State Senator George Borrello speaking on lawsuit against NYS Dept. of Health (April 2022)
State Senator George Borrello has lost an appeal in his lawsuit against Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Department of Health.
The Appellate Division of the Fourth Judicial Department has issued a decision reversing a July 11, 2022 lower court ruling in favor of the legal challenge the petitioners lodged against the state.
Originally filed in April 2022 in State Supreme Court of Cattaraugus County, the petitioners of the lawsuit are Senator George Borrello, Assemblyman Chris Tague, Assemblyman (now, Congressman) Michael Lawler and the citizens’ organization, Uniting NYS. The petitioners sued Governor Hochul and the State Department of Health over the adoption of Rule 2.13, “Isolation and Quarantine Procedures,” charging that the process violated separation-of-powers.
On July 11, 2022, Judge Ronald Ploetz ruled in favor of the petitioners, citing a longstanding law, Public Health Law 2120, that covers the issue. In his decision he noted that “Rule 2.13 actually contravenes the procedures set forth in PHL 2120 and ignores the balancing act between an individual’s rights and the need for public safety.” The Judge also noted that the Rule lacked any due process protections, concluding that “Rule 2.13 merely gives ‘lip service’ to constitutional due process.”
The plaintiffs in the suit issued a joint statement in response to the appellate court’s dismissal of the case, stating they are “deeplyl disappointed” in the ruling and that, “The court did not address the merits of the case which were outlined by Judge Ploetz in his original decision. Instead, they shamefully reversed and dismissed the case on a technicality, claiming that we, the petitioners, somehow lacked standing to bring the case in the first place.”
The plaintiffs do plan to appeal the ruling to the State Court of Appeals.
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