Until yesterday I spent precious little time thinking about the various Supreme Court justices and how I would rate them. Unlike my radio co-host Mike Imprevento, who’s a lawyer, I don’t pay close enough attention to the Supreme Court.

Suddenly I find myself with a favorite justice: Neil Gorsuch. 

You may have missed what he had to say this week about the unconstitutional hysteria that swept the nation back during the pandemic.  

It was heartening.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court refused to hear a case about Title 42, the covid-era emergency order that permitted the fast exclusion of migrants seeking asylum supposedly because of the pandemic.

The covid emergency health declarations expired, so the Court ruled the case is moot.

I’ve said all along that the unconstitutional actions taken by all levels of government would return - somehow, someday - unless the courts forbid it.

“Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country. Executive officials across the country issued emergency decrees on a breathtaking scale,” Gorsuch wrote.

That’s a brilliant take on the lockdowns, mandates and closures that disrupted American lives and deprived citizens of their liberties for two years. 

“And it is hard not to wonder whether, after nearly a half-century and in light of our Nation’s recent experience, another look is warranted,” Gorsuch wrote of those laws.“It is hard not to wonder, too, whether state legislatures might profitably reexamine the proper scope of emergency executive powers at the state level,” 

 “At the very least, one can hope that the Judiciary will not soon again allow itself to be part of the problem by permitting litigants to manipulate our docket to perpetuate a decree designed for one emergency to address another.”

Dare to dream, Justice Gorsuch.

Some of us waited in vain throughout the pandemic for liberty-minded lawyers to bring cases to court that would undo the most egregious unconstitutional actions, such as the forced closing of churches and synagogues.

Instead, and to its eternal shame, the American bar sucked its thumb and pretended not to notice. The American Civil Liberties Union also yawned throughout this thorough stomping of civil liberties, and its lawyers should never again be considered serious defenders of constitutional rights.

According to The Washington Times:

Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch issued a searing denunciation of the way the country handled the coronavirus pandemic in a statement Thursday warning that Americans were all too eager to give up their freedoms on the say-so of a few chief executives.

He chided legislatures and judges for vacating the field and leaving the president and governors unobstructed as they issued decrees.

Those decrees cut deep into Americans’ most fundamental freedoms, canceling schools, shuttering shops and closing churches, even as casinos and other “favored businesses” were allowed to roll on. Justice Gorsuch also said it all took place while dissenting voices were silenced by social media companies responding to government pressure.

Perhaps the learned justice’s last point is the most important: Those who opposed the governments’ actions were bumped from social media at the behest of those who tolerated no questioning of the covid party line.

I was never more frightened for my country than during the pandemic. Not because of the disease, but because of the eagerness with which many Americans surrendered their rights.

Those constitutionally protected rights were what made the U.S. a great nation. And just like that, they were suspended.

If every justice on the Court thought like Gorsuch, our country would have some protection against government ever again abusing its power as it did during the pandemic.