In a case of stunning judicial overreach, a Judge in West Michigan issued orders to have people suspected of being sick with Covid-19 to be arrested, with no other charges.
According to The Great Lakes Justice Center on April 6, 2020, Kent County Chief Circuit Judge Mark Trusock issued a court order authorizing the police to involuntarily detain (arrest) anyone suspected to be a “carrier and health threat” to the community.
It appears the Judge doesn’t understand general arrest warrants are not legal in The United States. Just because you are a Judge doesn’t mean you can issue detention orders against an entire class of people. In America, arrest warrants are executed for individual citizens and must be specific in the charges being leveled.
The 4th Amendment is something Judge Trusock must not understand. The Amendment states clearly, ‘no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation.’ And that is the bare minimum.
Judge Trusock recklessly focused on state law that allows law enforcement to arrest someone who is a public health threat but again that is an individual, not an entire county or group of people.
Under the order, Trusock writes, ‘if a health official determines (in his or her sole discretion) a person has Covid-19 that person may be detained for up to 72 hours with any opportunity to be heard at a court hearing.
Time to build Pandemic Prisons, so Judge Tussock can order doctors, nurses, and physicians assistants to fill them up with suspected sickos.
Seems the judge may have a fever because he is not thinking clearly. You cannot transfer or delegate decision making and due process obligations to anyone that wanders by just because you think it’s a good idea.
The Covid-Cops don’t actually pass Constitutional muster for a variety of reasons and this judge cannot issue such an edict no matter how much he’d like to arrest the pandemic.
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This is a warning to all public officials who think the illness is a license to press their will upon others.
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