… is from page 201 of Robert Higgs’s important July 1987 Reason article titled “In the Name of Emergency,” as an expanded version of this article appears under the title “The Normal Constitution Versus the Crisis Constitution” in the superb 2004 collection of some of Bob’s essays, Against Leviathan:
[D]uring the 20th century the unfolding of our history brought into being a second constitution. Besides the Normal Constitution, protective of individual rights, we now have a Crisis Constitution, hostile to individual rights and friendly to the unchecked power of government officials. In national emergencies, the Crisis Constitution overrides the Normal Constitution.
DBx: Unfortunately, the covid pandemic only further institutionalized the Crisis Constitution. Some new emergency – or, more likely, “emergency” – will soon enough arrive and, when it does, the discretionary power of unchecked, arrogant government officials will ruin many lives and further shrink our freedoms.