Courts ruling against Covid-19 measures

Many Governors and public health officials asserted they have supreme power in a public health emergency. One public health official said the Constitution itself may be suspended in a public health emergency – which is not true (unfortunately I did not save the link when I saw that in spring of 2020).

The Courts have ruled against numerous public health Orders – state laws and Constitutions and the U.S. Constitution remain intact and functional.

However, the sheer number of Court rulings against Public Health Orders indicates public health experts have little understanding of their legal authority and the Constitution, laws and regulations under which they are supposed to operate. This lengthy list is a fraction of the rulings – these are merely the ones I randomly stumbled upon.

Most of these Court rulings are in the U.S., a very small number in Europe, and almost all cases were ruled against public health agencies.

1. In May 2020, Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the state’s “Safer at home” Order.
2. In Kentucky, a Judge labeled city-wide lock up measures as draconian and recording church go’ers license plates as “stunning” and “unconstitutional”. The Kentucky Governor was directed to stop issuing executive orders on covid-19.
3. In September 2020, Federal court ruled Pennsylvania’s lock up orders unconstitutional.
4. In September 2020, San Francisco relented after the DoJ wrote a memo saying San Francisco’s restrictions on churches were unconstitutional. A day later San Francisco amended its rules to comply with the Constitution.
5. In October 2020, NYC is being sued over Covid-19 restrictions targeting Jews.
6. In October 2020, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled against the Michigan Governors indefinite emergency Orders ruling she had no authority to continue her emergency orders forever. My own state, however, has an actual law that permits the Governor to unilaterally renew her emergency declaration forever without seeking consultation or approval from the people or the Legislature. She has renewed her order, now, out to 11 months (it was extended halfway into 2022 before it ended, about 2 years total). The purpose of an emergency order is to take action faster than can be done through the normal regulatory process – not to enact semi-permanent rules. Gov. Brown had plenty of time to open rules to public comment but she (in most cases) chose not to accept public input. This is “democracy” by authoritarians, not by consent of the public.
7. In October 2020, a court struck down draconian Washington DC Orders that denied churches the opportunity to operate the same as other organizations and businesses.
8. In Spain, a court overturned the government’s lock up Order.
9. In October 2020, a Pennsylvania Court has ruled that the Governor’s public health Orders are not enforceable.
10. In November 2020, a Judge ruled against part of California Governor Newsom’s Covid-19 Orders.
11. In November 2020, the US Supreme Courts writes “Even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten“
12. In December 2020, Judge orders Los Angeles County to show its evidence for outdoor dining ban – and to provide a full risk vs benefits analysis. Closing all restaurants is not risk free either, he points out. They are due back in Court in 7 days. Update: Judge rules the outdoor restaurant ban was arbitrary and not supported by evidence. The full Court ruling is here.
13. In December 2020, US Supreme Court rules against Colorado restrictions on churches.
14. In December 2020, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals strikes down Nevada’s restrictions on churches.
15. In December 2020, US Supreme Court strikes down some rules applied to churches in New Jersey plus churches in Colorado.
16. In December 2020, the Appeals Court rules against Nevada’s public health Orders on church capacity.
17. In December 2020, after a prior Court Order expired in San Diego, County officials forced closure of a strip club. The next morning, a Judge extended the Court Order to permit them to remain open and said the Court Order also applies to restaurants.
18. In December 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is questioning which business capacity constraints are legal.
19. On December 19th, 2020, Los Angeles County gave up its attempt to ban indoor church activities.

    “The Los Angeles County Health Officer Order will be modified today to align with recent Supreme Court rulings for places of worship.  Places of worship are permitted to offer faith-based services both indoors and outdoors with mandatory physical distancing and face coverings over both the nose and mouth that must be worn at all times while on site. Places of worship must also assure that attendance does not exceed the number of people who can be accommodated while maintaining a physical distance of six feet between separate households.”

