On Thursday, Justice Neil Gorsuch described the government’s response to the COVID-19 epidemic as the “greatest invasion of civil liberties ever in the history of peace in this country”.

Gorsuch’s comments were in response to the Supreme Court dismissing a case on Thursday that dealt with the red states’ attempts to maintain a Trump Administration policy, Title 42. This allowed the U.S. expel over 2,5 immigrants due to a health emergency. Gorsuch, in an eight-page statement that was attached to the Decision criticized a range of emergency power abuses used by local leaders to combat the pandemic. These included lockdowns and church closures.

He said that “executive officials throughout the country issued emergency orders on an unprecedented scale.” “Governors, local leaders and police enforced lockdown orders that forced people to stay in their homes. They closed down public and private schools and businesses. “They closed churches while allowing casinos and other businesses to continue.”

Gorsuch referred to the federal government and criticized the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for requiring employers to impose vaccination mandates and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for their national eviction ban, while implying that federal agencies are complicit in censoring public opinion.

He said that “along the way it appears federal officials have pressured social media companies to suppress information on pandemic policies they disagree with.”

Gorsuch warned against deferring to “experts,” for making decisions during the pandemic, and said that this could lead to the loss of “many civil liberties.”

He said that fear and the desire to be safe are powerful forces. “They can cause a demand for action — nearly any action — so long as someone takes action to counter a perceived danger. Leaders or experts who claim to be able to fix anything if we just do what they say can be an irresistible influence. We will lose many civil liberties along the way — the freedom to worship, the freedom to discuss public policy without censorship and the freedom to meet with family and friends or to simply leave home.

He continued, “We might even cheer those who want us to ignore our normal legal processes and give up our personal liberties.”

In a similar address delivered remotely to the Federalist Society of November 2020, Justice Samuel Alito stated that the pandemic had “resulted in restrictions previously unimaginable on individual liberties.”