States Are Confiscating Private Property And Nobody Is Bothered

[Updated 4-3-2020 10:PM] In this past week two incidents of blatant unconstitutional actions have occurred with nary a peep from the usual "civil liberties" crowd. In NY a person saw the pending pandemic and purchased a large quantity of medical items to resell. He was charging upwards of 700x markups on the products and eventually the state of NY came in and confiscated his goods and gave them to medical facilities.

[updated] I have discovered that the individual is being paid fair market price for the goods being confiscated.

Feldheim was released March 30 on $50,000 bond. Feldheim will be paid fair-market value for the supplies, according to the Department of Justice.

I'm pretty sure a lawyer got involved. [end update] While it may be entirely unethical and illegal to price gouge during an emergency the idea that the state could enter this person's private property, grab up his legally obtained goods without any compensation whatsoever under the guise of an "emergency" is not acceptable to me. Our rights and the state's limits do not simply, respectively, disappear and expand unchecked due to an emergency.

If Amazon can sell medical supplies then so can Joe citizen, if he has any. If 3M can sell medical supplies then so can Joe Citizen. Just because Joe Citizen doesn't have a staff of lawyers on hand and the pockets to pay them for extended litigation, does not give Amazon or 3M any more rights than Joe Citizen.

I have heard exactly zero reports of the state offering the NY guy fair, non-emergency, compensation for the goods he legally acquired. Even if the state wanted to charge him with price gouging it still cannot simply take his shit. Why? Because it was legally obtained and he is the rightful owner of all of it. The state can only dictate an upper ceiling for the sale of his property. Do not let the moral arguments against his behavior (which I would agree with) blind you to this blatant abuse of state power.

Across the Hudson, NJ gov Murphy signed an executive order empowering the state police to confiscate the property of private citizens if that property is deemed "essential" to the state. Again, there was absolutely no effort or discussion on compensation. How is that even legal? Under stand US Constitutional grounds does the state have to confiscate the private property of citizens?

At fucking gun point?

Personally if I was approached by the state for my medical goods, I'm inclined to donate. That's the kind of person I am. But I cannot and would not force any other citizen to do the same. Lets say that a citizen is in possession of 5 months worth of medical masks and possesses a ventilator. And argument could be made that this citizen foresaw getting sick and acquired property that could keep him from getting sick and if he got sick, could keep him alive. Now the state of NJ has empowered the state to override this citizen's right to look out for his own well being and force him to use his property to the benefit of other people rather than himself. And if that citizen resists the state's attempt to confiscate his life supporting property, the state may in fact kill him for it.

That should bother a lot of people.