Weddings, Events and Production Services

The six quarters

In each of the six calendar quarters from the second quarter of 2020 through the third quarter of 2021, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19 were in force on the first day and the last day of the quarter and on every day between, and in each quarter they caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. The subsections below state, for each quarter, the orders in force by layer with their first-day and last-day status, the functions they reached, and the finding in the terms Tri-State Memorial Hospital v. United States, No. 2:25-cv-0181-TOR, ECF No. 38 (E.D. Wash. May 28, 2026) ("Tri-State") fixed. The third quarter of 2021 is treated at length in the last of the six subsections.

The second quarter of 2020

Wages paid after March 12, 2020 were claimed on the Form 941 for this quarter, and the orders of March 13 through March 31, 2020 belong to its proof. On April 1, 2020 stay-at-home orders prohibiting gatherings of any size outside the household were in force in most States and took effect in the remainder during the first week of April (Texas, April 2, Ex. TX-008; Florida, April 3, Ex. FL-010; Georgia, April 3, Ex. GA-010; Alabama, April 4, Ex. AL-013; Missouri, April 6, Ex. MO-004; South Carolina, April 7, Ex. SC-013), and gatherings were capped at ten in every other State; by May 31, 2020 forty-two States and territories had issued mandatory stay-at-home orders reaching 2,355 of 3,233 counties (Ex. LAW-201); every concert hall, banquet hall, performing-arts center, nightclub and theater was closed in forty-seven States; and film and television production was closed in California, New York, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Louisiana and every other stay-at-home State.¹⁰⁷ In the Northeast, New York had cancelled every non-essential gathering "of any size for any reason (e.g. parties, celebrations or other social events)" on March 23 after closing theaters on March 16 and every place of public amusement on March 19; New Jersey had closed performing-arts centers, concert venues and nightclubs on March 16 and cancelled all gatherings on March 21; Pennsylvania had closed non-life-sustaining businesses on March 19 and ordered every resident to stay home by April 1; Massachusetts had capped gatherings at ten from noon March 24; Connecticut had prohibited social and recreational gatherings of six or more on March 26; Rhode Island had prohibited gatherings of more than five on March 28; Delaware had prohibited "organizers and sponsors of gatherings of ten or more" from April 2; Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont had capped gatherings at ten between March 18 and 23.¹⁰⁸ In the Midwest, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana and Kansas had prohibited gatherings outside the household or above ten and closed venues by name between March 17 and 27; Wisconsin had limited weddings to fewer than ten; Iowa had prohibited gatherings over ten from March 17 and, in its proclamation of April 27 (effective May 1), declared that "wedding receptions of more than 10 people are social gatherings that are prohibited"; Nebraska's first Directed Health Measure had reached "weddings and funerals, as well as parades, fairs, festivals, concerts and other indoor and outdoor events"; Boone County, Missouri, had limited weddings, funerals and wakes to ten; South Dakota's Fourth Judicial Circuit had suspended every courthouse wedding.¹⁰⁹ In the South, Florida had closed "banquet halls" by name on March 20 and declared on April 1 that a social gathering is not an essential activity; Georgia had prohibited any business from allowing more than ten persons within six feet and closed live performance venues; Texas had ordered every person to minimize social gatherings from April 2; Virginia had prohibited gatherings of more than ten "includ[ing] parties, celebrations, religious, or other social events"; Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, West Virginia, Oklahoma and the District had capped or prohibited gatherings and closed venues between March 12 and April 1; Tulsa had prohibited every "public or private event or social gathering, defined as more than one person outside of a single residence."¹¹⁰ In the West, California had barred all gatherings under the stay-at-home order of March 19 and Los Angeles County had "closed the region to on-location filming until further notice" on March 20; Washington had prohibited every gathering "regardless of the number of people involved," weddings and funerals included; Alaska had prohibited "weddings, faith gatherings, graduations, and funeral events" of any size; Oregon, Nevada, Hawaii, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming had prohibited or capped gatherings between March 12 and 28.¹¹¹ The federal layer imposed the FFCRA leave mandate from April 1, suspended entry from Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland, China and Iran, closed the land borders to non-essential travel from March 21, suspended routine visa services worldwide from March 20 and suspended the entry of new immigrants from April 23 and of H-1B, H-2B, L and J workers from June 24, 2020.¹¹² The convention authorities closed their halls: no events at the Javits Center after March 10, a medical station from March 30; McCormick Place closed; the Pennsylvania Convention Center closed; Boston's center a field hospital from April 10; Orange County's a State testing site from March 25.¹¹³ The reopening began in Georgia (gatherings of ten within six feet from March 24, venues from late April) and Texas, which reopened "wedding venues and the services required to conduct weddings" at twenty-five percent of occupancy on May 8, 2020, the earliest wedding-specific clause in the fifty States.¹¹⁴ On June 30, 2020 indoor gatherings were capped at ten in Michigan, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota, Maryland and Delaware; at twenty-five or fifty in New York (twenty-five in Phase Three regions, fifty and fifty percent in Phase Four regions from June 26), Rhode Island, Illinois (fifty from June 26), Kentucky and Virginia; at 100 in New Jersey and Colorado; at 300 under banquet rules in Ohio; at none indoors of any size in California; at twenty-five percent for wedding venues in Texas; and production had resumed on June 12 in Los Angeles County only under Appendix J and on June 23 in New York only under the Interim Guidance for Media Production.¹¹⁵

PL: every planned event between March 13 and June 30, 2020 was cancelled or capped by the gathering orders, and every plan for the summer and fall of 2020 was written against caps of ten to fifty. VN: every banquet hall, ballroom, event center and venue was closed by name or by the gathering prohibition in every State and reopened, where it reopened, at ten to fifty guests or twenty-five percent. FL: the florist's retail shop closed with non-essential retail; its wedding line followed the cancelled dates. PH and EN: every shoot and every engagement on a cancelled or capped date was cancelled or rebooked. AV: the staging and rental company's spring and summer bookings were cancelled by the same orders; its inventory came from plants closed in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. FP: production was closed in every production State from mid-March and reopened in June only under county and State protocols. MK: every bridal show, showcase and convention was cancelled by the gathering prohibitions and the convention-center closures. HR: film and special-event permits were suspended; routine visas were suspended; the FFCRA mandate governed every hire's leave. OP: offices closed under the stay-at-home and telework orders. WF: the workforce was confined at home, its children's schools were closed in every State, and exposed staff were quarantined. CB: couples, families and corporate customers were confined at home in forty-two jurisdictions and barred from gathering in all fifty-one.¹¹⁶

During the calendar quarter beginning April 1, 2020 and ending June 30, 2020, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19, namely the stay-at-home and gathering-prohibition orders of forty-two jurisdictions and the gathering caps of the rest (Ex. NY-005; Ex. NJ-004; Ex. PA-006; Ex. MA-008; Ex. CT-010; Ex. IL-005; Ex. MI-011; Ex. OH-011; Ex. WI-002; Ex. IN-006; Ex. KS-007; Ex. IA-012; Ex. NE-002; Ex. CA-007; Ex. WA-016; Ex. OR-007; Ex. NV-012; Ex. NM-006; Ex. HI-004; Ex. AK-013; Ex. UT-004; Ex. ID-003; Ex. MT-009; Ex. WY-005; Ex. CO-012; Ex. CO-090; Ex. TX-008; Ex. FL-010; Ex. GA-005; Ex. VA-006; Ex. LA-005; Ex. MD-004; Ex. NC-005; Ex. KY-006; Ex. TN-004; Ex. AL-011; Ex. AR-002; Ex. SC-013; Ex. WV-009; Ex. OK-006; Ex. OK-011; Ex. OK-015; Ex. OK-057; Ex. DC-005; Ex. DE-012; Ex. RI-003; Ex. RI-009 (with the emergency declaration, Ex. RI-001, as predicate); Ex. VT-008; Ex. ME-004; Ex. NH-008; Ex. SD-005; Ex. MO-004; Ex. MN-010; Ex. MN-022), the closure by name of banquet halls, concert halls, performing-arts centers, nightclubs and theaters (Ex. FL-007; Ex. NY-010; Ex. NY-012; Ex. NJ-002; Ex. OH-006; Ex. MI-005; Ex. CT-004; Ex. DC-003; Ex. DE-003; Ex. MD-003; Ex. WA-009; Ex. VA-004; Ex. LA-003; Ex. NV-003; Ex. AK-005; Ex. MT-005; Ex. KY-004; Ex. TN-006; Ex. SC-010; Ex. AR-035; Ex. MET-DEN-001; Ex. MET-ORL-060), the closure of production and its reopening under protocol (Ex. SEC-25-005; Ex. MET-LA-001; Ex. MET-LA-006; Ex. SEC-25-001; Ex. SEC-25-004; Ex. IL-016), the reopening orders' caps (Ex. TX-014; Ex. GA-023; Ex. GA-024; Ex. NY-024; Ex. NY-030; Ex. NY-031; Ex. NJ-021; Ex. NJ-025; Ex. MI-031; Ex. MA-020; Ex. CT-019; Ex. CT-021; Ex. MN-023; Ex. MN-025; Ex. OH-025; Ex. OH-092; Ex. IA-016; Ex. IA-017; Ex. IA-018; Ex. NE-013; Ex. NE-014; Ex. CO-025; Ex. DE-024; Ex. DE-025; Ex. PA-010; Ex. PA-011; Ex. AL-020; Ex. AL-021; Ex. AR-055; Ex. AR-056; Ex. NV-017; Ex. AZ-022; Ex. TX-019; Ex. TX-021; Ex. VA-010; Ex. VA-013; Ex. NC-011; Ex. KY-021; Ex. TN-018; Ex. VT-023; Ex. VT-097; Ex. NH-048; Ex. MD-013; Ex. DC-079; Ex. WY-017; Ex. AK-043; Ex. AK-067; Ex. AK-068; Ex. MET-STL-009; Ex. MET-MKE-005), the fair cancellations ordered by executive order (Ex. IL-018; Ex. VT-022), the tribal and gaming closures (Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-024; Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-042; Ex. AGY-TRIBAL-044; Ex. IN-083; Ex. AGY-ST-GAMING-RACING-043), the courthouse-wedding suspension (Ex. SD-059) and the federal leave, entry, border and visa instruments (Ex. FED-170; Ex. FED-171; Ex. FED-216; Ex. FED-202; Ex. FED-203; Ex. FED-327; Ex. FED-210; Ex. FED-211; Ex. FED-190; Ex. FED-192), caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. They did so by prohibiting the group meetings this industry sells, closing the rooms in which it sells them, closing production, suspending the permits, visas and licenses on which it depends, confining its customers and its workforce, and reopening it, where it reopened, at ten to fifty guests, twenty-five percent of a room or under a county protocol. The convention authorities' and fair boards' own records of the closures and cancellations those orders compelled (Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-033; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-037; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-038; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-043; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-054; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-055; Ex. AGY-ST-AGRICULTURE-PARKS-WILDLIFE-071; Ex. AGY-ST-AGRICULTURE-PARKS-WILDLIFE-073; Ex. AGY-ST-AGRICULTURE-PARKS-WILDLIFE-074; Ex. AGY-ST-AGRICULTURE-PARKS-WILDLIFE-075) are cited as context, not as orders.¹¹⁷

