By Gregory Schwab.
After COVID-19, legislatures in numerous states stripped their governors of emergency powers that had evolved over generations. This Article argues that the post-pandemic reforms are predominantly structural disablements—measures that paralyze the executive’s capacity to respond to crisis—rather than principled constraints that would enhance accountability without dismantling response capacity. Drawing on the long history of gubernatorial emergency authority and on state constitutional separation-of-powers principles, the Article shows why the overcorrection threatens future crisis response and proposes a better path.