Cole County case rules against health department pandemic regulations

Posted 12/8/21

The November 2021 Cole County court case ruling is about to change the way COVID-19 quarantine cases are being determined — giving local, elected boards the authority to determine who attends …

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Cole County case rules against health department pandemic regulations

Posted

The November 2021 Cole County court case ruling is about to change the way COVID-19 quarantine cases are being determined — giving local, elected boards the authority to determine who attends and who stays home.

According to the court case “Shannon Robinson versus Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (MO DHSS), ‘the DHSS regulation authorizing a health agency director’s discretionary closure of a school or place of public assembly based on the director’s personal opinion is invalid. 19 CSR 20-20.050(3). This regulation clothes an individual health agency director with the power to ‘close any public or private school or other place of public or private assembly when ‘in the opinion of’ clearly designates complete discretion in an administrative bureaucrat to determine closure. The regulation even prohibits reopening ‘until permitted by whoever ordered the closure.’”

“The Missouri Supreme Court has held that a bureaucrat cannot possess such broad authority,” according to the Circuit Court of Cole County State of Missouri court judgment.