20. In December 2020, a Washington state judge ruled against the state’s fines on a private gym saying the state failed to provide evidence of risks due to Covid-19. This ruling may impact fines assessed on other gyms in the state.
21. December 21, 2020: Gov Newsom, California, sued for “gross abuse of power” and violations of U.S. and state constitution.
22. December 22, 2020: Oregon government sued over the ban on evictions of tenants, who some cases, have paid no rent for 9 months. As of November, the state’s unemployment rate is 6.0%, dramatically lower than the 14+% levels of the springtime. The state has not given a metric or goal to what level would permit evictions for non-payment; it’s as if they have nationalized private property. A Court challenge against this government order was lost. By early 2022, with unemployment at 3.9%, many jurisdictions were still maintaining bans on evictions. What level of unemployment would justify removing these bands? 2%? 1%? 0%? -10%?
23. December 28, 2020: Federal Appeals Court rules against NY Governor Andrew Cuomo’s restrictions on churches.
24. In February 2021 the US Supreme Court struck down California’s prohibition on church services. The Court noted that California’s argument fell flat – people were permitted to enter stores, shopping malls and bus terminals and there was no time limit placed on staying in those venues. Yet California banned indoor church activities.
25. In February, a Court in the Netherlands ruled that their country’s curfew was illegal.
26. In February 2021, a Federal judge ruled the Federal (CDC) prohibition on property evictions is unconstitutional. The CDC did not have legal authority to regulate housing. In fact, the CDC is not a rule making agency (like say the FCC or FAA).
27. In March 2021 a Federal appeals Court panel agreed with lower court rulings that the CDC’s ban on evictions is unconstitutional. This now goes to a full Court review.
28. In March 2021, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the Governor had unconstitutionally extended his emergency orders after a 60-day limit had expired and requires consultation with the Legislature.
29. In April 2021, the US Supreme Court rules against California’s restrictions on home-based religious gatherings. There are many religions, such as Bahai, that do most of their gatherings in small groups in private homes and not in formal church buildings.
30. In May 2021, a Federal Court rules against the CDC’s moratorium eviction, saying the CDC, under the Public Health Act, lacks jurisdiction to regulate housing and housing contracts.
31. In May 2021, Pennsylvania voters sharply restrict the Governor’s Emergency Powers, after seeing what occurred during the pandemic. (In my State, the Governor can declare an emergency for 60 days, and then can has extended it every sixty days, for a year. She can and did issue unilateral Orders that could not be touched by our elected representatives. This is probably not what anyone had in mind.)
32. In July 2021, Spain’s Constitutional Court (like US Supreme Court) ruled that their lockem’ up orders were unconstitutional.
33. August 2021, Spain’s Constitutional Court rules against “vaccine passports”.
34. September 2021: San Joaquin County and the State of California ordered to pay a Church $500,000 in damages after Public Health ordered the Church to be locked, prohibiting church members and officials from accessing their own property.
35. November 2021: Pennsylvania Court strikes down public health’s mask mandate in schools saying that public health lacks the legal authority to make that mandate.
36. November 2021. A Court in Missouri rules the state public health department had no authority to create its own law on face masks. News article on this here. The government’s law-making bodies (legislature) and regulation makers (regulatory agencies) can make rules, but public health was never given that authority in their state Constitution. Public health acted as an authoritarian rule maker, denying public input into the law or rulemaking process. I presume, cities and counties could step in and establish mask mandates through legal approaches.
37. December 2021: Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules the state’s mask mandate for schools is not valid. This appears to be the final result after the state likely appealed the lower court ruling, from November.
38. December 2021: In Belgium, a government advisory group suspended the Cabinet’s mandatory closing of various businesses.
39. January 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that OSHA had no legal authority to impose vaccine mandates on most workers in the United States. One week later, another Federal judge blocked Biden’s Executive Order, mandating vaccination of Federal workers. (See below, this block was upheld.)
40. January 2022, a Michigan Court rules that the state’s shutdown of a restaurant under Covid rules was unconstitutional (Moore Murphy Hospitality versus Michigan Department of Public Health and Human Services, 46th Circuit Court, Otsego County, Michigan.)
41. January 2022, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals rules that California County’s shut down of gun and ammunition retail stores, due to Covid, was unconstitutional. The Court noted that bicycle stores were permitted to remain open.
42. January 2022, a New York State Supreme Court Justice rules the state’s mask mandate unconstitutional.
43. January, 2022, US Supreme Court rules Biden Administration cannot mandate U.S. workers be vaccinated and undergo daily Covid testing.
44. January 2022. The US FDA said it would not release vaccine certification date until 2096 (75 years). Court ruled against the FDA and ordered the release of the data.
45. February 2022, an Illinois judge has blocked statewide school mask mandates.
46. February 2022, the Virginia State Supreme Court agrees that the Governor’s Executive Order ending statewide mask mandates is legal and appropriate and has rejected the challenge from the City of Chesapeake.
