Muh constitutionz! Keep hearing this bleating all over facebook, and somewhat here, too.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
States have elected representatives who have passed emergency powers laws. This is how they enforce curfews after hurricanes and earthquakes, and how they quell riots.
Right, wrong, or indifferent, this is the facts.
This is not a great argument. The Bill of rights has been [mostly] incorporated to the states. Things like the free exercise of religion (Easter Mass), or the right to peaceably assemble, both to petition for a redress of grievances and "to associate with others in pursuit of a wide variety of political, social, economic, educational, religious, and cultural ends" [Roberts v. United States Jaycees] are pretty firmly established as protected, and that prohibition on violating that right absolutely applies to the states, regardless of what their elected representatives may think.
I know there are emergency powers laws, and I know why, but the First Amendment gets Strict Scrutiny (at least the religious parts), and this level of interference has definitely not been litigated. SO it's fair to say "Muh constitutionz!" because it very likely that at minimum the banning of religious services by the states is unconstitutional. Free assembly is an important right, as Hong Kong could probably tell you right now.
I recognize that I am in a minority (of the US) but no one ever promised Freedom was safe. If Freedom, and not letting the state (or States) run roughshod means there is a measurable increase in deaths from any number of things than that's what it means. For the same reason that we shouldn't let the States limit shitty food, or not exercising, or taking drugs, or unprotected sex, or anyone of a number of things that cause death or spread disease we shouldn't let State legislatures tell us we can or can't leave our houses or BBQ with friends. Sorry, not sorry.