HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court strikes down a vote by GOP lawmakers to end the state’s pandemic emergency declaration. The Republican-led General Assembly passed a resolution last month to end Governor Tom Wolf’s coronavirus emergency and lift business shutdown orders.
The state’s high court ruled that the resolution is a “legal nullity” because it was never presented to Governor Wolf for his approval or veto.
In a 40-page majority opinion, Justice David Wecht said the resolution violated Section 7301(c) of the state’s Emergency Services Management Code. The law declares that a “state of disaster emergency shall continue until the Governor finds that the threat or danger has passed.”
Some Democratic lawmakers are hoping this decision will ease political tensions that have escalated throughout the Commonwealth.
“The [Pennsylvania] Supreme Court has spoken and I think that it’s going to go a long way in trying to alleviate the confusion that was and currently still is,” said Representative Carol Hill-Evans, who represents York County.
Republican lawmakers are denouncing the court’s ruling. They argue the governor’s shutdown order has crippled businesses across the state.
“The most important thing I believe comes at the conclusion of the [court’s] opinion when they quote another opinion 100 years ago that essentially says, what the court does not have the power to do, the people themselves have the power to do,” said Representative Russ Diamond, who serves Lebanon County. “That indicates to me that the court is acknowledging that when there are unjust policies and unjust laws, it’s up to the people to overturn them with action.”
In his dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Thomas Saylor said he would have given lawmakers the ability to end a disaster emergency on their own.
“The General Assembly quite rationally reserved to itself the ability to make its own assessment of whether the circumstances at hand rise to a disaster emergency and to override the Governor’s declaration of an emergency upon the passage of a concurrent resolution,” Chief Justice Saylor wrote.