The third quarter of 2020

On July 1, 2020 the industry operated under numeric caps of ten to fifty in thirty-four jurisdictions and percentage caps elsewhere, with Massachusetts moving to twenty-five indoors and 100 outdoors on July 6, New Jersey to 500 outdoors on July 3, Virginia to 250 and Wyoming to fifty with events to 250.¹¹⁸ The quarter added new orders. New Jersey cut indoor gatherings to twenty-five percent never more than twenty-five on August 4 while naming weddings at twenty-five percent up to 100, then 150 on September 4.¹¹⁹ New York enforced its fifty-person cap on weddings and defended it in DiMartile v. Cuomo, where the court recited that the same venue "when operating as a restaurant under Defendants' 50-percent capacity restriction, is permitted to hold more than 50 people"; the injunction ran to the plaintiffs' two weddings and the cap otherwise continued.¹²⁰ Pennsylvania prohibited indoor events over twenty-five and outdoor events over 250 from July 16, and Allegheny County added catered-event conditions from July 17; Arizona required local approval for every organized public event over fifty from June 29; California closed indoor venues statewide on July 13 and fixed the Blueprint on August 28 with no indoor private event in any tier; Maryland's health department declared "Convention events are prohibited until further notice"; Indiana capped every gathering and meeting, including every "social gathering" (defined to include a wedding, family reunion, party, banquet or conference), at 250 and required an approved plan seventy-two hours ahead for every event over 250 from July 23; South Carolina reopened concert venues, theaters and nightclubs only as "Gatherings" capped at fifty percent or 250 with face coverings from August 3; West Virginia re-closed fairs, festivals and amusement parks on July 14 and cut its cap to twenty-five; Louisiana capped crowds at fifty on July 13 and event centers at fifty percent or 250 on September 11; Kentucky returned to ten on July 20; Washington rolled back weddings, funerals and gathering sizes from July 30; Oregon capped indoor social gatherings at ten from July 15; Nevada kept live events closed to the public to October 1; Alaska's Anchorage prohibited indoor gatherings over twenty-five from July 24 and over fifteen from August 3; Ada County, Idaho prohibited gatherings over fifty from July 14 and social gatherings over ten from August 11; Miami-Dade re-closed venues on July 3 and kept "bars, venues and events" closed under its restated order of August 31, Broward closed banquet halls from July 10 and Palm Beach restricted their hours from July 16; Marion County, Indiana capped events from July 24; Minneapolis closed every bar area in every indoor entertainment space from August 1; Chicago imposed its Emergency Travel Order from July 6; New York City refused street-event, parade and fair permits from July 7; and the State fair boards of Oregon, Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, New York, North Carolina, Kansas and Missouri cancelled their 2020 fairs, Ohio's health director limiting county fairs to junior fair activities from July 31.¹²¹ The traveler-quarantine orders of New York (Ex. SEC-06-018), Connecticut (Ex. SEC-06-020) and Massachusetts (Ex. SEC-06-017), and New Jersey's parallel travel advisory of June 25, 2020 (Ex. NJ-087; Ex. NJ-088; an advisory, cited as context for the tri-State regime), removed the out-of-State guest from every reception in those States from June 25 and August 1, 2020, and Hawaii's arrival quarantine did the same for every destination wedding.¹²² The federal layer continued: the FFCRA mandate ran the whole quarter, the proclamations continued, the land borders were renewed on July 22, August 21 and September 23, the eviction moratorium took effect September 4.¹²³ Los Angeles permitted shoot days fell 54.5 percent from a year earlier with the County "reopened to filming in mid-June with robust health protection protocols in place."¹²⁴ Only Florida removed its State caps in the quarter, on September 25, and its counties kept banquet halls closed until the same week.¹²⁵ On September 30, 2020: New Jersey twenty-five with weddings at 150; New York fifty and fifty percent; Pennsylvania indoor events over twenty-five prohibited; Massachusetts twenty-five and fifty; Michigan ten and 100; Illinois fifty with regional twenty-five; California no indoor private events; Washington five to ten; Oregon ten; Minnesota ten indoors and venues at twenty-five percent up to 250; Ohio ten with banquet rules; Kentucky ten; Maryland ten with Stage Three venues at fifty percent or 100; Connecticut indoor events twenty-five; South Carolina fifty percent or 250; Tennessee fifty to September 30; Texas outdoor gatherings over ten by approval from September 21; Arizona over fifty by approval; New Mexico ten; Nevada the lesser of 250 or fifty percent from October 1 (Directive 033, issued September 30, 2020, effective October 1; relied on for the fourth quarter, Ex. NV-028); Louisiana event centers fifty percent or 250; West Virginia twenty-five with ten in Red, Orange and Gold counties from September 16.¹²⁶

PL: every summer and fall 2020 event was planned against a cap of ten to fifty or a percentage and, in Indiana, Arizona, Texas, Tulsa and New York City, against a plan-approval or permit regime. VN: every reception venue operated at ten to fifty guests, twenty-five to fifty percent or under banquet rules; the convention centers remained closed; the fairgrounds were empty. FL, PH, EN: the summer and fall wedding season proceeded, where it proceeded, at a fraction of its guest counts, and the September and October dates in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and California were capped at twenty-five to 150 or barred indoors. AV: the fairs were cancelled by their boards under the State orders; the festivals were barred by the caps; the conventions were closed with the halls. FP: production ran only under Appendix J in Los Angeles County and the Interim Guidance in New York, at half its shoot days. MK: bridal shows, showcases and conventions were barred by the caps and the hall closures. HR: routine visas resumed post by post from July 15; the H-1B, H-2B, L and J suspension continued; the FFCRA mandate governed every hire. OP: offices remained under telework mandates in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and the closure States. WF: schools opened remote or hybrid in the fall under State orders; quarantine orders removed exposed staff; the traveler quarantines made every interstate engagement a fourteen-day absence. CB: couples in New York, Connecticut (and, under the tri-State advisory, New Jersey), Massachusetts, Hawaii, Alaska and Chicago could not bring out-of-State guests without quarantine; every guest list was cut to the cap.¹²⁷

During the calendar quarter beginning July 1, 2020 and ending September 30, 2020, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19, namely the gathering caps and venue rules of every jurisdiction (Ex. NY-031; Ex. SEC-25-012; Ex. NJ-028; Ex. NJ-031; Ex. NJ-034; Ex. PA-016; Ex. PA-017; Ex. MET-PIT-004; Ex. MET-PIT-006; Ex. MA-024; Ex. MA-026; Ex. CT-085; Ex. CT-028; Ex. RI-001; Ex. DE-025; Ex. DE-031; Ex. MD-046; Ex. MD-016; Ex. MD-017; Ex. MET-BAL-060; Ex. VA-014; Ex. VA-015; Ex. NC-014; Ex. NC-015; Ex. NC-016; Ex. NC-017; Ex. SC-027; Ex. KY-023; Ex. TN-023; Ex. TN-058; Ex. GA-025; Ex. LA-014; Ex. LA-018; Ex. MS-039; Ex. AL-027; Ex. TX-021; Ex. TX-022; Ex. TX-023; Ex. MET-HOU-021; Ex. AZ-022; Ex. AZ-029; Ex. MI-040; Ex. MI-044; Ex. IL-019; Ex. IL-022; Ex. IL-024; Ex. IN-033; Ex. IN-034; Ex. MET-IND-022; Ex. MN-025; Ex. MET-MSP-013; Ex. OH-025; Ex. OH-034; Ex. OH-035; Ex. OH-099; Ex. IA-019; Ex. IA-024; Ex. NE-014; Ex. NE-015; Ex. NE-037; Ex. NE-079; Ex. NE-086; Ex. ND-053; Ex. WV-040; Ex. WV-041; Ex. WV-042; Ex. WV-047; Ex. WV-083; Ex. CA-010; Ex. CA-017; Ex. SEC-17-016; Ex. MET-LA-009; Ex. MET-SFO-005; Ex. MET-SAN-010; Ex. MET-SAN-011; Ex. MET-SAN-012; Ex. MET-SAN-013; Ex. MET-SAC-007; Ex. WA-041; Ex. WA-034; Ex. OR-020; Ex. OR-025; Ex. NV-017; Ex. NV-019; Ex. AGY-ST-GAMING-RACING-007; Ex. AGY-ST-GAMING-RACING-030; Ex. NM-028; Ex. CO-025; Ex. MT-016; Ex. WY-021; Ex. WY-025; Ex. WY-027; Ex. WY-029; Ex. AK-072; Ex. AK-073; Ex. ID-022; Ex. ID-023; Ex. ID-024; Ex. ID-073; Ex. MET-MIA-011; Ex. MET-MIA-012; Ex. MET-MIA-013; Ex. MET-MIA-096; Ex. MET-MIA-034; Ex. MET-MIA-050; Ex. MET-MIA-054; Ex. MET-MIA-073; Ex. MET-NYC-025; Ex. MET-CHI-019; Ex. MET-STL-033), the production protocols (Ex. SEC-25-001; Ex. SEC-25-004; Ex. SEC-25-006), the fair cancellations ordered by executive order (Ex. IL-018; Ex. VT-025), the alcohol regulators' suspension orders and rulings (Ex. AGY-ST-ALCOHOL-028; Ex. AGY-ST-ALCOHOL-035; Ex. AGY-ST-ALCOHOL-012, the Texas commission's release recording its permit suspension order of June 19, 2020), the traveler quarantines (Ex. SEC-06-018; Ex. SEC-06-020; Ex. SEC-06-017; Ex. MET-CHI-019; Ex. ECO-C-010) and the federal instruments (Ex. FED-170; Ex. FED-171; Ex. FED-211; Ex. FED-220; Ex. FED-221; Ex. FED-222; Ex. FED-022; Ex. FED-328), caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. They did so by capping every reception, banquet and event at ten to fifty guests or a fraction of a room, by naming weddings in the caps of New Jersey, Ohio and Indiana and enforcing the general event caps of New York, Pennsylvania and Arizona against them, by cancelling the fairs and closing the halls that are the industry's largest bookings, by keeping production under protocol, and by quarantining every out-of-State guest in the destination markets of the Northeast and Hawaii. The fair boards' and convention authorities' own records of the cancellations and closures those orders compelled (Ex. AGY-ST-AGRICULTURE-PARKS-WILDLIFE-071; Ex. AGY-ST-AGRICULTURE-PARKS-WILDLIFE-072; Ex. AGY-ST-AGRICULTURE-PARKS-WILDLIFE-076; Ex. AGY-ST-AGRICULTURE-PARKS-WILDLIFE-077; Ex. AGY-ST-AGRICULTURE-PARKS-WILDLIFE-104; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-033; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-055) and the liquor regulator's advisory implementing them (Ex. AGY-ST-ALCOHOL-085) are cited as context, not as orders.¹²⁸

