Category: reason

I quote key parts of the proclamation below; for more, see this Courier-Gazette (Stephen Betts) article (which also notes that “The island has an estimated year-round population of 355, but that swells significantly during the summer” and “The town held its annual town meeting on Saturday and concerns were voiced by some residents about the impact of seasonal residents arriving, possibly carrying the new coronavirus”).

My quick reaction:

(1) I think a state could constitutionally enact such restrictions, as an emergency quarantine measure, but I’m skeptical that the particular statutory provisions cited below authorize towns to do the same on their own, and my quick search didn’t find any Maine statutes that would indeed so authorize towns.

(2) I don’t think municipalities are legally entitled to enact such restrictions in the absence of statutory authorization, though I might well be mistaken.

(3) The town might hope that, even if the proclamation is ultimately held legally invalid, it will deter some people from coming.

WHEREAS, the Town of North Haven, Maine, is situated on an island of the same name lying twelve miles off the coast of Maine; …

WHEREAS, the Town of North Haven operates a non-terminating medical facility known as the North Haven Clinic;

WHEREAS, the North Haven Clinic is staffed by one nurse practitioner and is not licensed or operated as an emergency medical facility;

WHEREAS, patients with serious emergency medical conditions, including patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization, must be transported to a mainland emergency medical facility by ambulance on a Maine State Ferry Service vessel;

WHEREAS, transporting patients who are potentially positive for COVID-19 leaves the Town without a nurse practitioner, without a lead Emergency Medical Technician, and without its one ambulance for at least three hours;

WHEREAS, the Town has a limited supply of medical equipment, personal protective equipment, and medicine to treat potential COVID-19 cases; …

WHEREAS, the North Haven Select Board has considered the above factors [see here for the whole list], including the limited availability of people, equipment, and supplies needed to support the island’s population, and believes it needs to take steps to protect the people who live on the island from the effects of COVID-19;

WHEREAS, a board of selectmen under Title 30-A Maine Revised Statute, section 2635 shall “as a body shall exercise all administrative and executive powers of the town” except as otherwise provided by State law; and

WHEREAS, Title 30-A, Maine Revised Statutes, section 2109 states that a municipality’s home rule authority “shall be liberally construed” to effect activities for the “welfare of the municipalities and their inhabitants”;

NOW THEREFORE, in order to best protect the people of the Town of North Haven from the spread of the novel coronavirus known as a COVID-19, the North Haven Select Board hereby orders:

[1.] All travel to the island shall be limited to travel for “essential purposes,” as defined below;

[2.] People who do not reside on the island fulltime may not travel to the island due to the significant increase in risk associated with the transmission of COVID-19;

[3.] Contractors who work on the island but do not live on the island may not travel to the island due to the significant increase in risk associated with the transmission of COVID- 19;

[4.] Travel for “essential purposes” shall mean to receive or provide medical care, to provide direct caregiving to people who reside on the island; to resupply bulk food items, fuel, and other products required for human consumption, habitation, and wellbeing; to conduct law enforcement activities, to fulfill Knox County, State, or Federal obligations and to perform duties related to those obligations; and travel for other similar purposes associated with lifesaving, firefighting, and other activities related to the emergency care of persons or property;

[5.] For the time being, “essential travel” shall also include travel to the mainland and back to North Haven Island for the purpose of obtaining groceries and other essential items;

(Note: This may change should the likelihood of an outbreak of COVID-19 increase. The Town of North Haven is working with North Haven Grocery and Penobscot Island Air to arrange for shipment and pick-up or delivery of groceries and other essential items at the North Haven Grocery or via Penobscot Island Air or the Maine State Ferry Service. The Select Board strongly encourages people to order their groceries, foodstuffs, and other necessaries through the North Haven Grocery or from a service that will deliver the items via the Maine State Ferry Service or Penobscot Island Air. The Town will also coordinate efforts to screen and obtain volunteers to help with the delivery of groceries and other essential items to persons who are quarantined or who are otherwise unable to obtain these items themselves. Volunteers would be asked to place the items on people’s doorsteps; not to come into contact with quarantined people directly.)

