It has been said that the fundamental obligation of governmentof any governmentis to protect its citizens. Plus, democratic governments have an additional obligation: to balance security concerns with civil liberties. This seems quite sensible to me, however, in our republican form of government with federal and state entities, which government or governments are responsible? The notion that the federal government should dictate the homeland security dialogue is widely accepted. However, does this interfere with states' rights and the 10th Amendment?

In this week's reading, former U.S. Attorney General William Barr instructs federal law enforcement officials to "oversee and coordinate...state and local [Covid related] policies and, if necessary, take action to correct them." Does this exhibit federal government overreach? Is the federal government better positioned to dictate what makes sense to state officials?