Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's Health Department just dropped a 502-page proposed regulation rewrite. Buried inside it is a provision that would allow health officials, at the governor's sole direction, to enter homes without a warrant.
The Fourth Amendment has thoughts on that. Shapiro apparently hasn't read them.
The proposal would transform the Pennsylvania Department of Health into the state's personal gestapo, rewriting policies to grant inspection and entry powers that bypass judicial oversight entirely. Carl Higbie, reporting on the move for Lifezette, didn't mince words: "Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro basically just said, the hell with the people, the hell with the laws, the hell with the state constitution."
This is the same Pennsylvania that passed a constitutional amendment in May 2021 specifically to limit the governor's emergency powers. Voters did that because they watched their state get locked down, shuttered, and dictated to during COVID. They amended their own constitution to make sure it couldn't happen again.
Shapiro's workaround is elegant in its cynicism. Don't declare an emergency. Just rewrite the Health Department's regulatory authority so you don't need one. Five hundred and two pages of bureaucratic language, and the part that lets the government walk through your front door without a judge's signature is tucked inside like a receipt you're not supposed to read.
The justification, such as it is, involves measles. Pennsylvania hasn't had a measles-associated death in 35 years. Thirty-five years without a single death, and that's the emergency that requires warrantless home entry powers. The disease that hasn't killed anyone in the state since the Reagan administration is apparently so urgent that constitutional protections need to be suspended.
"People said, no way. We're not going to have this COVID BS again," Higbie noted. And he's right — Pennsylvanians already fought this fight once and won it at the ballot box. The constitutional amendment was supposed to be the guardrail.
But guardrails only work when the people in power respect them. Shapiro's approach is to simply drive around them. He's not asking for emergency powers. He's embedding permanent powers into the regulatory code where most voters will never see them.
"All this Kabuki theater that they tried last time, you give them an inch, Josh Shapiro will take 10 miles," Higbie said. His advice to Pennsylvanians was blunt: "It is your duty as a citizen to give these people the finger and do your own research."
Here's what makes the timing interesting. Shapiro is widely considered a top-tier Democratic presidential contender for 2028. This is the guy the party wants on the national stage. And his audition tape includes a 502-page proposal to let state officials enter your home without judicial authorization.
"Mark my words: they're going to do something stupid again to take away your rights," Higbie warned.
The constitutional amendment Pennsylvanians passed in May 2021 was supposed to be the final answer. Shapiro's 502-page rewrite is the question nobody asked — and the one that should keep every homeowner in the state up at night.
A governor who thinks a warrant is optional isn't governing. He's auditioning.
