Corona Virus; could the Governor or President be sued?
What if you have a ‘cattle person’ with a sizable herd of cattle located near a busy highway, the land is fenced but has a ‘drive thru’ gate. The cattle guy drives thru the gate several times a day, but he never closes the gate! Although he has been ‘advised’ to close the gate he says its just too much trouble getting in and out of the PU to open and close the gate, and besides that, my cattle won’t get out, they want to stay in the pasture where they can eat and get fat! But one day the ‘herd’ wanders through the ‘open gate’, onto the highway, causes a ‘multi car’ crash, and several people are killed and injured! Should the ‘cowboy’ be sued? You be the judge! Why is that any different than not declaring a National or Statewide order, based on the known facts in hand, to limit unnecessary travel, to require wearing face coverings in public, enforcing ‘social distancing’, and sanitizing public buildings. Just like closing the gate to keep the cattle in, these are measures, backed up by the numbers, known to save lives! In the case of Governor Little, he could declare a statewide order, and include in the ‘order’ that mayors or county commissioners could grant exceptions to the order, and those same ‘mayors’ and/or ‘county commissioners’ would accept responsibility for their exceptions. The Governor’s failure to do this is ‘negligence’ on the part of the parties with the authority to do so, and just like the ‘negligent cowboy’, they should be ‘open’ to being responsible for the damages! I’m not making reference to the ‘unknowns’ that existed early in the pandemic, I’m referring to the known facts that exist today. President Trump’s failure to ground passenger airlines in January of 2020 has ‘conservatively’ cost 100,000 people their lives. But that, at the time, was one of the ‘unknowns’. And for several months face masks were ‘unnecessary’, according to the CDC and the task force! How they arrived at that conclusion is a mystery; a viral respiratory disease that isn’t airborne?? The President must have given some thought to the possibility of being sued, in his emergency declaration of March 13, 2020, he includes a disclaimer; in Section 3, clause ‘C’ this ‘proclamation’, ‘does not create any right or benefit’, ‘enforceable by law or equity’, ‘by any party’.
#321 www.brydsword.com
July 14, 2020