The governmental orders by layer
The orders that reached this industry came in seven layers, and every layer reached every function in every quarter: the federal layer of leave, entry, border, conveyance, workplace and health instruments; the fifty States and the District, every one of which prohibited or capped the group meetings this industry sells; the largest metros, whose county and city orders ran stricter and longer than the States' in the largest markets and returned in August and September 2021; the sector regulators, the health officers, liquor authorities, fair boards, convention authorities and courts whose instruments fixed the terms of the industry's product; the counterparties, the venues, hotels, caterers, schools, clerks and carriers whose own orders closed the transactions this industry depends on; the ecosystem of supply, workforce and travel through which orders anywhere limited commerce everywhere; and, as facts and circumstances only, the orders of foreign governments in which the federal travel instruments operated. This section inventories the layers; the six-quarters section applies them quarter by quarter; the tables on this page tabulate them.
The universe
The governmental response to COVID-19 was not a handful of orders; it was a body of governmental commands on commerce, travel and assembly that the Government's own datasets count in the tens of thousands, and every count of it is a floor. By May 31, 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42 States and territories had issued mandatory stay-at-home orders reaching 2,355 of the nation's 3,233 counties, and "most jurisdictions issued multiple orders."22 The Council of State Governments counted 2,065 executive orders issued by governors and State agencies between February 2020 and June 29, 2020 alone, before four of the six claimable quarters had begun.23 The Department of Health and Human Services' own dataset records 4,218 State and county policy-order entries between March 23, 2020 and August 31, 2021, and its curators stopped coding in the spring of 2021.24 The COVID AMP database catalogued nearly 50,000 policy measures worldwide, including more than 20,000 at the United States national and State level, 95 percent of them issued before November 23, 2021, and approximately 8,000 issued by United States counties.25 The Kaiser Family Foundation's State-by-State files record 51 emergency declarations in force on June 30, 2020, 49 on April 5, 2021, 35 on July 2, 2021 and 25 on September 21, 2021, with statewide face-covering requirements in 11 jurisdictions on the last of those dates and Hawaii "Imposing New Restrictions."26 The Library on this site indexes more than 11,500 instrument records, more than 10,700 of them with the exhibit file present. That figure is the number of instruments The COVID Project has retrieved and indexed; it is not, and is not offered as, a count of the orders that reached any employer or of the orders issued nationally, which the sources above place in the tens of thousands.
The Government's own attribution
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis attributed the largest quarterly decline in gross domestic product on record, 32.9 percent at an annual rate in the second quarter of 2020, to "the response to COVID-19, as 'stay-at-home' orders issued in March and April were partially lifted in some areas of the country in May and June"; the Comptroller General wrote that "millions have lost their jobs due to stay-at-home orders and business closures aimed at 'flattening the curve'"; the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that in the third quarter of 2020 "19 percent of establishments (1.6 million) experienced a government-mandated closure"; and the Federal Reserve's Beige Book of September 8, 2021 attributed the quarter's deceleration to "a pullback in dining out, travel, and tourism in most Districts, reflecting safety concerns due to the rise of the Delta variant, and, in a few cases, international travel restrictions."27 The position that few orders existed is not a close call on a contested record; it cannot be squared with the Government's own datasets.
The federal layer
The run-up and the second quarter of 2020
Between March 12 and March 31, 2020 the federal government suspended entry from the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom and Ireland, proclaimed the national emergency, moved the executive branch to maximum telework, published "15 Days to Slow the Spread" with its direction to avoid social gatherings of more than ten, closed the Canadian and Mexican land borders to all but essential travel, cancelled every routine visa appointment in the world as of March 20, 2020 and enacted the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.28 From April 1, 2020 the FFCRA mandate required every employer under 500 employees to provide paid leave to any employee "subject to a Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19," advised to self-quarantine, or whose child's "school or place of care" was closed, and the implementing rule defined "quarantine or isolation order" to include stay-at-home orders; the mandate ran through December 31, 2020.29 The President suspended the entry of most new immigrants from April 23, 2020 and of H-1B, H-2B, L and J workers from June 24, 2020; the land-border closures were renewed monthly; the White House's "Opening Up America Again" of April 16, 2020 put "large venues" under "strict physical distancing protocols" in the template every State phase plan tracked.30 The CDC's Considerations for Events and Gatherings of May 2020 were incorporated by reference in State venue rules; they are guidance, cited here as the content the State orders adopted, and the binding instrument is the State order.31
The third and fourth quarters of 2020
The proclamations and border closures continued and were renewed on July 22, August 21, September 23, October 22, November 23 and December 22, 2020; the FFCRA mandate ran to December 31; the State Department began a post-by-post resumption of consular services on July 15, 2020; the CDC's eviction moratorium took effect September 4, 2020; Proclamation 10131 of December 31, 2020 carried the immigrant and temporary-worker suspensions to March 31, 2021.32 For this industry the federal layer of 2020 meant no foreign performer, no foreign cast or crew, no cross-border guest and no seasonal J-1 or H-2B staff, and a leave mandate on every employer under 500 for every quarantined employee and every closed school.
