Are 'stay-at-home' orders justified? Two political science professors weigh in

By Libbie Anderson

The need to protect people from a global pandemic with clear and consistent policies is more important than who orders those policies. 

That’s according to two political science professors from Utah State University, who said that state legislators should focus on what’s important as they enter a special session to discuss the validity of local stay-home orders later this week. 

Laura Gamboa-Gutierrez explained that U.S. society has long accepted certain limitations to personal freedoms in order to protect the lives of others.

“There is no question that the stay-at-home orders impede the public’s right to assemble,” said Gamboa-Gutierrez, an assistant political science professor at Utah State. “But so do many other laws and ordinances that we abide by every day, as well as laws and orders that have been implemented throughout history in the U.S. during extraordinary times.”

Gamboa-Gutierrez said choosing to implement stay home stay-home orders depends on what and how many personal rights would be affected and what kind of safety threats the public is facing.

“I think the human cost of the pandemic vastly outweighs the cost of ordering people to stay at home temporarily,” Gamboa-Gutierrez said. “When asked if I think people should be ordered to stay at home, except for essential traveling, to protect everybody from COVID-19, my answer is yes.”

For Gamboa-Gutierrez, the validity of “stay-home” and “shelter-in-place” depends on whether the community risk is high enough, the order has a set deadline, it has been ordered with the approval and supervision of court and oversight agencies, and it can be appealed.

“Rather than questioning whether these orders impede a public’s right to assemble, we should be asking if these orders are justified,” Gamboa-Gutierrez said.

Michael Lyons agreed that what’s most important is for policies to be well thought out and consistent among jurisdictions. That, he said, is more important than whether the order is enforced at the state or local level.

“The bottom line is how policies work with the stage the virus is at and what is needed at the time,” said Lyons, an associate professor of political science at Utah State.

If, however, lawmakers choose to implement a statewide shelter-in-place order, Lyons suggested life wouldn’t change much from how people are already coping.

“We’re so close to a stay-at-home order anyway,” Lyons said. “I don’t see lockdown in Utah being that meaningful because businesses and schools are closed and people are already staying at home.”

Lyons did acknowledge that counties with high rates of coronavirus cases, such as Summit County, are in a completely unique position with greater urgency to keep people under a shelter-in-place order.