Posted on September 9, 2021 by Dana Pico

Will Andy Beshear regret calling a special session?

As we have previously noted, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) really, really doesn’t like the state legislature, but he didn’t have much choice but to call a special session of the General Assembly. Getting the General Assembly involved is something the Governor very much did not want to do. On July 10, 2020, Mr Beshear stated that he wouldn’t involve the legislature because he believed that they wouldn’t do his bidding.

Beshear was asked at Friday’s news conference on COVID-19 why he has not included the legislature in coming up with his orders. He said many state lawmakers refuse to wear masks and noted that 26 legislators in Mississippi have tested positive for the virus.

In the Bluegrass State, the legislature’s regular sessions are restricted by the state constitution, to sixty days, the last of which cannot go beyond April 15^th in even numbered years, and thirty days, not to run beyond March 30^th, in odd numbered years. The Governor, however, can call the legislature into special session, and he has the power to set its agenda during a special session. The General Assembly cannot call itself back into session outside of the constitutional restrictions.

But, with the COVID-19 state of emergency that the Governor declared in March of 2020 set to expire on Friday, September 10^th, thanks to the state Supreme Court’s decision on the laws reining in the Governor’s emergency authority, Mr Beshear needed the special session to extend that. The General Assembly voted for an extension of that until January 15^th, at which time the legislature will be in its regular session.

However, the Republican-controlled legislature hasn’t been doing much that the Governor wanted. We had previously noted that the Governor had asked school districts to put mask mandates in place, but most districts made them optional. The Governor then got pissed off, and made it an order.

Bill ditching KY school mask mandate approved by House committee on the second try

By Valarie Honeycutt Spears | Updated September 8, 2021 | 7:15 PM EDT

It took two attempts, but the House Education Committee on Wednesday passed a bill that would eliminate the state’s mask mandate in K-12 schools and specifies when districts could close to in-person learning.

The House Education Committee first met at noon Wednesday, when House Bill 1 failed because it only got 11 of the 12 yes votes it needed to win approval in the committee of 22. There were seven no votes and three pass votes.

Later, a second meeting of the House Education Committee was called for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. At that meeting, the committee quickly reconsidered and approved the bill. It now moves to the full House of Representatives, and similar legislation remains alive in the Senate. The second vote was 16 yes votes, 2 no votes and no passes. . . . .

At the second meeting, several lawmakers said they were changing their vote so that the legislation could be heard in the full House. Others said they were afraid if the bill died, schools would miss out on the help the legislation could provide. One provision makes it easier for retired teachers to return to the classroom to ease staff shortages.

There’s more at the original.

The Governor had already said that he would reimpose his despised statewide mask mandate if he could, and when the state Supreme Court ruled that his authority had been limited, he ran an end-around, to get the state Board of Education to issue one, a mandate lasting for the entire school year. I had been noting for awhile that the Governor was looking for an excuse to reimpose the mask mandate, and he admitted it, stating that the high number of COVID-19 cases and hospital staffing shortages would have spurred him to enact a statewide mask mandate for indoor settings.

However, under the proposed bill, local school boards and districts would still have the authority to issue mask mandates for their jurisdictions.

The truth is simple: it was the hated statewide indoor mask mandate which was the primary impetus for voters in the Commonwealth to give Republican legislative candidates such huge majorities in the 2020 elections.

The bill also includes language to allow schools more flexibility on ‘non traditional instruction’, NTI, days. In the regular session last winter, the legislature, fighting the closure of schools and long term use of remote instruction, mandated that no schools could take more than ten NTI days without having to make them up in in-person days. As several districts, at least 38 of them so far, have had to close down due to COVID, those days, normally used for snow days during the winter, would quickly get used up. The legislature is still looking at limits, but with more flexibility for schools who confine NTI to those students or classes which must be quarantined, rather than entire school systems. We do not yet know what the final form will be.

Posted on September 7, 2021 by Dana Pico

Andy Beshear hates the state legislature, but he had no choice but to call them in

Most of my articles on Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) are primarily sourced from the Lexington Herald-Leader, but he wrangled an invitation from NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, and came to the attention of The New York Times:

Kentucky governor says the state’s Covid surge is ‘dire.’

by Melina Delkic | September 5, 2021

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY)

Kentucky’s Democratic governor on Sunday described the state’s surge of Covid cases as “dire,” and pointed out that Republican state lawmakers had limited his options to control the record wave of infections there.

