Wisconsin: The Governor Has Laws in Place to Rule as Dictator

Within weeks after the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began promoting health policy legislation that dramatically suspends civil rights during declared state of biological emergency. The text of the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA) gives public health officials and governors of the several states the power to arrest, transport, quarantine, drug and vaccinate anyone suspected of carrying a potentially infectious disease. The Boston Globe originally broke the October 31, 2001. The story was almost immediately forwarded to medical freedom activists throughout the country who responded en masse in outspoken opposition to the proposal. The article was quickly removed fromThe Globe’s website. http://farmwars.info/?p=1243

Under the proposed law, one case of smallpox or swine flu in a public school could trigger authorities to urge a governor to declare a state of emergency. Once such is declared, the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and most cherished civil liberties will be immediately suspended in addition to states being empowered to take immediate possession of private property under the doctrine of eminent domain...

Under the Mandatory Medical Examinations section (502) of the law, persons refusing to submit to medical examinations and/or testing are liable for misdemeanors and forced isolation. If public health authorities suspect individuals may have been exposed to broadly defined infectious diseases, or otherwise pose a risk to public health, officials may issue detainment orders. In the case of an urban attack, or even one suspected, possibly thousands of people could be marshaled into isolation camps, according to the law. In this case, physicians, assisted by police, will be required to perform state medical examinations and tests. Under the law, “infectious diseases” are very broadly defined. “An infectious disease may, or may not, be transmissible from person to person, animal to person, or insect to person,” the authors explain in the text. Section 504 of the Act details vaccination and treatment protocols. Following these mandates, public health authorities may compel people to be inoculated and/or drugged with any medicaments selected by the state. Individuals refusing to be vaccinated or treated would be liable for a misdemeanor, subject to police arrest, isolation or quarantine. Section 807 repeals existing state laws that are in conflict with the Act.

Under this part, for instance, previous laws granting medical, religious, or philosophical exemptions to vaccination would be repealed. [Emphasis added.]

The laws do not depend on either a contagious disease being present or on proof of any emergency, only on the declaration of an emergency.

What accountability is there?

[Sections quoted below come from "Model Emergency Health Powers Act (MEHPA) Turns Governors into Dictators" by Joseph Mercola unless otherwise indicated.] If the State does more harm than good through unfettered use of its draconian power, it can rely on the state immunity clause: "Neither the State, its political subdivisions, nor, except in cases of gross negligence or willful misconduct, the Governor, the public health authority, or any other State official referenced in this Act, is liable for the death of or any injury to persons, or damage to property, as a result of complying with or attempting to comply with this Act or any rule or regulations promulgated pursuant to this Act." Article VIII Section 804. Note that the law would grant certain immunities even for deaths improperly caused, and allows such immunity even for advisors who made recommendations based on conflicts of interest.

Beginning first with the health side, and with more detail, the laws include forced diagnostic testing (unlimited in character), forced taking of bodily samples (unlimited as to what is taken), forced unknown, untested "medical" treatments, forced decontamination with unknown, untested chemicals, and forced unknown, untested vaccines.  Pulled from any context of "emergency," this comprises two things,  description of forced medical experimentation on anyone in Wisconsin (or any other state) and criminal physical assault.  Refusal can include imprisonment.

The laws overturn all exemptions for vaccines, even medical exemptions that were given to protect people allergic to them who would die if given them. The laws replaced long-standing constitutional public health laws that included the option to self-quarantine, the historic and most relied upon of public health options in an epidemic. Instead, quarantining would be forced and into public facilities if someone refuses to submit to intimate and potentially life-threatening physical assault. Under the CDC promoted state health power laws, quarantine is indistinguishable from imprisonment for not complying with forced medical procedures - procedures based on no proven medical emergency and not requiring an infectious disease even exist.

Anyone refusing these state-forced medical actions, could be herded together in detainment centers or prison, ideal setting for spreading disease and terrible settings for medical help if one becomes infected there.

