Covid Response at Five Years: Lockdowns

“Restricting citizens’ ability to travel is a hallmark of a police state,” legal scholar Eugene Kontorovich asserted in 2021. “Infectious disease will always be with us. It cannot become an excuse to give the federal government carte blanche to control the lives of citizens.” Yet the American government pursued that carte blanche in blatant disregard of the country’s long-standing right to travel. Executive orders put citizens under house arrest as the disease became the pretext for usurping the most basic human liberty. Governors boasted of jailing their residents for strolling outside, the Intelligence Community imposed arbitrary dictates on who could continue work, children sat indoors for months on end, and the elderly died alone. 

Beginning on March 16, 2020, nearly every state imposed “stay-at-home” orders, threatening jail time for the non-compliant. Local officials called on police to round up those who violated their decrees, and they demanded that local law enforcement monitor family gatherings. This totalitarianism was not reserved for brash political celebrities like Andrew Cuomo or Gavin Newsom. Supposedly moderate figures like Maryland’s Larry Hogan unleashed their authoritarian impulses.

These efforts clearly violated Americans’ freedoms. Since the Civil War, the Supreme Court upheld the right to travel as a constitutional liberty inextricable from the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition of slavery. “The right to travel is part of the ‘liberty’ of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment,” the Supreme Court held in 1958. “Freedom of movement is basic in our scheme of values.” 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II remains the most notable violation of the right since 1865. Though Korematsu v. United States (1944) upheld FDR’s Executive Order 9066, the decision later joined Plessy v. Ferguson and Dred Scott in the “anti-canon” of American jurisprudence. Chief Justice Roberts wrote in 2018, “Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided, has been overruled in the court of history and – to be clear – has no place in law under the Constitution.”

But everything changed on March 19, 2020, when California became the first state to issue a stay-at-home order. It overturned centuries of Anglo-American law and epidemiological practice and unveiled the implementation of a police state that the United States had long resisted. 

An Unprecedented Response

From the American Revolution to 2020, pandemics and epidemics affected every major American city without the government overturning the right to travel. Smallpox halted the Continental Army from taking Quebec in 1775. John Adams wrote to his wife, “The smallpox is ten times more terrible than Britons, Canadians, and Indians, together.” An unusually rainy summer in 1780 led to a breakout of malaria for soldiers in Virginia. “Disease, particularly malaria, reduced British fighting capacity more effectively than patriot bullets,” writes historian Peter McCandless. Yellow fever struck Philadelphia in 1793 and killed ten percent of the city’s population. All precautions were voluntary, and there were no efforts to quarantine the healthy population. 

Intercontinental migration led to a series of cholera pandemics in the 19^th century, and the resulting government sanitation efforts coined the term “public health.” Spanish flu reached the United States following World War I and killed approximately 675,000 Americans. 

After the advent of antibiotics, epidemics continued with far less fatal results. In 1949, polio spread rapidly through the United States. By 1952, there were 57,000 reported cases, resulting in 3,000 deaths and over 20,000 cases of paralysis. Jeffrey Tucker writes in Liberty or Lockdown:

“Though there was no cure, and no vaccine, there was a long incubation period before symptoms would reveal themselves, and while there was a great deal of confusion about how it was transmitted, the thought of locking down an entire state, nation, or world was inconceivable. The concept of a universal ‘shelter in place’ order was nowhere imaginable. Efforts to impose ‘social distancing’ were selective and voluntary.”

In 1957, the Asian flu arrived in the United States. It killed over one million people globally and was particularly devastating for the elderly and those with comorbidities. The New York Times cautioned, “Let us all keep a cool head about Asian influenza as the statistics on the spread and the virulence of the disease begin to accumulate.”

And the nation kept a cool head. Localities protected the vulnerable, but the Eisenhower administration never demanded submission from the citizenry. Public health initiatives remained isolated, voluntary, and temporary. There were no widespread edicts of lockdowns or house arrest. The government did not coerce healthy people into their homes or shutter businesses. Police did not criminalize free movement or institute curfews. Governors did not order law enforcement to shut down holiday gatherings, nor did they threaten citizens with jail time if they violated stay-at-home orders.

