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State of Emergency Illegal Since 2020 in Orange County?
A perspective from Dale Hodson
I’m a resident of Orange County and Chapel Hill, and I’m NOT an attorney.
I have bad news for Orange County residents, businesses, and organizations that have been harmed by the COVID restrictions imposed by the County: It didn’t have to happen.
Regardless of the restrictions that the State of North Carolina has imposed, I believe that the March 13, 2020 Orange County “State of Emergency” declaration, and all amendments to it, legally ended after March 18, 2020 – nearly two full years ago.
Because of that, I believe that all of the restrictions, shutdowns, and stay-at-home orders issued by the County over the last two years have been invalid and probably illegal after March 18, 2020.
Why do I believe this?
Because the original declaration and each subsequent amendment and extension are in contradiction to the Orange County Code of Ordinances.
Section 14-40 of the Code states: “… Any proclamation issued under this article shall expire five days after its last imposition …”
Again, listen to those words: “shall expire five days after its last imposition”
The Code doesn’t say that the five day expiration is a guide, or a suggestion, or that a proclamation “might expire,” or “could expire” – the Code says “shall expire.”
And “shall expire” is an order, not a choice.
I understand the desire by the Board Chair to incorporate phrases such as “shall remain in effect until it is rescinded,” but I believe such phrases violate Orange County law.
The invalid language in the Declaration: “shall remain in effect until it is rescinded” gives the purposeful impression that the Declaration could go on forever, and certainly longer than the statutory limit of “five days.”
For the entire two years since the Declaration was first published, the Board and others have purposely given the impression that a valid County “State of Emergency” existed.
If the County wanted a State of Emergency longer than five days, it would have been a simple matter:
Just issue a new declaration every five days.
For the last two years, thousands of County residents and businesses have been harmed by these invalid emergency declarations.
I would think that County residents and businesses might seek legal recourse for the mental, emotional, physical, and financial harm they have incurred since the expiration of the Declaration two years ago.
It doesn’t matter that the State of North Carolina was under a State of Emergency during this period, because County restrictions went beyond what the State mandated.
I request that the Orange County Board of County Commissioners publicly display and send a statement to the media saying that the original “State of Emergency” declaration legally expired after March 18, 2020, and that all subsequent Amendments were invalid because there was no legal Orange County “State of Emergency” declaration in effect when the various amendments were declared.
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Why would y’all publish such a clearly misinformed take on a matter that has been settled in all manner of courts? I do not think that I need to explain the Supremacy Clause of either the North Carolina or US Constitution but y’all may want to send some information to your reader who is so clearly lacking in their constitutional scholarship. I expect the next article published from this reader will be informing us that traffic lights are also illegal and we no longer need to abide their signals. In the future, please publish the name of the writer of the article and do not hide behind the editorial staff byline.
Russell,
Every “Viewpoints” we publish is required to be attributed to an individual. Not a group, not “anonymous,” and with both a first and last name. You will find the full name of every “Viewpoints” column author at the top, under the full title submitted by the author, following “A perspective from:”
Russell, this is not a “settled” matter as you indicate. The NC State and US Constitutions have nothing to do with my claim in the Viewpoints article. My claim is that the Board of County Commissioners violated (and continues to violate) an ordinance in the Orange County Code of Ordinances, which you can find here:
https://library.municode.com/nc/orange_county/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIGEOR_CH14EMMAEMSE_ARTIISTEM_S14-40TEPR
As already pointed out to you, you can find my name at the beginning of the article. What is “so clearly lacking” is your understanding of a simple article.
Russell, thanks for stopping by.
Dale Hodson
This person complaining about pandemic restrictions is like a child complaining about needing to use toilet paper.
Tom, thanks for stopping by and giving us your insights. I suggest you read about the differences between freedom and tyranny, perhaps starting here:
https://mises.org/begin
Mises Institute – a racist libertarian bunch of thugs
http://www.unkochmycampus.org/los-ch2-part-1-network-of-neoconfederate-economists
Adam, thanks for stopping by and sharing your insights. Your act of calling a wide collection of economists and libertarian writers “racist” and “thugs” is typical of people who don’t have a real argument against something – so you resort to inflammatory name calling. If you disagree with one of the hundreds of articles on that web site, let’s hear your specific argument – otherwise you’re just parroting something you read in the media.
The Mises Institute is named after a European (early Austria, now Ukraine) economist, Ludwig von Mises – and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t a “neo-confederate” racist and thug. Two of the other prominent contributors to the writings at the Mises Institute are Murray Rothbard and Walter Block, both of whom were born to Jewish families in New York – again, probably not racist thugs.
In the article you linked, the SPLC plays a big part. As you know, the SPLC gave up being a valid source of “who is a racist” a long time ago and now exists simply to support leftist causes and socialism.
If you have an argument about the facts in the actual Viewpoint article I wrote, please bring that to our attention, but just leave out the “he’s a racist” approach and maybe people will listen to you.
But again, thanks for stopping by.
I would like to connect with the author. I have some information I would like to discuss with you about the BOCC. I have heard you speak at these meetings.
Jacquie, you can message me via Facebook and provide your email address, then I can contact you via email. I am at:
https://www.facebook.com/dale.hodson.16