Senate Joint Resolution 63 would terminate the Covid-19 national emergency declared by President Donald Trump on March 13, 2020. As Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) stated in a November 17, 2022 op-ed, “The Constitution is the guarantor of our liberties. So it should come as no surprise that those who crave power to rule over their fellow man always seek to suspend the Constitution by declaring and perpetuating national emergencies.” He went on to write, “A president should not be able to unilaterally aggrandize his powers by saying a magic word. If he will not terminate the national emergency himself, it falls to us, the people’s representatives in Congress, to act, and, in the wise words of the court, remind Biden that ‘there is no pandemic exception to the Constitution.’”
The Senate passed the resolution terminating the Covid-19 national emergency on November 15, 2022 by a vote of 62 to 36. (Roll Call 355). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because it is unconstitutional to suspend the Constitution by declaring national public health emergencies.
