New Hampshire Governor Ayotte signed HB230 on Friday, limiting the ability of local public health officials to engage in the kind of public health tyranny that was common during the COVID-19 era.
The statute relating to the adoption of local health ordinances was amended to remove language that implied a broad range of authority.
I. The health officers of towns may make regulations for the prevention and removal of
nuisances, [and such other regulations relating to public health] as in their judgment the health and safety of the people require, which shall take effect when approved by the selectmen, recorded by the town clerk, and published in some newspaper printed in the town, or when copies thereof have been posted in 2 or more public places in the town.
Absent this general public health reference, which turned local public health officers, school boards, and others into nuisances themselves, random unnecessary mandates will no longer be a simple matter.
At least that’s the hope.
You’ll recall the dark days of the COVID pandemic. HB230 was one of several bills meant to reel in that madness. How that works in practice remains to be seen. The general legal definition of a public nuisance is as follows.
A public nuisance is when a person unreasonably interferes with a right that the general public shares in common. For example, a business that emits large amounts of foul smelling gas that spreads throughout the city would be creating a public nuisance. Most public nuisances must be brought by government officials on behalf of the public. Private citizens can bring a class action to enjoin the nuisance in some cases. For a private individual to bring an action on their own, they must have suffered a greater or different nuisance than the rest of the public. In the above example, if the gas intruded into houses beside the business, those homeowners might be able to bring private actions given the unique impact on their homes.
Nuisances are defined by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services in a lengthy report published in 2014.
[A] public nuisance is a “behavior that unreasonably interferes with the health, safety, peace, comfort or convenience of the general community.” A public nuisance could include public health threats such as pest infestations, unsanitary living conditions, smoke from outdoor wood boilers, or properties with unreasonable accumulation of garbage.
citations removed.
Not the flu.
Public health officials will likely stretch the boundaries of this new meaning, especially those in blue towns and cities, which are already predisposed to such tyranny. Despots gonna despot, as they say. There is also minimal risk associated with enacting overly zealous ordinances, although that may be an incomplete statement. I couldn’t find a “punishment” for ignoring the limitations, and given how lax our lawmakers are when it comes to passing laws with consequences, the guess is nearly as good as confirmed.
Happy to be wrong about that, but citizens will probably have to file suits and go to state and federal courts for remedy, which, during the COVID pandemic, were largely ineffective at protecting individual liberty from bureaucratic tyranny. In fact, the lawyer who was doing the most to push back on local mask mandates by representing business owners who refused to enforce them was run out of his New Hampshire law practice by the New Hampshire Bar and the court system itself.
HB230 is a good thing. Take the points and let’s see how the game plays out from here.
