This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, April 3rd, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The president can't just turn the economy back on after the dust is settled from the coronavirus outbreak, it will largely

be up to the private sector and for the purposes of constitutional government it will be up to

states, that is governors and state lawmakers

Cato's Walter Olson discusses why that's a good thing

The states and sometimes cities are the ones that have

so-called police power against epidemics. And at the founding of the Republic during the frame of the Constitution and ever since it has

been the states that took the lead when there was an epidemic.

So what does that mean practically for how this gets dealt with with regard to the restrictions that we see in place

stay-at-home orders do not leave your house orders, restaurant closings, that sort of thing.

From the earliest days of the American Republic

and through the framing of the Constitution,

it was cities and states that responded to Yellow Fever or Smallpox or whatever the epidemic was.

And if you look at how it's played on in the courts,

the judiciary has given more deference to the

police power as it's called, more deference to the states on time of epidemic than in almost any other circumstance.

Very seldom do you find that the courts

will stop in to restrain the government while the epidemic is still going on doesn't mean they wouldn't do so afterward,

but while it's still in progress, the government gets to do amazing things that restrict liberties we absolutely take for granted at all the times.

So as this winds down, hopefully sooner than later, what are your expectations with regard to restrictions that have been put in place?

How many of those, I guess those powers will endure?

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