When New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued "a public health emergency order" that purportedly suspended the right to bear arms in Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County last week, her justification was seemingly straightforward. "I have emergency powers," she told The New York Times. "Gun violence is an epidemic. Therefore, it's an emergency."
Grisham's stunt was widely condemned as blatantly unconstitutional, even by some leading supporters of gun control. But her legal rationale also underlined the perils posed by the sweeping emergency powers that legislators in many states have granted governors—a problem that was abundantly clear during the COVID-19 pandemic.
