Back in October, I interviewed the Laramie County D.A. about her refusal to prosecute anyone cited under the county's new mask mandate.

"I think a crime is a violation of a law passed by the legislature," Manlove said, adding that the health mandate does not meet that criteria. Manlove also said she has constitutional questions about prosecuting people for violating the mandate. ''Frankly, I'm not enforcing a mask mandate,"  Manlove said. She added '"There may be a public official out there who knows what the consequences are of not wearing a mask. But it ain't this one."

Later, thanks to the help of our news department at our affiliate station KGAB in Cheyenne, we were able to hear from the Laramie County Sheriff and the Cheyenne Police Chief who both said essentially the same thing as the county DA : they would not be enforcing the mandate, for the same reasons.

That was one of many cases across the nation, at that time, of many different types of mandates being passed with local law enforcement and D.A.s saying they had no intention to cite anyone for violating. All have cited the same reasons mentioned above.

With another spike in Covid-19 and the time of year approaching when people gather together in large groups, such as Thanksgiving, cities, counties and states have begun issuing a slew of new orders, some of which seem rather extreme.

But are these orders legal? Will they be enforced? 

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“Frankly, I am not sure it could sustain a Constitutional challenge in court for several reasons, including your house is your castle,” one sheriff wrote in the Saturday post.

“And as a sheriff with a law degree, I couldn’t in good faith attempt to defend it at court, so I won’t,” he said.

The response that the governor of New York just received has been echoed by law enforcement across the nation.

This leaves many elected officials and bureaucrats across the country in a quandary. Just how much legal authority do they actually have?

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