“Even in an emergency,” wrote Judge William Stickman IV, of Pennsylvania’s Western District Court, “the authority of government is not unfettered. The liberties protected by the Constitution are not fair-weather freedoms — in place when times are good but able to be cast aside in times of trouble.”

His eloquent summation continued, “(T)he solution to a national crisis can never be permitted to supersede the commitment to individual liberty that stands as the foundation of the American experiment. The Constitution cannot accept the concept of a ‘new normal’ where the basic liberties of the people can be subordinated to open-ended mitigation measures.

“Rather,” Stickman wrote, “the Constitution sets certain lines that cannot be crossed even in an emergency. Actions taken by the defendant crossed those lines.”