The first and second quarters of 2021
On January 25, 2021 the incoming Administration continued the Schengen, British, Irish and Brazilian suspensions without interruption and added South Africa (Proclamation 10143), and on April 30, 2021 it added India (Proclamation 10199); both ran to November 8, 2021.33 The CDC's conveyance order, an airborne-transmission control on every conveyance and transportation hub, took effect at 11:59 p.m. on February 1, 2021 "until further notice": "Persons must wear masks over the mouth and nose when traveling on conveyances into and within the United States," and "[a] conveyance operator transporting persons into and within the United States must require all persons onboard to wear masks for the duration of travel," on pain of criminal penalty; the TSA's security directives of January 31, 2021 imposed the same airborne-transmission control on every transit agency, railroad, bus company, airline and airport, each required to give notice that federal law required masks, to refuse boarding and to remove violators, and SD 1582/84-21-01A carried the surface directive from May 12 to September 13, 2021 "including those already vaccinated."34 Executive Order 13991 imposed masking and physical distancing on every person in federal buildings and on federal lands from January 20, 2021, and OMB M-21-15 capped federal workplaces at twenty-five percent of occupancy until June 10, 2021.35 Proclamation 10014 was revoked February 24, 2021 and Proclamation 10052 expired March 31, 2021; they are relied on for the quarters in which they were in force and not thereafter.36 The OSHA COVID-19 Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard took effect June 21, 2021; it reached this industry only at on-set medical services, and it is relied on for that footing alone.37
The third quarter of 2021
On July 1, 2021 the conveyance mask order, SD 1582/84-21-01A, the aviation directives, the inbound-testing order, the Conditional Sailing Order, Proclamations 9984, 9992, 10143 and 10199, the DHS land-border prohibition under the June 23, 2021 notifications, the Title 42 order, the CDC eviction moratorium to July 31 and Executive Order 13991 were in force; inside the quarter OSHA revised its National Emphasis Program on July 7, DHS renewed the land-border prohibition on July 22, August 23 and September 22, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force reinstated universal masking, with attestation, screening and distancing duties, in every federal building for every person regardless of vaccination status in areas of substantial or high transmission on July 27-29 and required that any federally hosted "in-person meeting, conference, or event that will be attended by more than 50 participants" first obtain agency-head approval, the CDC replaced its Title 42 order on August 2 and issued a new eviction order on August 3, the TSA announced SD 1582/84-21-01B on August 20 (effective September 14, 2021 to January 18, 2022) and the President signed Executive Orders 14042 and 14043 on September 9, 2021, each reciting that the public health emergency and the national emergency remained in effect.38 The revocation of the entry proclamations and the opening of the land borders to vaccinated travelers came on November 8, 2021.39 A Government that was renewing its border prohibitions, replacing its Title 42 order, tightening its own workplace rules and conditioning its own conferences of more than fifty participants in July, August and September 2021 cannot maintain that no orders limiting commerce, travel or group meetings were in effect in that quarter; the position cannot be squared with the Federal Register.
The fifty States
The pattern
Between March 12 and April 3, 2020 every one of the fifty States and the District of Columbia issued an order closing event venues or limiting group meetings: forty-eight States and the District fixed a number by order (250, then 50 or 100, then 10 or 25); Nebraska's statewide ten-person Directed Health Measure took effect April 3 (Ex. NE-008) after its three-county measure of March 19 (Ex. NE-002); South Dakota directed its local governments to restrict gatherings of ten or more (Ex. SD-005); and North Dakota closed every theater, music and entertainment venue, bar and dining room by order on March 20 (Ex. ND-005) while stating its gathering figure as a recommendation. The first caps were 250 (Massachusetts, Maryland, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Louisiana in the second week of March), then 50 or 100, then 10 or 25, and, by the CDC's count, forty-two States and territories then prohibited every gathering outside the household under mandatory stay-at-home orders (Ex. LAW-201). Forty-seven States closed concert halls, performing-arts centers, nightclubs, banquet halls and theaters by name between March 16 and April 3, 2020. The reopening ran from late April 2020 in Georgia and Texas, through June 2020 in the Northeast, Midwest and West, to caps of ten to fifty in thirty-four jurisdictions on July 1, 2020; the winter re-tightening of November 2020 through January 2021 prohibited receptions by name in Minnesota, Washington, Rhode Island and Howard County, Maryland, closed banquet centers and every indoor non-residential gathering in Illinois and Michigan and re-capped venues in twenty-two more jurisdictions; the withdrawal ran from January 15, 2021 (Montana) and January 18 (North Dakota) through late May 2021 in the Northeast and the largest Midwestern States and June 30 and July 1, 2021 in Washington, Oregon and New Mexico, with Hawaii re-capping on August 10, 2021 and releasing only on December 1, 2021.40 The State table on this page states the regime for every jurisdiction with exhibit identifiers; this subsection states the analysis by region.
The Northeast
New York cancelled "[n]on-essential gatherings of individuals of any size for any reason (e.g. parties, celebrations or other social events)" on March 23, 2020, having closed theaters and casinos on March 16 and every place of public amusement on March 19; it permitted ten on May 22, twenty-five in Phase Three regions on June 15 and "gatherings of fifty (50) or fewer individuals ... so long as any such gatherings occurring indoors do not exceed 50% of the maximum occupancy" on June 26, 2020, a cap the State enforced against weddings and defended in DiMartile v. Cuomo, where the court recited that the same venue "when operating as a restaurant under Defendants' 50-percent capacity restriction, is permitted to hold more than 50 people"; it imposed cluster zones with a $15,000-a-day penalty for organizers on October 6, a 10:00 p.m. closing that the State Liquor Authority applied to catering halls on November 13, the catered-events rule of March 15, 2021 (the lesser of seventy-five percent or 150 indoors, five days' notice, sign-in, no events between midnight and 5:00 a.m.), venues at thirty-three percent from April 2, 2021, 250 indoors from May 19 and the end of gathering limits on June 15, 2021, with the series rescinded June 25, 2021.41 New Jersey prohibited gatherings over fifty and closed performing-arts centers, concert venues, nightclubs and casinos on March 16 and cancelled all gatherings on March 21, 2020; it permitted indoor gatherings at twenty-five percent up to fifty on June 9 and 100 on June 22, cut indoor gatherings to twenty-five on August 4 while naming weddings at twenty-five percent up to 100, raised weddings to 150 on September 4, cut general indoor gatherings to ten on November 17 while keeping weddings at 150, capped weddings and catered events at thirty-five percent never more than 150 on March 19, 2021, restored dance floors at catered events at fifty percent never more than 250 on May 7, permitted 250 on May 19 and removed indoor gathering limits and the telework mandate on June 4, 2021.42 Pennsylvania closed non-life-sustaining businesses, listing "Traveler Accommodation" as "No," on March 19, ordered