“If I had the ability to do it right now, we would have a masking order when you are in public and indoors,” said Gov. Andy Beshear, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” news program. “We know that’s a proven way to slow the spread of the virus and ultimately help our health care capacity.”

Right: if the Governor had the authority to issue a statewide mask mandate, he would have done so, and that is precisely why the voters of the Commonwealth gave Republican state legislative candidates such a huge margin in last November’s elections, because Mr Beshear had issued a statewide mask mandate last year.

Kentucky recorded a seven-day average of 4,423 new daily cases on Saturday, according to a New York Times database. Deaths and hospitalizations have been rising, too. “Our situation is dire,” Mr. Beshear said.

The state Supreme Court recently ruled that a lower court could not block lawmakers’ attempts to curb Mr. Beshear’s emergency powers for dealing with Covid. He had attempted to impose a sweeping mask mandate in schools.

Mr. Beshear has called a special session of the state legislature to begin on Tuesday to address the crisis.

Getting the General Assembly involved is something the Governor very much did not want to do. On July 10, 2020, Mr Beshear stated that he wouldn’t involve the legislature because he believed that they wouldn’t do his bidding.

And, as it happens, Kentucky’s legislators are not wearing masks today, as the special session opens:

Kentucky special session on COVID-19 starts with many lawmakers not wearing masks

By Jack Brammer | Updated: September 7, 2021 | 5:12 PM EDT

With most members not wearing masks, a special session of the Kentucky General Assembly started Tuesday morning to deal with the state’s surging COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawmakers acted quickly on Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s call to extend the COVID-19 state of emergency that has been in place in Kentucky since March 2020 and more time for a state of emergency to deal with August flooding in Nicholas County. House Joint Resolution 1, which extends the states of emergency and many of the governor’s emergency orders, was expected to clear the legislature before the end of the day.

House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, gaveled his chamber into session at 10:13 a.m. and 94 of the 100 members responded to the roll call and heard the proclamation of the special session. Thirty-four members of the 38-member Senate convened at 12:16 p.m. with most members going without a mask. The two physicians in the Senate — Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, and Karen Berg, D-Louisville — wore masks.

Lawmakers returned to the state Capitol in Frankfort at the call of Beshear, who has presented them with an agenda to fight the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 7,900 lives in Kentucky.

The Democratic governor made the session call Saturday, two weeks after the Kentucky Supreme Court said his emergency orders dealing with the pandemic needed approval by the Republican-led legislature.

As far as I have heard, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd has not yet lifted his injunctions against the legislation that the state Supreme Court ordered him to do, and the parties to the lawsuit were supposed to appear before the judge today, but I have been unable to find any reports concerning that. Nevertheless, Governor Beshear at least appears to be acting as though those injunctions have been lifted.

The legislature quickly approved the Governor’s request to extend the state of emergency until January 15^th, the state House of Representatives voting 92-3 in favor, and the state Senate 32-4, sending it to Mr Beshear for his signature.

By extending the state of emergency until January 15^th, when the General Assembly will be in its regular session, the Governor would have the power to issue a statewide mask mandate, lasting for thirty days, but the General Assembly might just deny him that one:

Bill ditching mask mandates for KY schools and daycare centers gains momentum

By Valarie Honeycutt Spears | Updated: September 7, 2021 | 4:32 PM EDT

Hours after the Kentucky General Assembly began a special session Tuesday to deal with COVID-19 policies, the Senate Education Committee approved a bill that rejects the Beshear Administration’s emergency regulations requiring universal masking of people age two or older in K-12 schools and daycare centers.

Senate Bill 1 declares the regulations requiring masks in schools and daycare centers null and void.

The bill, approved by the committee with a 8-5 vote, now goes to the full Senate. Lawmakers who voted no voiced concerns about lifting the mask mandates at a time when transmission of COVID-19 and resulting hospitalizations are at an all-time high in Kentucky.

Education Committee Chairman Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, said individual school boards will be free to decide their own policies about masking in schools.

Wise said the bill would become law as soon as Gov. Andy Beshear signs it or the legislature overrides his veto, given that it is considered emergency legislation.

We had previously noted that the Governor had asked school districts to put mask mandates in place, but most districts made them optional. The Governor then got pissed off, and made it an order.

There’s more at the original, much of it devoted to the legislature’s plans to ease the restrictions on ‘non-traditional instruction,’ meaning those days in which school is conducted remotely. The legislature wants to keep schools from closing down for everybody because some students or staffers test positive for COVID-19.

Those were the two things which rankled the legislators, and Kentuckians in general, the most: the mask mandate and the schools being closed, and those are the two things the General Assembly appears to be most eager to prevent from happening again. Of course, it’s going to take a few days to see how this will play out, and what the legislature passes. But at least a wannabe dictator of a Governor has been reined in by the democratically elected General Assembly and the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Posted on August 31, 2021 by Dana Pico

Remember: you cannot trust Democratic governors. The left say they are for democracy, right up until the will of the voters goes against them

I lived in the Keystone State for fifteen years before moving back to Kentucky for my retirement, and I can assure you that I did not vote for Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA)!

Gov. Tom Wolf will require masks in Pa. schools, sources say

The governor could outline the proposed requirement at a 2 p.m. news conference about coronavirus measures in schools.

by Justine McDaniel, Erin McCarthy, Andrew Seidman, and Maddie Hanna | Tuesday, August 31, 2021 | 2:11 PM EDT

Masks will be required in all Pennsylvania schools, Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday, announcing a mandate days after the Republican-led legislature rejected his call to pass one via legislation.

Aiming to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools, the order issued by the Department of Health requires face coverings indoors in all K-12 schools, both public and private, and licensed child care centers beginning next Tuesday.

The mandate is a reversal for the Wolf administration, which had previously said it would leave decisions about how to reopen up to individual districts. In announcing the decision in a statement, the governor cited misinformation about mask-wearing that he said was “pressuring and intimidating school districts to reject mask policies.”

It comes as many are already back in session, some with masks required and some without, and the rest are poised to start within days. Certain districts have already spent months battling over the mask question, which has stirred heated conflict among some parents.

There’s more at the original. But the issue is pretty simple: the people have rejected the mask mandates, but the Governor wants it, and he is going to use every means at his disposal to overrule the will of the public.

In May, Pennsylvania voters approved two constitutional amendments:

Previously, only the governor could declare the end of a disaster. According to state law, the General Assembly has the option to pass a resolution that would terminate the declaration, but the governor can still veto. If the assembly could gather support with a two-thirds majority, they could overturn the governor’s veto.

This exact scenario played out last summer over the COVID-19 pandemic disaster declaration, when the state Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature could not overturn the governor’s declaration without his ability to then veto it.

The second question proposed that the time limit on a disaster declaration be shortened from 90 days to 21 days unless the General Assembly votes to extend it.

As we have noted previously, Governor Wolf was very upset that local school boards, people elected by the voters, were choosing a different course than the one he favored.

The Wolf administration implemented a school mask mandate last year without legislation, as it also did for a statewide masking requirement. But with this year’s reopening helmed by districts, Wolf said earlier this month that he would not mandate masks. The new mandate would be done under authority of the state’s disease control and prevention law, said one source.

In other words, the Governor believes he has found a legal loophole to get around what the state legislature and a majority of the voters wanted to do: restrict his executive authority to issue restrictions.

The people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have spoken, but that doesn’t matter to petty dictators like Tom Wolf.

And in the Bluegrass State, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) hopes to impose some restrictions himself, though the decision of the state Supreme Court requires that he work with the General Assembly this time:

Beshear plans to call special law-making session soon to fight COVID-19

By Jack Brammer | August 30, 2021 | 6:05 PM EDT

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday his goal is to call state lawmakers into a special session as soon as legislative leaders and he reach “a general consensus” on what steps to take to fight the raging coronavirus pandemic.

He said it needs to happen soon but did not mention a specific date. Only the governor can call a special law-making session and set its agenda

The Democratic governor and Republican legislative leaders are in negotiations over what actions should be taken to fight COVID-19, which Beshear said continues to hit the state “harder and harder.” He said a record 2,198 Kentuckians are now in the hospital with the virus, with a record 615 in intensive care units and a record 384 on ventilators. . . . .

Asked about a rumor that he plans to call a special session to begin next week, Beshear said a session is needed to keep in effect the state of emergency for the pandemic he declared in March 2020.

He said he will be pushing “for some other things.”

He noted that schools that are shutting down now because of the virus need more flexibility on having non-traditional instruction days when students can do online work from home.

The state education commissioner now can waive up to 10 so-called NTI days to count towards student attendance days in the school districts’ calendars.

“I’m going to seek all the tools I can,” said Beshear. “I’m not going to hold off on calling a special session if I don’t get all of them.”

Some things actually make sense, such as allowing an exception to the NTI limit. Since the regular session of the legislature is just three months away, a special session could authorize some gubernatorial actions for up to 120 days, and then the regular session would take them up if the Governor wanted to continue them.

But one action the legislature will never approve is the odious mask mandate. If there was any one thing that the Governor forced last year that pushed the voters toward the tremendous surge for the GOP, it was the hated mask mandate. The Governor has already said that he would impose it again, if he could.

Technically, he could again . . . for thirty days. If he does, I will not comply, and I would guess that a bunch of other Kentuckians wouldn’t either.

Nevertheless, there’s a danger. As we have previously noted, despite being ordered to do so by the state Supreme Court, Phillip Shepherd, the Governor’s toady judge has not yet lifted him injunctions, and has ordered the Governor and Attorney General to present their arguments to him, on September 7^th, on the Governor’s lawsuit seeking to have several of the restrictions placed on him by the General Assembly declared unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court left him very little room to do so, but Judge Shepherd makes up things as he goes along, and appears to be inclined, personally, to take Mr Beshear’s side on everything.

It really doesn’t matter whether you think mask or vaccine mandates are a wise idea; what ought to matter is that the voters have rejected politicians who have tried to impose authoritarian restrictions and regulations on a free people.

Posted on August 26, 2021 by Dana Pico

Impeach Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd!

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd. Photo: Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts.

I wrote Impeach Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd! back on March 3, after he issued his illegal and unconstitutional injunctions against laws passed by the General Assembly, and it appears I was right. It took way, way, way too long for the state Supreme Court to rule that the injunctions should not have been issued, and order the injunctions dissolved:

We find that this matter presents a justiciable case or controversy but that the Franklin Circuit Court abused its discretion in issuing the temporary injunction. Accordingly, we remand this case to the trial court with instructions to dissolve the injunction.

Now, five days later, we find that Judge Shepherd is not going to follow the instructions to dissolve the injunctions!

KY judge delays following Supreme Court COVID order as Beshear & lawmakers negotiate

By Jack Brammer | August 26, 2021 11:57 AM

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and legislative leaders are working together on a new set of COVID-19 emergency orders, which they hope to present to a Franklin Circuit Court judge before he dissolves an injunction against new laws that will torpedo Beshear’s existing emergency orders and regulations.

At a status conference hearing Thursday morning, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd said he will follow the Kentucky Supreme Court’s instructions in a ruling last Saturday for him to dissolve the injunction but he will wait until the court hears more about the work between the Democratic governor and the Republican legislative leaders.

The high court unanimously said the injunction was wrong and that the new laws limiting Beshear’s emergency powers during the coronavirus crisis should not have been blocked. A provision in one of the new laws would limit Beshear’s executive orders to 30 days unless renewed by the legislature.

Just where in the Court’s ruling does it give Judge Shepherd the discretion as to when to dissolve the injunctions?

Beshear has said he would like to implement a statewide mask mandate, but lawmakers have shown little interest in that suggestion.

Of course they haven’t: getting rid of the mask mandate was what the voters elected the legislators to do!

David Fleenor, counsel for Senate President Robert Stivers, told Shepherd he did not know exactly when the negotiations between the governor and lawmakers would be completed but said he expects it to be in days, not weeks, quickly adding, “I hope I’m not being overly optimistic.”

The Court specified that the General Assembly makes policy for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, not the Governor,^[3]Cameron v Beshear, page 20: “As we have noted time and again, so many times that we need not provide citation, the General Assembly establishes the public policy of the Commonwealth.” yet somehow Judge Shepherd believes he has the authority to hold off on following the Supreme Court’s instructions to dissolve the injunction until he hears more about what, if any, negotiations are ongoing between the Governor and legislative leaders.

