As we have previously noted, the nation is being set up, through the spreading of fear, for another imposition of the illegal and unconstitutional COVID-19 restrictions.

Unvaccinated people are at risk. Hospitalizations are on the rise, with experts warning the COVID-19 delta variant has the potential to be one of the most serious viruses faced in a lifetime.

Protect yourself and others. Get vaccinated. https://t.co/I56ArFmZNJ

— Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) July 20, 2021

And now comes Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY), one of the worst of the COVID tyrants:

As Delta variant spreads, Beshear recommends return to indoor masking for some

By Alex Acquisto | July 19, 2021 | 5:07 PM | Updated: July 19, 2021 | 6:01 PM EDT

Fully-vaccinated Kentuckians who work in jobs with “significant public exposure” should consider wearing a mask again in indoor public spaces, Gov. Andy Beshear recommended on Monday, citing rising case numbers and escalating spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19.

The governor is also recommending a return to masking in indoor public settings for fully-vaccinated Kentuckians at high-risk of severe coronavirus infection because of pre-existing health conditions. High-exposure jobs include retail and hospitality businesses, as well as any job that requires contact with many different people.

“The more people you come in contact with, the more exposure you are likely to have, so we believe at this point it is a smart idea,” Beshear said.

The new recommendations, which apply to both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, are necessary because “we are seeing more cases among vaccinated Kentuckians because of the Delta variant,” Beshear said.

There’s more at the original, but the most important word in that article is “necessary.” The Governor argued, after his attorney’s presentation to the state Supreme Court:

After the court hearing, Beshear told reporters that a governor’s emergency powers certainly “have to be large enough with a one-in-every-hundred year pandemic that creates the deadliest year in our history, it has to be significant and strong enough to do what’s necessary there.”

“You look back at different things that this legislature has tried to do in the midst of this pandemic and they would have not had the courage to step up and mandate masks, which we know from the experts is absolutely necessary,” he said. “We would have looked like the Dakotas and not what we looked like here in Kentucky.”

Mr Beshear believes that he just has to have these powers, because they are necessary, regardless of the General Assembly putting restrictions on them.

Oral arguments were made to the Court on June 10^th, which was 5½ weeks ago, and the Court has not yet issued its ruling. The last time this issue came before the state Supreme Court, prior to the last legislative session, which changed the laws, the Court took from September 17^th until November 12^th, to issue its decision, 56 days, an even 8 weeks, so, if the Court uses the same timetable, it wouldn’t issue its decision until Thursday, August 5^th.

Of course, the Governor has only issued recommendations, and not tried to impose another executive order. I would like to think that this is because he has already been notified by the justices that they aren’t going to come down on his side, and he knows that the General Assembly would never approve an extension of a mask order, but the state Supreme Court has a decidedly liberal leaning:

The last three years in Kentucky should provide an equal awakening concerning the Kentucky Supreme Court. Over and over in the past three years, the state’s highest court has upended legislation after legislation passed by the General Assembly, often appearing to seek legal justification after it had decided what it wanted to do.

To name a handful, regardless of the policy merits of the 2018 pension reform bill, the Court invalidated the law based on a procedure that has been used by the General Assembly for decades. The Court threw out Medical Review Panels, blocked Marsy’s Law^[1]Hyperlink added by editor; not included in cited article., and perhaps the most head-scratching of all, had three justices dissent in the case that ultimately upheld Kentucky’s right-to-work law.

Brian T. Fitzpatrick, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School who studies methods of selecting judges, looked at the ideological makeup of state Supreme Courts compared to the electorate they serve in a 2017 study. Kentucky, he found, is entirely out of whack. The commonwealth had the eighth highest liberal skew in the country, versus the federal electorate in the state, during his studied period.

Well, the Kentucky Supreme Court was certainly out of tune with the electorate in Kentucky. On November 3, 2020, the voters in the Commonwealth rewarded Republican state legislative candidates, who had campaigned against the Governor’s restrictions, with 14 additional seats in the state House of Representatives, giving the GOP a 75-25 seat advantage,^[2]Don’t scream, “Gerrymandering!” because when the House districts were redistricted following the 2010 census, Democrats controlled the state House. and 2 additional seats, out of 17 up for election, in the state Senate, for a 38-10 GOP margin.

The state Supreme Court has long been a friend of Mr Beshear’s, particularly when it came to the then-Attorney General filing lawsuit after lawsuit to frustrate Governor Matt Bevin (R-KY). And while I would like to think that the Governor has already been clued in to his legal position failing, it’s just as possible — and perhaps even more possible — that the state Supremes have come down in his favor, and he’s just setting the table to change recommendations into requirements.