every resident to stay home by April 1, capped gatherings at twenty-five in the yellow phase and 250 in the green, prohibited indoor events over twenty-five and outdoor events over 250 from July 16, 2020, imposed an occupancy calculator on October 9, cut indoor events to ten percent on November 27, prohibited indoor gatherings over ten and outdoor over fifty from December 12, 2020 to January 4, 2021, and stepped to fifteen, twenty-five and fifty percent before its orders expired on May 31, 2021.43 Massachusetts capped gatherings at 250 on March 13, twenty-five on March 17 and ten from noon March 24 to July 6, 2020; permitted twenty-five indoors and 100 outdoors on July 6, twenty-five and fifty on August 11, event venues at fifty to 100 on October 5 and twenty-five and fifty at venues on November 6; imposed twenty-five percent capacity from December 26, 2020 to February 8, 2021; capped gatherings at ten and twenty-five on February 8; permitted event venues 100 indoors and 150 outdoors from March 22 and exhibition and convention halls at twelve percent; restored dance floors on May 10; and rescinded every order on May 29, 2021.44 Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont ran parallel chains: Connecticut's indoor events at twenty-five from June 17, 2020 and its indoor private events at fifty percent up to 100 and outdoor private events at 200 from March 19, 2021 to May 20, 2021; Rhode Island's gatherings of five from March 28, 2020, its Pause order that "indoor catered events must be cancelled," its catered events of fifteen from January 29, 2021 and of thirty with pre-event testing from February 25, its venues at eighty percent from May 7, its Reopening Order terminated July 6, 2021 and its venue regulation in force to August 31, 2021; Delaware's prohibition of "Gatherings/Events over 250 people ... including but not limited to weddings, concerts, parades, festivals, conventions, fundraisers, sporting events and fairs" from June 15, 2020 and its indoor caps of the lesser of thirty percent or ten from December 14, 2020 and twenty-five from February 19, 2021 to May 21, 2021; Maine's checklist that "the limit on the number of persons for indoor gatherings is currently set at 50 people indoors. This applies to weddings and other indoor events"; New Hampshire's Phase 2 food-service rules with wedding guidance made mandatory to May 7, 2021; and Vermont's event venues at seventy-five indoors and 150 outdoors from June 26, 2020, its cancellation of fairs and festivals for 2020 by order and its suspension of every multi-household social gathering from November 14, 2020.45
The Midwest
Michigan prohibited all gatherings outside a household on March 24, 2020, permitted ten indoors and 100 outdoors on June 1, prohibited every indoor non-residential gathering from November 18, 2020 to January 31, 2021, permitted ten from February 1 and twenty-five from March 5, 2021, permitted fifty percent from June 1 and rescinded on June 22, 2021.46 Illinois closed places of public amusement, concert halls and social clubs and prohibited all gatherings outside a household on March 21, 2020, permitted ten on May 29 (with film production under Department of Commerce guidance made binding by the order), fifty on June 26, capped meetings and social events at twenty-five under regional mitigations from August 18, closed "meeting rooms, banquet centers, private party rooms, private clubs" to gatherings of any size and prohibited indoor gatherings of more than one household under Tier 3 from November 20, 2020, restored Phase 4 caps between January 15 and February 4, 2021, permitted conventions at the lesser of 1,000 or sixty percent under the Bridge Phase from May 14 and reached Phase 5 on June 11, 2021.47 Minnesota permitted "venues that offer gathering space for weddings, funerals, or planned services" to host them at twenty-five percent from May 26, 2020 and fifty percent from June 10, capped receptions at fifty and then twenty-five on November 13, ordered that "[i]ndividuals, venues, and businesses must not host celebrations, receptions, private parties, or other social gatherings" from November 20 to December 18, 2020, permitted receptions of fifty from February 13, 2021 and fifty percent up to 250 from March 15, and lifted its caps on May 27, 2021.48 Ohio exempted weddings from its mass-gathering counts on March 12, 2020 but capped receptions at 300 under banquet rules on May 29, reopened "Restaurants, Bars, Banquet and Catering Facilities and Services" under seated-service rules on June 5 and September 23, 2020, subjected "wedding receptions, funeral repasts and other events at banquet facilities" to no socializing in open congregate areas, seating, face coverings and no dancing from November 17, 2020, capped venues at twenty-five percent indoors and thirty percent outdoors on March 2, 2021, kept seated service at banquet facilities and a twenty-five percent fixed-seating cap from April 5 and let its last order expire at 12:01 a.m. June 2, 2021.49 North Dakota, the only State that titled an instrument for the industry ("Banquets, Ballrooms, Weddings and Event Venues"), made that standard binding by executive order from November 16, 2020 at twenty-five percent of occupancy, fifty percent from January 8, 2021 and rescinded it at 8:00 a.m. January 18, 2021; Nebraska regulated wedding receptions by name in every 2020 phase (parties of six, then eight; no dancing; percentage caps; face coverings at weddings from November 11, 2020) through May 24, 2021; Iowa prohibited gatherings over ten from March 17, 2020 (Ex. IA-002) and, in its proclamation of April 27, 2020 (effective May 1), declared that "wedding receptions of more than 10 people are social gatherings that are prohibited" (Ex. IA-012), reopened "a wedding reception venue" at fifty percent seated capacity on May 28, prohibited indoor gatherings over fifteen from November 17 to December 16, 2020 and ended its mandates on February 7, 2021; Indiana defined a "social gathering" to include a wedding, family reunion, party, banquet or conference, capped all gatherings and meetings at 250 and required a plan filed seventy-two hours ahead for any event over 250 from July 23, 2020, capped gatherings at twenty-five to 250 by county color from November 15, 2020 and ended its caps on April 6, 2021; Wisconsin limited weddings to fewer than ten from March 25 to May 13, 2020 and capped ticketed events at twenty-five percent from October 8 to November 6, 2020 (Ex. WI-012; enforcement interrupted for five days by litigation, Ex. WI-022), with Dane County and Milwaukee governing thereafter; Kansas defined the prohibited "mass gathering" as "any planned or spontaneous, public or private event or convening" of fifty and then ten from March 17 and 25, 2020, moved to recommendations on May 26, 2020 and left Douglas, Sedgwick and Shawnee Counties to cap banquet halls and conference centers at 100 or fifty percent in the winter; Missouri's State order ended June 15, 2020 and St. Louis City and County and Kansas City governed the industry to May 2021, with Boone County capping weddings, funerals and wakes at ten from March 25, 2020; South Dakota directed local governments to restrict gatherings of ten or more from March 23 to April 28, 2020, and its Fourth Judicial Circuit ordered that "[n]o weddings shall be performed by any authorized Fourth Circuit employee and no weddings shall be performed in the Courthouses of the Fourth Circuit" from March 23, 2020 to May 27, 2021.50
The South
