People have noticed and rebelled. And authorities are cracking. Gov. Kathy Hochul just backed down after her effort to impose a statewide mask mandate drew overwhelming opposition. Businesses said they wouldn’t cooperate. Local officials said they wouldn’t enforce the rule. Hochul caved, saying she wouldn’t force counties to go along. Righty pundit Matt Margolis called it a “spectacular failure,” and it was.

Amtrak, facing broad resistance from its workers, suspended its vaccine mandate for employees. And Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis said no to a mask mandate, declaring, “The emergency is over.”

It is. And now that it’s over, we need to claw back all the power seized by various institutions in the name of emergency. And when that’s done, we need a searching inquiry into how the power was exercised — an inquiry with consequences.

It’s time.