Home / Top News / Mass. High Court Ruling Disregards Civil Liberties, Gives Governor Virtual Free Pass to Violate Them During a Civil Defense State of Emergency
Mass. High Court Ruling Disregards Civil Liberties, Gives Governor Virtual Free Pass to Violate Them During a Civil Defense State of Emergency
Dawn Desrosiers v. Governor Charlie Baker
Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rendered its
decision in the
Desrosiers v. Baker case this morning upholding Governor Baker’s pandemic orders as consistent with the Civil Defense Act (CDA). The order delivers a blow to the plaintiffs who include mom-and-pop businesses, two church pastors; the head of a religious academy, and others. The constitutional rights to due process of law and to be governed only by laws passed by the state legislature have been denied by the Court, causing incalculable harm to every Commonwealth resident.
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upholds Gov. Charlie Baker’s executive orders to combat COVID pandemic
Updated Dec 10, 2020;
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday upheld Gov. Charlie Baker’s use of emergency executive orders to close certain businesses, implement curfews and make other changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a 41-page decision authored by Justice Elspeth Cypher, the state’s highest court wrote that Baker’s declaration of a state of emergency did not infringe on other branches of state government or violate residents’ First Amendment rights.
“The emergency orders do not unconstitutionally burden the plaintiffs’ right to free assembly because reducing the dangers of COVID-19 is a significant government interest, and because the emergency orders are content neutral and narrowly tailored, and they leave open alternative channels of communication,” Cypher wrote.
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GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Hanukkah begins tonight.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN President-elect Joe Biden s incoming administration has upended one state s politics but it s not Massachusetts.
The Biden administration is set to have an outsized impact on California, where Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is likely to have a
Massachusetts is not OK.
While our hospitals and healthcare infrastructure have given us something of a buffer against the winter COVID-19 surge that’s depleted ICU capacity in states like Arizona and North Dakota, our system is still being tested by the staggering numbers of infections the state is now reporting every day. (Tuesday alone saw 3,627 new cases.)
As neighboring states like Vermont and Rhode Island tackle the surge by pausing their reopenings shutting down certain businesses where transmission can occur, and placing new limits on gatherings many are looking toward Gov. Charlie Baker and asking, “What are
we doing? And why isn t it more?”