Texas reopened "wedding venues and the services required to conduct weddings" at twenty-five percent of occupancy on May 8, 2020, the earliest wedding-specific clause in the fifty States, after ordering every person to minimize social gatherings from April 2; it then required mayoral or county-judge approval for outdoor gatherings over 500 from June 3, over 100 from June 26 and over ten from September 21, 2020 to March 10, 2021, ordered that "people shall not be in groups larger than 10," capped venues at seventy-five percent and at fifty percent in high-hospitalization areas, and removed its limits on March 10, 2021.51 Florida closed "banquet halls" by name in Broward and Palm Beach Counties on March 20, 2020, declared on April 1 that "[a] social gathering in a public space is not an essential activity," barred groups over ten where distancing was impossible from May 4, reopened concert houses and auditoriums at fifty percent on June 5 and removed every State capacity limit while suspending local fines on September 25, 2020, leaving Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach to hold banquet halls and venues closed to the last week of September 2020 and to govern by local order to May 3, 2021.52 Georgia prohibited any business from allowing more than ten persons within six feet from noon March 24, 2020, closed live performance venues from April 3 through June 30, 2020 (Ex. GA-010; Ex. GA-018; Ex. GA-022; Ex. GA-023; Ex. GA-024, the last ordering that "Live Performance Venues shall not host events prior to July 1, 2020"), capped gatherings at twenty-five from June 1 and fifty from June 16, 2020 through April 7, 2021, and forbade "Conventions" before July 1, 2020, bound "all banquet facilities, private event facilities, and private reception venues where food is served" to the restaurant protocols, and converted its measures to recommendations on May 1, 2021.53 Virginia prohibited "[a]ll public and private in-person gatherings of more than ten individuals," including "parties, celebrations, religious, or other social events," on March 30, 2020, permitted 250 on July 1, cut to twenty-five on November 16 and ten on December 14, 2020 with "private bookings" at venues limited to ten, stepped to fifty and 100 in April and May 2021 and ended its order on May 28, 2021.54 Maryland's Department of Health declared on June 12, 2020 that "Convention events are prohibited until further notice"; the Governor held banquet and convention facilities at fifty percent until May 15, 2021 after every other cap had ended on March 12, 2021; and Howard County prohibited social gatherings "to include ... wedding receptions at a wedding venue" from November 27, 2020 to February 19, 2021.55 Louisiana capped crowds at fifty on July 13, 2020, capped event centers at fifty percent or 250 on September 11, cut event centers to twenty-five percent capped at seventy-five indoors and reception halls to twenty-five percent on November 25, 2020, raised event centers, reception halls and conventions to seventy-five percent on April 28, 2021 and ended its caps on May 26, 2021.56 Kentucky ordered on November 18, 2020 that "[i]ndoor venues, event spaces, and theaters are limited to 25 people per room. This limit applies to indoor weddings and funerals," then held venues at fifty, sixty and seventy-five percent to June 11, 2021; North Carolina capped mass gatherings at ten for most of fourteen months and conference centers at thirty percent or 100 from October 2, 2020, lifting its caps on May 14, 2021; South Carolina closed concert venues, theaters, auditoriums and performing-arts centers from April 1, 2020 and reopened them only as "Gatherings" capped at the lesser of fifty percent or 250 with face coverings from August 3, 2020 to March 1, 2021; Mississippi named "reception halls and conference centers" from June 10, 2020 and capped indoor gatherings at ten from July 24 to September 30, 2020 and from December 11, 2020 to March 3, 2021; Alabama defined its prohibited "non-work related gathering" to include weddings, concerts and festivals from May 11, 2020 and ended its numeric caps on November 8, 2020; Arkansas defined its covered "Large Indoor Venues" as those hosting "concerts, weddings, plays ... conferences, conventions ... trade shows, and festivals," held them to sixty-six percent with an approved plan and, from January 2, 2021, required a plan for any event above ten attendees, until February 26, 2021; Tennessee capped social gatherings at fifty from May 22 to September 30, 2020 and prohibited indoor social gatherings of ten or more from December 20, 2020 to January 31, 2021 while exempting weddings by name; Oklahoma imposed a statewide fifty percent gathering cap from December 14, 2020 to March 12, 2021 while Tulsa prohibited every "public or private event or social gathering, defined as more than one person outside of a single residence" from March 28, 2020 and required health-department plans for events of 150 or more to April 30, 2021; West Virginia designated weddings "Essential" on a distancing condition while capping every reception, concert and festival at ten, twenty-five, 100, twenty-five and ten, re-closing fairs, festivals and amusement parks from July 14, 2020 to April 30, 2021; and the District prohibited mass gatherings over fifty, closed venues absent a waiver and provided that special-event permits would not be considered from June 22, 2020, cut gatherings to ten and twenty-five on November 25, 2020 and lifted its limits on May 21, 2021.57
The West
California barred all gatherings under the stay-at-home order of March 19, 2020, closed indoor venues statewide on July 13, fixed the Blueprint on August 28, 2020 with no indoor private event in any tier, closed everything under the Regional Stay at Home Order from December 5, 2020 to January 25, 2021, permitted indoor private events for the first time on April 15, 2021 and only where "all guests tested negative for COVID-19 or show proof of full vaccination," capped at 200, ended its caps on June 15, 2021 and kept the mega-event verification rule in force, with the indoor threshold lowered from 5,000 to 1,000 on September 20, 2021.58 Washington prohibited every gathering "regardless of the number of people involved," weddings and funerals included, from March 23, 2020, kept live entertainment prohibited and nightclubs and concert venues in a never-reached Phase 4 through 2020, ordered from November 17, 2020 that "[c]eremonies are limited to a total of no more than 30 people. Indoor receptions, wakes, or similar gatherings in conjunction with such ceremonies are prohibited," and, for miscellaneous venues, that "[a]ll retail activities and business meetings are prohibited," capped venues at twenty-five percent or 200 and then fifty percent or 400 under Healthy Washington, lifted its phase caps on June 30, 2021, kept indoor events over 10,000 at seventy-five percent absent vaccination verification, imposed universal indoor face coverings, an airborne-transmission control binding every venue and workplace, from August 23, 2021 and extended it to every outdoor event of 500 or more from September 13, 2021.59 Oregon prohibited every non-essential gathering without six feet on March 23, 2020, capped indoor social gatherings at ten from July 15, 2020, prohibited mass gatherings through September 2020 so that the State Fair Council cancelled the fair "per State of Oregon restrictions on the size of mass gatherings," closed venues under the Freeze and under the highest tier of the county framework of Executive Order 20-66, lifted its framework on June 30, 2021 and re-imposed universal indoor face coverings on August 13 and extended them to crowded outdoor settings on August 27, 2021, occupational-health and airborne-transmission controls that Oregon OSHA's Administrative Order 10-2021 carried into every workplace as a duty of the employer.60 Nevada closed venues on March 20, 2020, prohibited gatherings of ten or more on March 24, kept live events closed to the public to October 1, 2020, capped gatherings at the lesser of 250 or fifty percent from October 1, the lesser of fifty or twenty-five percent from November 24, 2020 and the lesser of 250 or fifty percent again from March 15, 2021, delegated to counties on May 1 and ended State review of large gatherings on June 1, 2021, then re-imposed indoor face coverings on every person, vaccinated or not, from