Both Chambers of a Republican majority legislature, motivated by constituents, has passed a bill to put the brakes on their State’s Chief Executive and his Quarantine Crazy Department of Health.
Related: A COVID 19 Right to Know Request for the Governor of NH
No, sadly, it is not New Hampshire (hang tight, we’ve got NH news on this front). It’s Ohio.
Under current law, the department of health has “ultimate authority in matters of quarantine and isolation, which it may declare, modify, and enforce.” Gov. DeWine, a Republican, has used the broad authority granted to the health department to issue dozens upon dozens of mandates, lockdowns, school and business closures, trampling the civil liberties of Ohioans, crippling businesses across the state, and keeping children out of their classrooms.
Does any of this sound familiar?
The legislature stripped the word “ultimate” from the code and further modified it to say that the department “shall not issue a general, mandatory statewide or regional quarantine or isolation order that applies to and is enforced against individuals who have not been either directly exposed to or medically diagnosed with the disease that is the subject of the order.”
The “Republican” Governor has vowed to veto it, and it is not clear if there is a veto-proof majority in the Senate. Several Republicans defected to vote against the change that passed. But it looks close. Very close. And I hope they override any veto.
Locking down healthy people is tyrannical. Forcing them to wear masks or comply with whatever mandate the bureaucracy and a willing governor can imagine is absurd. Free societies don’t work that way.
As for New Hampshire, there are several proposals in the pipeline to do something similar. Actually, there are (it looks like) 18 legislative proposals relating to emergency Orders or Emergency powers. Most of them appear focused on limiting the current powers being exercised by His Excellency and or returning more or all the oversight to the Legisalture.
| 2021-0002 | HB | Title: | relative to the reversal or forgiveness of emergency order violations. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Andrew Prout , Mark Warden, Dave Testerman, Scott Wallace, Bob Greene, Tony Lekas, Josh Yokela, Dawn Johnson, Melissa Blasek, Cody Belanger | |||
| 2021-0173 | HB | Title: | relative to the emergency powers of the commissioner of health and human services. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) William Marsh | |||
| 2021-0428 | HB | Title: | relative to termination of a state of emergency by simple resolution. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Tony Lekas | |||
| 2021-0430 | HB | Title: | relative to the emergency management powers of the governor. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Anne Copp | |||
| 2021-0431 | HB | Title: | relative to termination of a state of emergency during a recess of the legislature. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Andrew Prout | |||
| 2021-0432 | HB | Title: | relative to termination of an emergency order issued by the governor. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Andrew Prout | |||
| 2021-0434 | HB | Title: | relative to a state of emergency declaration. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Anne Copp | |||
| 2021-0483 | HB | Title: | relative to takings of property in a declared emergency. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Michael Sylvia | |||
| 2021-0497 | HB | Title: | relative to the establishment of a joint legislative emergency executive order oversight committee during a declared state of emergency. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Timothy Lang | |||
| 2021-0551 | HB | Title: | relative to revenue estimates while operating under emergency orders caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Norman Major | |||
| 2021-0597 | HB | Title: | limiting renewal of states of emergency. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Andrew Prout | |||
| 2021-0613 | HB | Title: | relative to evacuations under a state of emergency. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Tony Lekas | |||
| 2021-0619 | HB | Title: | limiting the powers of the governor during a declared state of emergency. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Terry Roy | |||
| 2021-0680 | HCR | Title: | terminating the state of emergency declared by the governor due to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Melissa Blasek | |||
| 2021-0701 | HB | Title: | establishing a committee to study the time frame that emergency executive orders can remain in effect without concurrence from the legislature. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Michael Harrington | |||
| 2021-0709 | HB | Title: | relative to state of emergency declarations. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Gary Hopper | |||
| 2021-0718 | HB | Title: | prohibiting residential evictions and foreclosures during the Covid 19 state of emergency. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Casey Conley | |||
| 2021-0726 | HB | Title: | relative to the applicability of a state of emergency declaration to a house of worship. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Keith Ammon | |||
| 2021-0781 | HB | Title: | relative to emergency housing assistance. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Casey Conley | |||
| 2021-0812 | HB | Title: | relative to the governor’s emergency authority. |
| Sponsors: (Prime) Jeffrey Greeson | |||
If I missed any, send them my way, please. And we won’t have language until there are actual bills – and a few of these look similar. They may get rolled into one or two pieces of legislation.
As for Sununu, I expect he will veto them all. Remember, people drawn to power do not like to give it back, and we do not have veto proof-majorities. Democrats are all in on more of the same and then some.
That’s no reason not to try and use the opportunity to get the issue before the people. A matter with which we are happy to assist.
And because Ohio reminded me of ‘My City Was Gone’ by the Pretenders, well – here it is.
