Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne (LRC Photo)
Just hours after Governor Andy Beshear issued an executive order that mandated all Kentuckians wear masks in public, the state’s Republican leadership questioned his ability to do so without collaborating with lawmakers.
The governor’s executive order takes effect Friday at 5 p.m. and will last for 30 days. It requires Kentuckians to wear a mask or face covering inside of businesses and buildings and outside when six-foot social distancing can’t occur.
Kentucky is now one of 23 states with some sort of mask mandate in the wake of a rise in COVID-19 cases. While the state’s hospital and ICU capacity are less than 75-percent full as of Thursday, the state’s seven-day average of new cases has set a new high for the fourth straight day.
In a letter to the Democratic governor Thursday night, Senate President Robert Stivers, House Speaker David Osborne, and Attorney General Daniel Cameron – all Republicans – said they learned of Beshear’s executive order at his press conference Thursday afternoon. They said the governor put forth the order “by edict rather than through collaboration.”
All three told the governor that they are in a unique position to work with him on developing policies that protect public health during the pandemic while respecting the constitutional rights of Kentuckians. They went on to say that unilaterally imposing “arbitrary and overbroad orders” that work to address the spread of COVID-19 in the same way across the state, whether in Louisville or Harlan, has violated the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth.
The Republican leadership said the state must work together to ensure that any new policies or executive orders do not further harm the state’s “fragile economic recovery.”
The letter mentioned Thursday’s Scott County Circuit Court ruling that issued a temporary restraining order against Beshear’s executive orders and guidance. The ruling came down several hours before Beshear’s media conference at the Capitol Rotunda.
The letter also mentioned previous state and federal court rulings that struck down all or parts of Beshear’s executive orders prohibiting drive-in and in-person church services, banning mass gatherings against political protestors, his travel ban, and most recently, a temporary restraining order against enforcing certain requirements of daycare centers and auto racetracks.
The trio told the governor that the court actions could have been avoided of Beshear had “more carefully considered the constitutional implications and consulted with a broad range of stakeholders.”
The letter closed by saying the Republican leadership trusts the state’s citizens to make responsible decisions to protect themselves and their neighbors and asks the governor to do the same.
