Gov. Mike DeWine vetoes bill curbing his coronavirus powers; legislative override may come soon

Jeremy Pelzer
Tue, 23 Mar 2021 23:19:49 +0000
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Gov. Mike DeWine lays out reasoning for Tuesday’s veto of Senate Bill 22, which would have limited the power of the executive branch to issue states of emergencies and health orders like mask mandates. Credit: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch via TNS

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Cleveland.com via TNS) — As expected, Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday vetoed legislation to rein in his powers to issue health orders, saying the measure would be unconstitutional and hamstring the state’s response to health crises.

However, DeWine’s fellow Republicans in the state legislature say they have the votes to override the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 22, arguing that the legislation sets up needed safeguards on the governor’s emergency powers.

SB 22 would give lawmakers authority to cancel any health orders that last longer than 30 days, require the governor’s office to renew such orders in 60-day intervals, and create a legislative oversight panel.

The bill would also limit local health officials’ power to require people to quarantine or self-isolate without a specific medical diagnosis, and it would allow Ohioans to sue over the constitutionality of any state emergency order in their home county.
DeWine’s veto message lays out the same arguments against SB22 that he previously expressed to state lawmakers in a letter sent Monday.

The bill, he wrote, would “handcuff” the ability of state and local officials to respond not only to future disease outbreaks, but other non-health-related emergencies.

DeWine offered a hypothetical example of a governor responding to a prison riot by cutting the water and power at the prison. “Under SB 22, any inmate’s family members could run into their local court and sue the Governor to prevent those orders from taking effect,” DeWine wrote.

He also suggested that trial lawyers would exploit the new law by suing over gubernatorial emergency declarations to win attorneys’ fees and damage awards.

DeWine further asserted that “significant portions of SB 22 are unconstitutional,” as they violate the Ohio Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine embedded in the Ohio Constitution, among other things.

Along with his veto message, DeWine included a number of letters from local-government officials and medical groups urging him to reject the legislation.

Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp and Senate President Matt Huffman, both Lima Republicans, have said they have the necessary three-fifths majority in their respective chambers needed to override DeWine’s veto.

State Rep. Scott Wiggam, a Wooster Republican, responded to DeWine’s letter Tuesday with a letter of his own rebutting the governor’s points one by one.

DeWine’s letter, he wrote, provides only hypothetical scenarios “which will either never occur or could be dealt with through” other state laws.

“Your letter,” Wiggam wrote the governor, “suggests that the Executive branch of government has or at least should have absolute unfettered authority whenever it decides to declare an emergency or issues an order. …This type of autocratic rule must be checked by the Legislature and should be tested in the courts because I believe it is not only unacceptable, it is also unconstitutional.”

Since the start of the coronavirus crisis in March 2020, the DeWine administration has issued a wide range of health orders that have affected the daily lives of most – if not all – Ohioans. Relying mostly on a law passed by the Ohio legislature decades ago, various orders have, at times, shut down businesses for weeks, required most Ohioans to remain home, and imposed a mask mandate in many public locations.

Legislative Republicans responded by passing a number of bills to limit the DeWine administration’s coronavirus authority, including measures to strip away his authority to issue statewide health orders, block his ban on most county fair activities, and decriminalize violations of his health orders. DeWine vetoed all three of those bills, and proponents of them weren’t able to find the support needed to override them.

Legislative Democrats have, overall, sided with the governor on such bills. Earlier this month, House Democrats urged DeWine to veto SB 22.

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