State’s top court, mulling Baker’s emergency authority, told he’s ‘turned the government upside down’
The state’s highest court is weighing a challenge to the sweeping emergency powers Governor Charlie Baker has wielded amid the pandemic, setting up a decision with potentially far-reaching effects on the scope of gubernatorial authority and the millions of lives it touches.
The Supreme Judicial Court, meeting virtually without its chief justice, heard arguments Friday in a lawsuit brought by a group of business owners seeking to overturn the dozens of executive orders Baker has issued since declaring a state of emergency six months ago in response to COVID-19.
