police powers” could be considered one of the rights left to the states, not the federal government, by the 10th Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment addresses an exercise of power by the federal government and “whether it exceeds the national government’s enumerated powers.”
The amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
According to Business Insider, “legal precedent is not on (the president’s) side” in ordering the states to end their restrictions.
Trump could also challenge the orders in court, Business Insider reported.
Public health experts say May 1 — the goal date Trump mentioned to re-open states — might not be realistic, according to The Washington Post.
“It is a target, and, obviously, we’re hopeful about that target, but I think it’s just too early to be able to tell that we see light at the end of the tunnel,” Stephen Hahn, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, said according to The Washington Post. “I think it’s just too early for us to say whether May 1 is that date.”
This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Trump says he can reopen states from COVID-19 lockdowns. Here’s what experts say."