Jeffco Public Health Violating Colorado Law With Bogus Health Order (Part 1)

Jefferson County Public Health is poised to defy the laws of the state of Colorado and attempt to force masking and vaccinations on the citizens of Jeffco.

Talking points up front:

• All authority not specifically granted and conditioned by Colorado law remains vested in the citizens of Colorado (Colorado Constitution. Article II, Section 1).
• All authority exercised by JCPH is subject to Colorado Revised Statutes (namely C.R.S. 25-1-506, 25-1-508).
• JCPH has falsely claimed that it has the duty and power to control the citizenry, when the applicable statutes grant them only duties.
• JCPH cannot exercise authority that exceeds that of the commissioning authority (state law). JCPH cannot claim authority over the citizenry that exceeds the authority vested in the state laws that authorize JCPH’s existence.
• The Colorado state government (and all lesser jurisdictions like county health agencies) require an official declaration of emergency to exercise emergency powers that suspend the Constitutional rights of the citizenry (See C.R.S. 24-33.5-704-4). Making the relationship between customers and merchants contigent on wearing face masks or submitting to vaccines violates the rights of free association, expression, and religion, and such a requirement is only temporarily possible within the confines of Colorado’s Emergency Management statutory framework.
• JCPH’s order is full of misleading and selective data, cut and pasted from prior orders and left deliberately out of context, in an apparent attempt to argue that an emergency exists even though the state disagrees.
• JCPH is egregiously lying by claiming that the Governor extended the state of emergency on July 8th, 2021 via Executive Order D2021-122. This executive order actually rescinded the state of emergency. They also cite a supposed extension of the emergency order on October 31st, 2021. No such order has been published.

The Order

According to a draft of JCPH Order 21-006, Jefferson County residents 2 years old or older are required to wear face coverings in all indoor spaces including private businesses. Masks will be optional for businesses or facilities that force their employees and patrons to be “vaccinated.”

The Legal Issues

All government authority in Colorado (and in the United States) is derived from the citizens as described in the Colorado Constitution, which itself must remain subject to the United States Constitution (See Colorado Constitution Article II, Sections 1 and 2). All Colorado statutes must not oppose the state constitution, and any rules, procedures, or guidelines instituted by a state-created organization (like a county health department) must likewise act in accordance with these jurisdictional principles. Authority granted to a health department must remain subordinate to Colorado law and the Colorado Constitution. Any authority not granted to these subordinate organizations by state laws remains off-limits. Any authority not granted to the state government by law remains with the citizenry.

In accordance with these limits on government power, government entities are not allowed to require things like face masks or vaccines for citizens to exercise normal individual liberty. Americans have a Constitutional right to freely associate and freely trade – we can do business with whomever we want to. The government cannot tell a business that they can’t serve people who refuse to wear masks – the business gets to make that choice as free citizens.

So where does Jeffco Public Health get the authority to tell private businesses they must force patrons to wear masks or prove “vaccination?”

We see it at the top of their order:

Pursuant to Colorado Revised Statutes (“C.R.S”) §§ 25-1-506 and 508, Jefferson County Public Health (“JCPH”) issues this Jefferson County Public Health Order 21-006 Requiring Face Coverings for all Individuals Ages 2+ in all Public Indoor Spaces.

Later in the “Jurisdiction and Authority” section, the order draws from C.R.S. 25-1-506 (3-B-V, VI, VII) (County or district public health agency), claiming:

JCPH has public health jurisdiction over Jefferson County, Colorado (“Jefferson County”), including all cities and towns therein. In furtherance of its jurisdiction, JCPH has the power and duty to investigate and control the causes of epidemic or communicable diseases and conditions affecting the public health within Jefferson County, as well as the power and duty to close schools and public places and to prohibit gatherings of people when necessary to protect public health, and to establish, maintain, and enforce isolation and quarantine, and in pursuance thereof, to exercise physical control over property and over persons within Jefferson County as JCPH may find necessary for the protection of public health.

At first glance, it seems like Colorado law grants JCPH the exact authority needed to institute a mask or vaccine requirement as they see fit. After all, according to JCPH, the law grants them the power to control the causes of disease if they decide it’s necessary to protect public health. In fact, it seems the language of the law allows JCPH to usurp anyone’s freedom by simply making a public health claim.

Why would Colorado law grant such unchecked, broad authority to local health authorities?

As you may have guessed, it doesn’t.

There are two reasons such broad language exists in the statute.

First, because all duties listed in Colorado law are automatically bound by overriding statutory and constitutional principles, these statutes have limitations that do not need to be restated. It is understood that the duties placed on local health departments are automatically subjugated by the Colorado Constitution and the jurisdictional hierarchy contained in Colorado law.

Second, JCPH misquoted the language of the statute that grants them their supposed powers. The quoted statute says, “In addition to other powers and duties, an agency shall have the following duties” (emphasis mine) before listing the above-quoted “powers” JCPH is claiming. Notice the difference. JCPH has taken a list of duties – tasks that are required of them by the state government – and misstated them as “duties and powers” to grant themselves the ability to force these duties onto the citizenry. And there is a legal difference between duties and powers.

A duty is an activity required by Colorado law to be carried out by a specific government institution. A power is a specific delegation of authority. The statute in question tasks JCPH with the duty to do things like “exercise physical control over property and over the persons of the people within the jurisdiction,” yet this duty is opposed by the individual liberty of the citizenry. These duties violate the Constitution, yet Colorado law allows for the very narrow, temporary suspension of individual rights via an emergency declaration.

Not only does such a declaration no longer exist, JCPH refers to the executive order ending the state of emergency claiming the same order extended the emergency!

Every Jeffco order has cited C.R.S. 25-1-506 (County or district public health agency) and 25-1-508 (County or district boards of public health – public health directors) to grant themselves powers that are both beyond the scope of current state government powers and not statutorily granted to local health agencies as anything other than responsibilities.

Later tonight, we will post a refutation of the cut-and-paste data being used in all Jeffco public health orders to create the impression of an emergency and the effectiveness of face coverings, despite the ample evidence to the contrary. See this part here.