By: Sarah Johnson
This week our COVID-19 themed post will focus on Mississippi and preemption. If you are not familiar with preemption, read this blog post I wrote last month examining what preemption is and what role it has generally been playing in our local, state, and federal government. Earlier this week, the governor of Mississippi announced there would not be a statewide stay at home order put in place for the state, he then issued an Executive Order many believe preempts any actions local governments have taken to impose local stay at home ordinances.
One town in particular that has been impacted by this is Tupelo, Mississippi. The Mayor of Tupelo, Jason Shelton, imposed a Shelter in Place Order on Saturday March 21st. This order directed “all Tupelo, MS, residents to shelter in place and limit movements outside of their homes beyond essential needs” to further combat the spread of COVID-19 in Tupelo. The order also defined the difference between shelter in place and social distancing as shelter in place meaning residents must:
- Stay home (stay unexposed and do not expose others)
- Only go out for essential services
- Stay 6 feet or more away from others
- Don’t gather in groups
On Tuesday, March 23rd, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves signed an Executive Order discussing how Mississippi will address COVID-19. The order states that Mississippians “shall avoid social and other non-essential gathering in groups of more than 10 people” if that gathering is in a single space and people are close together. Restaurants can continue to serve dine-in customers as long as they can keep the number of customers within the establishment under 10. Reeves also outlines many “essential businesses” that the gathering limit does not apply to like “airports, medical and healthcare facilities, retail shopping including grocery and department stores, offices, factories and other manufacturing facilities or any Essential Business or Operation.” The Jackson Free Press wrote that it “seems to declare that most types of businesses in Mississippi are ‘essential’ and thus exempt from social-distancing requirements” and the “exhaustive list of exempt ‘essential’ businesses includes many industries and institutions both public and private”.
The Jackson Free Press also reported that Reeves’ order cancels “any order, rule, regulation or action by any governing body, agency or political subdivision of the state that imposes any additional freedom of movement or social distancing limitations on Essential Business or Operation, restricts scope of services or hours of operation of any Essential Business or Operation, or which will or might in any way conflict with or impede the purpose of this Executive Order is suspended and unenforceable during this COVID-19 State of Emergency. However, nothing in this Executive Order shall in any way alter or modify the authority of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety or of the State Department of Health and the State Health Officer.”
On Wednesday, March 24th, the Tupelo City Council unanimously approved Shelton’s COVID-19 executive orders. “It’s a very strong statement of our entire City Council that this is something that we’re taking seriously in the city of Tupelo, and that we’re being proactive in the city of Tupelo and we’re going to lead the way” Shelton said as he spoke of the the unanimous vote of the Republican majority Council. By Wednesday the 24th, 21 state governors had issued stay-at-home orders for their state.
Mayor Shelton said “Pursuant to the Governor’s orders, some of the things we did to protect the health and public safety of our citizens is no longer going to be in effect, there is nothing we can do about that locally.” He then went on to explain the situation on his Facebook page:
It will be interesting to see as this situation develops what Governors around the country do. Last night, Trump extended the social distancing guidelines to at least April 30th, so for one more month from now. We will have to wait and see how people comply with these guidelines and the different approaches Governors take to try to protect their citizens, to know if we really have only one more month of hunkering down. But one thing is clear in my mind: Executive Orders, like the one Reeves put in place, will not help us return to life as normal faster. It may well do just the opposite.
About BillTrack50 – BillTrack50 offers free tools for citizens to easily research legislators and bills across all 50 states and Congress. BillTrack50 also offers professional tools to help organizations with ongoing legislative and regulatory tracking, as well as easy ways to share information both internally and with the public.