Legislators who have embraced lockdown culture may want to start considering that a government, and, more specifically, its executives, who can seemingly do anything… can seemingly do anything.,

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration rejected a public records request from a major newspaper to reveal the specifics of his nearly $1 billion deal to receive 200 million masks per month from a Chinese manufacturer.

In a letter dated Monday to the Los Angeles Times, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services stated that the state’s contract with Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD does not have to be made public.

Can you sign a $1 billion deal with a foreign company, and then reject public records requests like some kind of tinpot dictator?

Well sure. If you can send helicopters to patrol beaches, effectively confine much of the population to their homes, shut down businesses across the state, and all the other good stuff we’re taking in these days, what’s a mere records request?

People who want to get things done hate process. And in an emergency situation, process gets dispensed with. If there’s a crisis, executives seize power. And then they do what they want. That’s why we have a permanent Bill of Rights. Not a temporary one that only applies when there isn’t an emergency.

And this sort of thing has implications for everything. Not just lockdowns. 

If you decide that governors can act in an emergency without caring about the Bill of Rights, does anyone seriously think they’re going to be confined to following public records laws.

That’s what happens when you welcome a tyranny and set aside such niceties as rights and limitations on powers.