I Hate to Go All Fuller Court on My Readers, But . . .

I note that two freebloggers disagree with my post on forcing people to evacuate their homes in a natural disaster. This is my argument, in a nutshell:

Citizens have a right to their lives, liberty, and property, and cannot be deprived of these interests without due process of law. The fifth amendment protects these rights and interests against federal invasion; the fourteenth against state invasion. Now, I would agree that the due process clause is mostly procedural; but more than 100 years of precedent say that these clauses have substantive content, as well, and that citizens, at least, have rights that government cannot take away, even if the government follows procedures in keeping with "the law of the land." My take is that the right to remain in one's home, even in the face of a hurricane, is a combined liberty-property interest citizens have that, well, is not subject to ordinary legislation. If there were an overriding government interest, maybe. But just maintaining some vague sense of law and order, and the theoretical possibility of dead bodies causing disease . . . I say, not enough to override these protected liberty and property interests/rights.

But reasonable minds can disagree. Clearly. Just wanted to make my position clear on this.