Picking up on Eli's point/claim, the fact that Trump has tried to push COVID off on Governors and localities has lulled a lot of people into thinking the federal government has no powers when it comes to public health emergencies. That's not remotely true. There are ...
2/ certainly limits. And to work well, a president would not need to work in collaboration states and localities. Indeed, stacking the judiciary with Trump toadies wld likely make federal courts more aggressive. But it is not remotely the case that the federal government ...
3/ lacks broad emergency powers to deal with public health emergencies that are national in scope. It just seems like that to some people because Trump made the calculated decision to claim it was up to governors so he could declaim responsibility. One wrinkle to the story ...
4/ is that the President has very limited power to order states to 'reopen'. The directionality and justifications are different. But basically, the federal government has vast powers, even fairly scary powers that should seldom or never be used, to handle public health ...
5/ emergencies. Trump has lulled a lot of people into thinking that the federal constitution doesn't even exist, that we're still operating under the articles of confederation. We're not.