That was not part of the Court’s ruling.

Judge Shepherd has told the parties to report back to him on Tuesday, September 7^th, 12 days from now, and 17 days since the Supreme Court issued its ruling. Judge Shepherd, who had already suspended the laws which the state Supreme Court noted were passed legally, for 171 days, now thinks he can add another 17 days on top of that. That would be one day short of 27 weeks, more than half a year.

The state House of Representatives needs to impeach this judge when the regular session begins next January, and the state Senate needs to remove him from office and attaint him from ever holding another office in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The state Court of Appeals needs to overrule him and dissolve the injunctions, if the Supreme Court doesn’t beat them to it; I would expect Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R-KY) to immediately appeal Judge Shepherd’s refusal to dissolve the injunctions, and move that he be removed from the case.

References[+]

References
↑1	Cameron v Beshear, Section B, pages 13 forward.
↑2	Cameron v Beshear, page 2.
↑3	Cameron v Beshear, page 20: “As we have noted time and again, so many times that we need not provide citation, the General Assembly establishes the public policy of the Commonwealth.”

Posted on August 26, 2021 by Dana Pico

It ain’t just them unedumacated rednecks from eastern Kentucky who oppose #MaskMandates

There are a lot of people in the Bluegrass State who claim that it was only them unedumacated rednecks who are opposed to mask mandates in the public schools. Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) first recommended that local school boards impose masking requirements, but after they declined, with two-thirds voting against them, the Governor decided to make it an order, an order subsequently rescinded when the state Supreme Court sided against him.

But then I saw this in The Philadelphia Inquirer: Continue reading →

Posted on August 22, 2021 by Dana Pico

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Why does Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) have to lie to us? This is what he tweeted yesterday, after the state Supreme Court slapped him down:

The image to the left is not the tweet itself, but a screen capture, in case the Governor or his staff delete it. You can click either this link or the picture itself to see the original on Twitter.

Note the comparison dates: March 1 through August 18, 2021. The problem is that, other than for health care workers and people over 70, the vaccines were not available. Virtually every person hospitalized with COVID-19 problems was unvaccinated because they didn’t have the chance to get vaccinated.

The vaccine is a two shot series, with the Pfizer booster dose recommended 21 days after the first, and Moderna 28 days after the first. If the vaccine first became available to you on Monday, March 1, 2021, and you got the booster shot on Monday, March 29^th, since you are not considered ‘fully vaccinated’ until 14 days after the second shot, you wouldn’t be considered fully vaccinated until Monday, April 12^th!

Of course, the Governor was simply retweeting one by Dr Steven Stack, who is Kentucky’s Commissioner for Public Health. Are we supposed to believe that Dr Stack didn’t know those facts, that Dr Stack did not understand that by using statistics from prior to Kentuckians being able to get the vaccines, he was skewing the numbers?

Me? In a small, eastern Kentucky county, I wasn’t able to get the first dose until April Fool’s Day. Instead of 28 days later, I couldn’t get the second dose until Cinco de Mayo, because of whatever problems the county Health Department was having. That meant I wasn’t considered fully vaccinated until May 19^th, which just happened to be our 42^nd wedding anniversary, so at least those dates make it easy for me to remember.

Now, I do not disagree with the Governor that people should get vaccinated; I just see his tweet as wholly dishonest. Then again, I see the Governor as totally dishonest on just about everything.

As Governor Beshear and Dr Stack continue their efforts to persuade more Kentuckians to get vaccinated, perhaps they ought to consider that using rigged statistics does not help their cause, save among those not observant enough or smart enough to spot what they did. But, then again, that says someting as well: it tells us just what those two fine gentlemen think of Kentuckians.

Posted on August 21, 2021 by Dana Pico

The Kentucky Supreme Court slaps down Governor Andy Beshear But don't get too complacent; it might not be over just yet.

I was surprised, and a bit frustrated, when I heard that the Kentucky Supreme Court finally released its ruling on Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) attempts to have declared invalid several laws passed by the General Assembly, over his vetoes, which restricted his emergency powers. Why frustrated? Because I wanted to write about them earlier, but I had to pick up the family at the airport in Louisville, and I had no computer available to me!

