Monday, July 6, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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In response to a reporter’s question as to why President Donald Trump, in defiance of health officials, staged political rallies in Oklahoma and Arizona in which the attendees weren’t required to wear masks or exercise social distancing, Vice President Mike Pence declared that even in a health crisis, Americans don’t forfeit their right to peaceably assemble.
Taking Pence’s reasoning to its logical conclusion, he wouldn’t have any reservation over political rallies held in New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina was making landfall. The coronavirus is no less pernicious.
The Constitution is not a suicide pact. The rights enumerated in it are not absolute and must be balanced against the needs for the survival of its people. This idea that strict adherence to the letter of the law is the foundation of this republic but that self-preservation of the state is paramount can be traced to Thomas Jefferson, who wrote:
“A strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means.”
Trump, by violating health measures at political rallies, defies the Constitution, which aims to “promote the general welfare.”