The fourth quarter of 2020

On October 1, 2020 the September 30 caps were in force, with Nevada's Directive 033 (the lesser of 250 or fifty percent), Louisiana's Phase 3, Massachusetts' Step 2 from October 5, Pennsylvania's occupancy calculator from October 9, New York's cluster zones from October 6-9 and Michigan's health-department orders re-imposing the caps the Supreme Court's decision of October 2 had displaced.¹²⁹ The winter re-tightening then fell on receptions by name. Minnesota: "Individuals, venues, and businesses must not host celebrations, receptions, private parties, or other social gatherings" (November 20 to December 18). Washington: "Ceremonies are limited to a total of no more than 30 people. Indoor receptions, wakes, or similar gatherings in conjunction with such ceremonies are prohibited," and, for miscellaneous venues, "[a]ll retail activities and business meetings are prohibited" (from November 17). Michigan: every indoor non-residential gathering prohibited (November 18 to January 31). Illinois Tier 3: indoor gatherings of more than one household prohibited and "meeting rooms, banquet centers, private party rooms, private clubs" closed to gatherings of any size (from November 20). Rhode Island: "indoor catered events must be cancelled during the Pause" (November 30 to December 20). Ohio: "wedding receptions, funeral repasts and other events at banquet facilities" subject to no socializing in open congregate areas, seating, face coverings and no dancing (from November 17), with a 10:00 p.m. curfew from November 19. North Dakota: "occupancy of banquet, ballroom and event venues is limited to 25% of occupancy" (from November 16). Kentucky: indoor venues and event spaces twenty-five per room, a limit that "applies to indoor weddings and funerals" (November 20 to December 13). Pennsylvania: indoor events ten percent of occupancy from November 27 and ten persons from December 12 to January 4. New Jersey: indoor gatherings ten from November 17 and outdoor twenty-five from December 7, weddings at 150. Howard County, Maryland: social gatherings prohibited "to include ... wedding receptions at a wedding venue" (from November 27). Nebraska: receptions in parties of eight with dancing only at tables and face coverings at weddings (from November 11). California: the Limited Stay at Home Order from November 21 and the Regional Stay at Home Order closing everything from December 5, with Los Angeles County's Tier 1 order keeping production under Appendix J alone. Delaware: indoor gatherings the lesser of thirty percent or fifty from November 23 and the lesser of thirty percent or ten from December 14. New York: cluster zones cancelling gatherings in red zones, a 10:00 p.m. closing applied by the Liquor Authority to catering halls from November 13 and New York City's indoor dining suspended December 14. Virginia: twenty-five from November 16 and ten from December 14 with "private bookings" at venues limited to ten. Massachusetts: ten and twenty-five at homes and twenty-five and fifty at venues from November 6, twenty-five percent capacity from December 26. Connecticut: indoor events twenty-five; performing arts fifty percent capped at 100. Maryland: fifty percent from November 20. North Carolina: ten and fifty from November 13 with a curfew from December 11. Idaho: over fifty prohibited from October 27 and over ten from November 14. Montana: groups of twenty-five from November 20, with Yellowstone County's twenty-five-person cap from October 14 and 10:00 p.m. closure of places of assembly. Wyoming: twenty-five and events at twenty-five percent or 100 from November 24, ten from December 9. Utah: every social gathering outside the household barred from November 9 to 23 unless "the social gathering has an event host or occurs at a business," with event-host template duties thereafter. New Mexico: five from October 16, houses of worship barred from non-religious events from October 23, large entertainment venues closed from November 16, county levels from December 2. Oregon: the Two-Week Freeze from November 18 and the highest tier of Executive Order 20-66's county framework from December 3. Nevada: the Statewide Pause, the lesser of fifty or twenty-five percent, from November 24. Iowa: indoor gatherings over fifteen prohibited from November 17 to December 16, then over ten only with six feet and face coverings. Indiana: county-color caps of twenty-five to 250 with plan approval from November 15. Mississippi: ten and fifty from December 11. Tennessee: indoor social gatherings of ten or more prohibited from December 20 with weddings exempt. Oklahoma: a statewide fifty percent cap from December 14. Texas: fifty percent in high-hospitalization areas from October 14 and outdoor gatherings over ten by approval. Colorado: Level Red closing indoor events in the Denver metro. Anchorage: indoor six and outdoor ten from December 1. Chicago: meetings and events capped at ten from November 16 and event venues closed to gatherings from November 20; Cook County's orders from November 6; St. Louis City's private gatherings over ten prohibited from November 14 and the County's Safer at Home from November 17; Kansas City's Director approval above ten from November 20; Johnson County's prohibition of fairs, festivals, carnivals and parades from November 16; Baltimore's gathering and dining restrictions from November 13 and December 11; Dane County's and Milwaukee's orders; Columbus and Franklin County's Stay at Home Advisory from November 20; Shelby County's Safer at Home from December 26; Denver's Level Red; the Bay Area's C19-17 from December 18.¹³⁰ The holiday party season did not occur. The federal layer added the Conditional Sailing Order from October 30, re-issued the Title 42 order on October 13, renewed the land borders on October 22, November 23 and December 22 and carried the immigrant and worker suspensions to March 31, 2021; the FFCRA mandate expired December 31, 2020.¹³¹ On December 31, 2020 every winter instrument above was in force, and the Kaiser Family Foundation's file of January 4, 2021 counts thirty-nine jurisdictions with new restrictions, four new stay-at-home orders, thirty-four with gathering caps of fifty or fewer and forty statewide face-covering orders.¹³²

PL and VN: the holiday party, gala and winter wedding season was prohibited outright in Minnesota, Washington, Rhode Island, Michigan, Illinois, Howard County and California and capped at ten to twenty-five in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, Delaware, Kentucky, North Carolina, Idaho, Wyoming, Iowa, Mississippi, Tennessee, New Mexico, Oregon and Nevada; banquet facilities operated, where they operated, at twenty-five percent in North Dakota and Maryland and under seating, face-covering and no-dancing conditions in Ohio and Nebraska. FL, PH, EN: the December calendar was emptied by the orders, and the band and disc jockey could not play to a dancing crowd in Ohio, Nebraska or anywhere a cap of ten applied. AV: every corporate holiday event, every winter festival and every convention was barred; the halls remained closed. FP: production ran under Appendix J and the New York guidance and stopped in California under the Regional Stay at Home Order. MK: every showcase and open house was a prohibited gathering. HR: the H-1B, H-2B, L and J suspension continued; the FFCRA mandate ran to December 31. OP: telework mandates returned in Pennsylvania ("unless impossible") from November 27 and continued in New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, Illinois, California, Washington and Kentucky (offices at thirty-three percent). WF: schools closed again or stayed remote in the winter surge; quarantine orders removed exposed staff; the Chicago travel order quarantined arrivals from most of the country. CB: couples and customers were confined again in California, New Mexico, St. Louis County, Shelby County and Honolulu and barred from gathering above ten in most of the country.¹³³

During the calendar quarter beginning October 1, 2020 and ending December 31, 2020, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19, namely the winter re-tightening orders that prohibited receptions, catered events, banquet gatherings and indoor non-residential gatherings by name (Ex. MN-031; Ex. MN-032; Ex. MN-033; Ex. WA-047; Ex. WA-050; Ex. WA-053; Ex. WA-055; Ex. MI-050; Ex. MI-059; Ex. MI-060; Ex. MI-061; Ex. MI-062; Ex. IL-026; Ex. IL-028; Ex. IL-030; Ex. IL-031; Ex. IL-032; Ex. RI-031; Ex. OH-038; Ex. OH-039; Ex. ND-059; Ex. ND-062; Ex. KY-033; Ex. PA-019; Ex. PA-067; Ex. PA-022; Ex. PA-023; Ex. PA-028; Ex. PA-079; Ex. NJ-039; Ex. NJ-040; Ex. MET-BAL-089; Ex. NE-019; Ex. NE-020; Ex. NE-021; Ex. NE-023; Ex. CA-019; Ex. CA-020; Ex. MET-LA-012; Ex. DE-032; Ex. DE-033; Ex. NY-008; Ex. NY-037; Ex. NY-103; Ex. VA-016; Ex. MA-032; Ex. MA-034; Ex. MA-038; Ex. MA-040; Ex. CT-029; Ex. CT-031; Ex. CT-089; Ex. MD-021; Ex. NC-018; Ex. NC-019; Ex. NC-020; Ex. NC-021; Ex. NC-022; Ex. NC-023; Ex. ID-009; Ex. ID-010; Ex. ID-025; Ex. MT-048; Ex. MT-018; Ex. MT-052; Ex. WY-034; Ex. WY-037; Ex. WY-039; Ex. UT-026; Ex. UT-029; Ex. UT-030; Ex. UT-031; Ex. UT-032; Ex. UT-034; Ex. NM-033; Ex. NM-036; Ex. NM-039; Ex. NM-041; Ex. OR-031; Ex. OR-033; Ex. OR-035; Ex. OR-036; Ex. NV-028; Ex. NV-030; Ex. AGY-ST-GAMING-RACING-011; Ex. IA-029; Ex. IA-030; Ex. IA-033; Ex. IN-046; Ex. IN-050; Ex. MS-039; Ex. TN-027; Ex. TX-025; Ex. AK-074; Ex. AK-035; Ex. KS-094; Ex. MET-KC-061; Ex. MET-KC-019; Ex. MET-CHI-024; Ex. MET-CHI-027; Ex. MET-CHI-053; Ex. MET-CHI-020; Ex. MET-CHI-033; Ex. MET-CHI-034; Ex. MET-STL-016; Ex. MET-STL-074; Ex. MET-STL-035; Ex. MET-BAL-065; Ex. MET-BAL-010; Ex. MET-MKE-034; Ex. MET-MKE-014; Ex. MET-MKE-016; Ex. MET-CMH-031; Ex. MET-BNA-071; Ex. MET-IND-035; Ex. MET-DCM-010; Ex. MET-DCM-013; Ex. MET-SFO-007; Ex. MET-SAN-014; Ex. MET-SAN-015; Ex. MET-SAN-016; Ex. MET-SAN-017; Ex. MET-SAN-018; Ex. MET-HNL-022; Ex. MET-HNL-024; Ex. MET-DET-027; Ex. MET-MSY-056; Ex. LA-020; Ex. LA-021; Ex. LA-022; Ex. LA-023; Ex. LA-024; Ex. LA-025; Ex. AR-066; Ex. AL-038; Ex. GA-032; Ex. SC-027; Ex. VT-034; Ex. ME-039; Ex. ME-042; Ex. ME-081; Ex. NH-023), the production protocols (Ex. SEC-25-001; Ex. SEC-25-004) and the federal instruments (Ex. FED-170; Ex. FED-031; Ex. FED-037; Ex. FED-223; Ex. FED-224; Ex. FED-225; Ex. FED-213; Ex. FED-022), caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. They did so by prohibiting the reception, the catered event, the banquet gathering and the indoor non-residential gathering by those words in the largest markets of the Midwest, the Northeast and the West, by capping every other market at ten to fifty, and by taking the holiday season the industry's calendar depends on. The liquor regulators' advisories and releases implementing those orders (Ex. AGY-ST-ALCOHOL-087; Ex. AGY-ST-ALCOHOL-119; Ex. AGY-ST-ALCOHOL-120) are cited as context, not as orders.¹³⁴

The first quarter of 2021

On January 1, 2021 everything in force on December 31, 2020 remained in force: Pennsylvania's Limited-Time Targeted Mitigation to January 4; Michigan's prohibition of indoor non-residential gatherings to January 31; Illinois' Tier 3 to January 15 through February 4 by region; California's Regional Stay at Home Order to January 25; and every other winter instrument of the preceding subsection.¹³⁵ The withdrawal ran from North Dakota (venue limits rescinded 8:00 a.m. January 18) and Montana (January 15) through Idaho (February 2), Iowa (February 7), Arkansas (February 26), South Carolina (March 1 and 5), Mississippi (March 3), Texas (March 10), Oklahoma (March 12), Maryland's general caps (March 12, with banquet and convention facilities held at fifty percent), Wyoming's personal-gathering limit (March 16, with large indoor events including weddings held to fifty percent) and Arizona (March 25).¹³⁶ The largest markets re-opened the industry's core product only in March and only under conditions: Rhode Island's catered events of fifteen under restaurant rules from January 29 and of thirty with pre-event testing from February 25; Minnesota's receptions of fifty from February 13 and fifty percent up to 250 from March 15; Michigan's ten from February 1 and twenty-five from March 5; Massachusetts' ten and twenty-five from February 8 and event venues at 100 indoors and 150 outdoors from March 22, with convention halls at twelve percent; New York's catered-events rule of March 15 ("Responsible Parties, including event venue and facility owners and/or operators, and event organizers (i.e., planners and producers), must comply with additional requirements ... including but not limited to wedding receptions, celebrations, and similar private venue events, such as meetings and conferences," occupancy "the lesser of: 75% ... or 150 people indoors or 200 people outdoors," no events between midnight and 5:00 a.m., five days' notice and sign-in) and social-gathering limit of 100 and 200 from March 22; New Jersey's weddings and catered events at thirty-five percent never more than 150 from March 19; Connecticut's indoor private events at fifty percent up to 100 and outdoor at 200 from March 19; Pennsylvania's fifteen and twenty percent from March 1; Ohio's venues at twenty-five and thirty percent with banquet rules restated from March 2; Louisiana's 250 indoors from March 3 and 500 from March 31; Nevada's the lesser of 100 or thirty-five percent from February 15 and 250 or fifty percent from March 15; Virginia's ten and twenty-five from March 1 with venues at thirty percent; North Carolina's twenty-five and fifty from February 26 and fifty and 100 from March 26; Delaware's the lesser of fifty percent or twenty-five from February 19; Kentucky's sixty percent from March 1; Washington's Healthy Washington Phase 1 (indoor gatherings prohibited) from January 11, Phase 2 (indoor five from two households; venues twenty-five percent or 200) and Phase 3 (indoor ten; venues fifty percent or 400) from March 22; Oregon's county framework under Executive Order 20-66; New Mexico's county levels of five, ten, twenty or 150; Hawaii's county tiers (Honolulu's Tier 3 with wedding rules by tier from March 24); Colorado's Dial; Utah's event-host duties; Maine's percentage caps from March 26; Vermont's two-unvaccinated-household rule from March 12; St. Louis County's banquet facilities at twenty-five percent from March 8; Riverside County's cancellation of Coachella and Stagecoach on January 29 and the Temecula festival on February 24.¹³⁷ California permitted no indoor private event of any size in any tier through March 31, 2021.¹³⁸ The federal layer added the conveyance order and the TSA directives, the federal airborne-transmission controls on every conveyance and transportation hub, from February 1, the inbound-testing order from January 26, Executive Order 13991's masking and distancing rules and the twenty-five percent federal-workplace cap from January 20 and 24, Proclamation 10143 from January 26, and the National Emphasis Program from March 12; Proclamation 10014 was revoked February 24 and Proclamation 10052 expired March 31.¹³⁹ Congress re-enacted the Suspension Clause for the third and fourth quarters of 2021 on March 11, 2021, the day it named "caterer" among the businesses it was funding because of the orders.¹⁴⁰ On March 31, 2021 caps on receptions or event venues remained in force in thirty-three jurisdictions, and the Kaiser Family Foundation's file of April 5, 2021 counts twenty-six jurisdictions with gathering caps, twenty-five with non-essential businesses open only with limits, thirty-one statewide face-covering requirements and forty-nine emergency declarations.¹⁴¹

