TRO Application and Memo Final
TRO Application and Memo Final
921618
MURPHY & BUCHAL LLP
3425 SE Yamhill Street, Suite 100
Portland, OR 97214
Tel: 503-227-1011
Fax: 503-573-1939
E-mail: [email protected]
Attorneys for Plaintiffs (see signature block)
EUGENE DIVISION
Defendants.
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT plaintiffs Open Our Oregon, Da Cielo LLC,
The Mount Hood Mixer Shop, Inc., Under The Skin Tattoo LLC, Bryant LLC, Kuebler's
Furniture, Inc., Kathy Saldana, Michele Karpontinis, and David Parson, through counsel,
will and hereby do apply to this Court pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 65(b) and Local Rule
65 for a temporary restraining order against Defendants Kate Brown, in her official
capacity as the Attorney General of the State of Oregon, and Lillian Shirley, in her
official capacity as Public Health Director of the State of Oregon and for the issuance of
an order to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not issue, as follows:
1. Restraining and enjoining defendants and all those in active concert with
compliance with Executive Order No. 20-07 and Executive Order No. 20-12, insofar as
Court, why a preliminary injunction should not issue requiring Defendants to act as
described above; the temporary restraining order shall remain effect until such time as the
Court has ruled on whether a preliminary injunction should issue. Such relief is
the merits of this case, they will suffer irreparable harm without injunctive relief, the
balance of equities tips sharply in their favor, and the relief sought is in the public
interest.
Good cause exists to issue the requested Order to preserve Plaintiffs’ rights under
the Constitution of the United States, and to avoid irreparable harm to those rights. This
by the declarations of Plaintiffs and their counsel, James L. Buchal and Tyler Smith, and
their expert witness, Dr. Thomas Dodson, and by such further argument and evidence that
may be adduced at any hearing on this matter or of which the Court may take judicial
notice.
The Complaint in this action was filed concurrently with this Application. All
papers relating to this Application will be delivered by email to counsel for the Oregon
Attorney General by 5:00 p.m. on May 12, 2020. As reflected in the accompanying
declaration of Tyler Smith, Plaintiffs have notified the Office of the Attorney General of
Plaintiffs’ intention to file this Application and to seek a temporary restraining order of
Plaintiffs request that the Court waive any bond requirement, because enjoining
Defendants from interfering with the constitutional rights of Plaintiffs will not financially
affect Defendants.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Argument ...........................................................................................................................19
Conclusion .........................................................................................................................37
Cases
Allgeyer v. Louisiana,
165 U.S. 578, 589, 17 S. Ct. 427 (1897) ................................................................23
Bell v. Burson,
402 U.S. 535, 91 S. Ct. 1586 (1971) ......................................................................26
Dunn v. Blumstein,
405 U.S. 330 (1972) ...............................................................................................33
Ex parte Arta,
52 Cal. App. 380 (1921) ........................................................................................33
Granny Goose Foods, Inc. v. Brotherhood of Teamsters & Auto Truck Drivers,
415 U.S. 423 (1974) ...............................................................................................20
Hebert v. Louisiana,
272 U.S. 312, 47 S. Ct. 103 (1926) ........................................................................23
Jew Ho v. Williamson,
103 F. 10 (C.C. Cal. 1900) ...............................................................................32, 33
Maher v. Roe,
432 U.S. 464, 488 (1977) .......................................................................................33
Prince v. Massachusetts,
321 U.S. 158 (1944) ...............................................................................................21
Roberts v. Neace,
slip op. No. 20-5465, (Sixth Cir. May 9, 2020) .....................................................30
Rochin v. California,
342 U.S. 165, 172 (1952) .................................................................................23, 24
Sea Girt Restaurant & Tavern Owners Asso., v. Borough of Sea Girt, New Jersey,
625 F. Supp. 1482 (D.N.J. 1986) .....................................................................26, 27
Truax v. Raich,
239 U.S. 33, 36 S. Ct. 7 (1915) ..............................................................................23
Zinermon v. Burch,
494 U.S. 113, 110 S. Ct. 975, 108 L. Ed. 2d 100 (1990) .......................................28
State Statutes
Other Authorities
and defendants may not run roughshod over fundamental Constitutional principles of
liberty and justice with bare assertion that a health crisis requires such action. In an
operation of so-called "non-essential" businesses across Oregon. This action does not
concern the wisdom of all of the Governor's initial Emergency Orders,1 or even the initial
imposition of any of them. But the Governor's May 1, 2024 Executive Order No. 20-24,
extending the total destruction of the businesses and economic fortunes of nearly one in
six Oregonians until July 6, 2020, must be examined in light of the total evaporation of
the announced need for the restrictions in the first place: to avoid overwhelming Oregon
health care facilities. At this juncture, with the evidence clear that the peak in
hospitalizations never threatened any such thing, and is long past, the Governor's
rights and liberties enshrined by the U.S. Constitution, and cannot be sustained.
