The article is good at outlining the limits of legal authority that can be exercised by different agents such as Federal, States, Counties, and Cities in emergencies.

One thing that was absent from the analysis was a comparison with situations where the differences between such authorities expressed fundamental differences in outcome for the whole nation. Unlike struggles for equal rights and treatment under the law, the need for the whole nation to get some workable solutions to the present emergency will have to be something that works in each place. The adversarial developments in the present situation are not a cultural war. There is an opportunity to develop large scale responses without having to choose between dictatorship and anarchy.

For example, the use of the Defense Production Act has the power to override particular processes in business operations. Admiral Polowczyk said FEMA doesn't have the capacity to replace the distribution system now supplying hospitals. One way to stop the ferocious market would be to support those companies but also suspend the bidding they are in existence to have happen. A way to exert control without destroying the instrument being controlled.

But such a suspension would also have to involve the involvement of all the customers. The Federal government is not in a position to do all the details by itself. The DPA function needs lots of help from those who it would assume to command.

If the Federal government cannot ride to the rescue alone, they still need to get on the horses.