In April 2022, New York state adopted Section 2.13 “Isolation and Quarantine Procedures.
The regulation allowed the state commissioner of health to “issue and/or…direct the local health authority to issue isolation and/or quarantine orders … to all such persons as the State Commissioner of Health shall determine appropriate.”
“For the purposes of isolation orders, isolation locations may include home isolation or such other residential or temporary housing location that the public health authority issuing the order determines appropriate,” read the regulation.
Those detained at home or in a New York concentration camp without trial or proof of infection were to be monitored “to ensure compliance with the order.”
As soon as the regulation was adopted, Republicans in the state legislature sued declaring the regulation unconstitutional.
“From the start of the pandemic I was deeply concerned that the expansive ‘emergency’ powers that were given to the Executive Branch would establish a permanent precedent. Unfortunately, that is precisely what we are seeing here in New York State,” Senator George Borrello.
“It’s an unconstitutional overreach that violates the required separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government. It must be challenged,” added Borrello.
Assemblyman Chris Tague Tague said, “This policy’s aim to forcibly isolate law-abiding citizens is reminiscent of actions taken by some of the ugliest tyrannical regimes history has ever known. It has no place standing as law here in New York, let alone anywhere in the United States.”
One of the largest issues with the regulation is that Governor Kathy Hochul made it law under her executive emergency pandemic powers and not through the legislature.
New York Judge Ronald Ploetz agreed with Republicans in a July 202 decision ruling that the “adoption of Rule 2.13 was invalid of the pre-existing provisions adopted by the Legislature.”
“Involuntary detention or hospitalization … triggers Constitutional protections including the right to counsel … as well as proof of the need for detention by clear and convincing evidence,” wrote Ploetz. “No such due process protections are afforded by Rule 2.13. The Commissioner has unfettered discretion to issue a quarantine or isolation for anyone, even if there is no evidence that person is infected or a carrier of the disease. Further, the Commissioner sets the terms, duration, and location of the detention, not an independent magistrate.”
Ploetz underscored, “Involuntary detention is a severe deprivation of individual liberty, far more egregious than other health safety measures, such as requiring mask wearing at certain venues,” noting that it could result in unemployment and family breakdowns.
The regulation was deemed “null, void, and unenforceable as a matter of law.”
So what do the Democrats do?
Attorney General Letitia James (D) is officially submitting an appeal to overturn the ruling so that the state of New York can lock up its citizens for their safety during an emergency.
Keep in mind this is the same AG that is an advocate for no-cash bail for actual criminals.