July 30, an airborne-transmission control enforced against employers by Nevada OSHA and against licensees by the Gaming Control Board (Directive 047), and conditioned unmasked attendance at events and conventions of 4,000 or more on proof of vaccination from August 16 and September 2, 2021.61 Hawaii prohibited any gathering of more than ten and closed concert halls, theaters, fairs and social clubs from March 25, 2020, governed by county tiers through the spring of 2021, and re-imposed statewide caps of ten indoors and twenty-five outdoors on social gatherings and fifty percent capacity on restaurants, bars and social establishments on August 10, 2021, with professional events over fifty to consult the county, until December 1, 2021.62 New Mexico prohibited gatherings of more than five from March 24, 2020, capped them at ten from August 29 and five from October 16, barred houses of worship from hosting non-religious events from October 23, closed large entertainment venues from November 16, ran a county framework of five, ten, twenty or 150 from December 2, 2020 to June 30, 2021 and re-imposed universal indoor face coverings from August 20, 2021, a workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirement addressed to every indoor public setting in the State that bound every business, establishment and non-profit to the COVID-Safe Practices under a civil penalty of $5,000 per violation.63 Colorado permitted "indoor and outdoor events such as receptions, events, non-critical auctions, theaters, trade shows, markets, indoor malls, rodeos, fairs, festivals and parades" at 100 indoors and 175 outdoors from June 18, 2020, closed indoor events at Level Red in the winter and ended its caps on April 16, 2021 with a 500-person indoor cap to June 1, 2021; Arizona required local approval for every organized public event over fifty from June 29, 2020 to March 25, 2021; Utah barred every social gathering outside the household from November 9 to 23, 2020 unless "the social gathering has an event host or occurs at a business" and imposed event-host face-covering, distancing, signage and template duties on every planner and venue to May 4, 2021; Alaska prohibited weddings, graduations and funerals of any size from March 28 to April 24, 2020 and left Anchorage to cap events to May 3, 2021 and Juneau to cap indoor gatherings at fifty from July 30, 2021; Idaho prohibited gatherings over fifty from October 27 and over ten from November 14, 2020 to February 1, 2021, with Ada County and Boise capping to 2021; Montana capped groups at twenty-five from November 20, 2020 to January 15, 2021; and Wyoming defined "Large Indoor Events of More Than Five Hundred (500) People" to include "rodeos, concerts, organized sporting events, fairs ... farmer's markets, weddings, and any other event of a similar nature" and held them to fifty percent through May 31, 2021 after capping personal gatherings at ten, twenty-five and fifty for a year.64
The 2021 transition and the preemption States
No single national instrument ended the industry's caps. They ended in a range from April 28, 2020 (South Dakota) to December 1, 2021 (Hawaii), with a median in late May 2021, and the Northeast, the West Coast and the largest Midwestern States released the industry last: New York May 19 and June 15, New Jersey May 28 and June 4, Massachusetts May 29, Pennsylvania May 31, Illinois June 11, California June 15 with the mega-event rule continuing, Michigan June 22, Washington and Oregon June 30, New Mexico July 1, Rhode Island's Reopening Order July 6 and its venue regulation August 31, 2021; Maryland held banquet and convention facilities at fifty percent until May 15, 2021, Wyoming held large indoor events including weddings to fifty percent until May 31, 2021 and Colorado held a 500-person indoor cap to June 1, 2021.65 Texas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Iowa, Arizona, Utah, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Maryland preempted or voided local gathering, venue or vaccination-proof orders at the dates the State table records; in those States the 2021 quarters were carried by the federal layer, the State emergencies and the instruments they kept alive, the school and workforce orders and, for Texas and Georgia, the counter-orders of July and August 2021 that fixed the terms on which every venue operated.66 California, New York, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Idaho, Alaska, Nebraska, Colorado, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Georgia (Savannah), North Carolina, Hawaii, Wisconsin and Ohio left county and city orders in force that ran stricter or longer than the State's, and in Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin and Idaho the local layer was the regime after the State's ended.67
The standing duties
Beneath the seven layers lay a further body of law that bound every employer in this industry on every day of the six quarters: the standing statutes that commanded every person to prevent and control communicable disease and every employer to furnish a safe workplace, the offenses that punished disobedience of health and emergency orders, and the liability shields that protected only the business that complied with governmental standards, guidance and protocols. Each is an order from an appropriate governmental authority: a statute or rule that commands conduct is an order, a legislature, a health department, a labor department and an occupational-safety agency are each an appropriate governmental authority, and the statute says nothing of the source. This subsection states the layer for seven of the industry's largest markets, Texas, California, Florida, New York, Georgia, Nevada and Connecticut; the fifty-one-jurisdiction table is on this site's standing-duties page.68
The reopening orders did not restore the industry's operation; they permitted it on conditions with the force of law, and the verbs are commands. Texas let "wedding venues and the services required to conduct weddings" operate "provided, however, that for weddings held indoors other than at a church, congregation, or house of worship, the facility may operate at up to 25 percent of the total listed occupancy of the facility," then ordered that "Every business establishment in Texas shall operate at no more than 50 percent of the total listed occupancy of the establishment," each order reciting the penalty of Government Code section 418.173 while incorporating the DSHS protocols with "should," a recommendation recorded as one. Florida's Phase 2 order declared its section 2 protocols "guidance and not enforceable under section 252.47, Florida Statutes," and enforced its section 4 venue conditions under that section. Georgia ordered that "all banquet facilities, private event facilities, and private reception venues where food is served ... shall implement" the listed measures, reciting section 38-3-7. New York's Executive Order 202.31 ordered that reopened businesses "must be operated subject to the guidance promulgated by the Department of Health," and Executive Order 202.45 carried the command into Phase Four: businesses "must be operated in compliance with the guidance promulgated by the Department of Health." Nevada's Directive 018: "All employers must take proactive measures to ensure compliance with the social distancing and sanitation guidelines. All employers shall require employees who interact with the public to wear face coverings, to the maximum extent possible, and shall abide by all other guidelines promulgated by the Nevada State Occupational Safety and Health Administration (NVOSHA)." Connecticut ordered that "Every workplace in the State of Connecticut shall take additional protective measures" and made its Sector Rules "legally binding and enforceable." California permitted sectors to "reopen with certain modifications" and commanded that Californians "must, when they do so, continue at all times to practice physical distancing."69
