Wildly-liberal Oregon Governor Kate Brown is miffed. A County judge has just declared every one of her pandemic orders null and void. Oregon is open for business, on appeal, of course.
Related: FreedomWorks Gives Gov Sununu a “C” for Reopening New Hampshire’s’s Economy
A Baker County judge has invalidated Brown’s restrictions on businesses and social gatherings, along with every other executive order Brown has issued under a state of emergency she ordered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finding that Brown exceeded her statutory authority in extending that state of emergency, Baker County Circuit Judge Matthew Shirtcliff granted a preliminary injunction Monday on more than 20 orders dating back to March 12.
Brown invoked emergency powers, using one of several paths for doing so. The judge says she has wandered outside that in several orders, which would pertain to a different regulatory regiment. While Gov. Brown is operating under the impression she has indefinite authority, Baker County Circuit Judge Matthew Shirtcliff says, “In no case can the public health provisions under this area of the law extend beyond 28 days, Shirtcliff ruled.”
Brown’s original EO was for sixty days. She just extended it for another sixty, but Judge Shirtcliff says that’s not legal. He not only repealed every damn one of them; he refused to allow a stay while the case is appealed to the State Supreme Court.
Attorneys for the State and the Governor are asking residents to obey while they pry a stay out of the State’s highest court and push their appeal.
The original suit was brought by groups claiming the orders violated their first amendment religious freedoms.