The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Kansas
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Kan. Att'y Gen., Mem. to Kansas Prosecutors and Law Enforcement (Mar. 24, 2020), at 8-10
- Issued
- 2020-03-24 Mar. 24, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-03-24 (supplemented by Addenda 1 to 3, April 8, May 28 and July 2, 2020) (read as 2020-03-24)
- End
- period guidance (superseded in part by Addendum 3 after HB 2016) (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Mar. 24, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Stay-at-homeGathering capQuarantine and isolationStanding dutyOther
- Addressees
- law enforcement officers and prosecutors (duties); persons generally and businesses (as the persons whose violations are prosecuted)
- Character
- agency position statement
- Collection
- Standing duties: Kansas DUT-KS
Operative words
First, any "knowing and willful" violation of any "lawful order or proclamation" (emphasis added) of the governor issued pursuant to K.S.A. 48-925 is a class A misdemeanor. K.S.A. 48-939. Law enforcement officers have the same duty and authority to enforce these misdemeanors as to enforce any other misdemeanor.
Penalty
class A misdemeanor (K.S.A. 48-939, 2019 text); class C misdemeanor (K.S.A. 65-129)
What it required
The State's chief legal officer instructed every prosecutor and law enforcement agency that the Governor's orders (then EO 20-14, 20-15 and 20-16) were enforceable crimes; that the Secretary and every local health officer 'may order an individual or group of individuals to go to and remain in places of isolation or quarantine' under 65-129b(a)(1)(B), a power 'not contingent on a state of local disaster emergency having been declared'; that breaking quarantine 'is guilty of a class C misdemeanor. K.S.A. 65-129'; and that officers 'may be required to assist in enforcing any lawful orders of the secretary of health and environment or of any local health officer even if no criminal conduct occurs' (at 8-10). Character as recorded: agency_position_statement (release, FAQ, memorandum or statement; order_penalty layer).
Retrieval noteTwelve pages plus the text of HCR 5025 as an attachment. Cites Ex parte Irby, 113 Kan. 565 (1923), and Ex parte McGee, 105 Kan. 574 (1919), for the enforceability of local health officer quarantine orders, and Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905). The live ag.ks.gov URL no longer resolves; the Wayback capture of April 6, 2020 is the exhibit.