PL: the 2021 spring season was booked under caps of ten to 150 with testing, notice and sign-in conditions, and every plan in California was a plan for an outdoor event or no event. VN: the room's capacity was fixed by law at ten (Massachusetts to March 21; Michigan to March 4; Virginia to March 31), twenty-five (Michigan from March 5; Delaware from February 19), thirty with testing (Rhode Island), fifty (Minnesota receptions), 100 or 150 (Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York) or a percentage (Pennsylvania fifteen percent; Ohio twenty-five percent; Maryland's banquet facilities fifty percent; Washington twenty-five to fifty percent). FL, PH, EN: the spring calendar filled at those counts and no others. AV: the convention halls opened, where they opened, at twelve percent (Massachusetts) or remained closed (McCormick Place; the Pennsylvania Convention Center; Boston); Coachella, Stagecoach and Temecula were cancelled by county order. FP: production ran under Appendix J, the New York guidance and the Regional Stay at Home Order to January 25. MK: bridal shows and showcases were gatherings under the caps. HR: Proclamation 10143 kept foreign talent out; the visa suspension of Proclamation 10052 ran to March 31. OP: telework mandates continued in New Jersey, Pennsylvania (to April 4), Minnesota (to April 14), New York and Kentucky. WF: the conveyance order placed every commute under its airborne-transmission controls; schools ran hybrid or remote in most large districts; quarantine orders continued. CB: couples could bring 100 to 150 guests in the Northeast from mid-March, twenty-five in Michigan and Delaware, thirty with testing in Rhode Island and none indoors in California.¹⁴²

During the calendar quarter beginning January 1, 2021 and ending March 31, 2021, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19, namely the winter orders in force on January 1 and their stepped successors (Ex. PA-028; Ex. PA-079; Ex. PA-031; Ex. MI-062; Ex. MI-063; Ex. MI-064; Ex. MI-066; Ex. IL-079; Ex. IL-033; Ex. IL-034; Ex. CA-020; Ex. CA-055; Ex. SEC-17-016; Ex. MET-LA-012; Ex. RI-034; Ex. RI-035; Ex. RI-036; Ex. MN-035; Ex. MN-036; Ex. MN-037; Ex. MA-042; Ex. MA-043; Ex. MA-045; Ex. NY-108; Ex. NY-115; Ex. NY-043; Ex. NJ-042; Ex. NJ-043; Ex. NJ-044; Ex. SEC-17-026; Ex. CT-099; Ex. CT-100; Ex. CT-037; Ex. OH-042; Ex. OH-077; Ex. OH-043; Ex. OH-044; Ex. LA-026; Ex. LA-027; Ex. LA-028; Ex. LA-029; Ex. NV-032; Ex. NV-036; Ex. AGY-ST-GAMING-RACING-012; Ex. VA-016; Ex. NC-024; Ex. NC-025; Ex. NC-026; Ex. NC-027; Ex. DE-059; Ex. KY-033; Ex. WA-056; Ex. WA-064; Ex. WA-107; Ex. OR-035; Ex. OR-038; Ex. OR-039; Ex. NM-041; Ex. MET-HNL-025; Ex. MET-HNL-026; Ex. MET-HNL-027; Ex. UT-034; Ex. UT-037; Ex. UT-038; Ex. ME-042; Ex. ME-053; Ex. VT-082; Ex. VT-093; Ex. MD-021; Ex. MD-026; Ex. WY-041; Ex. WY-047; Ex. WY-050; Ex. WY-051; Ex. IN-050; Ex. IN-053; Ex. IN-055; Ex. IN-059; Ex. AR-066; Ex. AR-067; Ex. IA-033; Ex. IA-035; Ex. ID-010; Ex. ID-012; Ex. ID-025; Ex. ID-076; Ex. MS-051; Ex. TX-025; Ex. TX-029; Ex. OK-039; Ex. SC-032; Ex. GA-032; Ex. TN-027; Ex. ND-072; Ex. ND-074; Ex. AK-075; Ex. AK-076; Ex. AK-077; Ex. AZ-037; Ex. MET-STL-036; Ex. MET-STL-037; Ex. MET-STL-075; Ex. MET-BAL-070; Ex. MET-BAL-071; Ex. MET-BAL-072; Ex. MET-BAL-089; Ex. MET-DEN-009; Ex. MET-RIV-016; Ex. MET-RIV-018; Ex. MET-CHI-025; Ex. MET-DCM-014; Ex. MET-SAN-019; Ex. MET-BNA-019; Ex. MET-BNA-042), the production protocols (Ex. SEC-25-001; Ex. SEC-25-004), the alcohol regulators' instruments (Ex. AGY-ST-ALCOHOL-041; Ex. AGY-ST-ALCOHOL-067) and the federal conveyance, testing, workplace and entry instruments (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-050; Ex. FED-053; Ex. FED-054; Ex. FED-055; Ex. FED-042; Ex. FED-060; Ex. FED-061; Ex. FED-270; Ex. FED-207; Ex. FED-211; Ex. FED-213; Ex. FED-214; Ex. SEC-05-001), caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. They did so by holding every reception and event in the Northeast, the Midwest and the West at ten to 150 guests with testing, notice and sign-in conditions through the end of the quarter, by permitting no indoor private event in California, by keeping the convention halls closed or at twelve percent, and by placing every commute under the federal conveyance controls and closing every foreign performer's route. The convention authorities' and fair boards' own records of the halls kept closed and the show cancelled under those orders (Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-035; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-056; Ex. AGY-ST-AGRICULTURE-PARKS-WILDLIFE-078) are cited as context, not as orders.¹⁴³

The second quarter of 2021

On April 1, 2021 the March 31 caps were in force, with New York's venues at thirty-three percent from April 2, New Jersey's outdoor 200 and indoor catered events at thirty-five percent from April 2, Pennsylvania's twenty-five and fifty percent from April 4, Delaware's outdoor 150 from April 1, Virginia's fifty and 100 from April 1 and Los Angeles County's outdoor seated live events under Appendix Z from April 1.¹⁴⁴ California permitted indoor private events for the first time on April 15, 2021 and only if "all guests tested negative for COVID-19 or show proof of full vaccination," capped at 200 in the Yellow tier and lower elsewhere; indoor seated live events resumed the same day at ten or twenty-five percent, fifty percent with testing or vaccination, tickets digital and in-State residents only.¹⁴⁵ The withdrawal then ran through the quarter: Indiana April 6; Georgia April 8; Alabama April 9; Colorado April 16 with a 500-person indoor cap to June 1; West Virginia April 20; Utah May 4; New Hampshire May 7; New Jersey's dance floors May 7 and 250 May 19; Massachusetts' dance floors May 10; North Carolina May 14; Maryland's banquet and convention facilities May 15; New York's percentage caps May 19; Connecticut May 20; Delaware and the District May 21; Rhode Island May 21 with nightclubs at fifty percent absent vaccination proof to July 6; Maine May 24; Nebraska May 24; Louisiana May 26; Minnesota May 27; New Jersey May 28 and June 4; Virginia May 28; Massachusetts May 29; Pennsylvania May 31; Wyoming's large indoor events May 31; Nevada June 1; Ohio June 2; Illinois and Kentucky June 11; Vermont June 14; New York's gathering limits and California June 15; Michigan June 22.¹⁴⁶ On June 30, 2021 caps still bound receptions and venues in New Mexico (Ex. NM-057, through June 30), Hawaii (county tiers, Ex. MET-HNL-030) and Rhode Island (the Reopening Order, Ex. RI-043, to July 6 and the venue regulation, Ex. RI-071, to August 31); Oregon's county-framework caps under Executive Order 20-66 had ended at 12:01 a.m. that day (Ex. OR-043) and Washington's Phase 3 caps had ended with the June 30 reopening (Ex. WA-064; Ex. WA-101), Washington's over-10,000 rule taking effect the same day (Ex. WA-101); California's mega-event rule bound every indoor event of 5,000 and outdoor event of 10,000; Nevada's Local Plans governed gatherings over 250; New Jersey's Executive Order 192 workplace rules carried; unvaccinated-person face-covering rules, the exposure-control requirement those States kept when they lifted their caps, governed in California, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Nevada, New Mexico and Washington; and the federal layer was unchanged.¹⁴⁷ Inside the quarter the federal layer added Proclamation 10199 (India) from May 4, the TSA's SD 1582/84-21-01A from May 12 "including those already vaccinated," the Conditional Sailing Order's technical instructions on May 5, the OSHA Healthcare ETS on June 21 and the land-border renewals of April 22, May 24 and June 23, 2021.¹⁴⁸ The Kaiser Family Foundation's file of June 28, 2021 counts caps in five jurisdictions, face-covering requirements for all persons in one, indoor in one and unvaccinated persons in eight, and forty emergency declarations.¹⁴⁹

PL and VN: the 2021 spring wedding season, into which the orders had moved 47 percent of the 2020 weddings and receptions (Ex. SEC-25-013), proceeded under the March caps until they lifted State by State between April 6 and June 30, and in California under a testing-or-vaccination condition on every indoor guest from April 15 to June 15 and a mega-event rule thereafter. FL, PH, EN: every May and June date in the Northeast, the Midwest and the West was performed at the cap in force on that date. AV: McCormick Place, the Javits Center's event floor, the Pennsylvania Convention Center and Boston's centers had not hosted an event; Illinois permitted conventions at the lesser of 1,000 or sixty percent from May 14; the summer festival season was booked under the mega-event rules of California and Washington. FP: Appendix J continued in Los Angeles County; New York's guidance lifted June 15 to 25; Cal/OSHA's standard was readopted June 17. MK: bridal shows returned under the caps. HR: Proclamations 10143 and 10199 kept foreign performers and crews out; the vaccination-proof conditions of California's private-event protocol reached every guest. OP: New Jersey's telework mandate ran to June 4; Pennsylvania's to April 4; Minnesota's to April 14. WF: the conveyance order and TSA directives governed every commute; schools ran hybrid; quarantine orders continued. CB: every indoor guest in California was tested or vaccinated from April 15; every guest in the Northeast was counted against the cap until late May or mid-June.¹⁵⁰

