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Anthony Fauci Thinks Scientific Expertise Trumps the Rule of Law
Townhall.com ^ | April 27, 2022 | Jacob Sullum

Posted on 04/27/2022 8:32:52 AM PDT by Kaslin

Anthony Fauci was "surprised and disappointed" by last week's ruling against the mask mandate for travelers issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is a CDC issue," President Joe Biden's top medical adviser told CNN. "It should not have been a court issue."

Fauci, who objects to federalism as well as judicial review, embodies the mild-mannered arrogance of technocrats who assume their scientific expertise trumps the rule of law. Because they believe they know what is best for us, they are dismayed by any attempt to limit their influence or restrain their power.

Fauci did vaguely criticize the substance of U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle's decision, calling her reasoning "not sound" and "not particularly firm." But his main point was that she had no business determining whether the CDC had complied with the law because courts should not be "getting involved in things that are unequivocally public health decisions."

White House press secretary Jen Psaki concurred: "Public health decisions shouldn't be made by the courts. They should be made by public health experts."

But Mizelle did not make a public health decision; she made a legal decision based on her understanding of the relevant statute. Contrary to Psaki's implication, courts are not only authorized but obligated to make such decisions, as she surely would have conceded had Mizelle ruled in the CDC's favor.

The Justice Department is appealing Mizelle's ruling, but it did not seek a stay that would have restored the mask requirement while the case is pending. Although that omission may seem puzzling given the CDC's claim that the mandate "remains necessary for the public health," it makes sense if the administration's goal is to facilitate future power grabs by keeping the agency's statutory authority as vague as possible.

If there is "no place for the courts" to assess the legality of disease-control edicts, as Fauci maintains, it follows that the Supreme Court erred not only by blocking the CDC's nationwide eviction moratorium but even by taking up the issue. Evidently, it also should have stayed out of the dispute over the federal vaccination-or-testing requirement for private employees, which it likewise deemed illegal.

Fauci's impatience with legal niceties has been apparent for some time. "The states are very often given a considerable amount of leeway in doing things the way they want to do it," he complained in a 2020 interview with BBC Radio 4, "as opposed to in response to federal mandates, which are relatively rarely given."

The result, Fauci explained, was "a considerable disparity, with states doing things differently in a nonconsistent way." That "disparity," he averred, "has been a major weakness in our response" to the pandemic.

The "leeway" that bothers Fauci is required by the Constitution, which leaves states with the primary responsibility for addressing public health threats under a broad "police power" that the federal government was never given. So his beef is not simply with the way COVID-19 policy happened to play out in the United States; it is an objection to our system of government.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: anthonyfauci; cdc; coronavirus; covid; fauci; faucist; health; immuninity; immunity; masks; nih; retrovirus; vaccine; warcriminal
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1 posted on 04/27/2022 8:32:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
"Anthony Fauci Thinks Scientific Expertise Trumps the Rule of Law"

If so, it's a good thing this guy doesn't have any real power!

2 posted on 04/27/2022 8:34:59 AM PDT by Savage Beast (Saints are sinners who never gave up. --St. Theresa of Avila)
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To: Kaslin

“[T]he whole world...will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.”


3 posted on 04/27/2022 8:36:01 AM PDT by BenLurkin ((The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.))
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To: Kaslin
And BTW, "scientific expertise" depends entirely on human observation and interpretation. It's fallible.
4 posted on 04/27/2022 8:36:20 AM PDT by Savage Beast (Saints are sinners who never gave up. --St. Theresa of Avila)
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To: Kaslin

“Scientific Expertise” and “public health experts.”

Name just ONE THING that they got right the past two years. Just one.

Hell, just a few short months ago the Dementia-Addled Chief was saying we were in for a winter of death and despair and it never happened.


5 posted on 04/27/2022 8:36:37 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (Instead of criminalizing guns, we need to criminalize criminals.)
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To: Kaslin

His role model, Josef Mengele, probably felt the same way.

Who get to decide what is good science, or what scientific expertise is? Let me guess, people like Tony Mengele do.


6 posted on 04/27/2022 8:40:23 AM PDT by Cecily
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To: Savage Beast

Of course they do.
The CDC gets to circumvent and supercede the legislative power of our government under the guise of “public safety”.
The left will do the same thing with “Climate Change”. Real environmental pollution is measurable and quantifiable, but the carbon myth is a pseudo-crisis that will always be some elusive future threat, yet still actionable for taking away people’s rights and liberties.