Beneath the orders, standing law commanded the same conduct. Texas Health and Safety Code section 81.002 has read since 1989: "The state has a duty to protect the public health. Each person shall act responsibly to prevent and control communicable disease." Knowing refusal "to perform or allow the performance of certain control measures" is a Class B misdemeanor; disobedience of a published order in an area quarantine "is a felony of the third degree." Florida made violation of "any requirement adopted by the department pursuant to a declared public health emergency," and of "any rule or order" under its Emergency Management Act, a misdemeanor of the second degree; New York made any person who "violates, disobeys or disregards" a lawful health order liable to "a civil penalty of not to exceed two thousand dollars for every such violation"; Connecticut gave the Governor's orders "the full force and effect of law," made violation of "any provision of this chapter" a class D felony, provided that an individual who violates a public health emergency order "shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than one year, or both, for each offense," and enforced the Sector Rules through the civil penalty of $10,000 per violation that the orders themselves created; California, Georgia and Nevada have their equivalents.70
The workplace-safety duty bound every one of these employers independently. Texas Labor Code section 411.103 commands that "Each employer shall" provide "a place of employment that is reasonably safe and healthful for employees" and "take all other actions reasonably necessary to make the employment and place of employment safe"; California's Labor Code, Georgia's section 34-2-10, Nevada's NRS 618.375, New York's Labor Law section 200 and Connecticut's section 31-49 state the same duty; California's emergency temporary standard bound every employer from November 30, 2020, and New York's HERO Act required an airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plan from July 2021. In every State the general duty clause bound every private employer: "Each employer ... shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees." OSHA read the clause to every employer in March 2020, cited employers under it from September 10, 2020, and a Commission administrative law judge affirmed a willful violation of the general duty clause against a tax office whose owner refused face coverings and distancing. The safe-workplace statutes had no COVID-19 content until the health authorities said what a safe workplace required; from that moment screening, distancing, sanitation and face coverings at every venue, studio and set were the statutes' requirement.71
The legislatures then said what the standard of care was. Texas protects a business from pandemic-exposure liability, in every action commenced on or after March 13, 2020, unless the claimant proves it "knowingly failed to implement or comply with government-promulgated standards, guidance, or protocols intended to lower the likelihood of exposure to the disease." Florida, retroactively from March 29, 2021, immunizes only a defendant that "made a good faith effort to substantially comply with authoritative or controlling government-issued health standards or guidance." Nevada, from August 11, 2020, immunizes an entity only "in substantial compliance with controlling health standards." Georgia set a gross-negligence floor without a compliance clause and left the orders and the safety statutes to enforce the standard; New York and Connecticut shielded health-care providers only; California enacted none, leaving Evidence Code section 669's presumption that a person who "violated a statute, ordinance, or regulation of a public entity" failed to exercise due care. In every form the premise is the same: compliance with the governmental health standards is what a business owed, and a venue, planner or production company that screened, distanced, sanitized and masked in that environment was not choosing; it was complying.72
The largest metros
In the largest markets the county and city orders were the operative instruments: they closed the industry first, held it longer and, in August and September 2021, re-imposed the conditions the States had lifted. New York City closed venues and gyms at 8:00 p.m. on March 16, 2020, ordered telework and a fifty-percent workforce reduction on March 20, cancelled every non-essential gathering of any size on March 25, refused street-event, parade and fair permits from July 7, 2020 into 2021 and, from August 17, 2021, forbade every indoor event venue, catering hall, concert venue, museum and restaurant to admit any patron, employee or contractor without proof of vaccination, with penalties from September 13, 2021.73 Los Angeles County prohibited group events and closed venues on March 16, 2020, "closed the region to on-location filming" on March 20, reopened production on June 12, 2020 only under Appendix J, kept every later order under Appendix J, permitted private events from April 15, 2021 only with every indoor guest tested or vaccinated, capped indoor seated live events at ten to twenty-five percent, re-imposed universal indoor face coverings on every business and public setting from July 17 and by order of August 16, 2021, extended the requirement to outdoor mega-events from August 19-20 (Pasadena by its own order), required vaccination or a test at indoor mega-events of 1,000 or more from September 15 (Pasadena) and ordered verification at bars and outdoor mega-events by order of September 17, 2021 effective October 7; the City of Los Angeles issued its Safer L.A. order on August 24, 2021.74 San Francisco's C19-07y of June 15, 2021 required every business to screen personnel and follow the mega-event rules, and its update of August 12, 2021 required proof of full vaccination of every patron of an indoor event venue and dining establishment from August 20 and of every employee by October 13, 2021.75 New Orleans closed reception facilities and event venues on March 17, 2020, capped gatherings and events under stricter local rules through May 2021, imposed an indoor face-covering mandate on every person and business, with every business required to post and enforce it, from July 31, 2021 and required proof of vaccination or a negative test for entry to indoor dining, bars, concert halls and event spaces from August 16, 2021.76 Honolulu governed by tiers through 2021, cut its gatherings to ten and twenty-five on August 23, 2021, imposed Safe Access O'ahu (proof of vaccination or a test at every restaurant, bar, gym, theater and covered entity) from September 13 and closed every indoor event and outdoor events above stated sizes from September 22, 2021.77 Chicago capped meetings and events at ten under its Stay-at-Home Advisory from November 16, 2020, closed event venues to gatherings under Tier 3 from November 20, imposed an Emergency Travel Order requiring fourteen-day quarantine of arrivals from most of the country for nearly a year and required face coverings in every indoor public place from August 20, 2021, with Cook County following on August 23.78 Boston, Cambridge and Somerville rolled back the Commonwealth's phases in the winter of 2020-21 and required face coverings in every indoor public place from August 20 and 27, 2021, the Boston Licensing Board issuing an advisory on protocols for licensed premises "including weddings and functions"; Philadelphia required face coverings indoors from August 12, 2021 with a vaccinated-only exception; Denver adopted venue and event requirements in May 2021 (Ex. MET-DEN-017), and Boulder County required face coverings in every indoor public space from September 3, 2021 (Ex. MET-DEN-033); Dane County and Madison, Mecklenburg County, Columbus, Juneau, Lincoln, Iowa City, Jackson, Richland County, St. Louis City and County, Kansas City, Jackson County and Johnson County required face coverings in every indoor space in July through September 2021; Louisville required them in its city buildings and vehicles from August 2 (Ex. MET-SDF-017); and Savannah required them in City buildings, schools, hospitals and regulated transport, capped gatherings on City property at fifty (weddings excepted on distancing and face-covering conditions), cancelled every Civic Center event and revoked every event permit on City property from August 24 to September 30, 2021 (Ex. MET-ATL-017).79 The local face-covering orders that reached indoor public places generally were workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements addressed to the premises as well as to the person: Chicago's required every business to post the rule at its entrances and made a business that failed to enforce it subject to closure; Philadelphia's bound every business operating an indoor setting; Boston's bound every person on the premises of every business, performance venue and event space; and Louisville's and Savannah's reached the cities' own buildings and regulated transport. