The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- California
- Level
- Court
- Authority
- Cal. Const. art. III, sec. 3 (separation of powers); Gov. Code sections 8567, 8571, 8627 (Emergency Services Act)
- Issued
- 2021-05-05 May 5, 2021
- Effective
- 2021-05-05
- End
- n/a (judicial decision construing standing statutes) (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing since May 5, 2021 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Emergency declarationStanding duty
- Addressees
- persons generally (the reach of the Governor's orders under sections 8567 and 8627)
- Character
- adjudication
- Collection
- Standing duties: California DUT-CA
Operative words
The superior court erred in interpreting the Emergency Services Act to prohibit the Governor from issuing quasi-legislative orders in an emergency. We conclude the issuance of such orders did not constitute an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power.... section 8567, subdivision (a), provides that... such "orders and regulations shall have the force and effect of law."
Penalty
n/a (the penalty for disobeying the orders the decision construes is Gov. Code section 8665, DUT-CA-007)
What it required
Confirmed, in a published decision issued while the June 11, 2021 order and the readopted ETS were being prepared, that every executive order issued under the Emergency Services Act during the COVID-19 emergency was a quasi-legislative act with the force and effect of law binding on every person in the State, so that the stay-at-home directive, the reopening framework and their successors bound employers as law and not as requests. Character as recorded: adjudication (orders upheld).
Retrieval noteThe court's own slip opinion ('Filed 5/5/21', 'CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION'); the official reporter citation 63 Cal.App.5th 1099 is taken from secondary sources (Justia, CourtListener, FindLaw) and should be pin-checked before use in a brief. The opinion quotes section 8627 in full, reads 'police power' as 'generally the power to legislate', and states at p. 36 of the slip opinion: 'We conclude the Emergency Services Act, and specifically section 8627 of the Emergency Services Act, is not an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power.' The order challenged (vote-by-mail, EO N-64-20) was moot; the court decided the delegation question because the injunction against executive orders 'raise[d] matters of great public concern regarding the Governor's orders in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic emergency'.