The Court’s 1958 decision upholding the “right to travel freely” came just months after the 1957 flu pandemic and less than a decade after the polio epidemic. For nearly 250 years, the United States resisted the “hallmark of a police state,” maintaining the right to travel despite public health threats related to influenza, cholera, smallpox, and more. 

“Freedom of movement” remained basic in the nation’s “scheme of values” until the public health apparatus and American political leaders overthrew precedent in March 2020. Divorced from the constraints of the past, politicians and bureaucrats rejoiced in their carte blanche to control the lives of citizens. Tyrannical house arrest orders became commonplace, and constitutional liberty disappeared from the Republic. 

The House Arrests of 2020

After Trump’s March 16 press conference, freedom of movement was no longer “basic in the nation’s scheme of values.” Longstanding legal precedent was suddenly abandoned, as was the accumulated wisdom of lessons from centuries of pandemic responses.

Three days later, CISA divided the country into essential and nonessential categories, permitting liberty for media, technology, and large commercial facilities but imposing tyranny for less favorable groups like bars, restaurants, churches, and gyms. Hours after the release of CISA’s memo, California became the first state to issue a “stay-at-home” order. Governor Newsom decreed, “I order all individuals living in the State of California to stay home or at their place of residence except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of the federal critical infrastructure sectors.”

Tyranny engulfed the Golden State. Law enforcement promptly criminalized exercising basic human liberties. “The days of trying to get voluntary compliance are really over,” San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said in April 2020. “The message is going to go out to all of public safety here in the county that we will start issuing citations for violations of the public order and the governor’s executive order.” 

A survey of anecdotes from 2020 reveals the total abolition of liberty in California; police handcuffed citizens surfing alone. Santa Monica threatened to fine anyone who walked outside to the pier. A paddle boarder faced six months in jail for entering the Pacific Ocean. Los Angeles police arrested residents for attending “super-spreader events.”

Newsom was not alone in his capricious fiats. In New Jersey, police charged parents with “child endangerment” for bringing their children to a social gathering, fined brides and grooms for having weddings, and arrested a man for leading an outdoor exercise class. In Maryland, Republican Governor Larry Hogan threatened people with one year in jail if they violated his stay-at-home orders. Hogan’s police force arrested those who did not provide a “valid reason” for leaving their homes. Hawaii created “checkpoints” to arrest and fine people who violated the state’s stay-at-home order. Rhode Island police charged men from Massachusetts for driving into the state to play golf. Delaware police arrested 12 people for violating the state’s “emergency gathering ordinance” limiting meetings to 10 people. Connecticut arrested restaurant owners for permitting dancing. Idaho police arrested a woman for walking in a public park and detained a mother for taking her children to the playground. Across the country, leaders chained off playgrounds, arrested groups sitting outside, poured sand in skateparks, cut down basketball hoops, and criminalized protest. 

In Colorado, a former police officer was arrested and handcuffed for having a softball catch with his six-year-old daughter at an empty baseball field. The father reflected on what the incident meant to his daughter. “She’s learned that our constitutional rights are something worth standing up for,” he said. “She got to witness a violation of civil rights.” 

While the arrests may seem like isolated incidents, they were part of a widespread authoritarian campaign to demand submission from citizens. They were the force behind a broader message to the public: Submit to power, don’t ask questions, don’t leave the house. Watch Netflix, cash your stimulus check, don’t resist. Stay inside. Save Lives. Tune in. Shut up. Lock down.

Lockdowns stripped Americans of their First Amendment rights to assemble and protest. In Hawaii, the Honolulu Police Department issued criminal citations against lockdown protestors for violating GovernorDavid Ige’s prohibition on public gatherings. In North Carolina, masked policeman arrested the leader of “Reopen NC” for violating the “stay-at-home order.”

“I feel my rights have been completely removed,” one protestor in North Carolina remarked. “The world I’m raising my children in has been completely changed.”