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties closed banquet halls and venues from March 17-19, 2020 and held "bars, venues and events" closed under Miami-Dade's restated New Normal order of August 31, 2020, with Broward's banquet halls closed under Emergency Orders 20-21 and 20-24 until late September 2020; Howard County barred wedding receptions at venues from November 27, 2020; St. Louis City prohibited public and private events over ten from March 20, 2020, imposed Phase I standards on banquet facilities from May 18, 2020 and prohibited private gatherings over ten from November 14, 2020 to May 14, 2021, while St. Louis County held banquet facilities at twenty-five percent in March 2021; Kansas City required Director approval for gatherings over ten from November 20, 2020; Pitkin County prohibited every "Event" of more than ten, defined to include weddings, conventions and fundraisers, from March 18, 2020; Riverside County cancelled Coachella and Stagecoach for 2020 and April 2021 and the Temecula balloon and wine festival by order; Allegheny County imposed catered-event conditions and a 25-person indoor cap from July 17, 2020; and King County issued its Verification of Vaccination Order on September 16, 2021, "effective immediately" as to preparation, requiring proof of vaccination or a test at every outdoor event of 500 or more and every indoor entertainment establishment from October 25, 2021.80 The metro table on this page tabulates the metro instruments.
The sector regulators
Each authority in this subsection is an "appropriate governmental authority" because the legislature gave it power over the meetings, venues, permits, licenses or products it limited; "appropriate" identifies power over the subject, not over the employer.81 County health officers issued the operative production and event protocols in the nation's largest production and event market: Los Angeles County's Appendix J (music, television and film production) from June 12, 2020 through the third quarter of 2021, Appendix BB (private events: meetings, receptions and conferences) from April 15, 2021, and Appendices Z and Z-1 (outdoor and indoor seated live events) from April 1 and April 15, 2021.82 State health departments issued the catered-event and media-production rules with force in New York under the Governor's executive orders: the Interim Guidance for Food Services, section E, from March 15, 2021, and the Interim Guidance for Media Production from June 23, 2020.83 Alcohol regulators fixed the catering permits: New York's State Liquor Authority published the closing-time guidance that named catering halls on November 13, 2020 and suspended a speedway's license for an event on July 9, 2020; New Jersey's Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control issued its advisory notice on the March 21, 2020 closures, created temporary expansion permits on June 3, 2020 and extended them to November 30, 2022; Colorado's Liquor Enforcement Division authorized product returns for "special event cancellations that are attributable to COVID-19" on March 13, 2020; Massachusetts' Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission advised licensees on food service and gatherings on August 10, 2020 and on the rollback to Phase 3, Step 1 on December 11, 2020; Illinois' Liquor Control Commission announced that non-compliance with the Tier 2 mitigations of October 2020 would be enforced through the license; Iowa's Alcoholic Beverages Division granted relief to bars and restaurants closed by the March 17, 2020 proclamation; and Texas's Alcoholic Beverage Commission suspended the permit of a nightclub for violating the Governor's orders.84 State fair boards cancelled the 2020 fairs of Oregon, Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, North Carolina, Kansas and Missouri and the 2021 Pennsylvania Farm Show; Illinois cancelled its fairs by executive order and Vermont by order.85 Convention authorities closed McCormick Place from March 2020 to July 2021, the Javits Center from March 10, 2020, the Pennsylvania Convention Center to June 2021 and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center to September 3, 2021, and Orange County's convention center became a State testing site on March 25, 2020.86 The organizers' notices of the trade shows, conventions, festivals, fairs and recurring gatherings of this industry that these and the other orders disrupted are in the Library's meetings collection, with the venue orders in force on each event's dates. Gaming regulators closed and conditioned the casino showrooms, ballrooms and arenas of Nevada, Louisiana, Indiana and Massachusetts: Nevada's Gaming Control Board issued industry notices under each Directive and applied Directive 047's face-covering rule, an airborne-transmission control on every person on the premises, to every gaming floor from July 30, 2021; Louisiana's Gaming Control Board ordered face coverings for every employee and patron of every licensed floor on August 4, 2021, an occupational-health control enforced through the license, and renewed the order on August 12 and September 22; Indiana's Gaming Commission closed every casino from March 16 to June 15, 2020.87 Tribal governments closed casino venues and prohibited gatherings: the Ho-Chunk Nation closed its six gaming facilities from March 20 to May 26, 2020, Wind Creek Hospitality announced the closure of the Poarch Band's Alabama properties in March 2020 (a release, cited as context and not as an order), the Choctaw Nation Gaming Commission conditioned reopening on May 22, 2020 and the Mescalero Apache Tribe prohibited every "Mass gathering," defined as "any public or private gathering that brings together five (5) or more individuals," from March 24, 2020.88 Courts suspended courthouse weddings and recorded the States' enforcement of the caps: South Dakota's Fourth Judicial Circuit from March 23, 2020 to May 27, 2021; the Northern District of New York in DiMartile.89 Occupational-safety regulators fixed the workplace terms of every crew: Virginia's permanent standard 16VAC25-220 from January 27, 2021, amended September 8, 2021; Oregon OSHA's rules of May 4, June 30 and August 13, 2021; Cal/OSHA's Emergency Temporary Standards readopted June 17, 2021; New Jersey's Executive Order 192 rules carried by Executive Orders 242 and 243; OSHA's National Emphasis Program of March 12, 2021, revised July 7, 2021.90 California's Department of Public Health lowered the indoor mega-event threshold to 1,000 on September 20, 2021.91 Each order in this subsection is a condition on a revenue function of this industry and is cited as an order of the authority that issued it; the regulators', fair boards' and convention authorities' releases, advisories and minutes are cited as those authorities' own records of the orders they implemented and of the closures they compelled, as context and not as orders.