47. April of 2022, a Federal Judge ruled that the CDC’s transportation Mask Mandate is illegal, that the CDC had no authority to issue the regulation and had ignored the Administrative Procedures Act.
48. May 2022. Utah used race-based preferences to allocate medical treatment for Covid-19. “The gap between law and policy widened with the pandemic, which provided an emergency pretext for suspending civil rights. Nondiscrimination, the emails suggest, was seen as an obstacle to crisis management.” – because public health believes it is exempt from the law. In my state, Oregon, some race or ethnic groups had higher mortality initially, but this pattern varied over time, even reversing, whereby some minority groups had lower mortality than dominant white ethnic groups.
49. May 2022, Courts that banned all but immediate trial participants to attend Court proceedings violated the Constitution. Some Courts excluded visitors from witnessing trials, during the pandemic, due to Covid restrictions. This, however, violated trial participants’ right to a public trial. Further, these Courts prohibited video recording.
50. June 2022, Superior Court rules against Los Angeles Unified School District vaccine mandates. The school district had said that all students must be vaccinated to be on campus. The Court struck down this mandate.
51. August 2022, California Appeals Court rules against Santa Clara County and state public health officials who ordered Calvary Chapel of San Jose to be shut during Covid. The Court ruled the State’s orders were unconstitutional. The State and the Church remain in lawsuits filed against each other with the State seeking $2.8 million in fines. In light of the Appeals Court ruling, it seems the State might not be in good position on this.
52. August 2022, COVID vaccine mandate for DC government workers is unlawful, judge rules (msn.com)
53. September 2022, Head Start COVID-19 vaccine mandate permanently blocked by judge (wibw.com) – the Biden Administration never had legal authority to issue the mandate.
54. October 2022, Norway: Court rules covid border controls were ILLEGAL after 6 months (substack.com) – the EU rules only permitted the Covid border controls to remain in effect for 6 months. Norway ran them for 19 months.
55. October 2022, Fired New York City workers prevail in vaccine mandate litigation-Judge rules that NYC Health Commissioner (public health) had no authority to issues rules on working conditions and mandates all fired workers receive back pay for their job loss.
56. October 2022, Michigan Supreme Court rules Governor did not have the emergency powers she claimed.
57. December 2022, Appeals court says U.S. cannot mandate federal contractor COVID vaccines (msn.com)-“A U.S. appeals court on Monday said the White House could not require federal contractors to ensure that their workers are vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of government contracts.”
58. December 2022, Congress rescinds the DoD’s vaccine mandate for the military.
59. January 2023, Judge issues injunction against California AB 2098. This law, implemented in California, would punish doctors who tell patients anything about Covid-19 that has not been officially approved by the government. The Judge said the state’s definition of “misinformation” was “nonsense”.
60. March 2023, Judge refuses to dismiss a lawsuit against the government over its collusion with tech companies to censor free speech concerning Covid-19 matters. This case will now proceed to trial.
61. March 2023, The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules against Biden’s mandate that all Federal workers being vaccinated for Covid. 10 of the 16 judges on the panel ruled against the mandate. It may not be appealed because the government has announced an end to the “public health emergency” in early May 2023.
62. March 2023, Oklahoma Supreme Court rules in favor of parents and against a school district that mandated quarantine of unvaccinated students.
63. April 2023, A Federal Judge rules that the Dept of HHS federal vaccine mandate for Head Start teachers and staff was arbitrary and failed to follow required rule making procedures. The rule also mandated masks on 2 years old; HHS has already discontinued that however it too was a violation of rule making procedures. Head Start, effective immediately, can no longer mandate vaccines or masks.
64. May 2023, not a Court case precisely but the views of SCOTUS Justice Neil Gorsuch “called emergency measures taken during the COVID-19 crisis that killed more than 1 million Americans perhaps “the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.” He pointed to orders closing schools, restricting church services, mandating vaccines and prohibiting evictions.”
65. July 2023, City of Moscow, Idaho, settles with Christ Church members, paying them $300,000 after members were arrested for not wearing masks and social distancing, in September 2020.
66. September 2023, New Mexico. Not Covid but public health related. Governor declares a public health emergency and bans the carriage of weapons by members of the public. The Governor seems to be aware of Constitutional issues, but says “her oath to the Constitution ‘is not absolute'”. This executive order will now go to the Courts. Update: Days later, a judge has already suspended the Order. Illustrates the lawless way in which public health is used to suspend civil rights.
67. October 2023: New York Supreme Court reinstates all employees fired for being unvaccinated [for Covid] orders backpay
68. November 2023: Canadian Court acquits business owner of charges he had not enforced Covid-19 mandates. He allowed entry of customers who did not provide “vaccination papers”. The Court took 10 minutes to decided on his acquital. His business was shut down. He now plans to sue the government for damages.
    

