Six businesses and organizations and one individual sued Missoula City-County Board of Health and Health Officer Ellen Leahy this week, alleging that the Board of Health violated their inalienable rights when it adopted additional rules on December 17 to distribute COVID 19 to prevent. .
The lawsuit comes in the wake of government Greg Gianforte on Friday, who recalled most of former director Steve Bullock’s COVID-19 orders, specifically limiting working hours and the number of people allowed in institutions such as pubs and restaurants .
Gianforte’s mandate allows businesses to develop appropriate policies. However, local governments – provinces, cities and reservations – can apply stricter practices. Some have the provinces of Gallatin, Missoula and Lewis and Clark.
A mandate across the country remains in place, but Gianforte has pointed out that it will also be revoked once the Legislature accepts the protection of business liability.
Attorney Quentin Rhoades filed the case on behalf of Stand Up Montana; Bronwen Llewellyn-Littlewolf; Crosspoint Community Church Ing .; Accu-Arms LLC; Bi-Lo Foods Ing .; Kingdon Enterprises LLC; and the Lolo Community Club.
The Missoula City-County Department of Health said in a statement Thursday afternoon that the complaint still needs to be served.
‘The health officer and health council have worked diligently under (the law) to impose fair and reasonable restrictions to protect Missoula County from the spread of COVID-19. ‘ ‘s statement.
‘No one has enjoyed this aspect of the pandemic, including the Department of Health, but it is the legal duty of the health officer and the health council to stop the spread of communicable diseases, and it is a duty we take seriously in the face of a deadly pandemic. ”
As of Wednesday, Missoula County had 48 new cases, adding up to 349 active cases. Montana has 4,841 active cases and 1,100 deaths since March 2020.
In the lawsuit, the groups called Montana’s public health system “archaic.” They are against wearing or enforcing the wearing of face masks, restrictions on working hours and the size of the gathering, and ‘denial of contact with people and family’.
The groups believe that their inalienable rights have been violated under the Montana Constitution, in addition to their privacy rights, free exercise of religion and freedom of expression.
They also accuse Leahy and the Health Council of encouraging people to report businesses or individuals who do not comply with the order, saying that the Council is responsible for twisting neighbors against neighbors and dividing the community. ‘.
The claim that COVID-19 has a low mortality rate equivalent to that of a seasonal flu and that 99% of those younger than 70 years survive, the groups claim that science does not support the restriction of individual freedom.
However, the groups say businesses have suffered irreparable damage. They therefore want the judge to stop the Department of Health from enforcing the county’s precautionary measures, and for the province to pay all court costs.
Stand Up Montana is a new non-profit organization based in Bozeman, founded by Cortney Brook Bent in November, according to a Secretary of State. The organization’s website says it was created “to support civil action against Governor Bullock and the MT DPHHS to end all current COVID restrictions.”
The Stand Up Montana website also says: ‘What started as a small Facebook group quickly became a large group of more than 2,500 members from across the state of Montana, but focused primarily in the Gallatin Valley. Join us in the fight against tyranny. Together we stand up for Montana as Gallatin Unmasked. ”
According to the court case, Stand Up Montana has 400 members. The organization’s Facebook group, which started on October 19, is private, but states that it has 282 followers. Gallatin Unmasked has 417 followers.
Crosspoint Community Church on Mullan Road has been attracting attention since October 2018 when Pastor Bruce Speer placed campaign boards for candidates Matt Rosendale, Greg Gianforte, Brad Tschida and Adam Hertz on the church grounds. In order to maintain their non-profit status, the Internal Revenue Service requires churches to abstain from political candidates or initiatives.
Speer cites a 2017 executive order from former President Trump that limits the action the Treasury Department can take against religious organizations.
“We are a church that has taken a stand on what we believe is an important moral truth and it is pro-life,” Speer told KGVO radio in 2018. ‘We have allowed pro-life candidates to place billboards in our church property ads. their campaign. ”
In May 2020, Speer continued to defy IRS laws and hosted a forum for candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives. But by September, Speer had scaled things down slightly. The election signs had no candidate names this time, saying only, “Vote only for pro-life candidates.”
Some members of Crosspoint Community Church turned up at Missoula Black Lives Matter protests this summer, saying they were there to protect buildings and statues from vandalism.
“It is our understanding that Black Lives Matter appears here and they are notorious for creating a lot of anarchy and destruction,” Speer told the Missoulian in July.
Kingdon Enterprises operates a coffee shop in Missoula. The owner, Warren Kingdon, moved to Lolo in 2018 and started the company after retiring as a pharmacist in Costa Mesa, California.
According to the lawsuit, Bronwen Llewellyn-Littlewolf lives in Missoula County. A web search engine has a LinkedIn website that lists her home as Pocatello, Idaho, so she can be a newcomer as well.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at [email protected].