Inasmuch as there is no vaccine against COVID-19, and may never be, the only
disease. There is no reasonable path through which the disease simply vanishes as a
result of lockdown orders, and the Governor's Orders are inflicting catastrophic economic
1
They are all available on https://www.oregon.gov/gov/admin/pages/executive-
orders.aspx.
Page 10: PLAINTIFFS’ APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
AND ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION SHOULD
NOT ISSUE; MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR INJUNCTIVE
RELIEF
damage on the economy for no reasoned purpose. To make matters worse, with the
catastrophic economic damage comes immense human suffering and death, which is
Not since Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), have such flimsy
assertions of risk shut down the businesses and ruined the lives of healthy, law-abiding
Americans, and this Court may reasonably expect in the fullness of time to see the
offensive to see wealthy, white collar elites who can work at home and weather financial
hardship demand that poorer Americans with hand-to-mouth service jobs be quarantined
while healthy because of the infinitesimal risks they pose. The very concept of
inalienable rights was designed to protect Americans from the exercise of such arbitrary
power, and the Governor's Executive Orders challenged herein are an unprecedented
Most of the Plaintiffs operate businesses which, unlike marijuana dispensaries and
tribal card rooms, have been identified by the Governor as posing levels of risk sufficient
to justify a total shutdown order. Others have been indirectly damaged. None stand
risky nature, or indeed having any special characteristics at all. The mere fact that they
involve personal contact between employees and customers is the only basis for the
assertion of risk. On that theory, Americans have no inalienable rights and anything can
be banned on the basis of "risk". To make matters worse, the asserted risks are posited
This is not a smallpox epidemic, where a third of the people might die, and even
more of the babies, if the disease were allowed to spread. And even back then when
serious health emergencies posed such threats, no one ever contemplated shutting down
entire states. There are any number of less restrictive alternatives that can focus upon the
most vulnerable populations. The relief sought by plaintiff will not prevent the Governor
from reasonable regulation that falls short of a total abrogation of Constitutional rights.
But Defendants' total shutdown orders violate plaintiffs' fundamental rights to due
process of law (substantive and procedural), equal protection of law, and the Fourth or
Fifth Amendments. This Court should immediately enjoin Defendants from further
Statement of Facts
As set forth in the Complaint (¶¶ 14-32) and accompanying Declarations, the
Governor and the Public Health Director of the State of Oregon have responded to the
minimize the risks of spreading COVID-19. In substance, the Orders shut down a wide
swath of Oregon businesses the Governor deemed non-essential and associated with
personal contact between business employees and customers. Over time, it has become
apparent that the disease is far less fatal than initially imagined.
At the outset, it is important to understand that the State's own data show that the
initially-stated rationale for the Executive Orders, the need avoid overwhelming the
State's emergency medical facilities, was itself a bad forecast that never came to pass.
The peak in emergency room usage is long past. (Buchal Decl. ¶ 2 (referring to Cmplt.
¶ 39).)
professor at OHSU, and on several hospital staffs, offers extensive testimony that:
o We now know that Oregon's health system can cope with COVID-19, and that
early estimates of fatality rates have dropped to 0.8 to 0.94%. (Dodson ¶ 2);
o Oregon fatalities per unit population remain very low in comparison with other
jurisdictions, and more importantly, are far, far below numerous other health
The State's own current data shows a very large surge capacity available to handle
¶ 39).)
There can be no dispute as to the economic suffering for small businesses and
employees in Oregon, with public reports saying that one in six Oregonians have lost
Page 13: PLAINTIFFS’ APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
AND ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION SHOULD
NOT ISSUE; MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR INJUNCTIVE
RELIEF
their jobs as a result of these actions. M. Rogoway, "Oregon says it is prioritizing
thousands of jobless claims still pending from March," The Oregonian, May 6, 2020.2
Since and including the week of March 21st, following the Governor's March 17th
Executive Order shutting down "restaurants, bars, taverns, brew pubs, wine bars, cafes,
food courts, coffee shops, clubs or other similar establishments that offer food or drink,"
Oregonians have filed over 360,000 claims for unemployment, and the state has been
magnitude. Dr. Dodson explains that against any health benefits from destroying Oregon
illnesses, including alcohol and drug abuse, suicide, domestic violence and child abuse.
