NCLA Petitions SCOTUS

 

NCLA Senior Litigation Counsel Mike DeGrandis joins “The Steve Gruber Show” with Scot Bertram filling in for Steve Gruber on 1240 WJIM to discuss NCLA’s recent petition to the United States Supreme Court asking the Court to hear our case against Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s COVID-19 restrictions.

Key points:

• NCLA filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in Dawn Desrosiers, et al. v. Governor Charles D. Baker, asking the Justices to review the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s December 2020 ruling that decided the Governor’s restrictions are reasonable and do not violate the plaintiffs’ federal constitutional rights.

• Governor Baker seized unprecedented executive and legislative authority when he issued his Emergency Declaration. Most of Baker’s orders from the last year have curtailed freedoms by banning economic, religious, educational, and cultural assembly in some form or fashion. But a health crisis does not empower the Governor to disregard the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

• NCLA hopes the Supreme Court will take up this case because it presents a unique opportunity to remind state and federal courts that constitutional rights like the freedom peaceably to assemble remain relevant in times of crisis. Review is warranted to provide lower courts with much-needed direction regarding the proper standards for reviewing constitutional challenges to severe restrictions on civil liberties.

May 14, 2021