Article V Section 504(b). Although it might in some circumstances be prudent and justified to quarantine a person who refuses immunization during an outbreak, it is tyrannical to criminalize the medical choice to decline a treatment. An immunization or treatment might well cause serious harm to certain individuals even if the public health authority does not recognize that it is "reasonably likely" to lead to "serious harm"-another two important undefined terms. Article V Section 504(a)(4). The Act gives the public health authority the right to isolate or quarantine a person on an ex parte court order, with no hearing for at least 72 hours. If the public health authority decides that an unvaccinated person is a risk to others, even if uninfected, he could be quarantined. Article V Section 503(e). It is quite possible that public health authorities could force such a person from his home to a place of quarantine, where he will be exposed to infected persons. Such places shall be maintained in a safe and hygienic manner "to the extent possible," and "all reasonable means shall be taken to prevent the transmission of infection among isolated or quarantined individuals." Article V Section 503(a). The Act itself thus implies that an uninfected person is at risk by being placed in such a facility; it is quite likely that he could be at greater risk than if he had the freedom to protect himself as he saw fit. It is assumed that public health authorities will be "reasonable"; however, this assumption is questionable.

How would the emergency that would trigger any of this be declared? How is it defined?

Declaring an Emergency: Under this Act, any Governor could appoint himself dictator by declaring a "public health emergency." He doesn't even have to consult anyone. The Act requires that he "shall consult with the public health authority," but "nothing in the duty to consult ... shall be construed to limit the Governor's authority to act without such consultation when the situation calls for prompt and timely action." The legislature is prohibited from intervening for 60 days, after which it may terminate the state of emergency only by a two-thirds vote of both chambers. (Apparently, it does not have the authority to find that the state of emergency never really existed.) Article III, Section 305(c). There is also the possibility that the Governor could declare a new emergency as soon as his powers were about to expire. What is a public health emergency? It is whatever the Governor decides it should be. By the definition in the Act, it could be an "occurrence"-or just an "imminent threat"-of basically any cause that involves a biological agent or biological toxin that poses a "substantial risk" of a "significant number" of human fatalities or disability. Article I, Section 104(g). Terrorism need not be involved; any threat of an epidemic would suffice...

What kind of power would the governor have? And under such a law, what limits could be placed on Governor Walker?

Unlimited Power: How would the Governor handle the emergency? By whatever means he chose. He is under no obligation to use scientifically valid methods, or to choose the least destructive method, or to perform any kind of risk-benefit analysis. He may suspend any regulatory statute, or the rules of any state agency, if they would "prevent, hinder, or delay necessary action."Article III, Section 303(a)(1). Among the laws to be suspended would probably be those permitting religious, medical, or philosophical exemptions to mandatory vaccines. The Governor may not only utilize all the resources of the State and its political subdivisions, but commandeer any private facilities or resources considered necessary, and "take immediate possession thereof. Such materials and facilities include, but are not limited to, communication devices, carriers, real estate, fuels, food, clothing, and health care facilities."

Taking possession of "communication devices, carriers, real estate, fuels, food, clothing, and health care facilities" describes martial law.

The governor, by such a law, would not be taking control of "communication devices" such as cell phones, but of all communications in the state. "Carriers" are all transportation, "real estate" is all property and land, "fuels" are all utilities as well as oil, gas, coal, water (used for hydro-electric power), private solar power, wind power, water power; "food" is all food in the state including farms, privately stored food, any businesses that produce or provide food; and "health care facilities" could include any place where they may assert that "health" measures are being taken, which could include prisons and detainment camps. (Why would clothing be listed?)

Doctors and health workers would be compelled to comply.

Article IV Section 402(a). He may "compel a health care facility to provide services," but it is not clear what means he may use to compel its personnel to work

(Article IV Section 402(b)), except that any physician or other health care provider who refuses to perform medical examination or testing as directed shall be liable for a misdemeanor. Article V Section 502(b).

What of legislative laws and funding as an obstacle to putting any of this in place?