(Id. ¶¶ 7-11.) The increased suicides reasonably to be expected from the Governor's
lockdown orders are of the same order of magnitude, if not even larger, that total
COVID-19 deaths so far. (Id. ¶ 10 (46-432 increased deaths); see also id. ¶ 13 ("It is
likely that suicide, homicide, child abuse, alcoholism, drug use, and criminality will
increase because of the stress associated with a government, deeply in debt, which can’t
prove that it will put food on the table, pay a mortgage or rent, and provide
employment"). It should shock the Court to find that the rubric of reducing the risk of
2
Available at https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2020/05/oregon-says-it-is-
prioritizing-thousands-of-jobless-claims-still-pending-from-march.html (accessed May 6,
2020).
Page 14: PLAINTIFFS’ APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
AND ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION SHOULD
NOT ISSUE; MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR INJUNCTIVE
RELIEF
risks if they go out unprotected during these times—the Governor has in substance
compared to other causes of death in Oregon, a 2018 OHA report shows thirteen other
causes of death were more significant, ranging from malignant neoplasm (4,349) to
Septicemia (117). (Id.) There were 643 alcohol-induced deaths, but we do not declare a
public emergency and ban the sale of alcohol. There were 243 influenza and pneumonia
Historical comparison also suggest that the Governor's orders are truly
extraordinary, and a departure from all prior disease episodes in American history. The
1957 flu epidemic is estimated to have killed approximately 116,000 Americans, which
Similarly, the 1968 flu epidemic is estimated to have killed approximately 100,000
may ultimately exceed these numbers, in neither prior case were restrictions placed upon
the livelihoods and fundamental constitutional rights of ordinary Americans. How can it
be that our Constitutional rights are so fragile that they may be ripped to shreds on the
example, 44% of Oregon deaths have involved patients over the age of eighty. The
are residents of a long-term care facility, and that the true percentage may be one-half.3
There are obviously important and sensible public health restrictions that can and do
protect this vulnerable group, such as the restrictions on visitation in nursing, assisted
concerns the absence of any coherent long-term rationale for the restrictions. Unless a
treatment of 100% efficacy and/or vaccine of 100% efficacy were developed, the
continued spread of the virus is inevitable, and slowing it down to such a substantial
degree below the capacity of the health care system offers no coherent public health
benefits, while creating extraordinary economic harms, and other mortality, such as
suicides.
Plaintiff Kuebler's Furniture, Inc. had to shut down its furniture store in Salem
and lay off eleven employees. (Kuebler Decl.) Plaintiff Da Cielo LLC operates Sola
Salon Studios in the Pearl District, and the shut down—even as the State demands
continuing licensing fees for operation, has left its owner Teri Schudel fearful for her
economic future as her business is destroyed and bills mount. (Schudel Decl.) Plaintiff
Under the Skin Tattoo LLC operated a tattoo and body piercing studio in Hood River,
3
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-health-
202/2020/05/07/the-health-202-nursing-home-residents-may-account-for-one-half-of-all-
u-s-coronavirus-deaths/5eb2dc6d88e0fa42c41b3acf/ (accessed May 9, 2020).
Page 16: PLAINTIFFS’ APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
AND ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION SHOULD
NOT ISSUE; MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR INJUNCTIVE
RELIEF
Oregon, and has already been forced to relinquish its lease after (Dawson Decl.) Plaintiff
David Parson operated a 24-hour gym, PDX Muscle, in Beaverton, Oregon, until shut
Plaintiff Bryant LLC operates the Why Not Bar & Grill in Yoncalla, a small town
of about 1,200 people in Douglas County. They have been unable to mitigate the
Governor's Orders by offering takeout food, and stand to lose their entire business.
(Bryant Decl.) Similarly, plaintiff Kathy Saldana operated two bars, Quins Bar in
Ontario, Oregon and the A Street Tavern in Vale, Oregon. (Saldana Decl.)
Finally, the ripple effects of the Governor's Orders spread far beyond the
businesses directly shut down to other local businesses. Plaintiff Hood River Mixer
Shop, Inc. operates liquor stores in Hood River and The Dalles, and has lost all its bar
and restaurant accounts. Plaintiff Michele Karpontinis operated a retail store, Lotus
House, selling lingerie in Roseburg, Oregon, and had to close because she was in a
building that fell within the Governor's shutdown of malls. (Karpontinis Decl.) Plaintiff
Open Our Oregon represents multiple businesses seeking to re-open. (Ayles Decl.)
