Last Friday the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied their request to stay the order, finding that
the group had “not established any basis for relief based upon their
constitutional challenges.” Monday’s filing asks the Supreme Court to weigh in
and rule differently, because, the petitioners claim, the economic damage of
the shut-down deprives them of property without due process.
The group of petitioners includes Friends of Danny DeVito, a
committee boosting the election of a candidate for the state House of
Representatives (who shares the name of the famous actor), a real estate agent,
a public golf course and restaurant, a laundry company, and a company that
harvests timber on their land. Since the filing of their original petition in
Pennsylvania, the laundry company and the timber company have been granted
waivers under the executive order and moved into the “life-sustaining” category
still allowed to operate. All five of the organizations remain parties to the
Supreme Court petition, however, and maintain that leaving the executive order
in place “constitutes severe, immediate, and ongoing deprivation of their
rights under the U.S. Constitution.”
The thrust of the petitioners’ complaint is that the
“financial distress” caused by the mandatory pandemic response constitutes “the
complete destruction of the property rights of vast numbers of businesses.” The
Pennsylvania Supreme Court, however, held that there was not a taking of
property. The governor’s executive order, the court said, “results in only a
temporary loss of the use of the Petitioners’ business premises, and the
Governor’s reason for imposing said restrictions on the use of their property,
namely to protect the lives and health of millions of Pennsylvania citizens,
undoubtedly constitutes a classic example of the use of the police power to
protect the lives, health, morals, comfort, and general welfare of the people.”
The Pennsylvania court pointed to a 2002 case in the US Supreme Court when a
group of developers around Lake Tahoe were prevented from working there for
more than two years while the regional planning authority developed a
comprehensive land use plan. The Supreme Court refused to find that a
regulatory taking because of the temporary nature of the measure. For the
COVID-19 emergency, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court noted, the executive order
must expire at 90 days; while it can be renewed, the legislature may also step
in to end the disaster declaration.
The Pennsylvania petition will head to Justice Samuel Alito,
who manages requests from that part of the country and will have the decision
whether to forward the petition to the entire court.
To read more CLICK HERE
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment