ANDREW CHASE
Opinions Editor
As the days and months passed by since the COVID-19 pandemic first began in the United States, many people started to call the current ways of life the “new normal”. While the number of cases and global death count continued to rise on a daily basis, I personally found calling the world’s current plight, the “new normal” to be a pessimistic way to view everything. A huge part of this “new normal” has been the constant need to wear a mask.
Masks: one of the most controversial topics that has been continuing to divide many for the past year and half. Wearing masks was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention very early on in the pandemic. Mask wearing was recommended due to their ability to help prevent a person from potentially spreading the airborne virus to others. Although wearing a mask to protect others from potentially catching the virus seems like a common courtesy to me, there are many people out there who would love to disagree due to it being “against their rights” or them turning the U.S. into a “communist regime”. I have read through all of the 27 Constitutional Amendments and it never mentions anything about the people having the “right” to not wear a mask.
The main Constitutional right that many anti-maskers refer to wearing a mask as being “unconstitutional” is the 14th Amendment. According to Section 1 of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”. The line “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” is the focal point of their argument due to masks taking away their “life, liberty, or property”. Yet they all seem to forget the key words following it, “without due process of law”.
The phrase “due process of law” essentially means that for a law to be passed, lawmakers must consider if it deprives the people of their rights. So if the people find a law or regulation to be taking away their rights, then they have the right to go against the law through the courts or other means. My main issue with the 14th Amendment making mask wearing unconstitutional is that if it takes away a person’s liberties, then by not wearing a mask it could take away a person’s life which also conflicts with the 14th Amendment. I am a firm believer in the originalism perspective for the United States Constitution which means that I think that laws, regulations, and amendments should be looked at with the fixed context of the time they were created. Although I am a supporter of this perspective, I genuinely believe that masks are not “unconstitutional” because at the time that the 14th Amendment was ratified, I would assume they weren’t dealing with a global health crisis, so they would have no need to wear a mask. I honestly believe that wearing a mask is just the right thing to do with the world’s current situation, but I know that wearing a mask shouldn’t be classified as the “new normal” rather it should be called the “temporary normal”.
Andrew Chase can be contacted at
opinions@kscequinox.com