The Governor's most recent plan, issued May 7, 2020, begins by emphasizing the
failure to balance interests, with exclusive focus upon COVID-19 risks to the exclusion
of all other factors, by saying: "You don't make the timeline. The virus makes the
timeline." (Buchal Decl. Ex. 1, at 2.) The plan acknowledges that "we will be living
with the virus" for "many months," and appears to suggest that substantial restrictions are
required unless and until there is "reliable treatment or prevention" (id. at 4)—which may
The plan does not suggest any removal restrictions until May 15th, which may
occur in "some counties." (Id. at 8.) At that point, and only in those counties, some
restrictions may lift on "stand-alone retail that was previously closed but can follow
OSHA guidelines: furniture stores, art galleries, jewelry shops and boutiques". (Id. at
Phase I. (Id. at 12-13.) And no further restrictions will be lifted for at least three more
weeks (Phase II). (Id. at 17.) The Governor has offered essentially no further details on a
Phase II, or a Phase III and warns that larger gatherings—even outdoors—are unlikely to
be allowed until September. (Id. at 21.) As of this writing, no businesses have been
***
obviously a restriction on the most fundamental constitutional rights, with such intangible
benefits to the public health, as to constitute a step too far toward the arbitrary and
Wisconsin Supreme Court remarked during a May 4, 2020 challenging similar orders of
the Governor of Wisconsin: "Isn't it the very definition of tyranny for one person to order
arrest, unable to do little more than emerge from their homes for a stroll, they cry out for
an adult authority who will put an end to the notion that Oregonians may be herded like
cattle under the delusion that disease can be eliminated from the herd.
Argument
Sinaloa Lake Owners Asso. v. Simi Valley, 882 F.2d 1398, 1410 (9th Cir. 1989)
(breaching of allegedly unsafe dam). This case is akin to Sinaloa, in which there may
have been an initial emergency—severe rains raising water levels behind a dam—but the
challenged action occurred in a context where initial fears have been shown to be grossly
overstated. Projections now suggest that COVID-19 will cause public health losses akin
to severe flu years in the past in which no emergency orders whatsoever were issued,
much less the sweeping orders challenged here. Striking down the most unprecedented
and unreasonable of the Governor's restrictions, totally closing private businesses who
4
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/05/lawsuit-block-tony-evers-
order-stay-home-before-supreme-court/3083757001/
A temporary restraining order preserves the status quo ante and prevents
irreparable harm until a hearing can be held on a preliminary injunction application. See
Granny Goose Foods, Inc. v. Brotherhood of Teamsters & Auto Truck Drivers, 415 U.S.
423, 439 (1974). A temporary restraining order may be issued without providing the
verified complaint clearly show that immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage
will result to the movant before the adverse party can be heard in opposition,” and “the
movant’s attorney certifies in writing any efforts made to give notice and the reasons why
injunction are the same. See, e.g., Stuhlbarg Int'l Sales Co., Inc. v. John D. Brush & Co.,
Inc., 240 F.3d 832, 839 n.7 (9th Cir. 2001). The Ninth Circuit has established two sets of
criteria for evaluating a request for injunctive relief. Earth Island Inst. v. United States
Forest Serv., 351 F.3d 1291, 1297 (9th Cir. 2003). Under the “traditional” criteria, a
plaintiff must show (1) a strong likelihood of success on the merits, (2) a likelihood of
hardships favoring the plaintiff, and (4) advancement of the public interest. See, e.g.,
Winter v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 555 U.S. 7, 20 (2008). Alternatively, a
in the plaintiff’s favor,” provided that the plaintiff is able to show there is a likelihood of
irreparable injury and that the injunction is in the public interest. Alliance for Wild
injury, balanced against totally speculative assertions that closing their business will have
some appreciable public benefit by minimizing (in the short run) the number of COVID-
19 cases. By that logic, the Governor could arbitrarily shut down any activity at will
because human contact inevitably involves risk. The public interest demands that this
Plaintiffs assert facial and as-applied challenges to the Executive Orders pursuant
They are at immediate threat of irreparable injury both from various threatened penalties
set forth in ORS 401.990, which purports to treat violation of the Executive Orders as a
Class C Misdemeanor under Oregon law. The law concerning constitutional rights in this
context is frequently confused, with rapid shifts from one theory to another; the important
point is that the Governor's orders are offensive to multiple fundamental Constitutional
No plaintiff here asserts any right “to expose the community . . . to communicable
disease," Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 166–67 (1944), but no plaintiff here has
Page 21: PLAINTIFFS’ APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
AND ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION SHOULD
NOT ISSUE; MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR INJUNCTIVE
RELIEF
the disease. We cross a vital barrier, ceasing to treat Oregonians as free citizens of
Republic and instead treating them as the State's chattel or cattle, when we restrict the
risks. As Albert Camus said: “The welfare of the people in particular has always been
the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny
a good conscience.”
