Gov. Mike DeWine won’t sue over new law allowing legislature to repeal public health orders, saying it’ll dis - cleveland.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. Mike DeWine hasn’t challenged a new law allowing the Ohio General Assembly to repeal executive branch public health orders because he wants to keep the focus on promoting vaccines, he said.
“Look, sometimes when you analyze your actions, you have to take the least worst alternative. So I wanted to keep the focus on vaccines,” the Republican said at an editorial board meeting with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer on Tuesday. “And I still want to keep it on vaccines.”
Senate Bill 22 allows any executive branch public health order to be repealed by a simple majority of the Ohio General Assembly as soon as they next convene. DeWine vetoed it March 24, but the legislature overrode the veto later that day, and it went into effect June 23.
Republicans, who have a supermajority in the legislature, passed the bill in response to public health orders that closed businesses and slowed the economy at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. They saw the bill as a check on executive branch power. Many deny the seriousness of the pandemic, traversing the Ohio Statehouse without wearing masks and denying the effectiveness of vaccines.
But now, with cases and hospitalizations at all-time highs in Ohio, DeWine hasn’t issued any new orders.
To mount a legal challenge, DeWine, the former Ohio attorney general, said he would have to issue a public health order, wait for the legislature to repeal it, veto their repeal, wait for the legislature to override the veto, then file a lawsuit.
“Only at that point would we really be able to go into court,” he said. “We would have to go into court and have protracted, lengthy lawsuits. And all of that seemed to me to distract from what we should really be talking about, and that is vaccines.”
As of Wednesday morning, 70.6% of Ohioans age 18 and older have received at least their first doses of the available vaccines.
“My great, great sadness is that today we have 30% of the population of Ohio adults that are not vaccinated,” DeWine said. “(First Lady) Fran (DeWine) and I, as we’re traveling around the state, run into family members all the time who tell us they just lost an uncle, they just lost a father, they just lost somebody, and they are by and large unnecessary deaths. So I want to continue to focus on vaccines.”
Even if DeWine doesn’t sue over the bill, a future governor may have to.
In his SB 22 veto letter to lawmakers, DeWine wrote that the bill hampered the executive branch’s ability to contain spread for all outbreaks.
“Ebola also remains a danger across the world -- and right here in Ohio. In fact, we actively monitor travelers who have been to affected parts of the globe,” DeWine wrote. “Other diseases are lurking threats, including deadly strains of flu, such as H7N9 or cousins of COVID-19, such as MERS-CoV. Our public health leaders continue to watch for and respond to serious outbreaks of diseases, such as measles, hepatitis A, botulism, and Norovirus in communities across our state.”
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source: https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/01/gov-mike-dewine-wont-sue-over-new-law-allowing-legislature-repeal-public-health-orders-saying-itll-distract-from-his-vaccine-focus.html
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