In Cincinnati, Ohio, police arrested a 25-year-old man for going outdoors (in violation of the governor’s stay-at-home order) and posting a video on Instagram saying “We don’t give a [expletive] about coronavirus.” In North Carolina, police arrested abortion protestors for gathering outdoors in violation of state decrees.

Maryland, nicknamed “The Free State” for its opposition to the Prohibition movement, quickly turned to despotism. Larry Hogan, the rotund Republican governor, issued strict stay-at-home orders and encouraged police to arrest those who exercised their right to free movement. When the press asked about reports of Marylanders arrested for violating lockdown orders, Hogan responded, “It sends a great message,” The message was clear: comply or be jailed. “We’re not playing around,” he added. 

In Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer banned fishing and criminalized driving cars to unapproved destinations. Her state police arrested restaurant owners for not shutting down their businesses and jailed those who defied her orders. “The goal here is simple: Stay Home,” she explained.

The house arrest in Michigan divided state law enforcement. “What’s the definition of an arrest? It’s basically taking away your free will, your right to move about,” said Michigan County Sheriff Dar Leaf in May 2020. “And an unlawful arrest is when you do it unlawfully, so when you are ordered to your home, are you under arrest? Yeah, by definition you are.”

In April, Detroit police issued 730 citations and 1,000 warnings to citizens who violated Whitmer’s house arrest orders. Whitmer’s political allies, including the State Attorney General, supported her suppression of liberty, but others maintained their objections.

Four sheriffs from northern Michigan released a statement claiming that Whitmer was “overstepping her executive authority” with unconstitutional orders. “We will deal with every case as an individual situation and apply common sense in assessing the apparent violation,” they said in a joint press release. “Each of us took an oath to uphold and defend the Michigan Constitution, as well as the US Constitution, and to ensure that your God given rights are not violated. We believe that we are the last line of defense in protecting your civil liberties.”

The restrictions on the right to travel continued through the year. Fauci and the CDC warned Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving. Governor Cuomo banned New Yorkers from having more than ten people at their holiday meals. He insisted that law enforcement charge families and friends who violated his arbitrary limit. Some police, however, were not comfortable with following this directive. They complained that it was unconstitutional, and they worried how citizens would react to the State imposing its decree in their dining rooms. “We will not be peeking in your windows or attempting to enter your property to count the number of persons at your table on Thanksgiving,” one sheriff assured residents. 

Cuomo was enraged. He called sheriffs’ hesitation to enforce his executive fiat “frightening to democracy.” He attacked their loyalty to the state and their right to challenge his authority in exerting lockdowns on New Yorkers. “It’s arrogant,” he insisted. “It violates [their] constitutional duty.”

Arrogant, unconstitutional, and frightening to democracy. Before 2020, that is how Americans would describe a petty tyrant seeking to criminalize family gatherings. But all that changed in March, and Cuomo became a media sensation for his authoritarian response to the virus. 

Sheriffs insisted that entering homes to count the number of grandmothers and cousins sharing dessert would be unlawful. “We are regulated by the legal guidelines of our response to complaints as to whether or not we have license and privilege to enter private residences, based upon warrant, consent or exigent circumstances,” Steuben County Sheriff James Allard said in a statement.

Cuomo, who won a 2020 Emmy Award for his Covid television appearances, adjusted his script in addressing the electorate. He told the public that they should express their love by making their family members spend the holidays alone. “My personal advice is you don’t have family gatherings – even for Thanksgiving,” he told reporters. “If you love someone, it is better and safer to stay away.” Cuomo then announced that he would host his mother and daughters for Thanksgiving dinner, though he cancelled his plans amid public backlash.

Many states, including neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut, adopted similar guidelines for the holiday, but the public health apparatus was unsatisfied. “ We know people may have made mistakes over the Thanksgiving time period,” White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Deborah Birx said in early December. She lectured those who “gathered” with others over the holiday, “You need to assume you’re infected.” This attitude ushered in a new wave of Covid edicts going into Christmas 2020.

