The ruling ordered a lower court to dissolve an injunction that for months had blocked the Republican-backed laws from curbing Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive authority.
The order could dramatically alter the state’s response to the pandemic at a time when virus cases and hospitalizations have surged because of the highly contagious delta variant.
The governor’s office quickly warned of the impact. The Supreme Court order will dissolve Kentucky’s pandemic-related state of emergency, Beshear spokesperson Crystal Staley said Saturday. The next step is to determine whether lawmakers are willing to extend the state of emergency in a potential special session, she said.
“The governor has had the courage to make unpopular decisions in order to keep Kentuckians safe,” Staley said in a statement. “The court has removed much of his ability to do so moving forward. If called in to a special session, we hope the General Assembly would do the right thing.”
According to the most recent statistics reported by Johns Hopkins University researchers, Kentucky has seen 7,517 COVID-19 related deaths to date, the 27th-highest death rate in the nation and the 30th-highest per capita. The overall rate was lower than some of its neighboring states.
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