How the International Health Regulations, voiding constitutional and statutory law in signatory nation-states...
underpin de facto public health martial law in Pennsylvania.
Fourth installment of Callender Interview series.
I just read a National File article about Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor candidate Teddy Daniels' plans to arrest government officials who impose mandates, if Daniels is elected.
The other day, as already noted, I listened to a crucial podcast interview of Attorney Todd Callender, by Dr. Elizabeth Vliet Lee.
After reading the National File article today, I did some research to update myself about what happened to the federal Butler v. Wolf case in which US District Court Judge William Stickman IV attempted to overturn Gov. Wolf's emergency executive orders in Sept. 2020 on constitutional grounds, and then had his judicial order stayed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals after Governor Wolf appealed Stickman’s ruling.
(I sent a correction to National File, because the story incorrectly states that Stickman's judicial order stayed Wolf's emergency orders.)
That Third Circuit stay of Stickman’s order overturning Wolf’s orders — and Governor Wolf’s repeated extension of the state of emergency — helped drive the constitutional amendment proposed by the Pennsylvania legislature, which was put on the ballot in May 2021 and approved by voters. The amendment gave the Pennsylvania legislature power to end the governor's emergency declaration, which the legislature did in June 2021.
However, Wolf's administration then continued exercising the claimed masking and school closure powers, saying that it was through the Secretary of Health's authority separate from the Governor's, and therefore not curtailed in any way by either the constitutional amendment, or the legislature's resolutions ending the emergency.
School boards and municipalities across Pennsylvania have continued to impose and enforce the mandates, using the Secretary of Health's power, and the CDC/HHS orders, as their rationale.
This has been the subject of Pennsylvania state court cases, including Corman v. Acting Secretary of Pennsylvania Department of Health.
In their Sept. 3, 2021 petition, the Corman case parents argued that the Secretary of Health does not have “statutory or regulatory authority to mandate the wearing of face coverings by teachers, children, students, staff, or visitors working, attending, or visiting a School Entity.”
That legal fight was argued in front of the Commonwealth Court [294 MD 2021, oral arguments Oct. 20, 2021] and the mask mandate was ruled “void from the beginning.” Short summary of Nov. 10 Commonwealth Court ruling by Sullivan-Simon.
Governor Wolf appealed the decision, to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where appeal was denied on Dec. 10, 2021, thus upholding the Commonwealth Court ruling. 83 MAP 2021 case documents.
Nonetheless, children in many districts across the state — including State College Area School District, where I live — are still forced to wear masks all day every day.
Getting back to the federal case of Butler v. Wolf, on the question of whether Governor Wolf’s business closure and other emergency orders violate the constitutionally-protected human rights of Pennsylvania citizens:
In August 2021, the Third Circuit dismissed the appeal as moot, taking Wolf at his word that the Secretary of Health would not reimpose draconian mandates, but not ruling that such mandates would be unconstitutional.
PennRecord reported on that August 2021 Third Circuit ruling, quoting Judge Kent Jordan:
“The Governor’s emergency powers have been reduced and the immediate sense of emergency has abated to a large degree, but both in reported public statements and in argument before us, ‘The Wolf administration maintains that dissolving the disaster emergency does not affect a health secretary’s disease-prevention authority to issue mask-wearing and stay-at-home orders or shut down schools and nonessential businesses. Whether that position is legally sound is not before us and I make no comment on it.”
“The point is that the defendants-appellants in this case – Gov. Wolf and the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Health – have taken that position, so the possibility of future executive orders of the type challenged here is not fanciful. But such orders would have to be just that – in the future – because it is undisputed that the challenged orders have all expired, and a legal remedy aimed at those particular orders is, by definition, impossible.”
The Butler v. Wolf plaintiffs (counties and business owners) then appealed the Third Circuit ruling to the US Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.
That was reported Jan. 11, 2022 by Max Mitchell in the Legal Intelligencer, although the story is behind a paywall so I can't read it in full.
What this means in the context of the Callender interview:
This means that the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health can — as of this moment — reinstate any health-related orders at any time, on any pretext, regardless of the Pennsylvania legislature's removal of the Governor's executive power, and without citizen recourse to constitutional liberties or court review.
The Pennsylvania Secretary of Health currently has more power than the Pennsylvania governor, the Pennsylvania legislature and Pennsylvania courts..
This aligns with what Attorney Todd Callender has been reporting.
So long as a WHO-declared "public health emergency of international concern" is in effect, nation-states who have signed on to the 2005 International Health Regulations are legally obligated — apparently under penalty of losing access to the Bank of International Settlements financial transaction systems — to suspend their constitutions, statutory protections for civil liberties and court systems.
State and county public health authorities, led by the US Secretary of Health and Human Development, currently have complete legal control of the physical bodies of all the human beings within their jurisdictions.
And that federal HHS Secretary delegation of power to state health secretaries and county health departments can and is being backed by county law enforcement personnel.
In other words, we are all already living under executive-imposed public health martial law.
Federal, state and county legislatures and courts are powerless to overturn the public health officials' authority, because it derives from the International Health Regulations, not from federal or state constitutions or statutes.
Here are my first few written reports on Callender's interview:
I will continue to work on the series until I finish reporting on the full hour of audio content, including my own research to expand on points Callender makes.
