Tuesday, September 15, 2020

PARTIAL VICTORY IN PENNSYLVANIA DISTRICT COURT BUT PLAINTIFFS' LAWYERS FAIL TO CHALLENGE "THE SCIENCE"

Here's a quote from the new opinion striking down some of Pennsylvania's lockdown rules. One good thing here was that they actually TOOK TESTIMONY which demonstrated that the government thugs are noodle-brains. The thugs admitted that they contemplated that these restrictions could last FOREVER with no end in sight.  There needed to be harsh cross examination of these creeps relating to their opinion about the nature of the virus, who is vulnerable and the basis for their claims that masks, lockdowns and even social distancing are a solution. Ask them about preventatives, cures, treatments and herd immunity.  They would stammer and collapse in a puddle. Further, THE MEDICAL RECORDS RELATING TO THE DEAD AND THE ILL WOULD NOT PASS MUSTER AS RELIABLE PURSUANT TO THE HEARSAY EXCEPTION RULE!. Those records should not be admissible in court.  

Here is a nice quote from the judge's opinion: 

"In other words, while not currently being enforced, Pennsylvania citizens remain subject to the re-imposition of the most severe provisions at any time. Further, testimony and evidence presented by Defendants does not establish any specified exit date or end date to the emergency interventions. Rather, the record shows that Defendants view the presence of disease mitigation restrictions upon the citizens of Pennsylvania as a "new normal" and they have no actual plan to return to a state where all restrictions are lifted. It bears repeating; after six months, there is no plan to return to a situation where there are no restrictions imposed upon the people of the Commonwealth. Sam Robinson, a Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor, testified as much when asked if there was a phase of reopening beyond the "green phase" where there would be no restrictions:

Q.  You can't  move from  green to no restrictions  whatsoever?  There's no way to do that under this system, right?

A. So there are a number of options for, you  know, what  post green  potentially could look like, and that could just be entirely removal of all restrictions or replacement with other restrictions, maybe not a color­ coordinated system. There are certainly other options on the July 15th order that we've referenced from last week, certainly an approach that was a change that was not strictly speaking within the red/yellow/green framework as originally contemplated.

And we are doing our best to respond to the pandemic nimbly and not being locked into a specific approach but to target areas where we see spread and things that we can do to balance the need to reopen the economy and continue moving Pennsylvania back towards the new normal that the governors and others have talked about while at the same time taking targeted mitigation steps to prevent the spread of the virus, which is what's embodied in that July 15th order.

Q. What is the new normal? What does the governor  mean by the new normal? What's that mean?

A. Well, we're still  evolving  into  it, but obviously it's more consciousness about steps to prevent the spread of COVID and ways that Pennsylvanians are having to be more conscious of those mitigation efforts and take steps to be responsible individually to protect fellow Pennsylvanians.

(ECF No. 75, pp. 70-71). Even when the existing restrictions are replaced, it appears to be the intent of Defendants to impose and/or keep in place some ongoing restrictions. Mr. Robinson testified that "early on it was sort of just assumed that beyond green was no restrictions, and that may be ultimately where we get." (ECF No. 75, p. 75). However, the position is now less clear in that Mr. Robinson hedged on whether any future period of no restrictions can be foreseen. (ECF No. 75, p. 76) ("at the point that we are ready to remove all of the restrictions, we will have a discussion about how specifically to do that. IT MAY BE THAT THE WHOLE-YOU KNOW, THAT WHOLE SYSTEM IS REPLACED WITH JUST VERY LIMITED RESTRICTIONS.") (emphasis added)."

 

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