精东影业

It鈥檚 been a little over three months since Gov. Mike DeWine鈥檚 administration issued the first stay-at-home order, effectively shutting down Ohio鈥檚 economy during this coronavirus pandemic.

Since then, several lawsuits have been filed by businesses in Ohio, challenging the authority of the state health department to shutter them. Other lawsuits have been filed challenging the rules businesses have to follow to reopen.

To sift through the latest on these cases and their potential effects on the state's coronavirus response, Morning Edition Host Amy Eddings spoke with ideastream鈥檚 Matt Richmond.

So tell me, what is the latest from the courts in Ohio?

Well, so far we haven鈥檛 had any cases progress past the county level. In Lake County, a judge there who were challenging the continued closure after other businesses had reopened. And a judge in Erie County who were also challenging a continued closure of their businesses.

But in both cases, the state had set a date for reopening before the decision was issued. And now there are some lawsuits that are maybe a bit more applicable to the current circumstances. There鈥檚 one from that are challenging the rules for reopening, things like requiring a reduced ratio of staff to children, and for restaurants where there are rules about physical distancing between parties and about sort of checking people before they come in to make sure they鈥檙e not sick. Those lawsuits are still pending.

What鈥檚 the argument the businesses are making in court? Is it pretty consistent across the cases?

Well, if you wanted to boil it down to one line, it would be, 鈥淲ho does Amy Acton think she is?鈥�

She鈥檚 the former Ohio director of health and her name is on all the orders requiring closure and setting the rules for reopening.

And all those actions she took are based on two lines in that were created in the late 1800s during the fight against tuberculosis and they really haven鈥檛 been used since then. One line permits quarantine and isolation for the incubation period of a disease. So, critics are saying that鈥檚 14 days in this case, not months on end.

And the other allows the director of health to take actions to prevent the spread of a disease once it鈥檚 arrived in Ohio. Her critics are saying, 鈥淲ell, where鈥檚 the proof that these measures that you鈥檝e taken are actually preventing the spread of the disease?鈥�

Critics say that she鈥檚 gone way beyond what the law allows.

And what鈥檚 the state鈥檚 response to those challenges?

I think a law professor at Case Western Reserve University named Sharona Hoffman summed it up pretty well: 鈥淭he question is sort of why have a government if they can't do that, if they just have to sit back with their hands tied and allow a pandemic to rage, why are we paying taxes, why do we have a government if they can't bring us safety and ensure our health?鈥�

So the state agrees with that argument and says that the law does put a lot of discretionary power in the hands of director of health and she鈥檚 using that power for good reason because this is a serious and unusual threat.

Ohio鈥檚 been seeing an increase in positive tests in recent days, with daily totals close to the highest we鈥檝e seen. Do you think this litigation could have a chilling effect on Gov. DeWine鈥檚 ongoing response to the pandemic?

I put that same question to Prof. Hoffman and she says that regardless of whether the state and the governor鈥檚 office think that they鈥檒l prevail in these cases, that just the existence of all this litigation is going to have a chilling effect. That they don鈥檛 want to have to deal with all these cases day in and day out. And so she said she doubts that they鈥檒l see a reversal like where bars reopened, there was a spike in cases and then they were closed again.

Here鈥檚 what she said about that: 鈥淭here's been such opposition and so much litigation, that even if it becomes critical to the health of Ohio residents, it's not that likely that he will take measures that could really slow the spread.鈥�

And so it will be interesting to see what happens with the cases that are out there right now about restrictions on reopened businesses, at restaurants and day cares and other places and whether those cases move to the Supreme Court quickly.

The governor at one of his press conferences this week said he鈥檚 going to revisit those rules and make some changes. He didn鈥檛 go into any details. There鈥檚 a hearing on the day care challenge in county court next week. And the case has yet to respond to the case challenging their restrictions on restaurants.