Democrats and Republicans are equally open to many government measures that could slow the spread of the coronavirus but may also undermine civil liberties, according to a new national survey.
Conducted in mid-March as state governments were ramping up efforts to confront the pandemic, the poll reveals a “remarkable” level of tolerance for restrictions on liberty, says coauthor Adam Chilton, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School whose work has included empirical research on constitutional rights.
Researchers surveyed a nationally representative sample of 3,000 US residents—asking them about policy proposals that governments could enact to help control the spread of the virus.
Those proposals included travel restrictions, bans on the spread of misinformation, the quarantining of sick individuals in government facilities, the conscripting of health care workers, and the forced production and seizing of certain items, such as ventilators and personal protective equipment.
The findings reveal the extraordinary nature of the fight against COVID-19, and they raise important questions about what comes next: How far are we willing to go to stay safe? How do we prevent abuse once the immediate threat has receded?
Here, Chilton addresses those questions and explains what we can learn from history and what we should think about going forward:
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