Executive Order No. 20-07, issued March 17, 2020, bans "restaurants, bars,
taverns, brew pubs, wine bars, cafes, food courts, coffee shops, clubs or other similar
consumption of food or drink". Executive Order No. 20-12, issued March 23, 2020, shut
down a broad range of businesses "for which close personal contact is difficult or
"Amusement parks; aquariums; arcades; art galleries (to the extent that they are
open without appointment); barber shops and hair salons; bowling alleys;
cosmetic stores; dance studios; esthetician practices; fraternal organization
facilities; furniture stores; gyms and fitness studios (including climbing gyms);
hookah bars; indoor and outdoor malls (i.e., all portions of a retail complex
containing stores and restaurants in a single area); indoor party places (including
jumping gyms and laser tag); jewelry shops and boutiques (unless they provide
goods exclusively through pick-up or delivery service); medical spas, facial spas,
day spas, and non-medical massage therapy services; museums; nail and tanning
salons; non-tribal card rooms; skating rinks; senior activity centers; ski resorts;
social and private clubs; tattoo/piercing parlors; tennis clubs; theaters; yoga
studios; and youth clubs."
inherently arbitrary in nature: "non-tribal card rooms" are closed, but tribal card rooms
are not, when there is no evidence that Native Americans are immune from the disease.
Page 22: PLAINTIFFS’ APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
AND ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION SHOULD
NOT ISSUE; MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR INJUNCTIVE
RELIEF
Hardware stores are exempted; jewelry and furniture stores are not. The list reflects more
of the Governor's political judgments as to the public value of various enterprises than
As far back as 1897, it was recognized that the Fourteenth Amendment protected
"not only the right of the citizen to be free from the mere physical restraint of his
person, as by incarceration, but the term is deemed to embrace the right of the
citizen to be free in the enjoyment of all his faculties; to be free to use them in all
lawful ways; to live and work where he will; to earn his livelihood by any lawful
calling; to pursue any livelihood or avocation, and for that purpose to enter into
all contracts which may be proper, necessary and essential to his carrying out to a
successful conclusion the purposes above mentioned."
Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U.S. 578, 589, 17 S. Ct. 427, 431 (1897); see also Truax v.
Raich, 239 U.S. 33, 41, 36 S. Ct. 7, 10 (1915) ("the right to work for a living in the
common occupations of the community is of the very essence of the personal freedom
and opportunity that it was the purpose of the [Fourteenth] Amendment to secure");
Takahashi v. Fish & Game Com., 334 U.S. 410, 416, 68 S. Ct. 1138, 1141 (1948).
As the Supreme Court has more recently explained, the Due Process Clause
"prevents the government from engaging in conduct that 'shocks the conscience,' Rochin
v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 172 (1952), or interferes with rights 'implicit in the concept
of ordered liberty,' Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 325-326 (1937)." United States
v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 746, 107 S. Ct. 2095, 2101 (1987); see also Hebert v.
Louisiana, 272 U.S. 312, 316, 47 S. Ct. 103, 104 (1926) ("state action, whether through
justice which lie at the base of all our civil and political institutions").
Properly understood, the Governor's order continuing the lockdown until July 6,
2020 should "shock the conscious". The immediate cause of the March orders, an
erroneous forecast of overwhelming health facilities, never occurred, and the peak in
utilization has long passed. The notion that healthy Oregonians, operating businesses
with healthy employees, should simply cease operations to limit the transmission of a
The action was taken without regard to local conditions, without regard to
protective measures businesses may implement, and without regard to all of the
longstanding lawful businesses that have operated for decades (e.g., Kuebler Decl.,
Dawson Decl.), is far more "shocking" than the conduct in Rochin. There, the state
merely forced open the mouth of a single citizen who swallowed drugs in the presence of
police officers to "remove what was there" and "forcibl[y] extract[ed] his stomach's
contents". Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 172 (1952). The conduct here will drive
untold numbers of individual citizens to take their own lives in despair as the enterprises
or careers they have spent their lives building are arbitrarily destroyed, all to slow down
the inevitable spread of a disease that, like any flu virus, cannot be effectively contained
prolonging the risk to vulnerable populations who could shelter themselves as younger,
American history have such general, sweeping shutdown orders been issued for a threat
to public health that, it is now clear, is of the same order of magnitude as public health
threats that were never the subject of emergency orders—such as bad flu seasons in the
past.