During the calendar quarter beginning April 1, 2021 and ending June 30, 2021, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19, namely the capacity, gathering and catered-event orders in force to their stepped expiry between April 6 and June 30, 2021 (Ex. NY-043; Ex. NY-045; Ex. NY-053; Ex. NY-054; Ex. NY-057; Ex. NY-049; Ex. NJ-045; Ex. NJ-046; Ex. NJ-047; Ex. SEC-17-027; Ex. NJ-050; Ex. NJ-051; Ex. PA-033; Ex. PA-035; Ex. PA-036; Ex. MA-043; Ex. MA-045; Ex. MA-047; Ex. MA-048; Ex. CT-099; Ex. CT-100; Ex. RI-037; Ex. RI-043; Ex. RI-044; Ex. RI-045; Ex. DE-035; Ex. DE-037; Ex. DE-038; Ex. MD-026; Ex. MD-095; Ex. MD-031; Ex. VA-017; Ex. VA-029; Ex. NC-028; Ex. NC-029; Ex. KY-049; Ex. OH-046; Ex. OH-070; Ex. OH-047; Ex. OH-048; Ex. MI-066; Ex. MI-067; Ex. MI-068; Ex. MI-069; Ex. MI-071; Ex. MI-073; Ex. MI-076; Ex. IL-034; Ex. IL-054; Ex. IL-036; Ex. IL-037; Ex. MN-037; Ex. MN-038; Ex. IN-059; Ex. GA-034; Ex. GA-035; Ex. AL-049; Ex. CO-051; Ex. MET-DEN-017; Ex. WV-063; Ex. UT-042; Ex. UT-043; Ex. LA-030; Ex. LA-032; Ex. LA-047; Ex. NV-036; Ex. NV-038; Ex. NV-039; Ex. MET-LAS-003; Ex. MET-LAS-005; Ex. MET-LAS-035; Ex. MET-LAS-036; Ex. WA-064; Ex. WA-065; Ex. WA-106; Ex. WA-107; Ex. WA-101; Ex. OR-040; Ex. OR-042; Ex. OR-043; Ex. NM-057; Ex. NM-060; Ex. MET-HNL-030; Ex. WY-054; Ex. WY-057; Ex. WY-058; Ex. ME-057; Ex. ME-058; Ex. VT-086; Ex. DC-072; Ex. DC-073; Ex. MET-BOS-033; Ex. MET-BOS-035; Ex. MET-MKE-021; Ex. MET-MKE-022; Ex. MET-MKE-064; Ex. MET-DCM-021; Ex. MET-CHI-039; Ex. MET-MSY-025), California's testing-or-vaccination condition on every indoor guest and its mega-event rule (Ex. SEC-25-007; Ex. SEC-25-008; Ex. SEC-25-015; Ex. CA-018; Ex. CA-055; Ex. MET-LA-015; Ex. MET-LA-016; Ex. CA-029; Ex. MET-SFO-008; Ex. MET-SFO-024; Ex. MET-SAN-022), the production protocols and workplace standards (Ex. SEC-25-001; Ex. SEC-25-004; Ex. CA-024; Ex. VA-037; Ex. OR-041; Ex. OR-044), the alcohol regulators' instruments (Ex. AGY-ST-ALCOHOL-041) and the federal conveyance, entry, border, workplace and OSHA instruments (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-051; Ex. FED-056; Ex. FED-207; Ex. FED-208; Ex. FED-232; Ex. FED-255; Ex. FED-080; Ex. FED-271; Ex. FED-031), caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. They did so by fixing the guest count of every reception in the Northeast, the Midwest and the West at the cap in force on its date until late May or June, by conditioning every indoor guest in California on a test or a vaccination, by keeping the convention halls closed until the quarter's end or beyond, and by keeping the foreign performer, the touring crew and the cross-border guest out. The convention authorities' own records of their halls' reopening schedules and protocols (Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-026; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-036; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-059) are cited as context, not as orders.¹⁵¹

The third quarter of 2021

The third quarter of 2021 was, for this industry, a quarter of new orders layered on orders that never lapsed. On July 1, 2021 the industry operated under Rhode Island's Reopening Order and venue regulation, Washington's over-10,000 rule, California's mega-event rule, Hawaii's proclamation and county tiers, New Mexico's public health order, Nevada's Directives 044 and 045 and county plans, New Jersey's Executive Order 192 workplace rules, Virginia's workplace standard, Illinois' Phase 5 order, the unvaccinated-person face-covering rules of eight States, the federal conveyance, security-directive, testing, sailing, entry and land-border orders, the OSHA standard, the State emergencies and the quarantine orders of every jurisdiction. Between July 16 and September 30, 2021 Hawaii re-capped every social gathering and venue statewide; New York City, San Francisco, New Orleans and Honolulu barred the unvaccinated from every indoor event venue, catering hall and concert venue; Nevada conditioned every event and convention of 4,000 or more; Los Angeles County, Pasadena, the City of Los Angeles, Washington and King County conditioned the industry's largest events; Savannah cancelled every event on City property; seven States and the District and more than thirty counties and cities imposed workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements, universal indoor face coverings enforced by the business among them, on every person inside every venue; every school in most of the country placed the night-and-weekend workforce's children under face-covering and quarantine orders; and the federal government renewed its border prohibitions three times, replaced its Title 42 order, reinstated universal masking in every federal building and conditioned its own conferences of more than fifty participants. The Service's sentence that no orders were in effect describes a quarter that did not occur.

(A) The Service's premise and what the statute asks

"Our records indicate there were no government orders related to COVID-19 in effect during the quarter(s) you claimed ERC which could have fully or partially suspended your trade or business."¹⁵²

Form language of the Service's Letters 105C on the suspension prong

(B) The instruments in force, one by one

Each instrument below is stated with its issuer, date, operative clause, compliance date, enforcement, status on July 1 and September 30, 2021 and the functions it reached. The table summarizes the inventory; the entries that follow state each instrument in full.

B-1. The CDC conveyance order

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Requirement for Persons To Wear Masks While on Conveyances and at Transportation Hubs, 86 Fed. Reg. 8025, signed January 29, 2021 under 42 U.S.C. § 264, effective 11:59 p.m. February 1, 2021, "until further notice." Operative clause: "Persons must wear masks over the mouth and nose when traveling on conveyances into and within the United States," and "[a] conveyance operator transporting persons into and within the United States must require all persons onboard to wear masks for the duration of travel." Enforcement: criminal penalties under 42 U.S.C. § 271 and 18 U.S.C. §§ 3559 and 3571; civil penalties under the TSA directives. The order is an airborne-transmission control on every conveyance and transportation hub, and it placed on every operator the duty to require compliance, to refuse boarding and to remove those who did not comply. Status: in force on every day of the quarter. Functions: EN and FP (every touring band, disc jockey, performer, cast and crew that travelled by air, rail or bus), WF (every employee who commuted by transit), CB (every guest who travelled to a wedding, convention or festival by conveyance).¹⁵⁵

B-2. The TSA Security Directives

Transportation Security Administration, Security Directive SD 1582/84-21-01A (surface transportation), effective May 12, 2021, expiring September 13, 2021, and SD 1582/84-21-01B, announced by the TSA on August 20, 2021, effective September 14, 2021, expiring January 18, 2022, with the parallel aircraft, airport and foreign-carrier directives, each issued under 49 U.S.C. § 114(l)(2) and ratified by the Transportation Security Oversight Board. Operative clause (the same airborne-transmission control as the conveyance order, imposed on the operator as a duty of its own): owners and operators of surface transportation systems, aircraft operators and airports must require masks of every person "including those already vaccinated," refuse transport to those who do not comply and report violations. Enforcement: civil penalties. Status: in force on every day of the quarter, the renewal of August 20, 2021 falling inside it. Functions: EN, FP, AV (every touring crew), WF, CB.¹⁵⁶

B-3. The entry proclamations and the land-border notices

Proclamation 10143 of January 25, 2021 (the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil and South Africa) and Proclamation 10199 of April 30, 2021 (India), issued under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f), together with Proclamations 9984 and 9992 of January 31 and February 29, 2020 (China and Iran) (Ex. FED-200; Ex. FED-201), suspending the entry of non-citizens physically present in those countries within fourteen days of arrival, all in force until Proclamation 10294 lifted them at 12:01 a.m. on November 8, 2021; and the Department of Homeland Security's Notifications of Temporary Travel Restrictions for the Canadian and Mexican land borders, issued under 19 U.S.C. § 1318(b) on June 23, July 22, August 23 and September 22, 2021, each barring non-essential entry by land or ferry for the following month through October 21, 2021. Operative clause: entry "hereby suspended"; non-essential travel prohibited. Enforcement: refusal of entry by Customs and Border Protection. Status: in force on every day of the quarter, with three renewals issued inside it. Functions: EN and FP (foreign performers, cast, crew and touring acts on O and P visas), MK (international conventions and trade shows), CB (cross-border and overseas guests; every destination wedding with a foreign party; every border-region venue).¹⁵⁷

B-4. The Title 42, testing and sailing orders

The CDC's order suspending the introduction of certain persons at the land borders, reassessed and continued without interruption on August 2, 2021; the CDC's amended order of January 25, 2021 requiring a negative pre-departure test of every air passenger arriving from abroad; and the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order of October 30, 2020, in force to November 1, 2021, under which no cruise ship carried passengers without CDC certification. Status: in force on every day of the quarter. Functions: CB (the foreign guest and the cruise-based destination event), EN, FP.¹⁵⁸

B-5. The federal workplace, contractor and OSHA instruments

Executive Order 13991 of January 20, 2021 (masks and distancing of every person "in Federal buildings or on Federal lands"); the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force's Model Safety Principles as revised July 29, 2021, reinstating universal masking in every federal facility for every person regardless of vaccination status in areas of substantial or high transmission, with attestation, screening and distancing duties beside it, requiring that "employees and onsite contractors must sign an attestation confirming their vaccination status," and providing that any federally hosted "in-person meeting, conference, or event that will be attended by more than 50 participants" first obtain agency-head approval; Executive Orders 14042 and 14043 of September 9, 2021, each reciting that the public health emergency and the national emergency remained in effect (issued inside the quarter; no private obligation before October 15, 2021; cited as the federal government's own statement of the emergency, never as a third-quarter obligation); OSHA's Revised National Emphasis Program of July 7, 2021, directing inspections of high-hazard workplaces; and the OSHA Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard of June 21, 2021, reaching this industry at on-set medical services only. Status: in force on every day of the quarter (Executive Order 13991; the ETS) or from the dates stated. Functions: MK and AV (every federally hosted or federally housed conference, ceremony and event; every audio-visual and staging contractor on federal property), FP (every production on federal lands), HR, WF.¹⁵⁹

B-6. The CDC eviction moratorium

CDC order of June 24, 2021 extending the residential eviction moratorium to July 31, 2021, and the CDC's order of August 3, 2021 for counties of substantial or high transmission, in force to August 26, 2021, when the Supreme Court vacated the stay of the District Court's judgment. Status: in force July 1-31 and August 3-26, 2021. Functions: WF and CB (the tenancies of the industry's hourly staff and customers); OP (the leases of the industry's studios and warehouses under the parallel State and local moratoria of Washington, California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Minnesota).¹⁶⁰

B-7. Hawaii Executive Order 21-05 and the August 5 Proclamation

Governor of Hawaii, Emergency Proclamation Related to the COVID-19 Response (August 5, 2021) (statewide face-covering requirement; Safe Travels test-or-quarantine condition on every arriving passenger; State and county employee vaccination or testing from August 16) and Executive Order No. 21-05, issued and effective August 10, 2021 under Haw. Rev. Stat. ch. 127A, restated as Exhibit F of the Emergency Proclamation of October 1, 2021 and in force until Executive Order 21-08 relaxed it effective November 12, 2021 (the statewide caps ended December 1, 2021); Executive Order No. 21-07 of September 13, 2021 (access to State property). Operative clause: "Indoor social gatherings of more than ten persons and outdoor social gatherings of more than twenty-five persons are prohibited" (§ 1.a); restaurants, bars and social establishments at fifty percent with "no mingling"; professional events over fifty to consult the county. Enforcement: misdemeanor under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 127A-29. Status: the Twenty-First Proclamation with its face-covering requirement, Safe Travels and county tiers in force July 1; the August 5 Proclamation from August 5; Executive Order 21-05 from August 10 through September 30 and after. Functions: PL, VN (every reception and event a social gathering of ten indoors and twenty-five outdoors unless a professional event cleared with the county; every restaurant, bar and social establishment at fifty percent), FL, PH, EN, AV, MK, WF, CB (every destination wedding guest under Safe Travels).¹⁶¹

B-8. Nevada Directives 047, 048, 049 and 050

Governor of Nevada, Declaration of Emergency Directive 047, issued July 27, 2021, effective 12:01 a.m. July 30, 2021: face coverings required of every person, vaccinated or not, in every indoor public space in every county of substantial or high transmission as determined under Directive 048 of August 4, 2021, an airborne-transmission control enforced against employers by Nevada OSHA and against licensees by the Gaming Control Board; Directive 049 of August 16, 2021, repealed and replaced by Directive 050 of September 2, 2021: a large event or convention of 4,000 or more attendees may operate without masks only where every attendee shows proof of at least one dose. Enforcement: misdemeanor under NRS 414.190; licensing. Status: Directives 044 and 045 and the county plans in force July 1; Directive 047 from July 30 through September 30 (terminated February 10, 2022); Directives 049 and 050 from August 16 and September 2. The Gaming Control Board's Industry Notice 2021-71 (July 27, 2021; effective July 30) applied the face-covering rule to every casino showroom, ballroom and convention floor in the State. Functions: PL, VN, MK (every Las Vegas and Reno convention, trade show and large event; every casino-resort ballroom), EN, AV, WF, CB.¹⁶²

