The Landmark Ruling regarding COVID-19 Health Orders and our Constitutional rights in St. Louis & IL

The Landmark ruling regarding COVID-19 Health (Mask orders and our Constitutional rights in St. Louis & Illinois is the subject of this Big B File.

On Tuesday afternoon, Cole County, Missouri (MO) Circuit Judge Daniel Green issued a landmark ruling regarding three regulations that were on the books in Missouri that were used by public health directors and others across the state of Missouri including in St Louis County and St Louis City in their mask mandates…. Declaring the regulations not only illegal but unconstitutional as well. The regulations [19 CSR 20-20.010(26); 19 CSR 20-20.040(2)(G)-(I); 19 CSR 20- 20.040(6); 19 CSR 20-20.050(3)] ….which have been on the books since long before the COVID-19 Pandemic…...are as follows:

19 CSR 20-20.010(26);

 Local health authority is the city or county health officer, director of an organized health department or of a local board of health within a given jurisdiction. In those counties where a local health authority does not exist, the health officer or administrator of the Department of Health and Senior Services district in which the county is located shall serve as a local health authority.

19 CSR 20-20.040(2)(G)-(I);

(2) It shall be the duty of the local health authority, the director of the department, or

the director’s designated representative on receiving a report of a disease which is infectious, contagious, communicable, or dangerous in its nature as included in 19 CSR 20-20.020 to—

(G) Establish appropriate control measures which may include isolation, quarantine, disinfection, immunization, closure of establishment, notification to potentially exposed individuals to make them aware of the risk or potential risk of the disease and such information required to avoid or appropriately respond to the exposure, notification to the public of the risk or potential risk of the disease and such information required to avoid or appropriately respond to the exposure, the creation and enforcement of adequate orders to prevent the spread of the disease and other measures considered by the department and/or local health authority as appropriate disease control measures based upon the disease, the patient’s circumstances, the type of facility available, and any other available information related to the patient and the disease or infection;

(I) Assume direct responsibility as director of health to make necessary investigation and immediately institute appropriate control measures necessary for the protection of the public health in occurrence of outbreaks or unusual clusters of illness involving more than one (1) county or a general regional area;

19 CSR 20- 20.040(6);

(6) In order to determine the prevalence of infectious diseases, contagious diseases, communicable diseases, or diseases dangerous in their nature within Missouri, the department may inspect, investigate, make findings, and make and enforce adequate orders to prevent the spread of such diseases included in 19 CSR 20-20.020.

19 CSR 20-20.050(3)

Quarantine or Isolation Practices and Closing of Schools and Places of Public and Private Assembly PURPOSE: This rule provides for the isolation or quarantine of persons and animals  with a communicable disease and their contacts; it also authorizes the closing of schools and places of public and private assembly.

(3) Notice shall be sent immediately to the local health authority, to the director of the Department of Health or to the director’s designated representative by any person responsible for the production, preparation, manufacture, packaging, storage, sale, distribution or transportation of food if any infection or disease known to be transmissible through food occurs on the premises or among the  employees.

The case in question is SHANNON ROBINSON vs. MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SENIOR SERVICES.  In this case, the plaintiffs Shannon Robinson, Ben Brown (who owns Satchmo's Bar and Grill in Chesterfield [MOB&R STL]), and Church of the Word in Fenton. In the lawsuit filed in 2020 in Cole County Circuit Court, the plaintiffs claim that “the (above) rules issued by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services ("DHSS"), codified at 19 CSR 20-20.010 et seq., which authorize the Director of DHSS or a local health agency director to exercise personal discretion to (1) implement discretionary "control measures" including the "creation and enforcement of orders" affecting individuals, schools, organizations, businesses and other entities, and (2) close schools and places of public assembly based solely on his/her opinion, are invalid. (collectively "DHSS regulations").”

I said the following in a Big B Files commentary back on July 4, 2020….

The recent mask mandate of just the latest example of this massive overreach by these leftist politicians who, while issuing the mandates and stripping away of our rights under the pretense of "protecting our health" while not adhering to the same mandates themselves......thus the old mantra "Do as I say NOT as I do!"

I had posted the following question on Facebook on July 1, 2020 (and other places and in various forms:

“What is the exact law being applied here (must cite actual code) that gives them the authority to issue this order, let alone law enforcement to enforce the executive order?” 

So far…nobody has been able to answer the question nor cite the exact law that would make these Executive orders issued by the St. Louis County Executive Sam Page, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson (now Tishuara Jones) …themselves and via their respective health department directors….and others like them enforceable in any way, shape, or form. I have had a mix of reactions to that question, going from total agreement or as Michael Calvert said to me on Facebook “it is not an executive order. It is a mandate which is more or less just a suggestion.” all the way to people attacking me and telling me that I am selfish, shut up, and do what I am told in the order. By the way…...Mr. Calvert is right.

Inspired by Jamie Allman and others, I am now joining the group fighting back against these massive overreaches by these leftist politicians and am initiating the new hashtag #WeAreNotYourSheepleSTL for all of us to unite and say to them We are NOT your Sheeple and we won’t put up with it anymore!

None of the politicians that have issued these edicts to date has ever been able to adequately answer this question to this very day.

According to Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services ("DHSS")’s response in the lawsuit…...”DHSS asserts that words such as "necessary," "adequate," and "appropriate" scattered throughout the regulations provide sufficient standards to guide agency officials in developing control measures and creating and enforcing their own rules and orders.”  DHSS went on to assert that these regulations for lawfully put on the books and are legal and enforceable. Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green disagreed.

