Photo: Jon Decker Gray TV
Top Three Takeaways – June 17th, 2021
- Image is everything. Not talking Andre Agassi. The presentation of President Biden and Vladimir Putin couldn’t have been more different. When the two leaders first met, Biden looked relaxed while holding his hands in front of himself. Putin had his arms hanging away from his body at his side. Once inside, with the onset of the bilateral meeting underway, Biden sat upright and was smiling with his legs crossed. Putin sat somewhat slouching at an angle with his legs wide open with an off put look on his face. I’m not sure what really happened, that we’ll never know, but I’m rather certain that Biden didn’t invite him outback, as he’d been known to do with President Trump. I’m also pretty certain that he didn’t press Putin into a pushup challenge like he did on the campaign trail with one of his supporters he referred to as fat...because Putin appeared ready for feats of strength...more than he appeared interested in discussing diplomacy. Image may not really be everything, but it can be telling.
- Come sail with me...in July? A day removed from Royal Caribbean announcing they would be delaying their initial cruise schedule after eight members of the Odyssey of the Sea tested positive for Covid-19, while also announcing they’d be mandating vaccinations for passengers from all ships that sail outside of Florida...today is a likely day for us to learn whether the state of Florida or the CDC wins the legal battle over the CDC’s authority to issue a “no sail” order. Last Thursday the federal judge overseeing the case said a decision would be reached “soon” and today is in keeping with the court’s schedule. But the ruling from the judge has implications well beyond the cruise industry. The CDC retains its authority to issue edicts from the Commerce Clause in the Constitution. To date, the CDC has never had its authority under it legally challenged. Just Tuesday, the CDC announced they’d be banning the importing of dogs with rabies concerns. While the importation of dogs likely isn’t as controversial as grounding the entire cruise industry and mandating specific guidelines for how it can reopen, it does raise the point that they’ve been using broad authority to set policy as they see fit...as an unelected body of scientists.
- This is bigger than Florida and the cruise industry. You don’t have to be a constitutional scholar to know that unelected scientists weren’t granted explicit rights to reign ours in. In fact, in 2014, a now eerie Time Magazine article, stated this during the concerns of Ebola becoming a pandemic: The CDC, as the U.S.’s primary agency for taking action to stop the spread of disease, has broad authority under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to restrict travel into the country and between states of an infected person or a person who has come in contact with an infected person, according to Laura Donohue, director of the Center on National Security and the Law at Georgetown Law School. Federal quarantine can be imposed, too, on federal property, like a military base or National Forest land. And as the preeminent employer of experts on public health crises, the CDC is always likely to get involved within any affected state in the event of a looming pandemic. But its power to act is extremely restricted. The agency traditionally acts in an advisory role and can only take control from local authorities under two circumstances: if local authorities invite them to do so or under the authority outlined in the Insurrection Act in the event of a total breakdown of law and order. Ok, the state of Florida certainly hasn’t asked for the CDC to take over the cruise industry – nor has the Insurrection Act been activated. Ironically, a seven-year-old article about the possibilities of a pandemic that wasn’t, clearly makes the case that the CDC is currently engaged in a wild abuse of power. And the cruise industry is just one example. What happens with Florida’s lawsuit against the CDC’s authority has huge implications for our future well beyond what we’re talking about today.