Citing ‘life-and-death battle,’ Beshear asks courts to uphold his orders on masks, safety
Calling the fight against COVID-19 “a war,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is waging an aggressive legal battle in hopes of keeping intact his executive orders to curb the virus that is spiking in the state.
Beshear, in a 48-page filing Tuesday in Franklin Circuit Court against Attorney General Daniel Cameron, asked the court to declare his mandatory mask order proper. It went into effect last Friday.
In a 37-page filing Tuesday, the Democratic governor asked the Kentucky Supreme Court to block two lower court rulings against his restrictions on businesses.
“The Commonwealth is in a life-and-death battle against COVID-19 — the gravest threat to public health in over a century,” Beshear told the Supreme Court in trying to halt a ruling Monday by Court of Appeals Judge Glenn Acree.
Acree upheld rulings by circuit judges in Boone and Scott counties that struck down Beshear’s executive orders restricting crowds at automobile racetracks and agritourism businesses and class sizes at daycare centers.
Cameron asked Scott Circuit Court Judge Brian Privett last week to rule on the legality of the mandatory mask policy. A hearing on that is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday.
Cameron, a Republican, said Beshear’s lawsuit in Franklin Circuit court is “redundant and unnecessary,” given the hearing Thursday in Scott Circuit Court.
“This is another example of Gov. Beshear trying to circumvent standard legal procedure. He tried a similar maneuver already, and it was quickly struck down by a Court of Appeals Judge,” said Cameron.
Beshear’s appeal to Kentucky Supreme Court
Beshear has bypassed the Kentucky Court of Appeals and gone directly to the Supreme Court, the state’s highest court, in the wake of Acree’s decision to uphold rulings by Boone Circuit Judge Richard A. Bruegemann and Scott Circuit Judge Brian Privett.
Bruegemann issued a restraining order against Beshear in placing restrictions on the number of people at automobile racetracks, day care centers and agritourism businesses.
Privett had issued a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed by Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles and Evans Orchard and Cider Mill in Georgetown. It challenged Beshear’s restrictions on crowds at certain businesses. Cameron joined the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Besides issuing a restraining order on Beshear’s restrictions for 548 agritourism businesses registered with the state Department of Agriculture, the judge also limited Besherar’s ability to sign future COVID-19 executive orders unless they provide specific details like identifying the emergency that requires the order and the location of the emergency.
Beshear called the orders “reckless” and criticized those who brought and supported them. He asked the Court of Appeals to stop them. But Acree did not and now Beshear has appealed to the Supreme Court.
In his appeal Tuesday, Beshear said, “Responsible officials are at war with this cornonavirus.”
“The stakes could not be higher,” Beshear said, noting that Kentucky reported 576 new cases Tuesday.
He said the two lower courts erred and did not apply a single case or statute when ruling his emergency orders violated the law. He said their orders “dangerously impair and impede” his ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by allowing 548 agritourism businesses to operate without any requirements and by allowing day care centers to keep 28 children in a room at a time.
Beshear said that is an “unsafe number” when the virus is endangering an increasing number of Kentucky children.
The governor told the court he “does not merely represent himself; he represents the people of the Commonwealth, who elected him.
“And a delayed judicial holding vindicating the governor’s actions is no remedy at all for those Kentuckians who may become sick, who may spread the disease to others or who may died while the restraining orders remain in effect.
“The death of additional Kentuckians cannot be remedied through later hearings or decisions.”
Beshear specifically asked the Supreme Court to stop the lower courts’ restraining orders against him and grant an emergency temporary order to block them.
He said the children and caretakers in day care centers and the thousands of employees who work in the agritourism businesses “are at risk every day that the restraining orders remain in effect.”
Quarles spokesman Sean Southard said the commissioner’s lawsuit is “about whether or not Kentuckians have a right to participate in the policy-making process. Under law, the governor can issue emergency regulations that take effect immediately while also preserving the right of the public to participate in the rule-making process.
“It’s sad to see Gov. Beshear insult and attack anyone who dares to ask him to follow the law —including any judge who rules against him. Instead of attacking our judiciary, perhaps he should govern with the civility he promised on the campaign trail last year.”
Southard stressed that Quarles’ lawsuit has nothing to do with Beshear’s mask policy, adding that Quarles wears a mask “and believes everyone else should.”
Beshear’s request to Franklin Circuit Court
The governor asked the Franklin Circuit Court to decide his authority to mandate masks “to keep Kentuckians safe during an emergency like the once-in-a-lifetime public health agency we are battling now.”
“Without an answer from this and ultimately the Supreme Court, our Commonwealth threatens to join the ranks of other states where COVID-19 cases are surging, hospital beds are dwindling and more people are dying,” he said.
Beshear said he mandated masks in public last week to curb the virus but “despite the scientific evidence and strong support for face coverings expressed by federal and state leaders and public health officials,” Attorney General Cameron sent a letter to him asserting that the order was “arbitrary and overbroad” and violated the state Constitution.
Beshear said Cameron was in error and has intervened in two court cases challenging the governor’s authority.
Beshear asked Franklin Circuit Court to rule quickly.
The case has been assigned to Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 12:22 PM.
