County to defy COVID-19 order
SANDPOINT — Bonner County commissioners adopted a proclamation Thursday saying the board will defy the state of Idaho’s Stage 2 Stay Healthy order.
The proclamation passed 2-1, with commissioners Dan McDonald and Steven Bradshaw in favor and Commissioner Jeff Connolly opposed.
The proclamation contends governmental entities have made significant and important steps in slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus and safeguarding public health.
“How- ever, exe- cutive overreach applied in an arbitrary and capricious manner threatens the system of government to the people of the state of Idaho by the United States and Idaho constitutions,” the proclamation said.
Governor Brad Little and the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare’s joint Stage 2 order is meant to prevent healthcare systems from being overrun with COVID-19-infected patients and minimizing virus transmission.
“The current order, however, infringes on fundamental rights by empowering and directing localities such as counties to rely on the order’s authority to ‘enact more stringent public health orders than those set out in this order,’” commissioners said in the proclamation.
The proclamation argues suffers from two distinct constitutional defects. There is no evidence of healthcare overutlization so there is no need for overutilization-prevention measures. Moreover, the proclamation states that the order is unconstitutionally burdening in an endless pursuit of eliminating every case of coronavirus in the state.
The proclamation, for instance, notes that only one of the state’s 44 counties has a relatively high rate of infection, but the order fails point out that there are counties with lower infection rates.
“Instead, the order misleadingly implies that this high infection county’s infection attributes are shared throughout Idaho,” the proclamation said.
The transmission-prevention objective of the order, meanwhile, confusedly claims to be reopening Idaho while at the same time directing localities to re-close Idaho, according to the proclamation. The proclamation contends this could lead to forced testing, forced isolation, forced business closures and forced vaccinations.
The proclamation questions why the order imposed draconian measures on Idahoans in order to reach unattainable objectives and speculates that it is because of “social proofing,” a form of herd behavior wherein people copy the actions of others instead of forming their own opinions.
“The order’s overutilization-prevention and transmission objectives are unconstitutional and replicate methods used in command-and-control societies such as China. Consequently, the BOCC will not be following the directive set forth in this order,” the proclamation’s conclusion states.
The proclamation was advanced the same day Little authorized the state to move into Stage 3 of reopening the economy.
Little’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.
