At Select Subcommittee Hearing, Democrats Debunk Republican Claims About Pandemic-Era Civil Liberty Violations

Washington, D.C. (June 21, 2023)—Today, Rep. Raul Ruiz, M.D., Ranking Member of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, led Select Subcommittee Democrats in debunking Republicans' claims about the implications of public health measures on civil liberties, including the free exercise of religion and freedom of speech. Select Subcommittee Democrats pushed back on Republicans' misrepresentation of lifesaving public health policies, pointing to the neutral application of social distancing and masking measures that state, local, and public health officials developed using risk-based assessments and that have been upheld by the courts.

"Three years ago, the world was rocked by a deadly novel airborne virus that has claimed the lives of 1.1 million of our fellow Americans, sent hundreds of thousands to the hospital, and touched every facet of American life. As we battled this lethal threat, health care workers, public health experts, local officials, and faith leaders worked together to protect the health and safety of their communities. And because our knowledge of the virus was extremely limited in the early days of the pandemic, we had to act quickly and rely on the public health practices that we knew would help prevent transmission—practices like social distancing and masking," said Ranking Member Ruiz in his opening statement.

Today's hearing included testimony from Micah Schwartzman, the Hardy Cross Dillard Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, who testified to the constitutionality of public health measures that were implemented neutrally to save lives during a deadly pandemic.

"The Supreme Court has made clear that the government may not discriminate against religion, but the fact that some laws burden religious practices is not, by itself, sufficient to show that those laws are discriminatory. When public officials treat religious organizations and individuals like their secular counterparts—when churches, religious schools, and medical professionals are subject to the same rules as others— there is no discrimination and no violation of religious freedom under the First Amendment," Professor Schwartzman said in his testimony.

Select Subcommittee Democrats demonstrated how public health guidelines were implemented to protect the public's health during a global pandemic—not infringe on civil liberties, such as the free exercise of religion.

• Congresswoman Deborah Ross demonstrated the constitutionality of COVID-19 mitigation measures that helped save lives early on in the pandemic: "My Republican colleagues have suggested that public health officials systematically and intentionally acted in defiance of the Constitution during the pandemic. This simply is not the case. In fact, the overwhelming majority of pandemic-era public health policies—be they suspensions of in-person gatherings or vaccination and masking requirements—have been upheld by the courts. On free speech grounds, they have been upheld for meeting the standard of viewpoint neutrality. And on free exercise grounds, they've been upheld for satisfying the neutral and general applicability standard put forward by Justice Antonin Scalia."

• In response to questions from Congresswoman Ross about the constitutionality of public health policies, Professor Schwartzman reiterated that standards upheld by the courts did not infringe on individual liberties: "That's correct, and in many cases the Supreme Court allowed public health regulations to stand, those included some capacity limits…The Supreme Court allowed [these policies] to remain in place ostensibly because they're neutral and generally applicable."

Select Subcommittee Democrats undercut Republicans' unsubstantiated claims of online conservative censorship and stressed the consequences of misinformation about COVID-19.

• Committee on Oversight and Accountability Ranking Member Jamie Raskin debunked Republicans' claims about online censorship: "Some of my colleagues have decried censorship during the pandemic, but posts and videos pushing scientifically unfounded claims about COVID continue to rack up views online…These are not just extreme opinions—these are falsehoods. No credible study has substantiated Republicans' claims that their viewpoints are being censored online…. A comprehensive report completed by NYU's Center for Business and Human Rights found that by ‘many measures, conservatives voices…often are dominant in online political debates.'"

• Congresswoman Debbie Dingell pointed out the harms caused by the proliferation of misinformation online during the COVID-19 pandemic: "A May 2022 Brown University Study found that this sort of abuse of free speech contributed to approximately 319,000 preventable deaths."

• Congresswoman Deborah Ross highlighted the long-term consequences of misleading statements, especially in a time of crisis: "My Republican colleagues' suggestion that Democrats take for granted the Constitution and the rights it affords every person is dangerous and misleading. It undermines confidence in our institutions during times of crisis and erodes faith in the American system of government."

Select Subcommittee Democrats drew a strong contrast between President Trump and President Biden's COVID-19 responses, underscoring the Trump Administration's failed emergency response that left communities vulnerable to COVID-19.

• Oversight and Accountability Ranking Member Jamie Raskin pointed out how the Biden Administration got the country back on track after President Trump's chaotic handling of the pandemic: "[Trump's] own COVID-19 Advisor Deborah Birx said that we've lost hundreds of thousands of people in this country because of the reckless mismanagement of the pandemic when it first started by Donald Trump, who was living in an absolute fairy tale world—saying that it would disappear by Easter, it would magically go away overnight, everybody should just take hydroxychloroquine, and inject yourself with bleach…It is the Biden Administration that finally got in control of COVID-19 and has allowed us to take off the masks and end the distancing and send the kids back to school, which the whole the country of course wanted."

• Congressman Robert Garcia also highlighted the consequences of President Trump's failed COVID-19 response: "Out of the gate, Donald Trump and his Administration stumbled. They got testing wrong early on, the Administration opted to use testing protocol that contained design and contamination issues that set America back in our early testing, tests were nowhere to be found...The direct result of this incompetence that happened in that Administration—which by the way President Biden helped fix—cost as many as 200,000 lives that were lost needlessly in those first few months during the pandemic."

###