Observation

When public health, directly or indirectly via their state or Federal Administrative function issues mandates without soliciting or processing public input, they are behaving as authoritarian tyrants, in opposition to the basis of Democracy itself. In effect, public health is anti-Democracy. Numerous Courts (see above) have ruled against anti-Democracy initiatives undertaken by public health technocrats. Public health engaged in numerous and illegal actions throughout the pandemic, and which ultimately had no impact on controlling the spread of Covid.

Public health is a largely lawless endeavor that viewed itself above the laws and the Constitution.

Chart for Item #46, above.

The CDC lost in Court on:
– their moratorium on evictions (no authority to do that),
– lost on transportation mask mandate (no authority to do that), and
– lost on shutting down the cruise ship industry.

CDC has viewed itself as above the law.

Public health officials have not understood they must operate within the confines of the law and the U.S. and state Constitutions and should not be given unlimited power to rule. Many of their rules were ineffective but at least they caused actual harm. We also learned much about how they see themselves as exempt from following the laws or even following their own rules (see the list of hypocrites on this web site).

This list is periodically updated. Note that what is ruled against in one state may be permitted in another state – each state has its own Constitution and laws.

Related:

• A pandemic does not suspend the rule of law
• In my state, the Governor can declare an emergency and legally act as a de facto dictator for an indefinite period of time. Some states restrict the Governor’s emergency declaration to a specific duration – such as 30 days, during which the Governor must seek approval from the Legislature to extend the emergency beyond 30 days (or whatever the period is). Update: As of December 2021, my state’s Governor has unilaterally extended her “State of Emergency” declaration through June of 2022. She intends to stop ruling by Executive Order and will now turn to the traditional regulatory process (which requires consultations with the public before issuing new rules). Update: In January and February of 2022, the Oregon Health Authority sought public input on making masks mandatory, permanently. They collected public input (99% opposed) and then ignored 100% of it and made masks permanent at the start of February. Masks remained mandated in health care facilities, pharmacies (while waiting in line at the back of the grocery store where no one else wears a mask), vision centers (glasses), psychological counseling centers, veterinary medical practices and more – until May 3, 2023.
• U.S. Attorney General notes that even in a public health emergency, Constitutional protections still exist.

In early December, the US Supreme Court ruled, within another ruling, that the U.S. Constitution is not suspended during a pandemic.

Unfortunately, numerous public health officials were unaware of this. That they were unaware is appalling. It is their responsibility to know the laws and regulations concerning the immense power they are given.

Last spring, I read a quote from a public health official saying the Constitution could be waived during a public health emergency by public health officials (and the Constitution was suspended); unfortunately, I can no longer find that quote. Without a Constitution in effect, the U.S. itself ceases to exist – seriously.