A judgment to fight COVID-19

Nineteenth Judicial District Judge William Morvant may have saved tens of thousands of lives by ruling a 2003 law unconstitutional. In doing so, he sided with lawyers for Gov. John Bel Edwards in a Zoom hearing last week, effectively rejecting the latest tactic used by GOP State House members to revoke the coronavirus restrictions.

Sixty-five of 68 LA House Republicans last month employed an obscure 2003 law passed during the SARS pandemic to send a petition to Gov. John Bel Edwards directing him to cancel his virus restrictions. Morvant ruled they the law in question violates the state Constitution because it does not come both chambers of the Legislature, instead allowing the House or Senate to act unilaterally.

The Senate Republican leadership refused to sign onto the petition. Morvant’s decision keeps intact Edwards’ coronavirus rules. The ruling comes as the nation endures its most severe surge in coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. Louisiana has been spared much the latest surge, yet health officials claim the state may soon witness early signs of an increase. To have ended social distancing, removed gathering limits, and rid ourselves of masks would have left a vulnerable population susceptible to plague, mere weeks before a vaccine might come available. Thousands of lives could have died in the interim.

Attorney General Jeff Landry argued that he sought to “uphold the fabric of our Louisiana Constitution”, but the constitution proved the essence of the ruling. Morvant said the governor’s emergency powers, granted to him by the Legislature, allow him to make decisions that have the force of law. To repeal, enact, or alter a state law, the entire Legislature — including the House and the Senate — must agree. When GOP Speaker Clay Schexnayder delivered the petition to the Governor in late October, a majority of House members signed on, but no Senators. Republican Senate President Page Cortez argued that little appetite existed in the upper chamber to do a similar petition ordering the governor to revoke all his virus rules. A lesson on constitutional checks and balances.

This article originally published in the November 16, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.