The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request from Governor Wolf’s Administration to stay the decision that ruled the governor’s orders restricting gathering sizes and ordering non-essential businesses to close were unconstitutional. The order, which was published just after noon on Thursday, is two pages long and did not contain an opinion.
According to the article:
“The reinstated restrictions will now limit gathering sizes — with no more than 25 people allowed inside and 250 people allowed outside. Those could affect political events, as well as some of his clients’ businesses, King said, such as drive-in theaters and some retail stores. However, the crowd restrictions have not been enforced at most political events and Black Lives Matters protests.”
The plaintiffs, Butler, Fayette, Greene, and Washington Counties of Pennsylvania plus several politicians and small businesses, argued through their attorneys that “the stay should not be granted and the governor presented no medical evidence before {Federal District Judge William S. Stickman IV} that lifting crowd restrictions could lead to more deaths from the virus.”
Referring to the possibility that the 3rd Circuit Panel believed that the public could be irreparably harmed if a stay was not issued, Professor Jerry Dickinson from the University of Pittsburgh reportedly said:
“That’s a huge part of this. If Stickman’s order and the decision is kept in place, it really limits what the government can do with this pandemic and more people dying. The government has to have flexibility.”
Both parties to the case now have as much as 63 days to submit written arguments to the appellate court.
A final decision at this level may not be rendered until after the new year.
This case is important to the Pennsylvania Amateur Hockey Community as well as the figure skating and short-track speed skating communities, because the limit on participants in indoor non-contact athletic activities was previously set by the Wolf Administration at 25.
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