A Stamford-based attorney filed a lawsuit in federal court against Democrat Gov. Ned Lamont, challenging his executive order requiring individuals in Connecticut to wear masks in public beginning Monday.
Attorney Lindy Urso said the mandate to wear face masks is unconstitutional because it infringes on individual freedom.
“It’s not really eliminating exposure, if you look at the science,” Urso told Fox 61 News:
Even the CDC, a month ago, the HHS, they were saying, don’t do it, these masks don’t work, and they’re actually more dangerous because you’re constantly touching your face putting the mask on and off again, and your hands are where you get this thing. So, it doesn’t work and it’s unnecessary government overreach.
Hmmm. It sort of makes Lamont’s new “mask in public” order seem kind of like a gratuitous exertion of Executive power, perhaps to test how much we will tolerate? https://t.co/FGNGuWAdQg
— Lindy R. Urso, Attorney at Law (@AttorneyUrso) April 19, 2020
On Friday, Lamont issued an additional executive order that pertains to mandatory use of face coverings and further postponement of the state’s presidential primary until August 11.
The order states:
Cloth face coverings or higher level of protection required in public wherever close contact is unavoidable: Effective at 8:00 p.m. on April 20, 2020, any person in a public place in Connecticut who is unable to or does not maintain a safe social distance of approximately six feet from every other person shall cover their mouth and nose with a mask or cloth face-covering. In addition, individuals shall use a mask or cloth face covering when using the services of any taxi, car, livery, ride-sharing or similar service or means of mass public transit, or while within any semi-enclosed transit stop or waiting area.
…
Further postponement of presidential preference primary to August 11: To protect the health and safety of voters, poll workers, and the most vulnerable members of the population, the presidential primary is ordered rescheduled – for the second time – to August 11, 2020.
Whether this continues is dependent upon on the actions each of us takes. This isn’t over – we lost another 41 CT residents, and we mourn for their lives. Together, we can have an impact on flattening the curve, but if people tell you the pandemic has ended – they are wrong.
— Governor Ned Lamont (@GovNedLamont) April 19, 2020
Urso’s complaint, in which he stated he brought the lawsuit “in response to the ever-increasing encroachments” by Lamont on “individual freedoms and liberties,” was made available to CTPost.
The complaint asserted as well that Lamont “has been at the epicenter of stirring up” fear in Connecticut, particularly when he “falsely claimed on March 16, 2020 in a nationally televised interview that Danbury Hospital was ‘at capacity’ … As it turned out …Danbury was not at capacity.”
Breitbart News reported Nuvance Health system, which includes Danbury Hospital, told the Associated Press, “We have capacity at Danbury Hospital to treat illness and injury, including COVID-19.”
The mask requirement is about to go into effect as the state also reported hospitalizations due to the COVID-19 infection had decreased for the second day in a row.
“Whether this continues is dependent upon…the actions each of us takes over the next several days and weeks,” Lamont said, reported CT Mirror. “This isn’t over – we lost another 41 Connecticut residents, and we mourn for their lives. Together, we can have an impact on flattening the curve, but if people tell you the pandemic has ended – they are wrong.”
According to state data, as of April 18, Connecticut has experienced a total of 17,550 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 1,938 patients hospitalized, and 1,086 deaths due to the infection caused by the novel coronavirus.
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