Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> You must also take into account the history of intentional civil disobedience where the government has over reached and the population simply reaches the point where it refuses to comply.

It is one thing for Musk to publicly proclaim he is willing to go to jail, but are all the rank and file workers?

At what point does the civil disobedience become workers telling their employer they will not violate the law by returning to work and risk jail just to pump up the stock?



Yeah, that is a good question. A worker can reasonably claim that they should not be asked to break the law as part of their job. I am curious to see how all this plays out.

Having said that, I read somewhere that there are like 10,000 employees at Tesla's Fremont plant. Do we really think the County would actually follow through and arrest 10,000 people? Thank Goodness we do not live in such a society.. Perhaps they would arrest just the management, perhaps just Musk? Shut off the power instead? Ugh.


Interesting scenario, I wonder if turning off the power would would work considering their business is solar and battery production.


Anyone fired would have an easy case to win. If it came to that generous packages will be offered.


Is such an order by a county executive even legitimate?


That so few are even asking this question in insane to me.


Plenty of people are asking, Tesla has already brought a declaratory action in the courts to ask them.

The thing is that is how things are done legally, but Musk is putting the cart before the horse by breaking the order. In other words right or wrong say police show up to enforce the order and order the factory shutdown and musk/employees fail to obey...failing to obey the officers orders in generally a charge unto itself at that point never mind the violation of the county order.


I'm guessing that it needs to be tested in court.

Or at least, that Musk has decided that it does.


That's because people who actually care rather than feigning curiosity can read the order, which cites its statutory authority, and then can go and read the statutory authority, too.


People who actually care can drill down into the appropriate codes and see that your derisive tone is wholly unsupported by fact.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23164535

You have an ugly habit of trying to silence critique by talking down to people using specific claims and relying on their inability to research when it is your claims that are false.


> People who actually care can drill down into the appropriate codes and see that your derisive tone is wholly unsupported by fact.

> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23164535

I've responded directly to that post with direct links to the relevant orders, but it's funny that you make that claim and point to a post (of yours, I note) that is both derisive in tone and almost wholly unsupported by fact (making a claim that is both literally false and which refers to a set of state orders that isn't, and doesn't include, the only state order relevant to the discussion, the shelter-in-place order issued by the Director of Public Health.)


  I've responded directly to that post with direct links to the relevant orders
You're talking in circles. The point here is that you repeatedly said that Newsome's orders cites criminal statute law, e.g.

  "...the order, which cites its statutory authority (to shut down Tesla et al)"
And it doesn't. You can keep pretending that it does and telling people who tried to point that out in a courteous way to, in effect, "go look it up", but I did, and I quoted same. (Feel free to quote any supporting criminal statutes now, which you've been oddly reluctant to do.)

And today's Wisconsin Supreme Court overturn of its Governor's shelter in place order clearly demonstrates that even a Governor can't exceed his authority, even if s/he thinks it well-intentioned.


> The point here is that you repeatedly said that Newsome's orders cites criminal statute law

Nope, I never said any of Newsom's orders did that; I said the state and, relevant here, Alameda County public health orders (neither of which was issued by Newsom) both cited the relevant statutory authority to criminal enforcement. I've even linked directly to both orders and reproduced the citations from both orders, and even pulled out and quoted the most relevant section from a broad chapter cited in the county order. You, on the other hand, have made an inaccurate description of the authority cited in the irrelevant governor's executive orders to support the rest of your unsupported inaccurate claims.

Newsom's 39 executive orders on this emergency (at last count, which was yesterday so I might have missed a couple) are waivers of state law under the governor's emergency powers which are separate from the public health orders that are at issue here. (They are only tangentially relevant in that one of them provides the authority for the 5/7/2020 revision to the State Public Health Order bypassing some usual procedural requirements.)

> And today's Wisconsin Supreme Court overturn of its Governor's shelter in place order clearly demonstrates that even a Governor can't exceed his authority, even if s/he thinks it well-intentioned.

That point was never in dispute, but sure.


Almost all US case law has held that any jurisdiction can make anything illegal unless there's a specific higher-ranking (state or federal) law protecting that act from being made illegal.


Even without any supporting statute law?


There is supporting state statute law for public health orders to prevent communicable disease; that statute law is also what makes it a crime to violate such orders.


Okay, which Code and which Section for CA?


I'll just quote the first part (after the rather extended title) of the Alameda County order, which cites the statutory authority both for the order itself and for criminal prosecution of violations:

> Please read this Order carefully. Violation of or failure to comply with this Order is a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both. (California Health and Safety Code § 120295, et seq.; Cal. Penal Code §§ 69, 148(a)(1))

> UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE SECTIONS 101040, 101085, AND 120175, THE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE COUNTY OF ALAMEDA (“HEALTH OFFICER”) ORDERS:


It's not a law, it's an order from a single individual in the county. There's also no law preventing people from going to work, regardless of whether the business should be open or not. And Tesla is not requiring anyone to show up.

Nobody is at risk here other than Elon and executives, but there will be plenty of prosecutorial discretion used to settle this smoothly rather than cause more civil unrest.


> And Tesla is not requiring anyone to show up.

That's an important point.

But is he paying them more to show up than they'd otherwise be paid if they didn't show up?


> But is he paying them more to show up than they'd otherwise be paid if they didn't show up?

That would be reasonable, to compensate for risk and going above-and-beyond?


It would, yes.

But if they're being paid nothing otherwise, one could make the argument that it's coercive. Still, this is the US, and it's arguably unfair to expect Tesla to pay nonworking employees indefinitely, even though Musk is a billionaire.


Musk (and most billionaires) don't have actual billions in the bank. Their net worth coms from owning the stock of the companies they founded. If the company goes bankrupt, they lose their wealth too. And paying for employees (10s of thousands of them) without any revenue or production can have an adverse impact.

If giant companies like Ford and Boeing are having trouble, it's not hard to imagine that a new car company that just recently crossed profitability is going to have solvency issues by staying closed.


He stated, that employes can stay home as paid vacation. So no one is forced to break the law or put him or herself at health risk.

But it will surely gets noticed, who did show up and who did not and so anyone wanting a career at Tesla better shows up.


Is it actually the law? Is there actually a virus that is so bad that factories have to be closed, but so harmless that grocery stores are open? And if not, can it be legal to close businesses?


You don't really have much of a choice about keeping food services open in some fashion. No virus is as lethal as starvation.

Car factories are much less immediately essential. I can't see how you'd begin to argue otherwise.




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2026 batch! Applications are open till July 27.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: