The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Connecticut
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Conn. Gen. Stat. § 3-125 (the Attorney General as the State's legal officer); statement on the Governor's authority under the emergency declarations
- Issued
- 2020-04-20 Apr. 20, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-04-20 (public statement of the State's legal officer) (read as 2020-04-20)
- End
- n/a (statement) (read as 2020-06-30)
- In force
- Apr. 20, 2020 to June 30, 2020
- Quarters
- 2020 Q2
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Other
- Addressees
- persons generally (statement addressed to the public and to challengers of the orders)
- Character
- agency position statement
- Collection
- Standing duties: Connecticut DUT-CT
Operative words
Our Constitution is unambiguous—the Governor has broad authority to protect Connecticut families during a public health emergency. His executive orders have been both lawful and justified and I am behind him 150 percent.
Penalty
none (statement); the release also cites Conn. Gen. Stat. § 42-234 on price gouging during the declared emergency
What it required
The State's chief legal officer's public statement, one month into the emergency, that the Governor's executive orders were lawful and would be defended; the office thereafter defended the orders in Amato (Ex. DUT-CT-007) and Casey (Ex. DUT-CT-011) and prevailed in both. Character as recorded: agency_position_statement (Attorney General statement).
Retrieval noteA press statement, not a formal opinion; the Attorney General issued no formal opinion on the COVID-19 orders in 2020 or 2021 (the office's formal opinions for those years, 2020-01, 2020-02, 2021-01 and 2021-02, concern other subjects). Recorded for what it is: the State's legal officer's contemporaneous statement that the orders were 'lawful and justified.' Character coded statutory_duty as a statement of the binding effect of orders issued under §§ 19a-131a and 28-9.