>If you, as a citizen, are unaware of public laws passed by your legislature, then you cannot blame the governor for using them during an emergency. It's your fault for not knowing the law, which in probably every case, has been public knowledge for decades.

The publicity of a law among tens of thousands of other laws is irrelevant. Government authority comes from the consent of the governed. Citizens do not give consent to something just because its on the books. People have jobs and real things to get done in their lives. They cannot and should not be expected to waste their time crawling through hundreds of thousands of pages of legislation, let alone have the legal background to interpret all of it. Imagine how much of an asshole you sound like right now: "Oh, your family business went bankrupt because of lockdowns? You have no right to complain, you should have studied § 46.2-872. Didn't know about it? Too bad!"

Public polling and widespread non-compliance suggests that governors lack the lockdown orders lack the consent of the governed.