B-9. The statewide indoor face-covering orders of Louisiana, Oregon, Illinois, New Mexico and the District

Governor of Louisiana, Proclamation 137 JBE 2021, issued August 2, effective August 4, 2021, renewed by 167 JBE 2021 (effective September 1) and 181 JBE 2021 (effective September 29): face coverings in every indoor location outside a private residence, with every business required to enforce the requirement against its patrons and staff. Oregon Health Authority, OAR 333-019-1025, temporary rule filed August 11, effective August 13, 2021 indoors and August 27, 2021 in crowded outdoor spaces (with a performance exception): every person in an indoor space open to the public, every business responsible for compliance; Oregon OSHA's Administrative Order 10-2021 of August 13, 2021 applying the rule to every workplace. Governor of Illinois, Executive Order 2021-20, issued August 26, 2021, face coverings from August 30, 2021, restated as Executive Orders 2021-22 (September 3) and 2021-23 (September 17): every person over two in an indoor public place, and "all employers must ensure that employees wear face coverings in indoor workplaces." New Mexico Department of Health, Public Health Emergency Order of August 17, 2021, face coverings for all persons from August 20, 2021, extended September 15, 2021: every indoor public setting; civil penalty of $5,000 per violation under NMSA 12-10A-19. Mayor of the District of Columbia, Mayor's Order 2021-097, issued July 29, effective 5:00 a.m. July 31, 2021: face coverings in every indoor public setting regardless of vaccination status. Each of the five is a workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirement addressed to the premises as well as to the person: Louisiana required every operator of a private business to enforce it and made the business citable for failing to do so; Oregon required every person responsible for an indoor space to ensure its employees' compliance, to make reasonable efforts to secure its customers' compliance and to post the requirement at the entrance, and Oregon OSHA applied the rule to every workplace; Illinois required every employer to ensure that its employees wore face coverings in indoor workplaces; New Mexico bound every business, establishment and non-profit to the COVID-Safe Practices under a civil penalty of $5,000 per violation; and the District authorized every business to exclude or refuse service to the uncovered person and made its licenses subject to suspension for violations. Status: none in force July 1; each in force from its date through September 30, 2021. Functions: PL, VN (every reception, banquet, gala and conference held under the face-covering requirement), FL (every florist's shop and delivery), PH, EN (every band, disc jockey and entertainer under the requirement except while performing where the exception applied), AV (every crew on site), FP (every production office and set in Louisiana, Oregon, Illinois and New Mexico), OP, WF, CB.¹⁶³

B-10. Washington's Proclamations 20-25.14, 20-25.15 and 20-25.17 and Orders 20-03.5 and 20-03.6

Governor of Washington, Proclamation 20-25.14 (July 1, 2021), implementing Washington Ready from June 30, 2021, under which indoor events over 10,000 operated at seventy-five percent unless vaccination was verified; Proclamation 20-25.15 (August 20, 2021; effective August 23): face coverings required of every person in every indoor public space regardless of vaccination status, an airborne-transmission control on every venue and workplace; Secretary of Health Order 20-03.5 and Proclamation 20-25.17 (September 13, 2021): "Face coverings are required at outdoor events or gatherings attended by 500 or more people"; Order 20-03.6 (September 24, 2021); the Spectator Events COVID-19 Requirements in successive versions; Proclamation 20-12.5 (August 27, 2021) requiring vaccination of State workers and higher-education staff. Enforcement: gross misdemeanor under RCW 70.05.120 and RCW 43.06.220. Status: the over-10,000 rule in force July 1; the indoor face-covering order from August 23 and the outdoor-event order from September 13 through September 30. Functions: VN, EN, AV, MK (every stadium concert, festival and outdoor event of 500 under the face-covering requirement; every indoor event over 10,000 capped or verified), PL, WF.¹⁶⁴

B-11. California's Beyond the Blueprint order, the mega-event threshold and the Cal/OSHA standard

California Department of Public Health, State Public Health Officer Order of June 11, 2021, effective June 15, 2021: vaccination verification or a negative test required of every attendee at indoor mega-events of 5,000 or more, recommended at outdoor mega-events of 10,000 or more; the indoor threshold lowered to 1,000 effective September 20, 2021; the occupational-health and airborne-transmission controls of the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards, readopted June 17, 2021 (a written prevention program, screening, exclusion of exposed workers, face coverings for the unvaccinated and ventilation measures), in every workplace including every production set and event crew; the Department's face-covering guidance of July 28, 2021, mandatory under the State Public Health Officer's order, requiring face coverings of unvaccinated persons indoors; the health-care and school-worker vaccination orders of August 5 and August 11, 2021. Enforcement: Health & Safety Code § 120295; Labor Code § 6317. Status: the mega-event rule and the standard in force on every day of the quarter; the threshold change inside it. Functions: VN, EN, AV, MK (every concert, convention and festival of 5,000, then 1,000, indoors), FP (every production under the Cal/OSHA standard), WF, CB.¹⁶⁵

B-12. Rhode Island's Reopening Order, venue regulation and quarantine order

Governor of Rhode Island, Executive Order 21-68 (June 18, 2021) (the Reopening Order) (Ex. RI-043) and Executive Order 21-69 (June 18, 2021) (face coverings, the airborne-transmission control the State kept in force beside the Reopening Order to July 6) (Ex. RI-044), amended by Executive Order 21-75 (July 2, 2021) (Ex. RI-046), in force July 1 to July 6, 2021, when Executive Order 21-76 (Ex. RI-047) terminated them; Rhode Island Department of Health, 216-RICR-50-15-7, Safe Activities regulation as amended June 18, 2021, governing venues and indoor activities to August 31, 2021; Executive Order 21-26 (March 19, 2021) and its successors through Executive Order 21-100 (September 30, 2021): quarantine and isolation of exposed persons; Executive Order 21-87 (August 19, 2021): K-12 face coverings; 216-RICR-20-15-8 (August 17, 2021): health-care-worker vaccination. Status: the Reopening Order July 1-6; the venue regulation July 1 to August 31; the quarantine order on every day; the school and worker orders from their dates. Functions: VN, PL, EN, WF.¹⁶⁶

B-13. The other State instruments of the quarter

New Mexico's Public Health Emergency Order of June 30, 2021 (effective July 1) kept face coverings for the unvaccinated and school and health-care rules, its order of July 30 followed, its Executive Order 2021-046 of July 30 required vaccination or testing of State employees from August 2, and its orders of August 17 and September 15 required testing of school workers and vaccination of hospital and congregate-care workers, reaching on-site contractors; New Jersey's Executive Order 244 continued the State of Emergency from June 4, 2021, its Executive Order 192 workplace rules (face coverings and distancing of unverified employees; daily health checks) were carried by Executive Orders 242 and 243 through the quarter, its Executive Order 251 required face coverings in every school from August 9, Executive Order 252 required vaccination or testing of health-care and congregate-setting workers from September 7, Executive Order 253 reached school workers and Executive Order 264 required face coverings in child care from September 24, 2021; Virginia's Department of Labor and Industry standard 16VAC25-220 bound every employer through the quarter and was amended effective September 8, 2021, its Executive Directive 18 required vaccination or testing of State employees from September 1, and the Health Commissioner's order required face coverings in every K-12 school from August 12; Illinois' Executive Order 2021-12 (Phase 5, June 11, 2021) with its transit, congregate and health-care face-covering rules was in force July 1 and Executive Order 2021-18 required face coverings in every school and day care from August 4; Delaware's State of Emergency ran to 12:01 a.m. July 13, 2021 and its Public Health Emergency from July 12, with K-12 and child-care face coverings from August 16 and health-care vaccination or testing from September 30; Colorado's Public Health Order 20-38 was renewed July 1, August 1 and September 1 and its Executive Order D 2021 122 of July 8 continued the recovery emergency; Georgia's State of Emergency for Continued COVID-19 Economic Recovery was declared June 30, 2021, renewed August 19 and September 20, and its Executive Order 08.19.21.03 fixed the terms on which every Georgia venue operated; Texas's GA-38 of July 29 and GA-39 of August 25, 2021 fixed the terms on which every Texas venue operated, its disaster declaration was renewed August 29, and the Supreme Court of Texas's Thirty-Ninth and Fortieth Emergency Orders of July 19 governed its courts through October 1; Arizona's Executive Order 2021-18 of August 16, 2021 barred local vaccination-proof mandates and the Navajo Nation capped gatherings at fifteen from August 12; Alabama proclaimed a new public health emergency on August 13, 2021; Arkansas's quarantine requirement continued (Ex. AR-073), and Act 1002 of 2021, which had barred every public face-covering requirement from April 28, 2021 (Ex. AR-031), stood enjoined from August 6, 2021 through the quarter, the Supreme Court of Arkansas on September 30, 2021 refusing to stay the injunction (Ex. AR-081), so that on every day of the quarter after August 6 the Act barred no school district or locality in Arkansas from requiring face coverings; Mississippi's State of Emergency ran through the quarter; Oklahoma's SB 658 took effect July 1 and Stillwater declared an emergency by proclamation of September 2, 2021, in force September 3 to 20; Kentucky's State of Emergency was kept by Executive Order 2021-386, extended by the legislature's HJR 1 of September 7, 2021 to January 15, 2022, with face coverings in health care, long-term care and transit; Indiana's Executive Order 21-19 of July 29, 2021 (effective August 1) gave the Department of Health's control measures executive-order status and Executive Order 21-24 of September 2 followed; Nebraska's Executive Order 21-12 of August 26 declared a hospital-capacity emergency; South Dakota's Executive Order 2021-08 and its circuit courts' orders governed; West Virginia's State of Emergency of March 16, 2020 governed throughout the quarter (Ex. WV-001), as Executive Order 23-21 of July 20, 2021 recites (Ex. WV-067, an order effective October 1, 2021 ending a vehicle-inspection deadline suspension; cited for its recital only); Wyoming's Executive Order 2020-2 emergency continued and the University of Wyoming required face coverings in every indoor space from August 16; Vermont's Executive Order 06-21 of June 15, 2021 and its State-employee vaccination and attest-or-test requirements of September 1 and 15 governed; North Carolina's Executive Order 220 ran to July 30 and Executive Order 224 of July 29, extended by Executive Order 229 of August 31, required vaccination or testing of Cabinet-agency employees from September 1; Maine's Center for Disease Control rule of August 12 required health-care-worker immunization by September 17 and its courts reinstated face coverings August 16; Minnesota's State-agency vaccination-or-testing policy took effect September 8; Michigan's residential-care orders of May 5 and 21 continued and Ottawa County's school orders of August 6 and 20 followed; Massachusetts' Public Health Emergency Order 2021-4 of August 4 required vaccination of long-term-care staff and its reissued face-covering orders of May 29 and June 15 governed transit and health care; Maryland's Department of Health ordered vaccination of hospital, nursing-home and congregate-facility staff on August 5, 18 and September 8 and its Judiciary required face coverings and vaccination or testing of personnel on August 6 and 20; Utah's HB 1007 restricted school face-covering requirements; North Dakota's HB 1323 and HB 1465 governed and North Dakota State University required face coverings in its classrooms; Iowa's HF 889 barred vaccination-proof requirements and its Supreme Court required face coverings in every courthouse from August 27; Tennessee's Executive Orders 81, 83 and 84 governed, its Public Chapter 550 barred vaccination-proof requirements and its Supreme Court's order of August 26 governed its courts; South Carolina's budget provisos barred school face-covering mandates while its Supreme Court's orders required face coverings in its courthouses; Montana's Department of Public Health and Human Services fixed the scope of HB 702's health-care exemption on July 28; Idaho's Stage 4 guidelines (guidance, cited as the State's own statement of its regime) continued and its courts and hospitals moved to crisis standards in September; Alaska's crisis standards followed September 21. Each instrument in this paragraph issued from an authority with power over its subject and reached this industry's venues, its workforce, its customers or the buildings in which its events are held. The emergency declarations, continuations and recitals are relied on as predicates (B-25); the executive orders, statutes and provisos that barred local face-covering or vaccination-proof requirements are relied on as orders that fixed by law the terms on which every venue in those States operated; the court orders are relied on as orders governing the courts and clerks the industry uses; the school, child-care, transit, health-care, court and university face-covering instruments in this paragraph are relied on as the airborne-transmission controls they imposed on the buildings this industry's events use, on the courts and clerks it depends on and on the second workplaces of its part-time crews; the State-employee, university and hospital requirements are relied on as the orders and directives of the public employers and licensed facilities that share this industry's part-time workforce; the crisis-standards declarations of Idaho and Alaska and the Arkansas proceedings are cited as the status of the health-care system and of the Arkansas statute during the quarter, not as orders; Idaho's Stage 4 guidelines (Ex. ID-013) and the Texas Education Agency's public health guidance of September 2, 2021 (Ex. TX-053) are cited as guidance and not as orders; and every remaining instrument is relied on as an order of an appropriate governmental authority limiting commerce, travel or group meetings.¹⁶⁷