In the end, the policies were a public health failure. They failed to stop the spread of Covid, and excess deaths unrelated to the coronavirus skyrocketed. One study estimated that the United States lockdown measures saved a total of 4,000 lives, approximately ten percent of the number of Americans who die annually from the flu. In contrast, there were 100,000 non-Covid “excess deaths” per year in 2020 and 2021 according to the CDC. Young adult deaths ran 27% above historical trends due to increased accidents, overdoses, and homicides.

After declining in 2018 and 2019, the youth suicide rate soared in 2020 and 2021. Homicides increased 56% in Americans aged 10 to 14 and 44% in ages 15 to 19. Meanwhile, the majority of Covid deaths occurred in Americans who were already above the age of life expectancy.

The lockdown efforts weren’t just futile – they were devastating and counterproductive. A 2023 study from three Johns Hopkins researchers found: “The science of lockdowns is clear, the data are in: the lives saved were a drop in the bucket compared to the staggering collateral costs imposed.” Governors and bureaucrats eviscerated human liberty in the lockdowns, and they are responsible for hundreds of thousands of untimely deaths. 

Understanding this didn’t require the benefit of hindsight. Supreme Court precedent was unambiguous in defending citizens’ constitutional right to travel. For 200 years, the government maintained American liberty despite a vast array of public health initiatives. 

Further, there was ample medical literature warning against lockdowns before March 2020. In 2019, the WHO warned that lockdowns were ineffective and inadvisable. In January 2020, Dr. Howard Markel wrote in the Washington Post that house arrest and mass quarantine would not contain the disease and would have significant societal ramifications. Ten days before California’s first stay-at-home order, 800 public health scientists warned against lockdowns and quarantines in an open letter.

In April 2020, a study revealed that “full lockdown policies in Western European countries have no evidence impacts on the Covid-19 epidemic.” Scientist Mark Changizi wrote at the time, “Lockdowns were NOT common sense measures. They were hysterical reactions out of fear.”

“Almost no awareness of the impact on civil rights, as if emergency declaration, suspension of rights, house arrest, mass unemployment and business shutdowns is just something democratic governments sometimes do,” he continued. “There was no historical precedent for putting the entire healthy population in ‘quarantine.’” The following month, a study found that stay-at-home orders would “destroy at least seven times more years of human life” than they would save.

It turned out the “scientific basis” for social distancing stemmed from Laura Glass, a fourteen-year-old girl from New Mexico who submitted a school project that argued that separating the population was as effective as a vaccine. But outside of the junior high science fair, the experiment was a disaster.

By September 2020, the failures of lockdowns were readily apparent, but many states stayed their course. Donald Luskin wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “Six months into the Covid-19 pandemic, the US has now carried out two large-scale experiments in public health.” He explained:

“First, in March and April, the lockdown of the economy to arrest the spread of the virus, and second, since mid-April, the reopening of the economy. The results are in. Counterintuitive though it may be, statistical analysis shows that locking down the economy didn’t contain the disease’s spread and reopening it didn’t unleash a second wave of infections.”

While the most vulnerable suffered, the powerful prospered. Politicians gained unprecedented authority over their citizens. Multinational companies like consulting giant McKinsey received lucrative government contracts to implement tyranny. In the first 100 days of the pandemic, McKinsey amassed more than $100 million in contracts to advise local, state, and federal officials in their response to the virus. Politico reported that Jared Kushner brought in a “suite of McKinsey consultants” to take “charge of the most important challenges facing the federal government” in March 2020.

California doled out tens of millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to McKinsey during the pandemic, as did Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and St. Louis. In July 2020, ProPublica wrote: “For the world’s best-known corporate-management consultants, helping tackle the pandemic has been a bonanza. It’s not clear what the government has gotten in return.”

The laptop class of consultants and bureaucrats grew immensely rich while they augmented their power. The Covid regime siphoned Americans’ tax dollars to profiteers who implemented tyranny and the ensuing destruction. Those who reaped the benefits had the luxury of remaining detached from the costs. The cronyism ushered in a previously unimaginable despotism. 

