BURLINGTON, Ky. (Legal Newsline) – Kentucky’s attorney general has won a temporary injunction against Gov. Andy Beshear’s coronavirus orders, including one that requires face masks in public.
Attorney General Daniel Cameron is asking the Boone County Circuit Court to stop orders issued by Beshear and scored a victory Thursday, though the matter will likely be resolved by the Kentucky Supreme Court eventually.
Cameron and Beshear have butted heads several times over the governor’s orders.
“The Governor’s office said in Boone Circuit Court today that there are no limits on the Governor’s power,” Cameron tweeted Thursday.
“The following were all part of testimony and argument in today’s court proceedings:
1) Over 1 million unemployment claims have been filed in Kentucky, and the Beshear Administration has done no planning or projections regarding how to pay for those claims.
2) 43% of childcare centers face closure by November under the Governor’s executive order.
3) The government has the ability to regulate and provide for health measures without the Governor’s emergency orders."
In a further statement, Cameron said the restraining order won’t hamper the ability of public health officials to do their jobs. He also said he does not have the specifics of the order.
Earlier this week, Beshear filed a lawsuit in Franklin County against Cameron in an attempt to prove he has the ability to issue the coronavirus orders to ensure the safety of Kentuckians.
“Graduations were canceled. Businesses closed. Weddings were postponed,” Beshear’s lawyers wrote.
“Families, and students, and hard-working people all over Kentucky did their part. And as a result, Kentucky successfully avoided the scourge that other states faced…
“Despite the scientific evidence and strong support for face coverings expressed by federal and state leaders and public health officials, shortly after issuing the order on face coverings on July 9, 2020, Attorney General Cameron sent a letter to the Governor asserting – incorrectly – that the Governor’s emergency mask order was ‘arbitrary and overbroad,’ and that the Governor’s issuance of this and other orders ‘violated the Constitution and laws of this Commonwealth.”
One of the matters in which Cameron has intervened is a lawsuit filed by a church that challenges one of Beshear’s orders restricting services. Cameron won a preliminary injunction in the case from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
But Beshear claims the reasoning for that decision is “no longer good law” because of a May 29 U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding a California order in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom. He is moving to dissolve the injunction.
“Moreover, the South Bay United Opinion explained the importance of providing leeway to executive officials responding to an emergency with evolving scientific data, and admonished the federal courts not to interfere with such decisions,” Beshear’s lawyers wrote.