The Act grants Governors the exclusive power to control the expenditure of funds appropriated for emergencies; the intent and priorities set by the Legislature would be irrelevant.

What of constitutional protections in terms of elections and delegation of power?

The Governor may delegate powers at his sole discretion to unelected political appointees.

On the property side, the mere declaration that a building or property is contaminated would be grounds from destruction of the structure (including by burning) and the appropriation of land, specifically true of farmland, of which Wisconsin has some of the richest in the country.

The Governor may destroy any material or property "of which there is reasonable cause to believe that it may endanger the public health." Article IV Section 401(b). And while the State shall pay just compensation to the owner of any facilities that are "lawfully taken" or appropriated (Article IV Section 406), there is a huge exception: [Emphasis added.]

"Compensation shall not be provided for facilities or materials that are closed, evacuated, decontaminated, or destroyed when there is reasonable cause to believe that they may endanger the public health pursuant to Section 401." Article IV Section 406.

The Governor is in charge of determining "reasonable cause." There is a strong incentive for him to declare any losses to private owners to be noncompensable.

"Reasonable cause" might mean "contaminated." Is the Senate Hart Office Building contaminated with anthrax? Yes. Should it therefore be destroyed, or subjected to fumigation with chemicals that would destroy much of the equipment and furnishings? Most think not.

The problem is that given a sufficiently sensitive testing method, everything is probably "contaminated" with almost everything else. Moreover, every testing method has some level of false positives.

The late Conrad Chester of Oak Ridge National Laboratory stated that any place that has ever supported cattle has anthrax contamination (lecture before Doctors for Disaster Preparedness annual meeting, 1996). The same probably applies to any land that has supported sheep or goats, or any land that has had the wind deposit soil from such an area.

In other words, anthrax spores are probably ubiquitous, though at a concentration that very rarely causes any harm. Such harm as was done may have been misdiagnosed by physicians who were unfamiliar with anthrax and not specifically looking for it. [Anthrax is easily treated.]

Under this law, nothing would stop the Governor from ordering a citizen to turn over his house to be used as an isolation facility and later destroying the house on the grounds that it is contaminated [or from appropriating farmland, also on the grounds it is contaminated]. This order, like any other, could be enforced at gunpoint by any law enforcement officer.

The health power laws include seizure of arms.

.... the Act empowers the Governor to ration, fix prices, and otherwise control the allocation, sale, use, or transportation of any item as deemed "reasonable and necessary for emergency response."

This specifically includes firearms. Article IV Section 402(c) and Section 405(b). Moreover, the Governor can simply seize such items.Article IV Section 402(a).

Rarely noted by those favoring gun control as a means for public safety, Gandhi condemned the seizure of arms as the most terrible thing the British did in their centuries of brutal rule in India.

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."

- Mahatma Gandhi (An Autobiography or The story of my experiments with truth, by M.K. Gandhi, p.238)

Bush put in place international and intersecting agreements around the War on Terror, a war that former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski testified to the Senate that the war on terror is "a mythical historical narrative," and one based on a potentially promulgated attack on the US.  The Model State Emergency Health Power state laws also intersect with international agreements, most specifically with the WHO and UN and were put in place during Bush's time in office.

One quote, allegedly from the WHO 2005 declaration around pandemics, gives some indication how (undefined) health authorities could urge governors to declare a pandemic emergency and of the potential danger such declaration (once again, with no definition or evidence of proof) could have on the future of the US.

“Under special pandemic plans enacted around the world including the USA, in 2005, national governments are to be dissolved in the event of a pandemic emergency and replaced by special crisis committees, which take charge of the health and security infrastructure of a country, and which are answerable to the WHO and EU in Europe and to the WHO and UN in North America.

“Today America would be outraged if UN troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all people of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by the World Government.” - Henry Kissinger, 1991 Bilderberg Conference.  [Emphasis added.]

“We are on the verge of global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the new world order.” - David Rockefeller