Is it legal, constitutional for Cape Charles to prohibit people from coming here? We are not alone, places such as New Jersey and the Outer Banks (Dare County) have restricted access. However, Legal experts assert the right to travel is a fundamental liberty in the United States.
Beach towns and whole states are instituting restrictions on travel in an effort to protect their communities from COVID-19, noting that they do not want medical facilities overwhelmed.
Now a lawsuit between property owners and Dare County North Carolina county could set a new precedent for how communities prevent the spread of COVID-19.
On March 20, Dare County introduced a new restriction stopping non-residents from entering the county.
To enter Dare County after 10 p.m. on March 20, drivers had to present identification at checkpoints showing they were permanent residents of the county.
According to attorneys representing the out-of-state property owners the restriction is unconstitutional.
“We are alleging it’s a violation of what’s called the Privileges and Immunity’s Clause and what it does is say a citizen of each state has the same rights as the citizens of what’s called the several states, or in other words all other states,” attorney Chuck Kitchen said.
This is tricky. While the right to travel among jurisdictions has been considered a “core constitutional right” in the past by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court has also recognized that governments have certain powers in times of emergency.
The Dare County restrictions may also be violating a constitutional right that says states can’t discriminate against citizens of another state.
Dare County is allegedly discriminating against residents of South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.
The plaintiffs own multiple properties in Dare County. Three own second homes and three others use their properties as rentals.
In Chincoteague Mayor J. Arthur Leonard closed hotels, campgrounds, rental properties, and other attractions to try to stop people from visiting.
Chincoteague police are stopping all cars that come onto the island. No one is being turned away but people not from Northampton or Accomack counties are given a flier warning that all services on the island are shut down.
Right now Chincoteague has a checkpoint set up to access the island and identification isn’t required.
Erin Harvey says
That headline is about Cape Charles, but the only constitutional issues you raise are with Dare County. Cape Charles has made no laws to prohibit people from traveling here. Anyone from any state can still legally come to this town. The town is not constitutionally required to provide housing options for those travelers.
Note: Dare has not made any laws, but prohibits out of state homeowners from accessing their property. Familiar?
Erin Harvey says
Dare County was not allowing anyone to cross the bridge into the Outer Banks unless they were a resident owner. So that means they were restricting access to visitors and even to property owners that did not live there. Property owners from Richmond, etc wanted to go and quarantine there, but they were not allowed to enter. Constitutionally questionable/debatable. Cape Charles has done nothing of the sort. Anyone from any state can still come into town. And non-resident property owners are allowed to come and stay in their vacation homes and quarantine here if they’d like to.
Note: Just observing there is a limit to how long people are willing to be Karenized. That is the main thrust. Any restrictions on property should be questioned, which is why the title of the article ended with a “?”.
Paul Plante says
What a clown show this COVID CRISIS CLUSTER**** is all the way around, where just this morning we had Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, informing us that not surprisingly, the inept and incompetent U.S. government was slow to understand how much coronavirus was spreading from Europe, which helped drive the acceleration of outbreaks across the nation, stating “We clearly didn’t recognize the full importations that were happening.”
If there is anyone surprised at that news, I would be surprised.
I believe that she is the same Anne Schuchat featured in a Rensselaer County Press Release entitled “Rensselaer County Officials Working with State and Federal Officials on Coronavirus Issue” on 3/2/20 who termed the spread of the illness nationally and in the state as “isolated” cases, causing Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin to tell the people of Rensselaer County “there is no need for undue concern or worry, we have been informed that New York State remains at a low risk for coronavirus.”
Which news update takes us to the operative existential question in this thread of “Is it legal, constitutional for Cape Charles to prohibit people from coming here?”
And that thought takes us to the further thought that as of now, the word “constitutional” in the United States of America no longer has any rational meaning, especially when government is closed down and there is no way to challenge all these various petty tyrants who have emerged from the woodwork like so many cockroaches to impose absolute authority over us at every level of government from the town right on up as if they were dictators in fact when you can’t go to court to challenge them.
As to that, consider the Albany, New York Times Union article “Churchill: This is Andrew Cuomo’s finest moment – New York’s governor has been the nation’s most authoritative voice during the pandemic” by Chris Churchill on March 22, 2020, to wit:
We’re essentially on lockdown.
It shouldn’t surprise you that not everybody supports that decision.
Here’s part of an email I received Friday from an attorney in Albany who asked that I not use his name:
“I would like to see a demonstration of the legal authority being relied on by Gov. Cuomo for his outrageous, draconian edicts which are needlessly destroying every aspect of the economy,” he wrote.
“This is a massive, disgraceful overreach, which will do far more harm to the people of this state than the consequences of virus spread.”
end quotes
And that is the last we ever heard on that subject.
