The draconian restrictions issued by Governor Charlie Baker in the name of fighting Coronavirus violate many provisions of the Massachusetts Constitution, along with provisions of the United States Constitution. The proper level to undo these unconstitutional edicts is on the State level not the federal level. Thanks to our abysmal educational system far too many of us have been brainwashed into believing that the Supreme Court is the one and only venue for addressing all wrongs committed by any level of government. The founding fathers of this nation along with the framers of the US Constitution and the State Constitutions would be completely dismayed by that level of constitutional ignorance.
The system of government enshrined in the United States Constitution is a distributed constitutional system where legal and constitutional disputes involving state governments are supposed to be solved on the state level and only those involving the federal government are supposed to be solved on the federal level.
Stay at home orders and the orders to close businesses clearly violate the following clause of the Massachusetts Constitution because liberty, or the freedom to live our lives as we please, is one of our most important natural rights.
Article I. All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.
The government of the State of Massachusetts can only take away the freedom of individuals to come and go from their homes as they please if they are found guilty in a court of law. That is spelled out in this clause:
Article XII. And no subject shall be arrested, imprisoned, despoiled, or deprived of his property, immunities, or privileges, put out of the protection of the law, exiled, or deprived of his life, liberty, or estate, but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land.
Police officers have absolutely no authority under the Massachusetts Constitution to knock on your door and check to see if you have more than ten people attending a Thanksgiving gathering, Christmas party. or any social event. If they do the we have every right to demand they produce a warrant. You are guaranteed that right by the following clause:
Article XIV. Every subject has a right to be secure from all unreasonable searches, and seizures, of his person, his houses, his papers, and all his possessions. All warrants, therefore, are contrary to this right, if the cause or foundation of them be not previously supported by oath or affirmation; and if the order in the warrant to a civil officer, to make search in suspected places, or to arrest one or more suspected persons, or to seize their property, be not accompanied with a special designation of the persons or objects of search, arrest, or seizure: and no warrant ought to be issued but in cases, and with the formalities prescribed by the
Only laws passed through the formal legislative process are valid laws in the State of Massachusetts. These edicts issued by Governor Baker were not passed through the formal legislative process therefore they are not valid.
Article II. No bill or resolve of the senate or house of representatives shall become a law, and have force as such, until it shall have been laid before the governor for his revisal; and if he, upon such revision, approve thereof, he shall signify his approbation by signing the same. But if he have any objection to the passing of such bill or resolve, he shall return the same, together with his objections thereto, in writing, to the senate or house of representatives
This article specifically prevents any governor of this state from issuing any edicts of any kind.
Article XXX. In the government of this commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them: the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men.
This article clearly states that we the people are in charge of the State of Massachusetts, not the politicians we elect.
Article V. All power residing originally in the people, and being derived from them, the several magistrates and officers of government, vested with authority, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are their substitutes and agents, and are at all times accountable to them.
If we do not like what our elected servants are doing we the people of this state have the absolute authority to reform the government and make sure they listen.
Article VII. Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men: Therefore the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity and happiness require it.
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