Screenshot/White House
President Donald Trump speaks during a coronavirus press briefing on April 14, 2020.
- On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he would be "authorizing" governors of all 50 states to make decisions when it comes to lifting coronavirus restrictions.
- But according to the Constitution, it is already within a state government's power to regulate behavior during public health crises.
- Trump's statements on Tuesday may have been an attempt to walk back comments made the day prior, where he claimed that "when somebody is the president of the United States," their "authority is total."
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On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he would be "authorizing" governors of all 50 states to make decisions when it comes to lifting coronavirus restrictions, even though it is already within their power to do so.
Speaking at a coronavirus press briefing on Tuesday evening, Trump said plans to reopen "are soon being finalized, and we will soon be sharing details and new guidelines with everybody."
He continued: "I will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly and will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening, and a very powerful reopening plan, of their state at a time and in a manner as most appropriate."
He added that for some states, the date for reopening some industries would be "very close" because the coronavirus spread has less severely impacted some areas compared to others.
"The day will be very close, because certain states, as you know, are in much different condition and in a much different place, than other states," he said. "It's going to be very close, maybe even before the date of May 1."
"There are over 20 that are in extremely good shape, and we think we're going to be able to get them open fairly quickly and then others will follow," he added.
The Trump administration is eager to restart economic activity next month, though the decision to reopen individual states is up to local governments, according to the Constitution.
The Tenth Amendment stresses that the federal government is limited to only in its powers laid out in the Constitution, and delegates "police powers" to the states during a public health crisis.
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," the amendment states.
Trump's statements on Tuesday may have been an attempt to walk back those made at a press briefing on Monday when he claimed that "when somebody is the president of the United States," their "authority is total."
Trump has also falsely claimed on Twitter that reopening the country "is the decision of the President."
State governors have already begun drafting proposals to reopen states safely when appropriate. On Monday, California, Washington, and Oregon formed a "Western States Pact" to work together to loosen stay-at-home orders for each of their communities.
The statement stressed that state leaders would need to see indications of declining rates of disease before measures would be introduced.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also rolled out plans for an 18-member workgroup involving New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, to reopen their economies.
As of Tuesday, 42 US states, Guam, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, had issued stay-at-home orders to their residents to stem the coronavirus spread. The US currently has the highest number of coronavirus cases out of any country in the world by far, having recorded over 605,000 positive cases and more than 25,000 deaths.
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