Aspects of lockdowns continued into 2021, and the obstinate Covid regime continued its abolition of freedom. Those responsible for the policies – including Debi Birx, Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump – refuse to admit error. Instead, they regret not implementing more tyrannical measures. 

Doubling Down – “Go Medieval On It”

“I wish when we went into lockdown, we looked like Italy,” Dr. Deborah Birx told television cameras in August 2020, standing outside in a mask. “People weren’t allowed out of their houses, and they couldn’t come out but once every two weeks to buy groceries…[they] had to have a certificate that said they were allowed.”

Despite the arrests, the school closures, and the abolition of liberty, American leaders lamented their failure to implement greater tyranny. Birx regretted that Americans had been permitted to go to the grocery store more than once every fourteen days, the timespan she insisted would help flatten the curve.

In her memoir, she later boasted that she censored Dr. Scott Atlas, the only member of the Trump Administration resisting lockdowns. She worked with the White House Communications team to block him from media appearances and sought to kick him off the Covid task force.

The Covid regime shared Birx’s views that response to the virus had not been sufficiently autocratic. Peter Walker, a longtime senior partner at McKinsey, insisted that the Chinese deserved “high praise” for their response to the virus. In April 2020, he appeared on Fox News and argued: “I think the harsh action that they took, given the scale of China and the number of big cities…was exactly what they needed to do to be able to prevent the outbreak from going any further.”

Host Tucker Carlson responded, “What would you say to the families of those who died, starved to death alone in their apartments, or the people who are wondering where their relatives went after they were bundled into Chinese police vans?” Walker conceded that every death was “heartbreaking” but applauded China’s efforts to combat the virus. Like Birx, he said the more despotic responses were preferable to the United States’ less stringent lockdowns, which he called a “late start.”

Jerome Adams, President Trump’s Surgeon General, had similar reflections in 2022. “We NEVER locked down,” he tweeted. When critics responded with articles from 2020 outlining lockdown orders, Adams fired back, “Did we lock down like China?” Like Birx, he insisted that a proper lockdown would have required even less freedom. 

In August 2023, Adams wrote that lockdowns and face masks were “unequivocally effective,” posting an article that featured masked citizens behind the caption: “CORONAVIRUS: STAY HOME, SAVE LIVES. ACT LIKE YOU’VE GOT IT. ANYONE CAN SPREAD IT.” He now argues that the lockdowns were effective, but they also should have been stricter. 

Dr. Fauci has expressed those beliefs as well. In October 2022, he defended his decision to lock down the country, saying that he helped “save lives.” He regretted that the efforts were not more stringent, saying that the government should have been “much more strict in demanding mask wearing.”

This was consistent with Fauci’s previous statements. In August 2020, Fauci co-authored an article for Cell. “America’s Doctor” envisioned permanent human separation, a process that could only be achieved through a system of tyranny even grander than Covid response.

“The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic reminds us that overcrowding in dwellings and places of human congregation…as well as human geographic movement catalyzes disease spread,” Fauci wrote. “Living in greater harmony with nature will require changes in human behavior as well as other radical changes that may take decades to achieve: rebuilding the infrastructures of human existence.”

Radical changes that may take decades to achieve: rebuilding the infrastructure of human existence. “Rebuilding” tacitly acknowledged that the public health apparatus had destroyed the existing infrastructure. They had bulldozed constitutional liberties and societal norms. 

New York Times writer Donald G. McNeil, a frequent correspondent of Fauci’s, urged the country to adopt unconstitutional tyranny in his column from February 28, 2020: “To Take on the Coronavirus, Go Medieval on It.” He wrote, “The medieval way, inherited from the era of the Black Death, is brutal: Close the borders, quarantine the ships, pen terrified citizens up inside their poisoned cities.”

Pen terrified citizens up inside their poisoned cities. This was not mere posturing. McNeil wanted the country to implement Eastern-style tyranny to combat Covid. In private email exchanges with Fauci, he confirmed his animosity toward individual rights, calling Americans “selfish pigs” while glorifying the authoritarian response and widespread submission in Xi’s China. 

