Daniel Cameron joins lawsuit challenging Andy Beshear on KY COVID-19 restrictions
Attorney General Daniel Cameron has joined a Northern Kentucky lawsuit that challenges Gov. Andy Beshear’s COVID-19 restrictions on businesses as “contradictory, ludicrous, arbitrary and discriminatory.”
At a hearing on Wednesday, Boone Circuit Judge Rick Brueggemann issued an emergency injunction to allow one of the plaintiffs, dirt racetrack Florence Speedway in Walton, to again have spectators, but at 50 percent of capacity.
The judge said he also will examine the state’s limits placed on class sizes for another plaintiff, daycare center Little Links to Learning in Fort Mitchell. The next hearing in the case is set for July 21.
“With nearly half of Kentucky’s workforce unemployed and the day-to-day lives of Kentuckians micromanaged by the governor’s executive orders, it is incumbent upon us to challenge over-broad and unconstitutional orders and seek relief for our fellow citizens,” Cameron said after the hearing.
Cameron, a Republican, was named as a defendant in the case alongside Beshear, a Democrat, as well as the state Health and Family Services Cabinet and the Northern Kentucky Health Department. But Cameron filed paperwork on Tuesday to change sides in the case, expressing sympathy with the plaintiffs who said they are barely surviving.
Beshear “has ordered private industry to open and close at his will,” Cameron wrote in his initial court filing. “He has ordered churches closed and religious gatherings to disperse. And with each passing day, he subjects Kentuckians to increasing uncertainty about how he will wield the breathtaking authority he claims. Citizens all over the state have no way to predict what’s next and no control over fundamental parts of their lives.”
Beshear’s office this week defended his actions as necessary during the global coronavirus pandemic.
“The attorney general’s position is reckless and threatens the lives of thousands of Kentuckians. At a time when the coronavirus is surging in states to our south, some of which have seen 9,000 cases in a day, the attorney general would remove the necessary powers to respond to such a surge. Those powers are currently being used by the governors of Texas, Florida and other states,” said Beshear spokeswoman Crystal Staley.
Cameron is the second Republican constitutional officer to join such a suit against Beshear this week. On Monday, Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles stood with the owners of Evans Orchard and Cider Mill as they filed their own challenge to the governor’s COVID-19 business restrictions in Scott Circuit Court.
In the Boone County case, filed June 16, three businesses and one individual say the restrictions Beshear put into place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus are so excessive that they are unfairly harmed. By acting on his own, without the General Assembly’s approval, Beshear violates the state Constitution, which divides the powers of state government among the three branches, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs other than Florence Speedway and Little Links to Learning are Beans Cafe and Bakery in Dry Ridge and an individual, Theodore Roberts of Burlington. In the suit, Roberts said he has asthma and cannot safely wear a mask, which is preventing his barber — under Beshear’s orders — from cutting his hair.
“The Plaintiffs are willing to establish and abide by reasonable procedures to help stop the spread of COVID-19, but cannot comply with the requirements of the challenged orders,” attorney Christopher Wiest wrote in the lawsuit.
For Florence Speedway, for example, Beshear’s orders limited the racetrack to authorized employees and drivers and crews, with no spectators or media allowed, and it required those people to use masks and social distancing, keeping at least six feet apart whenever possible, according to the suit. That effectively shut down the track.
However, in an unfair contradiction, the state of Kentucky is allowing audiences at indoor venues including movie theaters, bowling alleys and even live auctions, where shouting people can spray aerosol droplets around the room, Wiest wrote in the suit.
“The science behind the transmission of the coronavirus is that, generally speaking, outdoor gatherings are safer than indoor gatherings, particularly if people are social distancing and/or wearing masks,” Wiest wrote.
In his court filing, Cameron said he represented the interests of the commonwealth as he sought a court injunction against the governor’s statewide emergency orders.
As of June 30, many counties in Kentucky reported few coronavirus infections, Cameron said. Of the state’s 4.5 million citizens, there had been 15,642 positive test results, he said.
“By declaring a statewide emergency and refusing to tailor his orders to specific hot spots or concerns,” Beshear is violating sections of the state Constitution and state law that require him to more narrowly exercise his powers, the attorney general wrote.
“Therefore, the commonwealth respectfully requests a declaration that the governor’s executive orders under KRS Chapter 39A must specifically identify the grounds upon which an emergency is declared and the location of the emergency and must be reasonably tailored in such a way that the emergency response addresses only the emergency at the location where it exists,” Cameron wrote.
The Northern Kentucky Health Department has filed a motion to dismiss the claims against it in the suit, noting that it does not set the state’s policy, it only enforces it locally.
