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| Mencken |
The French say, “The more things change, the more they
remain the same.” For this reason, the New Year in Connecticut is likely to be
the same as the old year – only more so. Politically, nothing has altered the
dreary course of stars and planets in the state. The political firmament
remains wearisomely the same.
Progressive Democrats have run the political tables in Connecticut; Governor Lamont, not as prickly as former Democrat Governor Dannel
Malloy, has seen his powers expand far beyond the most fervent dreams of his
predecessor; the General Assembly has not assembled for nearly a year; public
education, firmly in the hands of the most powerful political force in the
state, public employee unions, have consistently and successfully defied the
laconic governor; Connecticut cities, for a half century the private preserve
of Democrats, continue to rot from the inside out; and the Democrat Party has
become the party of abortion, intersectionality, and empathy for all except no
longer dominant privileged white males.
According to a story in the Hartford Courant, High court upholds Lamont’s authority to
close businesses through COVID emergency orders, Connecticut’s State Supreme Court has upheld a previous Superior
Court decision that allows Governor Ned Lamont to effectively shut down a bar
in Milford, as well as numberless restaurants, hotels, gyms, airports, mom and
pop businesses, Connecticut’s General Assembly and the state’s judicial system.
The bar owner, Kristine Casey of Casey’s Irish Pub and Black Sheep Enterprise,
sued Lamont in court. Her suit was turned aside by Superior Court Judge and
appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Some, no commentators as yet, might argue that it cannot be
just under a constitutional form of government for a governor, without the
advice and consent of the whole legislature, to put public
service industries out of business in Connecticut on the strength of executive
orders alone. As a result of executive order statutes that may not apply to
current Coronavirus circumstances, as the suit claims, and that have not been
affirmed by the whole General Assembly, which has not assembled since
Coronavirus penetrated Connecticut about ten months ago, the bar owner has
suffered a serious deprivation. She closed her business in March because the
restrictions imposed by Lamont were such as would not allow her to make a
sufficient profit to remain open.
The plaintiff noted in her brief: “The COVID-19 pandemic is
not a ‘serious disaster’ within the meaning of C.G.S. § 28-9(a), and C.G.S. §
28-9(b)(1) and (7) does not empower the governor to issue the executive orders
challenged by the Plaintiffs. 5 - 8 B. C.G.S. § 28-9(b)(1) and (7) is an
unconstitutional delegation by the General Assembly of its exclusive
legislative powers in violation of the separation of powers provision of Conn.
Const. art. II.”
Every proposition in that claim is objectively true,
especially the last. The high court did not address these claims; it summarily
affirmed an earlier ruling by a Superior Court Justice and said it would issue
a more extensive ruling at some future, unspecified date.
The summary judgment of the state Supreme Court makes a
mockery of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution: “We the people of the United
States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure
domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do
ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” The
executive orders issued by Lamont do not establish justice – nor, apparently,
do summary decisions rendered the Malloy high court – insure domestic
tranquility, or secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
It was either Mark Twain or Gideon Tucker, an American
lawyer, newspaper editor and politician, who said, “No man’s life, liberty or
property is safe while the legislature is in session.” But these treasures –
life liberty and property – are far less safe when legislatures rent out their
constitutional obligations to governors. A large portion of the law secures the
constitutional right to own, enjoy and dispose of personal assets.
In Connecticut just now, we do not have a fully functioning
legislature or justice system. The governing powers assigned by the
constitution to the legislative and judicial branches have been expropriated by
highly incompetent governors. Among those in Connecticut who died with not of Coronavirus, fully 70
percent were occupants of nursing homes; only after coroners had carted off the
bodies did Lamont and Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York begin to lather nursing
homes with their silver tongued empathy.
If the law says any of this is constitutional, then we all
ought to say, in chorus with Mr. Bumbles, a Charles Dickens's character in Oliver
Twist, “If the law supposes that, the law is a ass — a idiot.” The state
Supreme Court supposes just that; ergo, the state Supreme Court is a…
Well, if not an idiot, possibly a Puritan as defined by
H.L. Mencken. “Puritanism: The haunting fear that
someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
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