7 posted on 04/27/2022 8:41:26 AM PDT by z3n (Kakistocracy)
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To: BenLurkin

Talk of “perverted science” reminds me that recently, the state of Alabama passed a law banning puberty blockers and hormone treatments and surgeries on “transgender youth”.

Jen Psaki warned states against passing such laws, even implying that such laws are unconstitutional.

Maybe it’s just me, but all this “transsexual” treatment business makes me think that it, is perverted science.

Jen Psaki said it is “best practices” to give “gender affirming” medical care, which they define as puberty blockers and hormone shots and bodily surgery.

We are in a world of perverted science, in some ways.


8 posted on 04/27/2022 8:42:10 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Kaslin

Anyone good with leaches?


9 posted on 04/27/2022 8:44:16 AM PDT by blackdog (Today's "disinformation" most often turns out to be tomorrow's facts. )
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To: Kaslin

One of Fauci‘s many problems is that he thinks “settled science” exists, and once some great man makes his decision, all debate must end.

Al Gore and the rest of the greenies share that same dangerous viewpoint.


10 posted on 04/27/2022 8:44:48 AM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: Kaslin
The Great and Powerful Fauci cannot understand why his infinite wisdom and knowledge is questioned by us stupid little citizens. After all, he is "the country's top infectious disease expert". That should give him carte blanche to do whatever the hell he wants, for as long as he wants.
Leave Fauci alone!

/sarc
11 posted on 04/27/2022 8:45:05 AM PDT by Deo volente ("When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God's creation." Pres. Trump)
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To: Kaslin

This is the Peoples Government and we make the rules for CDC.
CDC is nothing but advisory in nature, i.e., opinions.


12 posted on 04/27/2022 8:45:23 AM PDT by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: Kaslin
(i>Anthony Fauci Thinks Scientific Expertise Trumps the Rule of Law

Too bad he doesn't have any ...

13 posted on 04/27/2022 8:46:27 AM PDT by dartuser
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

The “science experts” who can’t even tell the difference between men and women want to be in charge.


14 posted on 04/27/2022 8:48:42 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Kaslin
I'm noticing more and more that the rules should be made at the local level.

I'm also noticing that Dr. Ashish Jha...the new Whitehouse spokesperson....has straightened out the mask bit.

"If you wear a GOOD mask, say N95, YOU are substantially protected even if no one around you is wearing one.

And all this time, they've been saying the opposite...that it protects YOU...not the mask wearer.

15 posted on 04/27/2022 8:50:08 AM PDT by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: Kaslin
Dr. fraudci also claimed on PBS yesterday that the "pandemic" phase was over with hospitalizations and deaths plummeting.

We actually reached this phase over a year ago, but he is either reading the tea leaves or is being instructed by his handlers to start winding this charade down.

I think the "strategists" realize that if they challenge the ruling and it goes to the Supreme Court, an unfavorable ruling could put a permanent limitation on the CDC and they want to have the power that they wielded for the last 2 years "in their pocket" to try to do this again for anything that they deem to be a "public emergency" such as the "climate crisis".

They may be letting this one go now because they squeezed all of the juice they were going to get from this particular lemon.

16 posted on 04/27/2022 8:52:47 AM PDT by American Infidel (Instead of vilifying success, try to emulate it)
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To: blackdog
"Anyone good with leeches?"

Yes. DC lobbyists.

17 posted on 04/27/2022 8:53:44 AM PDT by Tench_Coxe
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To: Kaslin

Mad Scientist


18 posted on 04/27/2022 8:54:05 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3 ( I'm Proud To Be An Okie From Muskogee)
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To: Kaslin

What is even more dismaying is the number of legal scholars who are making the same argument. To their reasoning if the judge’s decision is not overturned the CDC would even have to get Congress’ approval for emergency rules to fight an Ebola outbreak. That is obviously untrue. What is true there would come a time when the Ebola outbreak was no longer an emergency and CDC actions would be subject to legislative overview. That is what happened here.


19 posted on 04/27/2022 9:00:16 AM PDT by lastchance (Credo.)
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To: Kaslin

Not when bad actors in government have clearly hijacked “science” for their own purposes, Dr. F!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


20 posted on 04/27/2022 9:02:36 AM PDT by RatRipper (The Biden Adm is leading an attack against US citizens . . . pure evil.)
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