The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Indiana
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Ind. Const. art. 4; Title 16, Article 20 (Local Health Departments), chapter 1 (General Provisions)
- Issued
- 2021-05-10 May 10, 2021
- Effective
- Sections 24(a), 25(a), 25(c) and 26(a), (c) in force in substance before March 1, 2020 and on every day of 2020 Q2 through 2021 Q3; the 2021 additions from their dates (read as 2020-03-01)
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing since Mar. 1, 2020 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Business closureGathering capSchools and child careStanding dutyOperating condition
- Addressees
- persons generally; owners or persons in control of premises; specified businesses when named in a health officer's order
- Character
- statutory duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Indiana DUT-IN
Operative words
A person shall not institute, permit, or maintain any conditions that may transmit, generate, or promote disease.... If a person refuses or neglects to obey an order issued under this section, the attorney representing the county... shall... institute proceedings in the courts for enforcement. An order may be enforced by injunction.
Penalty
Section 25(c): court enforcement 'by injunction'; if 'a criminal offense,' notification of law enforcement. Section 26(c): the court may issue an injunction, order suspension or revocation of a license, order an inspection, order that a property be vacated, impose 'a penalty not to exceed an amount set forth in IC 36-1-3-8(a)(10)' (ordinance-violation penalty ceiling: $2,500 first violation, $7,500 each subsequent violation), and order compliance within a specified time.
What it required
Every person, including every owner or operator of premises, refrain from instituting, permitting or maintaining conditions that may transmit disease; obey a health officer's written abatement order within 'the shortest reasonable time'; and submit to local health officers' orders closing schools and forbidding public gatherings 'when considered necessary to prevent and stop epidemics' (section 24(a)), the authority recited in the Marion County Public Health Orders (Exs. MET-IND-001 to MET-IND-020) and upheld in Bar Indy (Ex. DUT-IN-009).
Retrieval noteSection 24(a) (the 'Epidemic Statute' in Bar Indy): 'Local health officers may order schools closed and forbid public gatherings when considered necessary to prevent and stop epidemics.' Section 26(c)(3) also lets the court issue 'an order and conditions under IC 16-41-9' (isolation and quarantine). Section 21.5 (SEA 5, May 10, 2021): a local order addressing an aspect of a declared emergency more stringently than the Governor's executive order 'may not take effect, or remain in effect, unless the local order is approved' by the county or city legislative body; Section 28 lists 'a failure to enforce the rules of the state department' as a ground for removing a local health officer. The 2021-session amendments (P.L.99-2021, P.L.174-2021, P.L.219-2021) took effect after the stay-at-home period; the operative sentences quoted in (a) and (c) of section 25 and (a) of section 24 are unchanged from the pre-2021 text as the history lines show.