Assemblyman Chris Tague (R,C,I-Schoharie) is calling on his colleagues in the Assembly to reject Assembly Bill 416, which would give the governor and his surrogates the authority to detain anybody they believe to be a threat to public health. Tague opposes this bill, as he believes it to be unconstitutional and in violation of the due-process rights of New Yorkers.

“This bill is unconstitutional, inhumane and is a perfect example of why our Constitution exists in the first place,” said Tague. “The Bill of Rights was created to protect us from dangerous legislation such as this, which is ignorant of human history as well as the law. We fought our revolution to stop an autocratic king from doing exactly what this bill proposes, and for us to give up our basic right to due process out of unreasonable fear would be an insult to those who have fought and died for centuries to keep us a free people. Bills like this pushed by socialist Majority politicians from New York City are the reason so many people distrust our government and, frankly, I can understand their concern when legislators come out with ideas like this. To support a bill such as this would be a violation of the oath we took as legislators to uphold our Constitution and a betrayal of basic human decency. I will keep fighting until this bill is dead and buried, because if we don’t have a Constitution, we don’t have a country.”