Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-592_5hd5.pdf
Page Number: 7

Cite as:  598 U. S. ____ (2023) 

7 

Statement of GORSUCH, J. 

policy without censorship, to gather with friends and fam-
ily, or simply to leave our homes.  We may even cheer on
those who ask us to disregard our normal lawmaking pro-
cesses 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.24 

But maybe we have learned another lesson too.  The con-
centration of power in the hands of so few may be efficient 
and sometimes popular.  But it does not tend toward sound 
government.  However wise one person or his advisors may 
be, that is no substitute for the wisdom of the whole of the 
American people that can be tapped in the legislative pro-
cess.25    Decisions  produced  by  those  who  indulge  no  criti-
cism are rarely as good as those produced after robust and
uncensored  debate.26   Decisions  announced  on  the  fly  are 
rarely as wise as those that come after careful deliberation. 
Decisions  made  by  a  few  often  yield  unintended  conse-
quences that may be avoided when more are consulted.  Au-
tocracies have always suffered these defects.  Maybe, hope-
fully, we have relearned these lessons too.

In the 1970s, Congress studied the use of emergency de-
crees.27  It observed that they can allow executive authori-
ties to tap into extraordinary powers.28  Congress also ob-
served  that  emergency  decrees  have  a  habit  of  long
outliving the crises that generate them; some federal emer-

—————— 

24 See,  e.g.,  Aristotle’s  Politics,  Bk.  V,  chs.  2,  4  (H.  Rackham  transl. 

1959). 

25 See,  e.g.,  The  Federalist  No. 10,  pp. 80–84  (C.  Rossiter  ed.  1961)
(J. Madison); id., No. 35, at 215–216 (A. Hamilton); id., No. 57, at 350– 
356 (J. Madison). 

26 Cf.  Whitney  v.  California,  274  U. S.  357,  375  (1927)  (Brandeis, J., 

concurring). 

27 Congressional  Research  Service,  National  Emergency  Powers  7 
(Nov. 19, 2021) (CRS) (describing congressional studies undertaken from
1972 to 1976 regarding emergency powers). 

28 Id., at 8.