B-14. Key to NYC

Mayor of the City of New York, Emergency Executive Order No. 225, issued August 16, 2021 under New York Executive Law § 24 and the New York City Charter, effective August 17, 2021 (section 11), with penalties effective September 13, 2021 (section 9), restated in full by Emergency Executive Order 228, section 4 (August 25), Emergency Executive Order 239 (September 14) and Emergency Executive Order 250 (September 24, 2021, with a face-covering exception for nonresident performing artists while performing). Operative clause: "a covered entity shall not permit a patron, full- or part-time employee, intern, volunteer, or contractor to enter a covered premises without displaying proof of vaccination and identification," the covered entities including indoor dining, indoor fitness and indoor entertainment and certain meeting spaces: music and concert venues, museums, professional sports arenas, indoor stadiums, convention centers, exhibition halls, performing arts theaters, catering halls and indoor event venues; every covered entity must post a sign and maintain a written record of its verification protocol. Compliance: August 17, 2021; inspections and penalties from September 13. Enforcement: $1,000 for a first violation, $2,000 for a second and $5,000 for each thereafter, by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Police Department, the Sheriff and the Department of Buildings. Status: not in force July 1; in force August 17 through September 30, 2021 and after. Functions: PL (every planner and producer bound with the venue), VN (every catering hall, event venue, concert venue, museum and convention center), FL, PH, EN, AV (every florist, photographer, musician and stagehand a "contractor" who could not enter without proof), FP (every studio screening and indoor event), MK, OP (the verification protocol, sign and record), WF (every employee), CB (every guest). The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's orders of the same quarter required vaccination of every Department of Education employee, contractor and visitor by September 27, 2021 and of every contracted child-care and after-school program staff member by September 27; the City's emergency was renewed on July 26, August 25 and September 24, 2021; New York State's 10 NYCRR Subpart 66-3, the exposure-control requirement the State kept in force when it lifted its caps, required face coverings of unvaccinated persons to August 27, 2021, when the Commissioner's determinations under 10 NYCRR 2.60 and 2.61 imposed the same airborne-transmission control in every school and health-care setting and required vaccination of every health-care worker (Ex. NY-071; Ex. NY-073; Ex. NY-074).¹⁶⁸

B-15. Honolulu's Safe Access O'ahu and Emergency Order 2021-13

Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu, Emergency Order No. 2021-09 (July 2, 2021; effective July 8), Emergency Order No. 2021-10 (August 23, 2021) aligning the island's gathering, restaurant, bar and gym limits with Executive Order 21-05 (ten indoors, twenty-five outdoors), Emergency Order No. 2021-11 (Safe Access O'ahu), issued August 30, effective September 13, 2021, with the Governor's approval under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 127A-25: every patron, employee and contractor of a restaurant, bar, indoor gym, indoor attraction, theater or other covered entity must show proof of full vaccination or a negative test within forty-eight hours; Proclamation and Emergency Order No. 2021-13, issued September 17, effective September 22 through October 19, 2021, with its Exhibit B: indoor events and outdoor events I, II and III closed; social gatherings above ten indoors and twenty-five outdoors prohibited; restaurants and bars at fifty percent, seated, with a 10:00 p.m. liquor cutoff; Safe Access O'ahu continued. Enforcement: misdemeanor under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 127A-29. Status: the July 8 order in force from that date; the August 23 cutback, the September 13 entry rule and the September 22 event closures inside the quarter; all in force September 30. Functions: PL, VN (every reception on O'ahu a gathering of ten indoors; every indoor event closed from September 22), FL, PH, EN, AV, MK, WF, CB.¹⁶⁹

B-16. San Francisco's Order C19-07y and the Bay Area face-covering orders

Health Officer of the City and County of San Francisco, Order No. C19-07y (Safer Return Together), effective June 15, 2021, requiring every business to screen personnel and follow the mega-event rules; update of August 2, 2021, effective 12:01 a.m. August 3: face coverings indoors for every person regardless of vaccination status, a workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirement that every business was required to implement on its premises beside the personnel-screening duty C19-07y already imposed; update of August 12, 2021: from August 20, 2021 every indoor event venue, entertainment venue and dining establishment may admit only patrons who show proof of full vaccination, and by October 13, 2021 may employ only vaccinated personnel; updates of August 24 and September 10, 2021 continuing. The Health Officers of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma Counties and the City of Berkeley issued parallel orders effective August 3, 2021 imposing the same exposure-control requirement, every business required to implement it, as their joint release of August 2, 2021 records (Ex. MET-SFO-071; context), Marin's order naming conference centers (Ex. MET-SFO-049). Enforcement: misdemeanor under Health & Safety Code § 120295; administrative penalties. Status: C19-07y in force July 1; the face-covering orders from August 3; the vaccination-proof rule from August 20 through September 30. Functions: PL, VN, FL, PH, EN, AV, MK, OP, WF, CB.¹⁷⁰

B-17. New Orleans's face-covering mandate and vaccination-or-test rule

City of New Orleans Health Department, COVID-19 Reopening Guidelines of May 28, 2021 (gathering caps of 250 indoors and 500 outdoors; large events conditioned on face coverings or vaccination-or-test proof; mandatory safety requirements for every business), in force July 1; Reopening Guidelines and Public Health Advisory of July 31, 2021, effective 6:00 a.m. July 31: face coverings for every person over two in every indoor space outside the household, a workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirement addressed to the business, which was required to post its policies and to enforce the requirement on its premises beside the mandatory safety requirements the May 28 guidelines already imposed; Public Health Advisory of August 12 and Reopening Guidelines of August 13, 2021, effective 6:00 a.m. August 16, City enforcement from August 23: proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test within seventy-two hours for entry to indoor dining, bars, concert halls, event spaces, indoor sports venues, casinos and indoor amusement; continued October 29, 2021; Executive Order LC 21-05 of August 19, 2021 (Ex. MET-MSY-032) requiring vaccination or testing of City employees and public-facing contractor employees, with the requirements effective August 30, 2021. Enforcement: La. R.S. 29:727 ($500 and six months); license suspension. Status: the May 28 guidelines in force July 1; the face-covering mandate from July 31; the entry rule from August 16 through September 30 and after. Functions: PL, VN (every event space and reception hall in the city), FL, PH, EN (every musician entering a covered venue), AV, MK, WF, CB.¹⁷¹

B-18. The Los Angeles County, Pasadena and City of Los Angeles orders

Los Angeles County Health Officer, Responding Together at Work and in the Community, Beyond the Blueprint, Substantial Transmission (issued July 16, 2021; effective 11:59 p.m. July 17): face coverings for every person in every indoor public setting and business regardless of vaccination status, an exposure-control requirement every business operating such a setting was required to enforce; High Transmission order of August 16, 2021 (effective 11:59 p.m. August 19), carrying the County's face-covering and outdoor mega-event terms and Appendix J as the County's production protocol; Pasadena Health Officer, Order for Wearing of Face Masks at Outdoor Mega-Events (issued August 18, effective 12:01 a.m. August 20, 2021): face coverings at every outdoor event of 10,000 or more; Pasadena Health Officer, Order Requiring Vaccination or Pre-Event Negative Test for Indoor Mega-Events with 1,000 or More Attendees (issued August 26, effective 12:01 a.m. September 15, 2021); Mayor of Los Angeles, Safer L.A. Public Order (August 24, 2021); Los Angeles County Health Officer, Responding Together, High Transmission (issued September 17, 2021; effective October 7, 2021): proof of vaccination for every patron of an outdoor mega-event and every indoor bar, brewery, winery, nightclub and lounge (issued inside the quarter; effect post-period; cited as an order issued September 17 whose compelled preparation began on issuance); the County's Health Care Worker Vaccination Requirement (August 12; compliance September 30, 2021). Enforcement: Health & Safety Code § 120295; Los Angeles County Code § 11.02.080. Status: the June 15 order, Appendix J, the quarantine and isolation orders and the Superior Court's order in force July 1; the face-covering orders from July 17; the County's and Pasadena's mega-event orders from August 19-20 and September 15; the October 7 order issued inside the quarter. Functions: PL, VN, FL, PH, EN, AV, FP (every production under Appendix J and the County face-covering order), MK, OP, WF, CB.¹⁷²

B-19. King County's face-covering and vaccination-verification orders

King County Local Health Officer, Outdoor and Indoor Masking Orders, issued September 2, effective September 7, 2021 under RCW 70.05.070 and WAC 246-100-036: face coverings in every indoor public space and at every outdoor event of 500 or more, an airborne-transmission control on every venue in the county; Verification of Vaccination Order, issued September 16, 2021 "effective immediately," with the entry requirement effective October 25, 2021: proof of full vaccination or a negative test within seventy-two hours for entry to every indoor restaurant, bar, theater, museum, arena, exhibition hall and convention center and every outdoor event of 500 or more, for six months. Enforcement: RCW 70.05.120. Status: the Seattle civil emergency, the isolation order and the State rules in force July 1; the face-covering order from September 7; the verification order issued September 16 and compelling every venue's preparation from that day. Functions: PL, VN, EN, AV, MK, OP, WF, CB.¹⁷³

B-20. Savannah's Emergency Order No. 29

Mayor of Savannah, Emergency Order No. 29, issued August 24, 2021, effective 6:00 p.m., in force to September 23, 2021 with its event cancellations and permit revocations running through September 30, 2021: face coverings required in City buildings, schools, hospitals and regulated transport and strongly advised in commercial establishments; gatherings over fifty on City property prohibited, weddings excepted on distancing and face-covering conditions; City buildings closed; Civic Center events cancelled; event permits revoked. Enforcement: municipal penalty. Status: not in force July 1; in force August 24 through September 30 as to events and permits. Functions: PL (every permitted event on City property cancelled), VN (the Civic Center), EN, AV, MK, CB.¹⁷⁴

B-21. The local face-covering orders inside every venue

Between July 17 and September 17, 2021 the following authorities ordered face coverings in every indoor public space in their jurisdictions, each order reaching every banquet hall, ballroom, event venue, concert venue, florist's shop, studio and production office within it: Chicago (Public Health Order 2021-1, August 20) and Cook County (Order 2021-10, August 23); Philadelphia (August 12, with a vaccinated-only exception and a contractor notice of September 14); Boston (August 27, with the Licensing Board's advisory on licensed premises "including weddings and functions"), Somerville (August 20) and Cambridge; Boulder County (Public Health Order 2021-08, September 3); Dane County and Madison (August 19 and September 10); Mecklenburg County (August 31) and Raleigh (August 13); Louisville (August 2: city buildings and vehicles); Columbus (September 10 and 14) and Bexley; St. Louis City (July 26 and August 30) and St. Louis County (July 26; the County Council voted to terminate the order on July 27 under RSMo § 67.265 and a temporary restraining order of August 3, 2021 barred its enforcement, so the County order is relied on for July 26 to August 3 only); Kansas City (Ordinances 210694 of August 19 and 210853 of September 23), Jackson County (August 9) and Johnson County, Kansas (August 9); Sacramento County (July 30); Juneau (July 30: indoor gatherings capped at fifty); Lincoln-Lancaster County (August 26); Iowa City (August 19); Jackson, Mississippi; Richland County, South Carolina (September 15); Baltimore City (August 10); Montgomery County, Maryland (August 7); Dallas County (August 11), Harris County (county buildings from August 17; schools from August 12) and Bexar County and San Antonio (August 10-11); Salt Lake City (City buildings, July 28); Clark County, Nevada (July 22: county employees; superseded by Directive 047); Multnomah County (August 13); Shelby County; the courts of Maricopa County (July 19 to August 9), Clark County (July 19), Allegheny County (August 10), Hamilton County (August 11), Franklin County (August 5-6), Harris County (August 12 and 18) and Orange County, Florida (August 23). Each is an order of an authority with power over the premises it reached, and each general order was a workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirement that bound every venue within the jurisdiction: every guest and every employee inside the venue was required to be covered, and where the order so provided (Chicago's Public Health Order 2021-1, § 1(b) and § 4; Philadelphia's amendment of August 12, 2021, § 2) the business was required to post the rule and was itself sanctionable, to the point of closure, for failing to enforce it. Status: none in force July 1 except the courts' continuing orders; each in force from its date through September 30, 2021 except where stated. Functions: PL, VN, FL, PH, EN, AV, FP, OP, WF, CB.¹⁷⁵

