Coronavirus: Wolf's Frightening Reasoning...

The Wolf Administration: Rotten to the Core

Your governor has no rational argument for essential and non-essential services and he thinks destroying your business is not a problem (from his Supreme Court filing).  Read for yourself, don't trust my interpretation.

So two things.

First off Wolf's rotten to the core argument to Alito and the Supreme Court can be found here:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19A1032/142846/20200504095730241_Respondents%20Opposition%20to%20Appl%20to%20Stay.pdf

Wolf makes a number of claims, two I believe are fatally flawed.

First, as to what is "Essential" and "Non-Essential" - page #20 in the above link:

"The Governor’s list of life-sustaining businesses is divided among industries using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), which is well understood by businesses. These codes and classifications were developed under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget and are utilized by the U.S. Census Bureau to group similarly situated organizations and entities together for classification purposes. See U.S. Census Bureau, North American Industry Classification System, https://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/ (last visited 5/2/20). By using this highly regarded and ubiquitous classification system, the Governor ensured that similarly situated entities would be treated the same. As demonstrated by this action, Applicants certainly understand upon which side of this divide they fall."

So what is NAICS you ask?

(from https://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/2017NAICS/2017_NAICS_Manual.pdf):

"NAICS is an industry classification system that groups establishments into industries based on the similarity of their production processes."

It's all set up by codes, digit, prefixes, stuff like that.  For example:

11 Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting—Activities of this sector are growing crops, raising animals, harvesting timber, and harvesting fish and other animals from farms, ranches, or the animals' natural habitats.

So looking at Wolf's list we see this (https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/wfmz.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/18/c18a1c60-6b71-11ea-ba4c-778e1c007dd3/5e760c683d14e.pdf.pdf):

No materials for face masks?  No problem.  We just lumped everybody together.

This doesn't say dick about what the things are used for.  It's based on how they are made.

It says nothing about people, proximity, anything related to disease, disease prevention, ...

Nothing.

So you are lumped into some category you had to pick on your PA100 filing; none of which you fit into because most businesses that are small don't.

Many businesses do more than one thing.  How's that handled?

Arbitrary and dumb and WRONG...

This isn't science, it bureaucratic zero real world experience stupidity.

Instead you'd say - hmmm - no one knows what goes on in these businesses so let's device simple policies everyone can follow regardless of their business.

Problem one - start out with the wrong model.

On to section D. There has been no “taking” of Applicants’ properties under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments

First this: He also argues police powers are appropriate as "Courts have consistently held that a State need not provide compensation when it diminishes or destroys the value of property by stopping illegal activity or abating a public nuisance. It is hard to imagine a different rule that would be consistent with the maxim “sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas” (use your own property in such manner as not to injure that of another).

I don't think we are all criminals.  But apparently he does...

Wolf next spends a great deal of time talking about how what he's done is not effectively eminent domain.  He uses arguments like the government cutting down trees of type A to save trees of type B and the government not having to compensate the type A owners because its for a good, public cause.

And then, which in my view is very telling and very, very wrong: "Here there is not even contemplation of property being damaged or destroyed.  Rather, as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court correctly recognized, the Governor’s Order “results in only a temporary loss of the use of the Applicants’ businesses premises” in order to “protect the lives and health of millions of Pennsylvania citizens[.]”"

Think about this: "Here there is not even contemplation of property being damaged or destroyed."

When your employee quits that you've invested time and money into... that's not damage?

This is very, very scary...

Most businesses will have credit issues with suppliers, banks, and so on.

People they will lose along with their investment in those people.

Then Wolf says: "... unremarkable proposition that government action rendering property permanently valueless constituted a taking. That is not the case here, where the restrictions are by their nature temporary. Indeed, after review and consideration of public health data, the Governor has recently announced the reopening of certain business locations for 24 counties beginning May 8, 2020."

So it's okay for the government to render your equipment useless because you can't bring in a repair person.

That's not taking?

(See too how he hedges with the "reopeneing ..." will be soon...)

This guy is out of touch with reality.

Totally.

If I go to your work and literally throw a monkey wrench into your tire balancer and break it you can't call the cops?

That's destruction of propery.

And its the same here.

This is what our state is telling the Supreme Court.

Our tax dollars are writing this tripe.

This loser is hawking this bullshit.

This smacks of hastiness, sloppiness, and government lackeys pointing and misfiring from the hip.

Little wonder no one publicizes this.

And, to boot, I filed a FOIA (RTK in PA) on Wolf's office.

Guess what I got back (though other departments excluding health responded) from Wolf's office:

"Please note that the Office is currently closed due to the COVID-19 disaster emergency. Requests will be processed upon resumption of business."

His office isn't closed.

He delivered the arguments Monday.  Bet the lawyers worked over the weekend on triple over time on our tax dollars: https://www.law.com/thelegalintelligencer/2020/05/04/pa-gov-wolf-urges-scotus-not-to-take-up-fight-over-covid-orders-closing-businesses/

It's hiring lawyers to write bullshit arguments.

Why are these lawyers even working?

(Note they are not allowed as non-essential...  Yet I see Edgar Snyder adds on various TV channels.)

Oh, wait, defending this sorry ass is "essential."

His office is open to defend but not open for me...?

What a double dealing loser...