Challenges to Gov. Tom Wolf’s mandatory shutdown mount from businesses

Challenges to Gov. Tom Wolf’s mandatory shutdown mount from businesses

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  By
• Angela Couloumbis, Spotlight PA
  March 20, 2020

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  https://www.bing.com/amp/s/whyy.org...mandatory-shutdown-mount-from-businesses/amp/
  

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Challenges are mounting to Gov. Tom Wolf’s order late Thursday directing all but “life-sustaining” businesses to shut down, with the first of what could be a wave of lawsuits contending that the governor has overstepped his authority under the state Constitution.

On Friday afternoon, the Harrisburg-based law firm of Costopoulos, Foster & Fields petitioned the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for an emergency injunction to allow the firm to reopen. The governor’s order, among a list of other businesses, required law firms to close their physical locations.

“The governor’s order is so broad and sweeping, it is manifestly unconstitutional and illegal,” wrote William C. Costopoulos, a partner in the firm and a well-known defense lawyer who has represented elected and other officials in criminal cases.

He added that the firm, its clients, “and others across Pennsylvania will continue to be deprived of their state and federal constitutional rights. … Not even a public health emergency should result in the deprivation of such critical rights.”

Later Friday, a separate law firm asked the high court to intervene — this time, on behalf of the firm, a gun shop, and a potential gun buyer. Among the arguments: that the would-be gun buyer from Bucks County was unable to purchase a firearm because gun shops in his area had shut down.

Joshua Prince, chief counsel at the Civil Rights Defense Firm, P.C., said in a statement that his firm “will not stand idly by and permit our elected officials to eviscerate our residents’ inviolate constitutional and statutory rights.”

The Wolf administration has claimed broad powers in handling the public health emergency caused by the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus.

Wolf signed an emergency disaster declaration on March 6, after the state confirmed the first coronavirus cases. In doing so, he triggered a part of the Pennsylvania’s emergency management law that vastly expands a governor’s powers. They include everything from ordering mass evacuations to limiting or outright halting liquor and firearm sales.

As the number of COVID-19 cases continued to rise this week, Wolf on Thursday issued a new and expansive directive that sent the state’s business community into a tailspin of panic and confusion. It required all but the most essential businesses to close. His administration said “life-sustaining” businesses that could remain open include grocery stores, gas stations, farms, and transit systems.

Businesses ordered to shut down their physical operations include car dealers, lawn and garden stores, specialty food stores, and furniture stores. (His administration has since said it is working with businesses to potentially revise the list).

His order, which took effect immediately and will remain in place indefinitely, also applied to offices providing legal, accounting, architectural, and tax services. It also shut down swaths of the manufacturing sector.

The governor said that unlike shutdown orders he has issued since the virus began spreading in the state, this one would be enforced by the State Police, the state departments of health and agriculture, and the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.

On Friday, Wolf said the decision “was not made easily,” but that it was necessary to ward off the chilling possibility of a catastrophic spike in cases that will overwhelm hospitals and health care workers.

“The only way to contain this virus is to take aggressive, decisive action,” Wolf said. “We can recover faster, stronger, and more quickly if we act now and prevent more people from becoming seriously ill.”
As of Friday, Pennsylvania had 83 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 268. The virus has spread from two counties initially to 26 counties. On Wednesday, health officials announced the state’s first death from the virus, a 55-year-old man from Northampton County.

Law firms are not the only businesses that have pushed back against the governor’s order.

Earlier Friday, the state’s leading manufacturers asked Wolf to revise his order, saying it is blocking essential supply chains from providing products to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

David N. Taylor, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, said in an interview Friday that the governor’s office did not contact him or other manufacturing trade groups before issuing the order, which he called “rash,” “overly broad,” and “imprecise.”

Taylor said the order, which was issued just before close of business Thursday, shuts down timber operations, which he said feeds the supply chain for manufacturing paper products. It also leaves steelworkers without coal to use for making essential products.

“We need the governor to come to his senses,” Taylor said. “We need him to reconsider his executive order so we can refashion something that is workable.”

The governor’s office could not immediately be reached for comment. But in a statement Thursday afternoon, Wolf said, “To protect the health and safety of all Pennsylvanians, we need to take more aggressive mitigation actions.”

 

Good for them. State and local officials have gone off the deep end in some places...

 

Yeah, I treat this thing seriously but the Soviet-like transformation as I've mentioned is something I never expected to see, and when this is over something I hope never to see again.

