In loco parentis. (Latin) In the position or place of a parent.
Mandate is a noun or verb. The verb is not too important but the noun is whole different thing. For three years we have been subject to a series of “mandates” issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as state and local governments and state, county, and local school boards. Those mandates have demanded that we be tested, “vaccinated”, masked, socially distanced, and excluded from commerce or the classroom.
It is time that we understood what a mandate is and who has the authority to issue one. In brief a mandate is:
A judicial command, order, or precept, written or oral, from a court; a direction that a court has the authority to give and an individual is bound to obey. (emphasis added)
More precisely:
n. 1) any mandatory order or requirement under statute, regulation, or by a public agency.(emphasis added)
Using this definition, the CDC presumed authority to demand that landlords cease evictions because, as CDC argued, making people homeless would increase their risk of contracting COVID-19 and spreading it to those who have homes. Apart from the bizarre epidemiology and more broadly the science underlying this CDC “mandate” the CDC forgot something. CDC forgot or ignored the fact that they had no legislative authority to issue such an order and so it was thrown out on its first judicial test.
Ask yourselves this. Does a government entity such as a local or state health department have the authority to interfere in commerce or your life without the backing of the legislative authority to do so?
And more to point, does a state, county or local school board have the legislative authority to issue public health directives that have the force of law?
Do school boards have the moral and legal authority to act in loco parentis and replace the wisdom and authority of parents to care for the health of their children as they see fit without interference from a school board with no public health authority?
Never again can we allow strangers and officials at any level who do not have the legislative authority to dictate how we will live our lives and care for our children.
Union, KY
17 Feb 2022