Extended statewide action in a public health emergency is not even part of the
Governor's statutory authority under Oregon law. When the Oregon Legislature when it
created specific authority for a "public health emergency" also provided that the state of
emergency could only last fourteen days, to be extended in fourteen-day increments. ORS
433.441(5).5 And when the people had their say, through a 2012 initiative that created
Article X-A of the Oregon Constitution, they demanded that the Governor convene and
consult the legislature. Federal precedent declining broadly to interpret substantive due
process rights typically rests on the proposition that the Due Process Clause does not
empower the judiciary "to sit as a 'superlegislature to weigh the wisdom of legislation'.
Exxon Corp. v. Governor of Md., 437 U.S. 117, 124, 98 S. Ct. 2207, 2213 (1978). But
5
In the most recent May 1st Order, the Governor has purported to exercise a general
"emergency" authority under an older, general statute (ORS 401.168), ignoring the
"policy and intent of the Legislative Assembly that preparations for emergencies and
governmental responsibility for responding to emergencies be placed at the local level"
(ORS 401.032(2)).
Page 25: PLAINTIFFS’ APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
AND ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION SHOULD
NOT ISSUE; MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR INJUNCTIVE
RELIEF
the authority here under review is executive, not legislative, and there is no legislative
Moreover, plaintiffs allege that the shutdowns have been taken for ulterior
motives under the guise of protecting the public health, under circumstances where, for
all we know, more people are dying in Oregon from shutdown related suicides than
suggest ulterior motives for prolonging the lockdown, with such motives "highly
relevant" for purposes of assessing the substantive due process claim. Sinaloa Lake
Owners Assoc. v. Simi Valley, 882 F.2d 1398, 1410 (9th Cir. 1989) ("Whether
government officials invoked emergency powers when they knew, or well should have
known, that no exigency justified use of such draconian measures, is therefore highly
relevant in determining whether the government has violated the plaintiff's substantive
Many of the plaintiffs hold business licenses from the State of Oregon. A
Cleveland Bd. of Educ. v. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532, 543, 105 S. Ct. 1487 (1985) ("We
livelihood."). Once issued, a license or permit "may become essential in the pursuit of a
livelihood." Bell v. Burson, 402 U.S. 535, 539, 91 S. Ct. 1586 (1971); see also, e.g., H&R
Grenville Fine Dining, Inc., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 145447, at 56 (finding a liquor
license to be a property interest); Sea Girt Restaurant & Tavern Owners Asso., v.
v. New York, 579 F.3d 160, 169 (2d Cir. 2009) (holding business license, once granted, to
be property interest for purposes of procedural due process); Wells Fargo Armored Serv.
Corp. v. Ga. Pub. Serv. Comm'n, 547 F.2d 938, 941 (5th Cir. 1977) ("[P]rivileges,
The Governor's Orders had the functional effect of arbitrarily revoking all these
licenses with no notice, and no opportunity for any hearing. Whether or not the orders
might be initially sustained when issued two months ago, the Governor's May 1, 2020
decision to extend them until July 6, 2020 is clearly unconstitutional given the clear
information concerning the nature of COVID-19 and its spread within Oregon by that
date, and every day makes it clearer and clearer that no persuasive public health ground
can support the categorical shutdown of plaintiffs' businesses (along with much of the
State's economy).
Procedural due process involves a person’s right to have notice and the right to be
property right by a state actor. To state such a claim under federal law pursuant to
42 USC § 1983, "a plaintiff must allege that (1) he was deprived of an individual interest
property,' and (2) the procedures available to him did not provide 'due process of law.'"
Hill v. Borough of Kutztown, 455 F.3d 225, 233-34 (3d Cir. 2006). "The deprivation by
without due process of the law." Zinermon v. Burch, 494 U.S. 113, 125, 110 S. Ct. 975,
108 L. Ed. 2d 100 (1990). In particular, this Court should focus on "whether the
Kentucky Dep't of Corrections v. Thompson, 490 U.S. 454, 460, 109 S. Ct. 1904 (1989).
challenge the Governor’s action. Oregon has state law procedures for judicial review of
agency action, and the Governor may technically constitute an "agency" as an "officer
authorized by law to make rules or issue orders," but the review scheme specifically
defines the "rules" subject to review to exclude "Executive orders of the Governor". ORS
183.310(9)(e). Oregon's procedures allow review of "agency orders," but defines them to
The fundamental problem here does not involved interpretation of state law,
which purport to delegate the Governor unreviewable power to the limits of "all police
powers vested in the state by the Oregon Constitution" (ORS 401.168). The problem
here is that the Governor's arrogation of the power to destroy the livelihood of poor
service industry workers throughout the State who are ready, willing and able to work for
a living is an exercise of the police power that destroys fundamental rights guaranteed
under the Constitution without continuing circumstances that could support continuing to
Government (which the United States is bound to guarantee to plaintiffs, see U.S. Const.