“A lot of average Chinese behaved incredibly heroically in the face of the virus,” McNeil emailed Fauci. “Meanwhile, in America, people tend to act like selfish pigs interested only in saving themselves.” Fauci responded, “You make some very good points, Donald.” McNeil later wrote in the New York Post, “we must have ways to stop and even imprison doctors who prescribe false cures.”

In October 2020, Fauci bragged to an audience that the country had gone Medieval in its response. “I recommended to the president that we shut the country down.” Like McNeil, he lamented that the United States had not implemented more totalitarian measures like China. “Unfortunately, since we actually did not shut down completely, the way China did, the way Korea did, the way Taiwan did, we actually did see spread even though we shut down,” he explained, though he did not address the other countries’ ongoing Covid infections. 

Fauci appears callously indifferent to the costs of implementing radical changes to rebuild the infrastructure of human existence. In April 2021, “America’s Doctor” appeared before a Congressional subcommittee wearing a mask. “Fifteen days to slow the spread turned into one year of lost liberty,” Rep. Jim Jordan said before asking Fauci: “What metrics, what measures, what has to happen before Americans get more freedoms?”

Fauci replied, “I don’t look at this as a liberty thing.” Those concerns – including Americans’ Constitutional rights – were less important than his grand initiative to rebuild human existence. The previous year, he admitted that lockdowns may be “inconvenient” for Americans and that he had not weighed the costs and benefits of closing schools.

Georgetown University hired Dr. Fauci in 2023 and hosted him for a forum on the Covid response. Fauci issued unequivocal support for lockdowns, calling them “absolutely justified.” He then suggested that lockdowns could be used to implement mandatory vaccination campaigns. “If you have a vaccine available, you might want to lock down temporarily so you can get everybody vaccinated,” he explained.

Fauci was not subtle about his ambitious initiatives. By radical change, he meant abolishing centuries of Anglo-American legal tradition and personal liberties. The only means of implementing his plan to rebuild the infrastructure of human existence would be totalitarian control far beyond the constraints of the US Constitution. 

Make America Medieval Again

Though the media enjoyed portraying them as foil characters, President Trump and Dr. Fauci have largely agreed on the decision to lock down the country. Through the 2020 and 2024 elections, President Trump repeatedly defended the lockdowns that he implemented.

On March 29, 2020, the national mitigation plan for Covid was set to expire. “Fifteen days to stop the spread” had run its course, and President Trump addressed the nation from the Rose Garden. He announced that the lockdowns would extend another month. Despite the demonstrated failure from the first two weeks, the Trump administration began the process of moving goalposts that deprived Americans of liberty until the Covid emergency officially ended on May 11, 2023. 

Trump campaigned on his decision to lock down the country in 2020. From March to Election Day, he repeatedly told crowds that following Fauci’s orders had been the “right thing to do.” On March 24, the Trump re-election campaign posted a video of Fauci bragging that Trump never stood against his lockdown dogma. “The president has listened to what I have said,” Fauci said. “When I’ve made recommendations, he’s taken them. He’s never countered or overridden me.”

In April, Trump told reporters that he controlled the nation’s ability to reopen. “The president of the United States calls the shots,” he said at a news briefing. “They can’t do anything without the approval of the president of the United States.” He admitted that he chose to lock down the nation despite having alternative options. “I could have kept it open. I thought of keeping it open,” he went on. “We’ve done this right.”

Fauci again told reporters that Trump had implemented his recommendations. Trump later gushed over Fauci, “I like him. I think he is terrific.” Trump took full responsibility for the lockdowns that month tweeting, “For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governor’s 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… It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons.” 

In September, Trump defended Birx and Fauci as a “group of very smart people” who convinced him to lock down the country. “We closed up…a group of very smart people walk in and say, ‘Sir, we have to close it.’ And we did the right thing. We closed it.” Later that month, he continued his boasts at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania: “We did the right thing. We closed the country down.”