But the ruling? Not frustrated about that at all, save for the inordinate amount of time it took.

Kentucky Supreme Court: New laws limiting Beshear’s emergency powers are valid

By Jack Brammer and Karla Ward | August 21, 2021 | 3:43 PM EDT

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY)

In a momentous legal defeat for Gov. Andy Beshear, the Kentucky Supreme Court in a rare Saturday decision ruled on the Democratic governor’s challenge of Republican-backed laws that limit his authority to enact emergency orders to help control the coronavirus pandemic.

In a 34-page order, the state’s highest court unanimously said Franklin Circuit Court abused its discretion in blocking the new laws from taking effect and sent the case back to the lower court to dissolve the injunction and hear legal arguments about the constitutionality of each law.

The challenged legislation was lawfully passed and the governor’s complaint “does not present a substantial legal question that would necessitate staying the effectiveness of the legislation,” the seven-member court ruled.

Which is what I have been saying all along!

Beshear had sought injunctive relief against the new laws, arguing that the legislation undermined his ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and created a public health crisis that would result in increased disease and death. The governor sued the legislature and Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

The Supreme Court in a decision written by Justice Laurance B. VanMeter of Lexington largely agreed with Cameron and lawmakers. Cameron argued that the challenged legislation does not prevent Beshear from responding to emergencies and simply requires him to work collaboratively with other officials — including the legislature — in emergencies that last longer than 30 days.

The Governor’s argument was simple: he just had to have the authority he claimed, because COVID-19 was so serious! Work collaboratively with other officials? On July 10, 2020, Mr Beshear stated that he wouldn’t involve the legislature because he believed that they wouldn’t do his bidding.

And now he has found out that he isn’t a dictator!

Republican candidates for the General Assembly ran against the Governor’s authoritarian decrees, and the voters of the Commonwealth rewarded the GOP with 14 additional seats in the state House of Representatives, and two more seats, out of 17 up for election, in the state Senate. Republicans hold a 75-25 majority in the House, and 30-8 majority in the Senate. It takes only a ‘constitutional majority,’ more than 50% of the full membership of each chamber, to override a gubernatorial veto, not a ²/₃ supermajority, as people are familiar with when it comes to the federal government, but the GOP has more than a ²/₃ majority in each chamber.

A spokeswoman for the governor responded to the decision Saturday afternoon, saying Beshear “has had the courage to make unpopular decisions in order to keep Kentuckians safe — the court has removed much of his ability to do so moving forward.”

Crystal Staley said in a statement that “the court’s order will dissolve Kentucky’s entire state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic. It either eliminates or puts at risk large amounts of funding, steps we have taken to increase our health care capacity, expanded meals for children and families, measures to fight COVID-19 in long-term care facilities, worker’s compensation for front-line workers who contract COVID-19 as well as the ability to fight price gouging.”

“It will further prevent the governor from taking additional steps such as a general mask mandate,” she said.

And that, of course, is exactly what Kentucky’s voters were trying to do, what they wanted done, when they gave Republicans such strong majorities in the General Assembly.

Miss Staley continued to say that the Governor is assessing whether calling the legislature into special session — the Governor has the authority to call our part-time legislature into special session, but the legislature itself does not have the authority to call itself back into session — would do any good, whether the General Assembly would give him anything he wants. The Governor’s toady jurist, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, who always sided with Mr Beshear when he was Attorney General, trying to frustrate then Governor Matt Bevin’s (R-KY) actions, blocked House Joint Resolution 77, in which the legislature authorized extensions of some of the Governor’s executive orders, because HJR 77 assumed that Senate Bill 1, which limited the Governor’s emergency decrees to 30 days without legislative approval for extension, was valid, and Judge Shepherd had stayed that law as well. HJR 77 did not grant approval to extend the hated mask mandate.

The legislature, in fact, indicated a willingness to work with the Governor, but Judge Shepherd didn’t want any of that!

The most prominent he has in place now is his Aug. 10 executive order requiring almost all teachers, staff and students in K-12 schools, child care and pre-kindergarten programs across Kentucky to wear a mask indoors. It applies for 30 days and leaves open the indefinite possibility for renewal. A U.S. district judge’s ruling Thursday temporarily blocked that order in at least one school district. Beshear has asked that it be dissolved.