Art. 4, § 4.) The Governor here has ignored legislative policy and timing limitations, in
favor of the same sort of naked assertion of authority found wanting in Youngstown Sheet
& Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952). Oregon's grant of executive power to the
Governor no more authorized her detailed rulemaking than the Constitution's authorized
the President to seize the Nation's steel mills in wartime: "the Constitution is neither
silent nor equivocal about who shall make laws which the President is to execute. The
first section of the first article says that "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be
vested in a Congress of the United States . . .". Youngstown, 343 U.S. at 587-88; cf.
Oregon Const. Art. IV, § 1 (same except for initiative and referendum powers). We are
now two months into a regime of Government utterly inconsistent with the fundamental
the Constitution provides that “[n]o State shall . . . deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Equal protection requires the state to
provided certain social distancing practices are employed. Those classified as “non-
essential,” or as engaging in non-essential activities, are required to shut down and have
their workers stay in their residences, unless it becomes necessary for them to leave for
"Assuming all of the same precautions are taken, why can someone safely walk
down a grocery store aisle but not a pew? And why can someone safely interact
with a brave deliverywoman but not with a stoic minister? The Commonwealth
has no good answers. While the law may take periodic naps during a pandemic,
we will not let it sleep through one."
Roberts v. Neace, No. 20-5465, slip op. at 7 (Sixth Cir. May 9, 2020). While the Sixth
Circuit was addressing restriction of in-person church services, the same arbitrariness
applies, for example, to the difference between marijuana stores and furniture stores.
While lower levels of scrutiny are sometimes applied to economic regulation, this
Carolene Products, 304 U.S. 144 (1938)). This is an outright ban on entire classes of
perfectly lawful businesses, trades and occupations, selling perfectly lawful products and
providing perfectly lawful services, under circumstances that also invoke additional
protection for the disadvantaged "discrete and insular minorities" of Oregonians who
have had their careers and businesses destroyed. Carolene, 304 U.S. at 152 n.4; Cmplt.
¶ 54.
Due Process Clauses because the Governor's Orders infringe on so many fundamental
rights that extend far, far beyond bare economic or health regulation to represent an
satisfy strict scrutiny, because their arbitrary classifications are not narrowly tailored
measures that further compelling government interests, for the reasons stated above.
possessory interests in that property." United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 113, 104
S. Ct. 1652, 1656 (1984). Here, the Governor seized business property throughout the
state for the ostensible purpose of minimize asserted public health risk, which was
unprecedented, arbitrary, and unreasonable for all the reasons stated above.
The Supreme Court has made it clear that the protections of the Fourth Amendment
extend beyond bare private interests; "its protections go further, and often have nothing to
do with privacy at all." Soldal v. Cook Cty., 506 U.S. 56, 64, 113 S. Ct. 538, 545 (1992)
(upholding Fourth Amendment claim for removal of tenant's trailer); but see Sinaloa, 882
F.2d at 1411 (claim should be asserted under Fifth Amendment, not Fourth Amendment).
It is clear from multiple cases that the Fifth Amendment also bars the seizure,
even temporary, of business property unless just compensation is paid. Cases include the
condemnation of a laundry to be used by the military for the duration of World War II,
Kimball Laundry Co. v. United States, 338 U.S. 1 (1949), or the condemnation of the
compensation, or even procedures for obtaining it, however, and is indeed invoking a
new tax that will tax business gross revenues without regard to the massive losses
incurred by reason of the Governor's orders. The sharp conflict between the Governor's
underscore the degree to which a federal remedy for the deprivation of plaintiffs' federal
rights is appropriate.
A variety of strands of long-standing federal case law make it clear that confining
healthy citizens to their homes and shutting down businesses because of the risks of
103 F. 10 (C.C. Cal. 1900), and Wong Wai v. Williamson, 103 F. 1 (CC Cal. 1900), the
California courts found that there were more than 15,000 people living in the twelve
blocks of San Francisco Chinatown who were to be quarantined because of nine deaths
from bubonic plague. The courts found it unreasonable to shut down the ability of over
oppressive interference with the personal liberty of complainant” who had “never had or
contracted said bubonic plague; that he has never been at any time exposed to the danger
of contracting it, and has never been in any locality where said bubonic plague, or any
germs of bacteria thereof, has or have existed”. Jew Ho, 103 F. 10 (C.C. Cal. 1900). The
evidence of COVID-19 in their immediate vicinity or reason to believe they will spread
it.