Andy Cuomo, a thug known in his younger days as the “Prince of Darkness” because there was nothing dirty in politics that he would not stoop to, has closed down the courts so there can be no challenge to his action of suspending our Constitution while setting himself up as a virtual dictator in the mold of such luminaries as Idi Amin, or “PaPa Doc” Duvalier or Saddam Hussein, which takes us to this sentence from the OP above, to wit:
Beach towns and whole states are instituting restrictions on travel in an effort to protect their communities from COVID-19, noting that they do not want medical facilities overwhelmed.
end quotes
Which statement in its turn brings us to an article in the Washington Examiner entitled “Upstate New York officials leery of Cuomo plan to transfer NYC coronavirus patients around state” by Kerry Picket on April 01, 2020, where we learned as follows:
Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, who issued a county health order that demands any out-of-county visitor to self-quarantine for 14 days, says Cuomo does not care about the needs of other counties in the state other than the regions where his Democratic political base lives.
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While there is a lot of truth to the statement that the thug Cuomo, who rules by fear, which doesn’t set well at all with people like myself who have bled for this country fighting others in foreign lands who also ruled by fear, doesn’t care about the people of the state outside of New York City, his political power base, the real issue is the statement that Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, the same Steve McLaughlin who in a 3/2/20 Press Release told the people of Rensselaer County that “there is no need for undue concern or worry, we have been informed that New York State remains at a low risk for coronavirus,” issued a county health order that demands any out-of-county visitor to self-quarantine for 14 days
As to that order issued on 3/27/20, 25 days AFTER he told the people of Rensselaer County in a 3/2/20 Press Release that “there is no need for undue concern or worry, we have been informed that New York State remains at a low risk for coronavirus,” the Press Release states thusly, to wit:
Rensselaer County is taking new steps to protect county residents from the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, issuing directives to control non-essential travel and relocation from affected areas downstate, County Executive Steve McLaughlin announced.
The action comes after confirmed cases in Rensselaer County climbed to 45 on Friday.
“We are committed to fighting the spread of coronavirus in this county and see this as a common-sense approach that will protect those who live and work in Rensselaer County,” said McLaughlin.
The directives include an order from the Public Health Director to control non-essential travel from Westchester County and areas south, including New York City and Long Island.
Anyone from the affected areas traveling to Rensselaer County would be required to report to the county Health Department and subject to quarantine for 14 days.
Landlords would be prohibited from renting or leasing to prospective tenants from the affected areas while the order is in effect until review and approval by the Health Department.
McLaughlin said he would also be issuing an internal directive to have county departments and agencies refuse aid, assistance or special service to any persons known to have arrived from an affected area and who have not cleared quarantine or Health Department review.
“This will help send the message that Rensselaer County is fully engaged in using all available means to fight coronavirus.”
“Anyone moving up to our county from the affected areas should know that we take our resident’s public health very seriously and will not welcome those who do not adhere to these very basic methods to protect our people,” said McLaughlin.
end quotes
So there is an actual case of such orders being issued, which takes us to a Troy Record article entitled “COVID-19 cases continue to increase in Rensselaer County” by Nicholas Buonanno on March 28, 2020, where the ban on travel is again made mention of:
Once again McLaughlin discussed what he calls a “common sense” travel limit from downstate.
“As county executive, I have taken the common sense step of seeking to limit travel from affected areas in downstate to our county,” he said.
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A review of relevant documents such as the Constitution of the State of New York and the Rensselaer County Charter finds that if we were still a nation of RULE BY LAW, he would have no such authority, but this is now a third-world country with rule by thugs and despots where there is no longer such a thing as RULE BY LAW, where there is no longer such a thing as a court challenge of arbitrary and capricious orders by public officials who fancy themselves petty tin-pot, banana republic dictators, so in fact he does have that authority because he now has absolute power, not constitutionally-limited power, which takes us to a CBS 6 NEWS article entitled “Upstate Counties Concerned About COVID-19 Patient Transfers, Visitors From NYC” by Stephen Maugeri on March 29, 2020, to wit:
Gov. Cuomo has said upstate hospitals may have to take overflow from downstate, and vice versa, as the COVID-19 pandemic plays out.
Some Capital Region officials say they don’t want virus cases shipped up here.
County Executive Steve McLaughlin says on Friday, his county’s Public Health Director ordered any visitor to his county from downstate to report to the county health department and self-quarantine for 14 days.
He says landlords may not lease to a downstate visitor unless it’s approved by the health department.
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Because there is no law but the law as Steve McLaughlin says it will be, that is now the law.
Which in turn takes us to a battle brewing between McLaughlin, and KING Andy Cuomo who rules this state with an IRON FIST, as follows:
The Governor (Cuomo) issued an executive order on March 18 that states no locality can issue an executive order or emergency order without the approval of the state health department.
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If I didn’t know this was happening in real life, reading that KING Andy issued an executive order on March 18 that states no locality can issue an executive order or emergency order without the approval of the state health department, I would swear I was reading a spoof on government in TALES OF THE EXTREME BIZARRE, or National Lampoon, which takes us back to that article as follows:
Governor Cuomo’s senior advisor Rich Azzopardi says Rensselaer County’s order doesn’t carry the weight of law and isn’t enforceable.
McLaughlin says he’s up for a court battle if the state challenges his order.
“Do it.”
“Go ahead.”
“Tell the people of Rensselaer county that your authority is more powerful than their safety.”
“I can take that.”
“If they wanna sue us, that’s fine.” McLaughlin said.
end quotes
Boy, this BULL**** gives me a headache!
Welcome to the third-world, people, for the future is NOW!