Justice Neil Gorsuch Warns
【按：這是美國最高法院大法官Neil Gorsuch 在最近關於移民Title 42 判決中寫下的几段話。我將他關於COVID-19各種緊急行政命令的評論翻譯出來，中英文對照在這裏刊出。我認爲Gorsuch 這些話非常精彩。雖然語氣謹慎，但是道出了美國目前面臨的真正危機。中文不是ChatGPT或者其他軟件翻譯的。文章中的語氣與風格，軟件翻譯不出來，而且專業名詞也不斷出錯。原文我放在附件上。】
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. Governors and local leaders imposed lockdown orders forcing people to remain in their homes. They shuttered businesses and schools, public and private. They closed churches even as they allowed casinos and other favored businesses to carry on. They threatened violators not just with civil penalties but with criminal sanctions too. They surveilled church parking lots, recorded license plates, and issued notices warning that attendance at even outdoor services satisfying all state social-distancing and hygiene requirements could amount to criminal conduct. They divided cities and neighborhoods into color-coded zones, forced individuals to fight for their freedoms in court on emergency timetables, and then changed their color-coded schemes when defeat in court seemed imminent.
自從2020年3月以來，我們可能經歷了這個國家在和平時期歷史上對公民自由的最嚴重的侵害。全國各地的行政部門發布了驚人數量的緊急命令。州長和地方政府領導人下令將人們封鎖在家裏。他們關閉了無論是屬於公共的還是私人的企業和學校。他們甚至關閉了教堂，但同時卻允許賭場和其他政府中意的企業繼續運營。對於違反者，他們不僅以民事罰款而且以刑事起訴來威脅。他們監控教堂停車場，記錄車牌，並發出警告，指控教堂做禮拜是刑事犯罪行爲，包括那些在戶外舉行、符合所有州一級政府對社交距離以及衛生規定要求的教堂活動在内。他們將城市和社區劃分為用不同色彩標記的區域，迫使許多個人要到法庭上去為自己的自由而戰。如果政府在法庭敗訴，他們才會改變這種色彩標記的做法。
Federal executive officials entered the act too. Not just with emergency immigration decrees. They deployed a public-health agency to regulate landlord-tenant relations nationwide. They used a workplace-safety agency to issue a vaccination mandate for most working Americans. They threatened to fire noncompliant employees, and warned that service members who refused to vaccinate might face dishonorable discharge and confinement. Along the way, it seems federal officials may have pressured social-media companies to suppress information about pandemic policies with which they disagreed.
聯邦政府的官員也有份參與。聯邦不僅頒佈緊急移民法令，還他們動用了公共衛生機構來規範全國的房東-房客關係。他們通過職場安全辦公室强制大多數美國雇員接種疫苗。他們威脅解雇不服從的員工。他們警告拒絕接種疫苗的軍人，威脅要讓他們不名譽地退伍并且可能面臨拘禁。在此過程中，聯邦官員還施壓社交媒體公司，封堵那些不同意的疫情政策的信息。
While executive officials issued new emergency decrees at a furious pace, state legislatures and Congress—the bodies normally responsible for adopting our laws—too often fell silent. Courts bound to protect our liberties addressed a few—but hardly all—of the intrusions upon them. In some cases, like this one, courts even allowed themselves to be used to perpetuate emergency public-health decrees for collateral purposes, itself a form of emergency-lawmakingby-litigation.
雖然行政部門的官員以驚人的速度發布了各種新的緊急法令，但立法機構，包括州議會和聯邦國會，往往保持沉默。有責任保護我們自由的法院只處理了一些——但遠非全部——侵犯自由的行為。在某些情況下，例如本案【注：指Title 42】，法院甚至爲了其它的各種目的而允許自身被利用，通過法庭裁定的方式將緊急公共衛生法令變成恆久的法律。
Doubtless, many lessons can be learned from this chapter in our history, and hopefully serious efforts will be made to study it. One lesson might be this: Fear and the desire for safety are powerful forces. They can lead to a clamor for action—almost any action—as long as someone does something to address a perceived threat. A leader or an expert who claims he can fix everything, if only we do exactly as he says, can prove an irresistible force. We do not need to confront a bayonet, we need only a nudge, before we willingly abandon the nicety of requiring laws to be adopted by our legislative representatives and accept rule by decree. Along the way, we will accede to the loss of many cherished civil liberties—the right to worship freely, to debate public policy without censorship, to gather with friends and family, or simply to leave our homes. We may even cheer on those who ask us to disregard our normal lawmaking processes and forfeit our personal freedoms. Of course, this is no new story. Even the ancients warned that democracies can degenerate toward autocracy in the face of fear.