In his ruling on Tuesday afternoon, Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green said that “The Court concludes that the DHSS regulations. (1) violate separation of powers principles of Article II, Section 1 (“art. II, § 1”) of the Missouri Constitution; (2) violate the Missouri Administrative Procedure Act, Mo. Rev. Stat. § 536.010 et seq.; (3) are inconsistent with the public health law framework established by Missouri statutes; and (4) violate the equal protection clause of the Missouri Constitution, Mo. CONST. art. II, § 1.” In which Article II, Section 1 reads as follows:

Section 1. Three departments of government—separation of powers.— The powers of government shall be divided into three distinct departments—the legislative, executive and judicial—each of which shall be confided to a separate magistracy, and no person, or collection of persons, charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of those departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except in the instances in this constitution expressly directed or permitted.

Missouri State Constitution, Article II, Section 1.

Agencies such as Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services ("DHSS") can promulgate regulations on various things as long as the authority for them to do so has given to them by the legislative branch of the government and signed into law by the chief executive of the governmental body. In this case, it would be the Missouri General Assembly would have to pass the bill and the Governor of Missouri would have to sign that very same bill into law.  Basically….what the judge is saying that MO DHSS did not follow the procedures as required in Missouri law in the Missouri state constitution and therefore any health orders issued by various Health directors and or Chief executives of a local governmental body such as St Louis County Health Director Faisal Khan and St Louis County Executive Dr. (Comrade) Sam Page.

You can read the landmark ruling handed down on Tuesday afternoon by Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green in its entirety for yourself by clicking here.

St. Louis County issued a statement saying that the mandates issued by Khan and Page are not affected by the judge's ruling. The only thing they are correct about is that they were not a direct party to the lawsuit. However, their mandates are affected by the judge's ruling just like health orders that were issued by others across the state of Missouri like Page & Kahn…are now null and void. The reason for that is because St. Louis County Health Director Faisal Khan and St Louis County Executive Dr. (Comrade) Sam Page have been using the now struck down regulations written and issued by MO DHSS as a basis for their authority as to why the health mandates were issued in the first place.

They are also saying that they are collaborating with their legal team to explore options including filing an appeal which is unlikely considering that...as they said themselves….they are not a party to the lawsuit officially and, therefore, do not have standing to file any appeals of the judge's decision. The only ones that have the right to appeal are the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit and the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who was tasked with defending MO DHSS in the lawsuit, as already stated he does not plan to appeal the judge's decision and in fact will work to enforce the judge’s ruling across the state of Missouri. This is evidenced in an observation made in a Twitter post by Mr. Tim Fitch, St. Louis County Councilman representing the 142,000 people of District 3, 31-year police veteran & former police chief for St. Louis County, Missouri:

And I might point out, St. Louis County has quietly removed all references to masking orders issued by Acting Health Director Faisal Khan from our website.  Sam Page won't announce it, but they're gone. You are still allowed to wear a mask, but stores should #TearDownThoseSigns.

STL County Councilman Tim Fitch (@ChiefTimFitch)
8:17 AM · Nov 26, 2021

Nick Dunne, a spokesman for Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, claimed that the judge’s ruling did not affect their mask mandates because it was issued under 67.265, RSMo (formally House Bill 271) and as he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mark Schlinkmann on November 25, 2021 that the Board of Alderman approved 30 day extensions of the order four (4) times under that law and that the Mask Mandate wasn’t issued pursuant to regulations issued by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services ("DHSS") (regulations [19 CSR 20-20.010(26); 19 CSR 20-20.040(2)(G)-(I); 19 CSR 20- 20.040(6); 19 CSR 20-20.050(3)]). 

Oh really?!? Well…there is just one slight problem with that assertion.

According to the City of St Louis website, there are two different orders that currently in effect in the City of St. Louis... Including the one referenced earlier by Mr. Dunne, the spokesman for Mayor Jones….and one of those two health orders, Health Order Number 1, specifically mentions one of the MO DHSS regulations that was recently struck down by the Cole County Circuit Court Judge. Not only that, but Health Order Number 1 has been the health order that was extended four times by the St Louis City Board of Alderman and had been in effect since July 26, 2021.

A Big B Files analysis of the two St Louis City Health Orders...Health Order Number 1 and Health Order Number 5….finds that there is pretty much very similar wording if not the same wording between the two St. Louis City Health Orders. You can see the comparisons between the parts of the two St. Louis City Health Orders at the end of this Big B File. Based on that, I do not believe that the City's mask mandate will be allowed to stand or long if at all.

St Louis County Executive (Comrade) Sam Page has clearly demonstrated for the past year and 9 months, all this has been is one huge Power Trip on power and control. As you may recall, every time people asked leftist Comrades like Sam page and Tishuara Jones and JB Pritzker for their reasoning, their proof, and most of all their evidence, they have been stonewalled or blocked at every turn…which is why we need to keep fighting these people and in the case of Sam page get him recalled and or defeated in the November election of 2022.

There are people who think (including a few people I know) that because the Democrats have run St. Louis County and the State of Illinois respectively for a long time now does not mean we have to let them continue doing so past January 2023 when the current terms for Sam Page & JB Pritzker are up. This is why you should drop all the assumptions and conventional wisdom, support people and vote for people like IL State Senator Darren Bailey who is running against Governor JB Pritzker in Illinois and people running against leftist Democrat Comrade Sam Page in St. Louis County (MO) and Page’s fellow leftist Democrats and get these incumbents out of office in St. Louis County and the Illinois Governor's office on November 8, 2022 and get our Constitutional Freedoms and Liberties restored once again.

Didn’t the 2016 Election teach you anything about conventional wisdom, etc.?

……And that is the Big B Files.  Click on the comments link below and tell me what you think……I’m Bryan V. Hewing.