[6.] For the time being, “essential travel” shall also include delivery of building supplies and materials needed for island residents to perform their jobs;

(Note: This may change should the likelihood of an outbreak of COVID-19 increase. The Town will work with Viking, Spears, and other suppliers of building materials and other materials needed for island residents to perform their jobs to find ways to obtain needed materials in a manner that minimizes the likelihood of transmission of COVID-19.)

[7.] People on the island shall avoid close human contact with people other than their families or others with whom they reside;

[8.] People on the island shall not meet in groups larger than ten persons, unless a family gathering would include more than ten persons; …

Thanks to commenter Dr. Ed for the pointer.

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If your podcast feed has suddenly become a steady diet of more or less the same COVID-19 stories, here’s a chance to listen to cyber experts talk about something they know – cyberlaw. Our interview is with Elsa Kania, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and one of the country’s most prolific students of China, technology, and national security. We talk about the relative strengths and weaknesses of the artificial intelligence ecosystems in the two countries.

In the news, Maury Shenk and Mark MacCarthy describe the growing field of censorship-as-a-service and the competition between US and Chinese vendors.

Elsa and I unpack the report of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. Bottom line: The report is ambitious but constrained by political reality. And the most striking political reality is that there hasn’t been a better time in 25 years to propose cybersecurity regulation and liability for the tech sector. Seizing the Zeitgeist, the report offers at least a dozen such proposals.

Nick Weaver explains the joys of trojanizing the trojanizers, and we debate whether that is fourth-party or fifth-party intelligence collection.

In a shameful dereliction, Congress has let important FISA authorities lapse, but perhaps only for a day or two (depending on the president’s temperature when the reauthorization bill reaches his desk). The reauthorization bill isn’t good for our security, but it tries to avoid crippling intelligence collection, mostly hanging new ornaments on the existing FISA Christmas tree.

Mark covers a Swedish ruling that deserves to be forgotten a lot more than the crimes and embarrassments protected by the “right to be forgotten.” This decision fines Google for failing to show sufficient zeal in covering up Sweden’s censorship orders.

Nick explains how Microsoft finds itself taking down an international botnet instead of leaving the job to the world’s governments.

Maury reports that the federal trial of a Russian hacker is exposing seamy ties between the FSB and criminal Russian hackers. Now we know why Russia fought so hard to head off extradition of the Russian hacker to the US.

Elsa helps me through recent claims that US chip makers face long-term damage from the US-China trade fight. That much is obvious to all; less obvious is what the US can do to avoid it.

Nick and I talk about Facebook’s suit against NSO Group. I claim that NSO won this round in court but lost in the media, which has finally found a company it hates more than Facebook. Nick thinks Facebook is quite happy to swap a default judgment for a chance at discovery.

In other quick hits, DOD is wisely seeking a quick do-over in the cloud computing litigation involving AWS and Microsoft. House and Senate committees have now okayed a bill to give CISA much-needed and suprisingly uncontroversial subpoena authority to identify at-risk Internet users. Rebooting my “Privacy Kills” series, I break the injunction against COVID-19 news to point out that dumb privacy laws likely delayed for weeks discovery of how widespread COVID-19 was in Seattle. And Joshua Schulte’s trial ends in a hung jury; I ask where the juicy post-trial jury interviews are.

Download the 306th Episode (mp3).

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As always, The Cyberlaw Podcast is open to feedback. Be sure to engage with @stewartbaker on Twitter. Send your questions, comments, and suggestions for topics or interviewees to CyberlawPodcast@steptoe.com. Remember: If your suggested guest appears on the show, we will send you a highly coveted Cyberlaw Podcast mug!

The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of their institutions, clients, friends, families, or pets.

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President Donald Trump said today at a press briefing that social distancing measures being voluntarily adopted and imposed by governments to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus could be necessary for several months.

“Each and every one of us has a critical role to play in stopping the transmission of the virus,” Trump said during this afternoon’s press briefing. “It’s important for the young and healthy people to understand that while they experience milder symptoms, they can easily spread this virus. And they will spread it indeed, putting people in harm’s way.”

The new White House guidelines released today advise senior citizens and those with serious underlying health conditions—the population most at risk of suffering serious health consequences from the disease—to stay home and away from other people.

Households that have had a single member test positive for the coronavirus are being told to keep everyone at home. “Do not go to work. Do not go to school. Contact your medical provider,” the White House guidelines say.