The state Board of Education on Aug. 12 implemented its own emergency regulations requiring a mask mandate for students for most of this school year, and the Department for Public Health did the same for child care facilities. A legislative panel has since found those regulations deficient, but Beshear overrode that decision. One of the new laws might limit those emergency regulations to 30 days.

That order included not just public schools, over which the state Board of Education has some authority, but private schools and private daycare centers.

The state Board of Education claimed that today’s decision has no legal impact on their emergency regulations, which run for 270 days, the entire school year. I had previously speculated that Governor Beshear already knew that he lost his case with the Supremes, and pushed to get those regulations put in place to that his authoritarian decrees would continue despite the loss. The Kentucky School Boards Association urged that interested parties go slow in responding, which means that they don’t want anybody filing lawsuits challenging the KBoE’s emergency regulations.

Of course, the KBoE acted because, after the Governor urged, but did not mandate, that local school boards institute mask mandates, some local boards chose against such mandates, so the Governor, who had asked for cooperation decided that he was just going to make it an order.

However, this is not a complete victory. The state Supreme Court remanded the decision back to Judge Shepherd^[1]Cameron v Beshear, 2021-SC-0107-I (2021), page 2., with an order to dissolve the injunctions, but that does not in any way prevent the Governor’s toady from finding for Mr Beshear again.

This part is important:

The Court affirmed that it is the General Assembly which makes the laws, not the Governor.

But here’s the kicker:

In sum, considering that the challenged legislation was lawfully passed, the Governor’s Complaint does not present a substantial legal question that would necessitate staying the effectiveness of the legislation. And as the equities clearly favor implementation of the legislation pending an adjudication of its constitutionality, we conclude that the Franklin Circuit Court abused its discretion in finding otherwise. Thus, we remand this case to the Franklin Circuit Court with instructions to dissolve the injunction. This case is reversed and remanded to the Franklin Circuit Court for further proceedings consistent with this Opinion. In the event certain sections of the 2021 legislation may be ultimately found invalid, the likely remedy may be severability.^[4]Cameron v Beshear, 2021-SC-0107-I (2021), page 27.

If, upon hearing the arguments at trial, Judge Shepherd decides that the 30 day limit in Senate Bill 1 is unconstitutional, it could, once again, empower the Governor to issue draconian decrees. We waited half a year for the state Supreme Court to rule that Judge Shepherd’s injunctions were improper, half a year in which the authority of the General Assembly in passing the laws was violated, half a year in which some of our constitutional rights were violated. The Court made clear that the Governor’s authority is not implicit, but is defined by the state legislature, so it would be a high bar that the Governor would have to clear to argue successfully that Senate Bill 1 is unconstitutional, but, with a sycophant judge like Mr Shepherd, anything is possible.

References[+]

References
↑1	Cameron v Beshear, 2021-SC-0107-I (2021), page 2.
↑2	Cameron v Beshear, 2021-SC-0107-I (2021), pages 16-17.
↑3	Cameron v Beshear, 2021-SC-0107-I (2021), page 22.
↑4	Cameron v Beshear, 2021-SC-0107-I (2021), page 27.

Posted on August 20, 2021 by Dana Pico

Resistance is not futile! Federal judge issues injunction against Andy Beshear's mask mandate for private schools

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) obviously expects a complacent and mostly subservient Kentucky state court system to do his bidding, but, too bad for him, there is a federal judicial system as well.

Judge blocks Beshear’s mask mandate in at least one school, calling it ‘tyranny’

By Jack Brammer and Valarie Honeycutt Spears | Updated: August 20, 2021 | 9:08 AM EDT

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s mask mandate for students in a legal case involving about 20 families in a Campbell County Catholic school.

The ruling does not affect separate emergency regulations approved by the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Department for Public Health, so mask mandates remain in effect at all public schools in the state and at daycares and preschools.

Governor Beshear’s executive order was always an overreach, in that he applied it to private as well as public schools.

