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If Lebanon County residents ever did believe, and if lockdowns ever were science-based, by now, no one possessing a normal attention span and a healthy distrust of authority believes Pennsylvaniaโs lengthy COVID-19 lockdowns are still about science.
Pennsylvaniaโs governor, an autocratic Democrat who clearly cares little for civil liberties, and an agenda-driven Health Department head who have been calling the shots on a COVID-19 emergency declaration have now shown themselves to be vindictive as well arbitrary by excluding Lebanon County from counties transitioned to the governorโs โgreenโ designation, even though Philadelphia and southeast Pennsylvania counties that experienced far more infections, hospitalizations and deaths were green-lighted.
Lebanon County remains โyellowโ โbecause of an uptick in cases,โ according to Pennsylvaniaโs Health Department.
Any sentient follower of the COVID pandemic understands that confirmed infections would increase as testing increased, and that hospitalizations would โuptickโ after the infection curve was flattened by initial mitigations. Accordingly, the governorโs real reason for keeping Lebanon County on โyellowโ appears to be political vengeance for local elected officialsโ recent public defiance of the governorโs arbitrary โcolorโ designations and support for distressed Lebanon County business owners who, without the governorโs authorization, reopened to keep their businesses from failing.
It gets worse.
Governor Tom Wolfโs 90-day COVID-19 emergency declaration, signed on March 6, 2020, then extended on June 3, was authorized under the Commonwealthโs 1978 emergency management services law, a measure written and passed to suspend the state constitution and give the governor extraordinary, but only temporary powers to deal with crises.
The law also defines the legislatureโs essential role: โThe General Assembly by concurrent resolution may terminate a state of disaster emergency at any time. Thereupon, the Governor shall issue an executive order or proclamation ending the state of disaster emergency.โ
That provision was included to prevent a power-hungry governor from disrupting constitutional order and assuming dictatorial powers by unilaterally declaring and extending โemergenciesโ indefinitely. Reasonable people understand this.
On June 9, the Pennsylvania General Assembly, including some Democrats in both chambers, concurred on a resolution to terminate the governorโs COVID-19 emergency. Then, in defiance of the same law that authorizes him to declare emergencies, the governor immediately announced his intention to โvetoโ the bipartisan resolution. Wolfโs spokesperson proclaimed, imperiously, โOnly the governor can terminate the disaster emergency.โ
Later, insisting that enforcement of the existing order, including business closures, would continue, Wolf announced he would instead โchallengeโ the legislatureโs resolution in court, a tacit admission of the resolutionโs legitimacy.
Ironically, if the court were to invalidate the portion of the bill defining the legislatureโs role, the remainder, including the governorโs right to declare emergencies, would be legally questioned as well. The inevitable result would be endless legal wrangling and further constitutional disorder.
Governor Wolfโs original emergency order restricted group gatherings, ordered social distancing, and directed citizens to stay at home unless traveling for an essential job or personal need. The governor reserved the right to determine what jobs and businesses were โessential,โ but refused to share the โstandardsโ under which possibly more than 2000 otherwise โnonessentialโ businesses were declared โexemptโ from his order, before shutting down the Commonwealthโs Right to Know office. Pennsylvania State Police personnel were ordered to enforce the governorโs impenetrable โdecisions.โ
Early in the emergency, after the Health Department headโs elderly mother had been removed from one to prevent her infection, Governor Wolf and his Department of Health directed unprepared long term eldercare facilities to admit or readmit COVID-infected residents, very likely directly causing about two-thirds of Pennsylvaniaโs COVID-related deaths.
Then, in June, Governor Wolf destroyed his self-assumed moral authority and the remainder of his already-shredded credibility by violating his own group-gathering restrictions and social distancing rules to participate in a crowded โGeorge Floydโ demonstration on state property. Except for Wolfโs personal security detail, State Police were side-lined, revealing that the governorโs approach to โemergencyโ enforcement is as selective as his commitment to โscience.โ
Meanwhile, three-plus months after Wolfโs shutdown order, roughly two million, including Lebanon County Pennsylvanians are out of work. Businesses are failing. Tax revenues have cratered. Life-sustaining health services are being neglected. Colleges and universities are retrenching. Some will close permanently.
Wealthy and term-limited, Governor Wolf appears clueless about โ or disinterested in โ the economic, human and public health damage his closures are wreaking on individuals, families, institutions and businesses, especially small family-owned businesses.
As seriously, Governor Wolf stands in violation of the U.S. Constitutionโs Fourteenth Amendment: โNo state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; norโฆdeprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.โ
The Amendment makes no exceptions for gubernatorial vanity, ignorance, indifference or incompetence.
Gov. Wolfโs lousy decisions have already taken lives. His intransigence may take far more.
Tom Wolf is a small, vindictive man who has failed Lebanon County. And he has failed Pennsylvania.
Contact columnist Jerry Shenk at jshenk2010@gmail.com.
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