The counterparties
The orders on this industry's counterparties are orders limiting commerce, travel or group meetings, and the commerce they limited was this industry's. The venues, hotels, caterers and restaurants that house the industry's events were closed and capped by the instruments of the State table, and their banquet and meeting space was reached by name: Washington prohibited business meetings and receptions from November 17, 2020 and held meeting space at twenty-five percent or 100 to June 30, 2021; Illinois' Tier 3 closed hotel meeting space to events; Maryland held convention and banquet facilities at fifty percent to May 15, 2021; Massachusetts' Phase II lodging rules permitted "no events, functions, or meetings."92 The clerks and permit offices closed: film permits in Los Angeles and New York City from March 20, 2020; special-event permits not considered in the District from June 22, 2020 and revoked in Savannah from August 24, 2021; marriage-license counters closed or appointment-only under the clerk closures of spring 2020; the Tulsa and Providence event-plan and approval regimes.93 The schools and child-care centers on which the night-and-weekend workforce depends closed in every State in March 2020, ran remote or hybrid in 2020-21 and imposed face coverings and quarantine in 2021-22 under the instruments of the Library's ecosystem and State collections; school venues were closed to rentals.94 The carriers that bring guests, performers and crews operated under the federal conveyance, security-directive, entry and land-border instruments, and the States' traveler-quarantine orders removed the out-of-State guest from every destination wedding and convention in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Alaska, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Chicago for the periods they ran, New Jersey's parallel travel advisory (an advisory, cited as context) completing the tri-State regime.95 The manufacturers of staging, lighting, sound, tent and rental inventory in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey were closed by the non-essential closure orders of March 2020, and the flower importers operated under the entry and cargo regimes.96 The health-care system that tests and treats the workforce operated under the elective-procedure, visitation and worker orders of every State; the vaccination mandates of more than twenty States on health-care and public employees from August 2021 competed for the same part-time labor pool.97 Each counterparty order is an order under the statute's text and under the logic of the Notice's own Q&A-12, which makes an employer eligible where its operations are suspended "due to the governmental order that suspended operations of its supplier."98
The ecosystem
The interconnected economy is the mechanism by which orders anywhere limited commerce everywhere, and the statute reaches it. Six mechanisms carried orders addressed to others into this industry's operation. Supply chain and borders: the non-essential manufacturing closures of Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey in March through May 2020 stopped the plants that make staging, truss, lighting, sound and tent inventory; the entry proclamations, land-border notifications, Title 42 order and inbound-testing order closed the movement of foreign performers, cast, crew and cross-border guests from March 2020 to November 8, 2021; the port congestion the Federal Maritime Commission and the Federal Reserve recorded in 2021 delayed every imported input; and the Federal Reserve's Monetary Policy Report of July 2021 stated the mechanism in the central bank's own words: "Companies laid off workers, idled plants, and canceled orders for materials ... by late 2020, factories in some industries were scrambling to find the workers, parts, and materials."99 Workforce, schools and child care: every public school building in the country was closed by March 25, 2020, forty-eight States closed for the rest of the year, the remote and hybrid orders of 2020-21 and the face-covering and quarantine orders of 2021-22 followed, the FFCRA mandate governed every employer under 500 through December 31, 2020, and the quarantine and isolation orders of every State and county removed exposed staff for ten to fourteen days in every quarter.100 Travel, tourism and gatherings: the interstate traveler quarantines of twelve jurisdictions and Chicago, with New Jersey's advisory, Hawaii's Safe Travels condition on every trans-Pacific arrival to March 2022, the gathering caps of every State and the convention-center closures ended the destination-wedding, convention and festival calendar for the periods they ran.101 Courts and public offices: the permit, licensing and clerk offices closed to walk-in service; the courts that enforce the industry's contracts suspended calendars through 2020 and re-imposed face coverings and screening in the third quarter of 2021.102 Transit: the CDC conveyance order, the TSA directives and the transit agencies' service reductions and enforcement of the federal face-covering rule conditioned every commute and every road trip from February 1, 2021 through the third quarter of 2021.103 Health care as counterparty: the elective-procedure orders of 2020 governed the on-set medics and the clinics that test the workforce; the health-care-worker vaccination orders of fourteen jurisdictions from July 26, 2021 conditioned the medical staff of every large event and the part-time staff who also worked in a clinic.104
Foreign orders as facts and circumstances
The orders of foreign governments are not orders of an "appropriate governmental authority" under the clause, and this analysis does not treat them as such. They are the facts and circumstances in which the United States' own instruments limiting travel and commerce with those countries operated: Canada's discretionary-entry bar on United States residents to August 9, 2021 and its testing, ArriveCAN and quarantine rules thereafter; the European Union's list, which admitted the United States on June 18, 2021 and removed it on August 30, 2021; China's entry suspension; Japan's fourth state of emergency from July 12 to September 30, 2021; Mexico's traffic-light system; and the lockdowns of Vietnam and Taiwan in the third quarter of 2021 that governed the plants supplying the industry's lighting and sound equipment.105 The Congressional Research Service recorded that "more than 80 countries had closed their borders to arrivals from countries with infections, ordered businesses to close, instructed their populations to self-quarantine, and closed schools," and that global trade fell 5.3 percent in 2020.106 A touring performer, a foreign crew and a destination-wedding party from abroad were kept from this industry's events by the United States' proclamations; the foreign orders explain why those proclamations were renewed on every month of the six quarters.