He continued his messaging until Election Day. In October, Trump opened the presidential debate by insisting that his lockdowns had saved millions of lives. “I closed up the greatest economy in the world in order to fight this horrible disease that came from China,” he remarked. He campaigned in Arizona the next week bragging, “We did just the right thing. We closed it down.”On November 1, he told a crowd in Georgia, “I had to shut it down. And we did the right thing. We shut it down.”

After the 2020 election, Trump’s White House continued to push for lockdown measures. In December 2020, Trump called on Florida to implement mask mandates, close restaurants, and demand strict social distancing. When Governor DeSantis refused to follow those suggestions, the White House sent follow-up demands in January 2021 during the last ten days of Trump’s first term. The Trump administration called for “aggressive mitigation,” including “uniform implementation of effective face masking (two or three ply and well-fitting) and strict physical distancing.” 

The rift between Trump and DeSantis continued in the 2024 presidential election. In May 2023, Trump attacked DeSantis for his decision to reopen Florida. Trump wrote that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo “did better” on the Covid response than DeSantis by locking down the state. Cuomo relished the compliment, tweeting “Donald Trump tells the truth, finally.” Trump’s statement was far from accurate; the CDC reported that New York’s age-adjusted deaths were 23% higher than Florida’s.

An April 2022 study found that New York had the third-worst Covid response when measured by economy, education, and mortality. Florida ranked sixth best. Cuomo’s response led to the fourth-worst mortality rate in the nation despite his dictatorial orders.

Trump’s 2024 campaign also found an unlikely ally in California Governor Gavin Newsom. In a Fox News interview, Trump touted that he “used to get along great” with Newsom. “He was always very nice to me. Said the greatest things,” he added. Newsom echoed the sentiment, boasting that he had an “incredible relationship” with Trump when they worked to lock down the nation. In notable contrast, Florida maintained lower cumulative all-cause age-adjusted excess mortality than California throughout the entire pandemic.

Trump’s position on lockdowns is now clear. “The one thing I have never been credited for is the job we did on Covid,” he told Fox News in January 2024. He sided with the two most ardent defenders of destroying American liberty against the governor who drew the most controversy for reopening his state. In June 2023, Trump gave a definitive answer when Bret Baier asked if he had “any regrets” on how his administration handled Covid. “No,” he said, shaking his head. Two months later, he told Glenn Beck, “We did a great job with Covid – has never been acknowledged, but it will be in history.”

“A Virtually Unconditional Personal Right”

None of the presidential advisors from March 2020 – including Birx, Fauci, and Kushner – have expressed remorse or regret for putting Americans under house arrest. In the 1,141 days of the Covid state of emergency, Americans lost their foundational liberty to move freely; it was a blatant usurpation of the United States’ constitutional tradition. 

In 1941, Justice Robert Jackson wrote that Americans have the right to interstate travel “either for temporary sojourn or for the establishment of permanent residence.” Citing the Constitution’s Privileges and Immunities Clause, he wrote, “if national citizenship means less than this, it means nothing.” For Americans passing through Maryland under Larry Hogan, national citizenship ended up meaning nothing. 

Over fifty years later, the Court held in Saenz v. Roe, “The word ‘travel’ is not found in the text of the Constitution. Yet the ‘constitutional right to travel from one State to another’ is firmly embedded in our jurisprudence.” This right disappeared for New York parents who wanted to bring their children to a gathering with classmates from New Jersey. 

In 1969, Justice Potter Stewart called the right to travel “a virtually unconditional personal right, guaranteed by the Constitution to us all.” Yet, in states across the country, governors instituted a police state. The Covid regime went “medieval” in its response, penning terrified citizens up inside their poisoned cities as Fauci and McNeil advocated. 

Americans lost the basic liberty to move unencumbered in their country. Government officials implemented tyranny without any mention of due process. They are worse than unremorseful; they lament their inability to enact greater despotism. 

While anecdotes like golfing arrests and fines for children’s playdates may seem trivial compared to the vast array of Covid mandates, they represent the coordinated effort to punish individuals for exercising their right to travel freely. The downstream consequences of this tyranny were monumental. It overturned the right to protest, destroyed years of human life, unwound the social fabric, and permanently damaged a generation of young Americans.