Federal Judge Rules Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's COVID-19 Shutdown Order Unconstitutional
Source: KYW News
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A federal judge on Monday struck down Gov. Tom Wolf’s pandemic restrictions that required people to stay at home, placed size limits on gatherings and ordered “non-life-sustaining” businesses to shut down, calling them unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV sided with plaintiffs that included hair salons, drive-in movie theaters, a farmer’s market vendor, a horse trainer and several Republican officeholders who sued as individuals.
Stickman, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote in his ruling that the Wolf administration’s pandemic policies have been overreaching, arbitrary and violated citizens’ constitutional rights.
The governor’s efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus “were undertaken with the good intention of addressing a public health emergency,” Stickman wrote. “But even in an emergency, the authority of government is not unfettered.”
Courts had consistently rejected challenges to Wolf’s power to order businesses to close during the pandemic, and many other governors, Republican and Democrat, undertook similar measures as the virus spread across the country.
Read more: https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2020/09/14/federal-judge-rules-pennsylvania-gov-tom-wolfs-covid-19-shutdown-order-unconstitutional/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Hope the hand-job judges stumpy puts in place are vilified and lose their positions...disbarred..tared and feathered
Whatever is available...
I.e., the shutdowns are no longer in effect as that had been lifted before the case was decided.
But it might impact later actions of a similar type (shutdowns) if such were needed. And as an example, if GOP loons in red cities want to impose an "antifa curfew" because "thugs burning and looting" (despite the fact that there are "law-abiding citizens wanting to go out" ), then this type of idiotic order would basically negate being able to do that too on the grounds of their warped reading of "the 1st amendment and the 14th amendment". 
This ruling is a complete distortion of the 1st amendment (going to a restaurant to eat is not "petitioning the government for redress" which is what the "peaceably assemble" refers to) and a "gym" is NOT a "person" with rights and liberties like a person. 
Updated 5:35 PM; Today 4:18 PM
By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com
Pennsylvania’s Gov. Tom Wolf does not intend to let a federal judge shoot down his orders aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 without putting up a fight. A spokeswoman said Wolf is disappointed with the U.S. District Court Judge William Stickman IV’s ruling, issued Monday, that the governor’s stay-at-home order and business closure order issued in March and later suspended, along with limitations he placed on social gatherings of 25 people indoors and 250 outdoors as unconstitutional.
They “will seek a stay of the decision and file an appeal,” said Wolf spokeswoman Lyndsay Kensinger. “The actions taken by the administration were mirrored by governors across the country and saved, and continue to save lives in the absence of federal action. This decision is especially worrying as Pennsylvania and the rest of the country are likely to face a challenging time with the possible resurgence of COVID-19 and the flu in the fall and winter.”
Kensinger said the ruling does not impact any of the other mitigation orders currently in place including, but not limited to the targeted mitigation orders announced in July, mandatory telework, mandatory mask order, worker safety order, and the building safety order.
The lawsuit filed during the “red phase” of the governor’s reopening plan when many businesses were closed, was brought by four western Pennsylvania counties and several Republican state lawmakers and alleged the governor’s orders violated the First Amendment as well as the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/09/pa-gov-tom-wolf-intends-to-seek-a-stay-to-federal-court-decision-ruling-his-pandemic-response-orders-unconstitutional.html
https://www.ctpost.com/news/coronavirus/article/Lamont-adds-100-fine-for-no-masks-larger-levies-15566598.php
Lamont adds $100 fine for no masks, larger levies for gatherings..
Exercising your freedom not to wear a mask may cost you $100. Throwing an event that exceeds 25 people indoors or 100 outdoors? That could set you back $500. Attending that over-populated event? Fork over $250.
Local police, health departments and elected officials will be able to issue the fines under a forthcoming executive order from Gov. Ned Lamont aimed at cutting a COVID-19 infection rate that inched over one percent for the last week.
Lamont said the new penalties were in response to mayors and first selectmen who want teeth in the state coronavirus rules that have been, in effect, mostly suggestions on public use of masks and attendance at private events. “This is really following the lead of our municipalities saying that we need a little more leverage when people are breaking the rules; when institutions and businesses are breaking the rules,” Lamont said
Put that in you judicial pipe and smoke it, Judge Stick Man.
KY.............