Younger, healthier people are being advised to work from home whenever possible, and not to visit nursing homes. They are also being told to avoid discretionary trips, and to not gather in groups of more than 10 people.

These guidelines are for at least the next 15 days. However, when asked by a reporter how long the coronavirus crisis could last, Trump said we could be in this situation until the end of summer.

“People are talking about July, August, something like that,” Trump said.

In addition to the White House guidelines, states and local governments continue to order shutdowns of bars and restaurants, with some counties going so far as to issue “shelter in place” orders.

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Sure, people say sometimes that the past is a different planet. But the past week?

Yet here are, the world shutting down all around us, anxiously comparing coronavirus growth curves to Italy and South Korea, retreating to four-way remote podcasting set-ups, trying to make sense of a story that changes seemingly by the hour. On today’s Reason Roundtable, Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch offer different perspectives in the teeth of a pandemic.

What part of today’s clampdown is with us for the long haul? What does this once-a-century challenge tell us about comparative health policies? Are we comfortable with mayors and governors shutting down entire swaths of the economy? Did Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders recalibrate their presidential pitches even a little bit? And how will Nick tie this all back in to some 1970s Charlton Heston movie? These are among the questions that you can listen being addressed right here.

Audio production by Ian Keyser and Regan Taylor.

Music credit: ‘Ninja Tortoise’ by Verified Picasso

Relevant links from the show:

“Coronavirus Is the Health of the State,” by J.D. Tuccille

“COVID-19 Reminds Us: Social Media Is Good, Actually,” by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

“Coronavirus Epidemic May Be Slowed by Warm and Humid Weather,” by Ronald Bailey

“The Coronavirus Debate Was Bernie Sanders’ Last Chance. He Blew It,” by Robby Soave

“Price-Gouging Laws Will Do More Harm Than Good During the Coronavirus Pandemic,” by J.D. Tuccille

“Biden Promises ‘Major, Major, Major Bailouts’ in Response to Coronavirus,” by Eric Boehm

“Trump Gets What He Wants as Federal Reserve Interest Rate Target Drops to Zero,” by Brian Doherty

“Tired: There Are No Libertarians in a Pandemic. Wired: There Are Only Libertarians in a Pandemic,” by Nick Gillespie

“Coronavirus Is Going To Be Expensive. Too Bad the Government Is Already in Massive Debt,” by Eric Boehm

“America Doesn’t Have Enough Hospital Beds To Fight the Coronavirus. Protectionist Health Care Regulations Are One Reason Why,” by Eric Boehm

“St. Phineas: How P.T. Barnum helped invent business ethics,” by John Mueller

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A much-discussed coronavirus aid package hung in limbo today as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin tried to reach a bipartisan consensus on measures that are meant to provide relief amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the House passed the bill on Saturday morning, Pelosi and Mnuchin returned to hammer out a series of technical corrections.

Its current iteration includes free coronavirus testing, additional funding for food security initiatives, bolstered unemployment insurance, and a temporary paid leave program. Under the latter provision, those who have coronavirus, who are acting as caretakers for one or more family members with coronavirus, who are quarantined, or whose schedules have been scrambled by widespread school closures are entitled to two weeks of full paid sick leave and three months of paid medical leave, where workers would collect two-thirds of their wages. The government would reimburse the cost with new tax credits.

But there’s a catch: The text currently exempts businesses with more than 500 employees from having to comply—a surefire example of corporate cronyism, likely introduced by Mnuchin.

In these cases, readers might typically expect to see an exemption laid out for small businesses, who are more likely to crumble under the weight of a staff reduction. While the legislation allows the Labor Department to exempt companies with less than 50 employees if paid leave “would jeopardize the viability of the business as a going concern,” it is not a guarantee.

So if the government’s priority is curbing the pandemic, why are large companies—which employ millions of Americans and have more personnel to weather temporary absences—allowed to pass?

When Vice President Mike Pence was asked that question, he declined to answer. One possible explanation: The Trump administration is granting a favor to suffering mega-industries, for which Mnuchin has also floated giving a bailout.

Democrats are no strangers to inserting incongruous measures of their own. Just last week, an earlier version of Pelosi’s coronavirus appropriations bill contained a permanent paid family leave program, including for victims of stalking. One can’t be sure what that has to do with combating coronavirus.

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