 

I can't see it lasting for more than two weeks before there is unrest...

 

Like the disease was bad enough, sure. But now to add these new political situations on top of it is just a double whammy.

 

Seems like the militia should be used to enforce the order at gun point.

 

I knew we were sieg heiling Mike Pence at some point.

 

England will throw sick people in confinement for 6 weeks and France will use cops to enforce the orders. It will happen here in about two weeks.

 

Well, take metropolitan Phoenix for example. A population of nearly 5 million that relies on the $1 billion a week of tourism spending this time of year. With only 79 confirmed cases and 1 death the entire state of Arizona is on lockdown. Is it fair that the 200,000 people who depend on MLB Spring Training, NHL, NBA, world class golf, Country Thunder, March Madness and the best weather in the nation for income be deprived their way of life for a minuscule few? A vast majority of the AZ population is livid that Governor Duecy shut down the state.

 

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This is a preview of what it will be like when all of those carbon-emitting planes and cars have been parked for good. Gotta save the planet and reduce climate change.

 

I mean, this COVID-19 thing is no joke but there's got to be a middle ground. Hopefully that new blood test that had been revealed will be able to help gauge just how many people have it. And if it's a more reasonable range of people, they'll reconsider.

 

(Snipped for length)

Would you all be happy with fewer restrictions / orders, but just guidelines? With the trade-off that health insurance companies could consider you grossly negligent and invalidate your policy if you failed to follow the guidelines and contracted the virus?

If it is all about personal freedom and responsibility, you should accept the responsibility that comes with the freedom.

 

The coronavirus test will have to be done multiple times on a periodic basis for each person to be a valid indicator of the problem. Doing a one-time test is useless when dealing with a contagious virus.

 

97 cases.

How many people will be infected in two weeks? In NY the number increased by a factor of ten, from about 800 to 8000, in 4 days.

200,000 people depend on MLB? With 7 million people and a 3.5% death rate, you stand to lose 250,000 people. Are their lives worth less than the income of the 200,000?

 

Perfectly agreeable to that. The will to live is human, our human dignity should be respected somehow during this time in my opinion.

 

You mean like drinking and smoking. Or is skydiving, rock climbing and bull riding a better example. But then again we can’t forget about poor diet and lack of exercise because the 279 US deaths that the Coronavirus has caused since Feb 29th happen every single hour in our country.

 

Where did you get a 3.5% mortality?

 

This is a national health crisis. Are you prepared to take personal responsibility? FULL personal responsibility?

Just so you know - if you extrapolate the spread of the virus and with the same mortality rate (about 4%), you are looking at well over 10 million Americans dying of this virus, probably within a year. And millions more with permanent, life-altering damage to internal organs that will leave them requiring long-term health care.

So - are you prepared to take responsibility for your actions in exchange for the liberty to do whatever the hell you want? Or will you expect other people to bail you out for irresponsible behavior?

 

Global figures have held pretty steady at about 4% mortality.

Read the "Tracking the COVID-19-Virus in Germany, the USA, Italy and other hot spots in the world" thread, including the statistics. It is sobering. Actually more than that, it is scary.

 

Post your source for this, because CDC is barely over 1% and the reason being that high is there are many yet to be tested.

 

I’m posting about the US. Italy is a country in which 23% of the population is over 65 and smoking is 140% that of the US.
US figures are

UNITED STATES CASES
Updated Mar 21 at 4:43 AM ET

Confirmed 20,227

Deaths 279

Recovered 147

Data from: CDC · WHO · ECDC · Wikipedia · Trending data represents changes over last 24 hours

Ebola stats are even worse for non Americans compared to US deaths.

 

Hate to say this but the only way to be cured is to become infected. We need human resistance otherwise COVID 23 is only 4 years away. Humans are becoming much to dependent on artificial everything. Artificial intelligence, artificial ingredients, artificial body enhancements and artificial cure all’s.

The body’s innate ability to fight off infection is a powerful thing. Let nature take its course. Survival of the fittest otherwise the only fittest will be in a test tube.

 

Even at 1% mortality rate, that is over 3 million Americans dead within a year, millions more permanently damaged. That's what you want?

And by the way, that 1% mortality rate will only be possible with health care available. Unless the curve is flattened, the system will be overwhelmed and the mortality rate will rise.

 

A 1% mortality rate is 9,300 dying from Coronavirus everyday for a year. Lets see if we even get to 100 a day.