17 cases against Stay Home, Stay Healthy haven’t yet limited governor’s orders
There have been 17 legal challenges to the governor’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy orders, and none have resulted in a court limiting those orders, the state Attorney General said this week.
Seven of the cases are resolved, nine are pending, and one is on appeal, Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s Office said in a press release.
“State and federal courts across Washington have rejected the plaintiff’s requests for emergency relief in many of the cases, and the plaintiffs in several other cases have given up and abandoned their claims,” the AG’s Office said in the press release. “While more than 10 motions to temporarily block the orders have been filed in the various cases, not one has been granted.”
Some court rulings describe the plaintiff’s arguments as “frivolous,” “unpersuasive,” and “completely devoid of merit,” the press release said.
Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement: “The courts have affirmed the Governor’s authority to act during this ongoing emergency as COVID cases continue to rise throughout the state. I thank Attorney General Ferguson and his team for all their work on this. Our state could be more effective in fighting the virus if all Washingtonians were pulling together with everyone doing their part.”
A list from Ferguson’s office of the cases and their status showed lawsuits filed in state and federal court.
One challenge to “restrictions on religious practice” ended up being voluntarily dismissed when the “plaintiff realized the Bible study he wanted to host was not prohibited,” the list said.
One of the pending cases Ferguson’s office listed is Didier v. Inslee, which challenges Inslee’s emergency proclamations in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the “constitutionality of the emergency powers statute.”
Clint Didier, a county commissioner and chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Tax activist Tim Eyman and five other residents of the Tri-Cities and Okanogan County are also named in it. The case is in U.S. District Court.
The court wrote in an order filed July 24: “Governor Inslee responded and in relevant part argued that he is immune from suit under the Eleventh Amendment. ... The Court has concluded that this position is valid, warrants denial of a similar preliminary injunction, and could divest the Court of jurisdiction to consider Plaintiffs’ claims.”
The court ordered “any party to show cause why Plaintiffs’ complaint should not be dismissed without prejudice for lack of jurisdiction.”
The plaintiff’s response read, in part: “Inslee’s trampling of the Bill of Rights with his Proclamations based on a medical emergency has no basis in common law – and further, no basis in United States’ history — and is therefore without absolute or quasi-judicial immunity.”
This story was originally published August 9, 2020 at 5:45 AM with the headline "17 cases against Stay Home, Stay Healthy haven’t yet limited governor’s orders."