California courts have found that “a mere suspicion [of a contagious disease],
justification at all for depriving persons of their liberty and subjecting them to virtual
imprisonment under a purported order of quarantine.” Ex parte Arta, 52 Cal. App. 380,
scrutiny” and can be justified only if it furthers a compelling government purpose, and,
even then, only if no less restrictive alternative is available. See, e.g. Memorial Hospital
v. Maricopa County, 415 U.S. 250, 257-258 (1974); Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330,
339-341 (1972); Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618, 89 1969), Maher v. Roe, 432 U.S.
197 U.S. 11 (1905), for support of emergency actions during a public health emergency
restrictions, that Jacobson involved the spread of smallpox, which involved a risk of
death of approximately 30%, with higher rates among the very young. (Dodson Decl.
¶ 2.) By contrast, the risk of death from COVID-19, is more likely on the order of 1% or
less for all age groups, and negligible for the young—more than thirty times lower. By
Jacobson also involved conduct by defendants that was well beyond any
"the facts that for nearly a century most of the members of the medical profession
have regarded vaccination, repeated after intervals, as a preventive of smallpox;
that while they have recognized the possibility of injury to an individual from
carelessness in the performance of it, or even in a conceivable case without
carelessness, they generally have considered the risk of such an injury too small to
be seriously weighed as against the benefits coming from the discreet and proper
use of the preventive; and that not only the medical profession and the people
generally have for a long time entertained these opinions, but legislatures and
courts have acted upon them with general unanimity."
Id. at 24. In that context, the Supreme Court was able to determine that "the police power
directly by legislative enactment as will protect the public health and the public safety"
(id. at 25; emphasis added), and upheld the imposition of a five dollar criminal fine upon
It was important to the Court, and the deference that it gave to the statute, that the
Massachusetts legislature "could not properly abdicate its function to guard the public
health and safety. The state legislature proceeded upon the theory which recognized
vaccination as at least an effective if not the best known way in which to meet and
6
For example, as of May 6, 2020, according to an authoritative website maintained by
Johns Hopkins University, there had been 1,315 COVID-19 fatalities in Los Angeles
County, California in the 27,386 reported cases, for a crude fatality rate of 4.72%. But
the antibody testing shows 28 to 44 times as many actual cases as reported cases, driving
the actual fatality rate down to 0.17 to 0.11%—literally hundreds of times lower than
smallpox mortality.
Page 34: PLAINTIFFS’ APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
AND ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION SHOULD
NOT ISSUE; MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR INJUNCTIVE
RELIEF
suppress the evils of a smallpox epidemic that imperiled an entire population." Id. at 30-
31. Here, by contrast, the Oregon legislature has abdicated its function entirely, and
simply purported to delegate the entire police power of the State of Oregon to the
government.
Jacobson also made it clear that there is no simple "states can do anything to fight
disease" rule. The Jacobson court was careful to note that the
Id. at 28. Where, as here, 94% of the mortality is confined to the elderly—under
circumstances where there are frequently many other causes of death now subsumed
freedoms of all Oregonians is required for the safety of the public. The primary risk from
invasion of personal liberty and freedom to confine an entire population, rather than
The violations of rights here are of a far more extreme character than the
temporary injection with a vaccine, and the risks far, far lower than smallpox. Many
Oregon businesses will never reopen, and the harsh effects of the challenged measures
Page 35: PLAINTIFFS’ APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
AND ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION SHOULD
NOT ISSUE; MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR INJUNCTIVE
RELIEF
will adversely affect the future of thousands of Oregonians for the rest of their lives.
Jacobson agrees that where, as here, there "is, beyond all question, a plain, palpable
invasion of rights secured by the fundamental law, it is the duty of the courts to so
During the 115 years since Jacobson was decided, the Supreme Court has
developed a substantial and durable body of case law establishing, unequivocally, that a
state’s infringement of fundamental rights to the U.S. Constitution are subject to the most
rigorous from of judicial scrutiny: strict scrutiny. See, e.g., New York Times Co. v. United
States, 403 U.S. 713, 717 (1971) (“The word ‘security’ is a broad, vague generality
whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the
First Amendment.”).
Jacobson. As the Sixth Circuit very recently explained in overturning an order limiting
the operation of abortion clinics (in order to preserve scarce supplies of personal
fine, is a far cry from forcing a woman to carry an unwanted fetus against her will for
weeks, much less all the way to term". Adams & Boyle, P.C. v. Slatery, No. 20-5408,
2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 13357, at *26 (6th Cir. Apr. 24, 2020). So too are the restrictions
of Jacobson a far cry from forcing small business owners to lose businesses they have
spent a lifetime building, on the basis that even though healthy themselves, they might
compliance with Executive Order No. 20-07 and Executive Order No. 20-12, insofar as
I hereby attest that I have on file all holographic signatures corresponding to any
signatures indicated by a conformed signature (/s/) within this e-filed document.