Individual Autonomy versus Public Safety: How Government COVID-19 Mandates and Constitutional Law Impacts Fraud Rationalization and Pressures

The global pandemic has highlighted unprecedented levels of uncertainty, which has forced the exploration of new questions. We review the academic literature on COVID-19, with respect to forensic accounting topics, and we find that the literature is relatively scarce. We also provide a detailed constitutional legal history of U.S. health mandates, including a background of constitutional limitations on government power, federalism, Supreme Court evolution on autonomy, and the state of the legal framework on government health mandates immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout this review of academic literature and the legal framework regarding mandates, we discuss examples of fraud cases during the pandemic and the aspects impacting fraud rationalization and pressures. Our results show that more research is needed in this area, and we provide suggestions for future avenues, as well as legal considerations regarding government mandates.