Before I assumed the responsibilities of Mayor on January 2nd, I was required to take an Oath of Office which stated:
"I, Robert M. Green, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa, and that I will faithfully and impartially, to the best of my ability, discharge all the duties of the office of Mayor in the city of Cedar Falls, Iowa as now or hereafter required by law."
In this current global public health emergency, it's been claimed that I'm willing to violate the United States Constitution through enforcement of what some residents believe is an unconstitutional government emergency proclamation. That's a very serious claim, and I want to explain to residents my thought process on one aspect of this claim.
The Governor's April 2, 2020 proclamation states that a parking lot church service is permissible as long as attendees do not leave their vehicles or roll down their windows. Opponents of this claim a Constitutional right, under the First Amendment's Free Exercise clause, to roll down windows for communion and to leave vehicles for baptism. For this, they point to the First Amendment text, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
But I believe the governor's proclamation about remaining in vehicles during a parking lot worship service is indeed constitutional. In Reynolds vs. United States (1879), the Supreme Court stated that the free exercise clause did not apply to acts that were violations of social duties or subversive of good order. In a public health emergency, temporarily limiting public contact to contain a contagious virus in a global pandemic is a reasonable and constitutional government action for the maintenance of good order.
I give the above explanation not to try to win over anyone to this line of reasoning, but just to hopefully show that I do think a great deal about Constitutional implications of governmental decisions at all levels -- federal, state, and local. Public officials have a critical duty do to so -- it comes with the oath we take.
Thanks for reading through to the end, and for working alongside me as we all seek to be informed and engaged residents.
Bibliography - Two great, accessible books on the U.S. Constitution are:
- America's Constitution - A Biography by Akhil Reed Amar (Random House, 2005)
- The Words We Live By - Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution (Hyperion Books, 2003)=