In 2016, government officials in Dorchester County, South Carolina, were concerned about mosquitoes spreading the Zika virus. They ordered aerial spraying for the mosquitoes. Millions of honey bees on the bee farm of Juanita Stanley and Mitch Yawn were killed by the spraying. Stanley and Yawn sued, claiming that the government had taken their property and owed the couple compensation.
In June 2021, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the plaintiffs. The Court found that that the bees’ deaths were unintentional and unforeseeable. But as Kady Valois of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented Stanley and Yawn, later noted, the insecticide used was widely known to be toxic to bees, a fact which the court acknowledged in its ruling. In other words, while it was known that the insecticide kills bees, government officials could not foresee that the insecticide would kill the plaintiff’s bees.
In the original trial, the court ruled that the county’s spraying constituted a “police power” to protect the public health. In an OpEd article, Valois wrote that courts
have generally concluded that in times of crisis, the government can avoid paying for any destruction of property it causes as long as the government’s actions aim to protect the safety and welfare of its citizens.
Nearly anything can be “justified” on the grounds that it aims to protect the safety and health of citizens. Actions that would have been incomprehensible just two years ago—shutting down businesses, prohibiting evictions, and mandating what must be worn in public—have been “justified” by claiming that the goal is to protect the safety and health of “the public.” And those actions have destroyed countless businesses. But because the lock downs were aimed at protecting the safety and health of “the public,” the destruction of property is allegedly justified.
Underlying all of these actions is the premise that the “public interest” supersedes individual interests. We must each do our part and sacrifice for the “common welfare.” If we happen to lose our job, our home, our business, or millions of honey bees, that is the price that we must pay.