Tresident Donald Trump on Monday claimed that he has “total authority” to override state governors’ stay-at-home orders if they conflict with his plan to reopen the country’s economy by relaxing the social distancing measures meant to hinder the spread of COVID-19.
While Trump and some Republican Governors have pushed for an early easing of the crippling economic restrictions that have created the deepest recession since the Great Depression, nine Democratic controlled states signaled on Monday they would set their own time table.
Governors of California, Oregon and Washington said they would work together to ease lockdowns designed prevent a flood of patients from overwhelming hospitals. They declined to set a date for reopening for business.
Six states in the northeast, including the hardest hit states of New York and New Jersey were even more circumspect.
“Study the data, study the research, study the experiences of other countries, and give us guidelines and parameters to go forward,” New York’s Andrew Cuomo said of his plans to work with fellow regional governors.
Later on Monday, Massachusetts Republican Governor Charlie Baker took his state into the northeast coalition, while on Friday, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott said he would give details of an executive order this week that would allow businesses to reopen and keep people safe.
Nearly all 50 states are currently under gubernatorial executive orders requiring residents to remain in their homes and ordering all but essential businesses to remain closed.
Under the Constitution, the federal government has wide latitude to regulate commerce between states, but the 10th Amendment states that powers which are “not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
