Court of Appeals decision upholding LA County ban on outdoor dining pandemic: Courts should be “extremely deferential to health officials. Strong words, but are they justified? Are there any studies that support the idea that outdoor dining spreads Covid-19? Did the health officials, or the courts, cite these studies? Or did they rely on their lofty titles to give weight to their opinions?

I’m a pretty smart guy, I’m told. But I am not an aerospace engineer. Should NASA be “extremely deferential” to my opinions on the Mars mission? Extreme deference implies that it should be shown only to real experts in that field.

Dr. Barbara Ferrer is Director of the Department of Public Health of Los Angeles County, the most populous in the US with 10 million residents. Nearly everyone assumes that she is an MD. In fact, she is a PhD in social welfare and has a master’s in public health. Do the learned justices of the Court of Appeal, who unanimously were “extremely deferential” to her orders, even know what degrees she holds? Or do they simply look at her title and assume it carries with it the necessary knowledge and judgment?

In Europe they worship titles. In America we look at the individual, or at least we used to. But now, over a year into the pandemic state of emergency, we also look at titles and are “extremely deferential” to the orders of authorities. I believe that in a constitutional republic, or in any free country, the people should be “extremely deferential” to no one except the Almighty. We used to know that. It’s past time we remembered, while we still have a constitutional republic to preserve.

https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B309416.PDF

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