US District Court Senior Judge William O Bertelsman

Beshear spokeswoman Crystal Staley said the ruling by U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman of Covington “could place thousands of Kentucky children at risk and undoubtedly expose them to the most dangerous version of COVID-19 we have ever seen.” . . . .

Staley said the court ruled without hearing from the governor and with “absolutely no consideration of the consequences of exposure and quarantine that we will see — especially at a time when we are nearly out of staffed hospital beds statewide.”

Note that Miss Staley did not address the legality of the Governor’s order, but only that doing something like following the law might have negative consequences. It was the same argument the Governor made following oral arguments at the state Supreme Court in his effort to have several laws passed by the General Assembly declared unconstitutional. The Governor could call the General Assembly into a special session to consider new laws which might change things in the way he would like, but, of course, he won’t. On July 10, 2020, Mr Beshear stated that he wouldn’t involve the legislature because they wouldn’t do his bidding. Given that Republican candidates for the legislature ran against his abuse of authority in 2020, and the voters gave the GOP 14 additional seats in the state House of Representatives, and two in the state Senate, the Governor is right about one thing: the legislature would not only not go along with him, but would pass laws, over his veto, which would restrict him even further.

Judge Bertelsman was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, and, though he took senior status in 2001, has still handled notable cases, including the defamation lawsuit by Nicolas Sandmann against The Washington Post.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reported:

Both parties have agreed the order should apply only to schools in the Diocese of Covington, according to Beshear’s spokeswoman Crystal Staley and the parents’ attorney, Brandon Voelker.

So far, the judge has not granted their request to narrow the ruling, Voelker told The Courier Journal. The current order makes no distinction between where the mandate can and cannot be enforced.

The Diocese of Covington could change its policy, and impose a mask mandate, as Bishop John Stowe of Lexington has done for all parochial schools in the diocese. Bishop Stowe also ordered that all diocesan employees be vaccinated as a condition of employment, and Catholic Center employees must wear masks, even if vaccinated.

Following the ruling, the Diocese of Covington’s superintendent of schools Kendra McGuire told families they would be returning to a masks-optional policy.

Back to the Herald-Leader’s story:

Bertelsman said in his five-page order that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that Beshear’s mask executive order violates state law dealing with emergencies.

He said Beshear’s order would cause harm to children’s emotional well-being and academic growth.

“Such intangible and unquantifiable harm is irreparable because it cannot be measured or undone,” said Bertelsman. “A temporary restraining order is required to enjoin defendant’s actions and preserve the status quo until the court holds a hearing on the merits.”

Bertelsman chided Beshear for not following laws passed by the Kentucky General Assembly this year that outlined procedures for the governor to follow in making emergency orders.

“The executive branch cannot simply ignore laws passed by the duly-elected representatives of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” said the judge. “Therein lies tyranny. If the citizens dislike the laws passed, the remedy lies with them, at the polls.”

This is the problem. The Governor challenged several laws passed, over his vetoes, by the General Assembly, and the Governor’s toady, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, issued injunctions against them. The state Supreme Court took up the cases, heard oral arguments on June 10^th, but still has not released its ruling, 71 days, over ten full weeks, later.

Let’s be realistic here: the justices have already taken their decision, and Governor Beshear almost certainly knows the result. I have speculated — and it is speculation! — that the decision has gone against the Governor, and the normally friendly to Mr Beshear court, unable to find any legal justification for his claims, has simply delayed issuing the ruling, to give him a few weeks more. But it’s past time, and the Court needs to issue its ruling, so that these things can be put on more solid legal ground.

Posted on August 16, 2021 by Dana Pico

Yup, we could see it coming!

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) imposed yet another mask mandate, this time on all public and private schools, but it seems as though masks do not stop the spread of COVID-19. It looks like we can count on yet another wasted school year. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Ky. superintendent closes schools due to COVID-19: ‘This will be a tough year.’

By Valarie Honeycutt Spears | August 16, 2021 07:40 AM

Lee County Public Schools will be closed Monday through Wednesday after a surge in COVID-19 cases, Superintendent Sarah Wasson said.

The district in Beattyville is one of the first in Kentucky to shut down this school year as a result of the coronavirus.

“This will be a tough year and we don’t want to have to shut down this early, but if we can determine who is positive now we believe we can stay in school longer,” Wasson said in a statement released Sunday night.