【按：這是美國最高法院大法官Neil Gorsuch 在最近關於移民Title 42 判決中寫下的几段話。我將他關於COVID-19各種緊急行政命令的評論翻譯出來，中英文對照在這裏刊出。我認爲Gorsuch 這些話非常精彩。雖然語氣謹慎，但是道出了美國目前面臨的真正危機。中文不是ChatGPT或者其他軟件翻譯的。文章中的語氣與風格，軟件翻譯不出來，而且專業名詞也不斷出錯。原文我放在附件上。】
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. Governors and local leaders imposed lockdown orders forcing people to remain in their homes. They shuttered businesses and schools, public and private. They closed churches even as they allowed casinos and other favored businesses to carry on. They threatened violators not just with civil penalties but with criminal sanctions too. They surveilled church parking lots, recorded license plates, and issued notices warning that attendance at even outdoor services satisfying all state social-distancing and hygiene requirements could amount to criminal conduct. They divided cities and neighborhoods into color-coded zones, forced individuals to fight for their freedoms in court on emergency timetables, and then changed their color-coded schemes when defeat in court seemed imminent.
自從2020年3月以來，我們可能經歷了這個國家在和平時期歷史上對公民自由的最嚴重的侵害。全國各地的行政部門發布了驚人數量的緊急命令。州長和地方政府領導人下令將人們封鎖在家裏。他們關閉了無論是屬於公共的還是私人的企業和學校。他們甚至關閉了教堂，但同時卻允許賭場和其他政府中意的企業繼續運營。對於違反者，他們不僅以民事罰款而且以刑事起訴來威脅。他們監控教堂停車場，記錄車牌，並發出警告，指控教堂做禮拜是刑事犯罪行爲，包括那些在戶外舉行、符合所有州一級政府對社交距離以及衛生規定要求的教堂活動在内。他們將城市和社區劃分為用不同色彩標記的區域，迫使許多個人要到法庭上去為自己的自由而戰。如果政府在法庭敗訴，他們才會改變這種色彩標記的做法。
Federal executive officials entered the act too. Not just with emergency immigration decrees. They deployed a public-health agency to regulate landlord-tenant relations nationwide. They used a workplace-safety agency to issue a vaccination mandate for most working Americans. They threatened to fire noncompliant employees, and warned that service members who refused to vaccinate might face dishonorable discharge and confinement. Along the way, it seems federal officials may have pressured social-media companies to suppress information about pandemic policies with which they disagreed.
聯邦政府的官員也有份參與。聯邦不僅頒佈緊急移民法令，還他們動用了公共衛生機構來規範全國的房東-房客關係。他們通過職場安全辦公室强制大多數美國雇員接種疫苗。他們威脅解雇不服從的員工。他們警告拒絕接種疫苗的軍人，威脅要讓他們不名譽地退伍并且可能面臨拘禁。在此過程中，聯邦官員還施壓社交媒體公司，封堵那些不同意的疫情政策的信息。
While executive officials issued new emergency decrees at a furious pace, state legislatures and Congress—the bodies normally responsible for adopting our laws—too often fell silent. Courts bound to protect our liberties addressed a few—but hardly all—of the intrusions upon them. In some cases, like this one, courts even allowed themselves to be used to perpetuate emergency public-health decrees for collateral purposes, itself a form of emergency-lawmakingby-litigation.
雖然行政部門的官員以驚人的速度發布了各種新的緊急法令，但立法機構，包括州議會和聯邦國會，往往保持沉默。有責任保護我們自由的法院只處理了一些——但遠非全部——侵犯自由的行為。在某些情況下，例如本案【注：指Title 42】，法院甚至爲了其它的各種目的而允許自身被利用，通過法庭裁定的方式將緊急公共衛生法令變成恆久的法律。
Doubtless, many lessons can be learned from this chapter in our history, and hopefully serious efforts will be made to study it. One lesson might be this: Fear and the desire for safety are powerful forces. They can lead to a clamor for action—almost any action—as long as someone does something to address a perceived threat. A leader or an expert who claims he can fix everything, if only we do exactly as he says, can prove an irresistible force. We do not need to confront a bayonet, we need only a nudge, before we willingly abandon the nicety of requiring laws to be adopted by our legislative representatives and accept rule by decree. Along the way, we will accede to the loss of many cherished civil liberties—the right to worship freely, to debate public policy without censorship, to gather with friends and family, or simply to leave our homes. We may even cheer on those who ask us to disregard our normal lawmaking processes and forfeit our personal freedoms. Of course, this is no new story. Even the ancients warned that democracies can degenerate toward autocracy in the face of fear.
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