B-22. The vaccination-or-test orders on the industry's part-time workforce

The health-care, school, State-employee and municipal-employee vaccination-or-test orders of the quarter conditioned the employment of the banquet servers, bartenders, stagehands, musicians, teachers and hospital-employed part-timers who staff this industry's events on nights and weekends: California (August 5 and 11), New York (August 26), New Jersey (August 6 and 23), Connecticut (August 5, 6 and 19), Massachusetts (August 4), Maine (August 12), Oregon (August 5, 13 and 25), Washington (August 9, 20 and 27), Rhode Island (August 17), Delaware (August 12 and September 30), Colorado (August 30), Maryland (August 5, 18 and September 8), Minnesota (September 8), New Mexico (July 30, August 17 and September 15), Hawaii (August 5), the District (August 16 and September 20), Virginia (August 5 and September 1), North Carolina (July 29 and September 1), Vermont (September 1 and 15) and the cities of New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Tucson, Tampa, Columbus and Minneapolis and the counties of Los Angeles, Pasadena and Cuyahoga. Status: from the dates stated through September 30, 2021. Functions: HR, WF, EN, AV.¹⁷⁶

B-23. The school face-covering and quarantine orders of the 2021-22 year

The school orders governed every gymnasium, auditorium and cafeteria this industry rents for proms, banquets and community events and every parent on the industry's night-and-weekend crews: California, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, the District, Hawaii, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maryland by statewide instrument; Harris, Bexar and Ottawa Counties, Detroit, Denver, Boulder, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Lincoln, Birmingham and the school districts of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and Philadelphia by local instrument. North Carolina required every public school unit to adopt a face-covering policy and to vote on it monthly (S.L. 2021-130 § 10, Aug. 30, 2021, Ex. NC-032), the Department's toolkit supplying the quarantine and close-contact rules as guidance (Ex. NC-072; context). The quarantine rules of those orders removed every exposed parent from a shift for seven to fourteen days. Status: from the dates stated (August 2 through September 7, 2021) through September 30 and the school year. Functions: VN (school venues), WF, HR, CB.¹⁷⁷

B-24. The quarantine and isolation orders

The blanket isolation and quarantine orders of every State and county (Rhode Island's Executive Order 21-26 and successors to Executive Order 21-100; Hawaii's Home Isolation and Quarantine Guidance of August 18, 2021; Arkansas's Department of Health requirement; Kansas's travel and exposure quarantine mandate; Sacramento County's Summary Isolation and Quarantine Orders; Allegheny County Health Department's Isolation and Quarantine Basics of August 24, 2021, imposing ten days "regardless of your vaccination status"; San Diego County's Limited Order of June 15, 2021 with its isolation and quarantine orders) removed exposed planners, servers, musicians, photographers and crew from every event for the quarantine period. Status: in force on every day of the quarter. Functions: WF, PL, EN, AV, FP.¹⁷⁸

B-25. The State emergencies

The emergency declarations of every State, in force in thirty-five jurisdictions on July 2 and twenty-five on September 21, 2021 by the Kaiser Family Foundation's count, and newly declared or renewed inside the quarter in Alabama (August 13), Arkansas (July 29), New York (September 27), Texas (August 29), Georgia (June 30, August 19 and September 20), Colorado (July 8), Delaware (July 12 and September 8), Mississippi, Kentucky (September 7), Oklahoma's Stillwater (proclamation of September 2, in force from September 3) and St. Louis (July 23), are the predicates on which every instrument above rests; they are relied on as predicates, and the instruments issued under them are relied on as the orders.¹⁷⁹

B-26. The sector regulators' instruments of the quarter

The Louisiana Gaming Control Board's Emergency Order No. 27 of August 4, 2021 (face coverings for every employee and patron of every licensed floor, ballroom and showroom, an occupational-health control enforced through the license), No. 28 of August 12 and No. 29 of September 22, 2021; the Nevada Gaming Control Board's Industry Notice 2021-71 (July 27; effective July 30); California's Department of Public Health's mega-event guidance update of September 20, 2021 lowering the indoor threshold to 1,000; New Jersey's Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control's Administrative Order 2021-01 keeping every catering and expansion permit on emergency terms to November 30, 2022; OSHA's Revised National Emphasis Program of July 7, 2021; Virginia's and Oregon's occupational-safety standards; the Cal/OSHA standard; and the New York State Liquor Authority's continuing license conditions on catering halls under Key to NYC. Status: from the dates stated through September 30. Functions: VN, EN, AV, MK, HR, OP.¹⁸⁰

(C) How they reached the functions

PL: every planner and producer in New York City, San Francisco, New Orleans and O'ahu became, from August 16-17, 20 and September 13, the party responsible for verifying every guest, vendor and staff member at every indoor event; every planner in Hawaii planned a gathering of ten indoors and twenty-five outdoors from August 10 or cleared a professional event over fifty with the county; every planner in Savannah lost every permitted event on City property from August 24; every planner in Las Vegas planned a convention of 4,000 under Directive 050; every planner in the face-covering jurisdictions planned an event held under the venue's infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements. VN: every restaurant, bar and social establishment in Hawaii at fifty percent from August 10, every reception and event there a social gathering of ten indoors and twenty-five outdoors unless a professional event cleared with the county (Ex. HI-025, ¶ 1.a-b), and every indoor event on O'ahu closed from September 22; every catering hall, event venue, concert venue, museum and convention center in New York City, San Francisco and New Orleans closed to the unvaccinated from August 16-17 and 20; every venue in Louisiana, Oregon, Illinois, New Mexico, the District, Nevada's counties, Washington, Hawaii and more than thirty localities requiring face coverings of every guest from July 17 onward under orders enforced against the venue; every large venue in California, Washington, Nevada, Los Angeles County, Pasadena and King County conditioned; McCormick Place hosting its first events in July 2021 after being "closed since March of 2020" and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center its first public convention on September 3, 2021. FL: every florist's shop in the face-covering jurisdictions under the requirement and the duty to enforce it; every delivery to a covered venue in the four cities by a vaccinated contractor; every imported flower under the entry and cargo regimes. PH: every photographer entering a covered venue in New York City, San Francisco or New Orleans a contractor who could not enter without proof; every production photographer under Appendix J. EN: every band and disc jockey in the four cities verified at the door; every performer in Oregon and New York City exempted from the face-covering rule only while performing; every event of 4,000 in Nevada conditioned; every touring act under the conveyance order and the TSA directives; every foreign act behind the proclamations. AV: every crew on site under the face-covering and exposure-control rules of the face-covering jurisdictions and verified in the four cities; every large show built to the mega-event and verification rules of California, Washington, Nevada, Los Angeles County and King County; every event on Savannah City property cancelled. FP: every production in Los Angeles County under Appendix J and the County face-covering order from July 17; every production in California under the Cal/OSHA standard; every production in Louisiana, Oregon, Illinois and New Mexico under the face-covering orders; every foreign cast and crew member behind the proclamations to November 8; every travel day under the conveyance order. MK: every bridal show and showcase in Hawaii a gathering of ten; every convention in Las Vegas of 4,000 conditioned; every indoor show in the four cities closed to the unvaccinated; every federally hosted conference of more than fifty subject to agency-head approval. HR: every employee and contractor of a covered venue in the four cities under proof of vaccination; every part-time employee in a second job under the health-care, school and public-employee orders of B-22. OP: every covered venue in the four cities compelled to write, post and administer a verification protocol; every business in the face-covering jurisdictions compelled to post and enforce; every New Jersey and Virginia employer under the workplace rules. WF: every employee under the face-covering requirement at work in those jurisdictions, verified in the four cities, quarantined when exposed, under the federal conveyance controls on every commute and conditioned in every second job; every parent under the school orders. CB: every guest covered, verified, capped or barred by the instruments above; every out-of-State guest to Hawaii under Safe Travels; every foreign guest behind the proclamations; every couple in Florida, Texas, Arizona, Iowa, Tennessee and Montana forbidden by State law to hold the verified event the four cities required.¹⁸¹

(D) The continuing suspension

The clause asks whether the operation was "fully or partially suspended during the calendar quarter due to orders." The phrase "during the calendar quarter" modifies "suspended," and Congress did not write "orders in effect during the calendar quarter."¹⁸² Tri-State defines a suspension to include a "delay" and holds that "due to" is but-for causation.¹⁸³ The Notice's Q&A-22 makes an employer suspended for part of a quarter eligible for the whole quarter, and Q&A-16 treats a "significant delay" in moving between modes of operation as itself "a partial suspension during that transition period," offering its two-week figure only "for example."¹⁸⁴ Four pathways carry the suspension into the third quarter of 2021, each independent of the others. First, the orders still in force: subpart (B) lists them, and each is an order limiting commerce, travel or group meetings in force on some day between July 1 and September 30, 2021. Second, the orders whose own terms ran into the quarter: Rhode Island's Reopening Order to July 6 and its venue regulation to August 31; Delaware's State of Emergency to July 13; New Mexico's Public Health Emergency Order of June 30, 2021, effective July 1, and its successors; Washington's Proclamation 20-25.14 of July 1, 2021 and the over-10,000 rule it carried from June 30; California's mega-event rule from June 15; Hawaii's proclamation and county tiers throughout; and Nevada's Directives 044 and 045 and the county plans. Washington's phase caps, Oregon's county framework and New Mexico's county framework expired at the quarter's threshold on June 30, 2021, and the school orders of the 2020-21 year expired with that year; each is relied on for this quarter under the third pathway alone, as the cause of the continuing suspension its own step dates prove. Third, the restoration arithmetic from the orders' own steps. A wedding venue in New York was ordered to cancel every event of any size on March 23, 2020, permitted ten guests on May 22, twenty-five on June 15 and fifty on June 26, 2020, held at fifty for eight and a half months, permitted 150 with testing, notice and sign-in on March 15, 2021, 250 on May 19 and its full room only on June 15, 2021; its staff, its vendor relationships and its 2021 calendar on July 1, 2021 were the product of fifteen months of orders, and the order that released it sixteen days earlier had not restored them. A caterer in New Jersey was barred from every indoor event from March 21 to June 8, 2020, capped at fifty, then 100, then twenty-five with weddings at 100 and 150, cut to ten with weddings at 150 on November 17, 2020, permitted thirty-five percent up to 150 on March 19, 2021, its dance floor on May 7, 250 on May 19 and an uncapped room on June 4, 2021; its banquet staff had been laid off, rehired for events of twenty-five and laid off again, and on July 1, 2021 it was four weeks into rebuilding a workforce for a season it had already booked at the caps. A banquet hall in Michigan was closed to every indoor gathering from November 18, 2020 to January 31, 2021, permitted ten on February 1, twenty-five on March 5, fifty percent on June 1 and its full room on June 22, 2021; the weddings it hosted in July 2021 had been booked, cancelled and rebooked two and three times under those orders, and its July calendar was the one the orders had let it keep. A reception venue in California could hold no indoor event of any size from March 19, 2020 to April 15, 2021, then only with every guest tested or vaccinated and no more than 200 until June 15, 2021, and every event of 5,000 (1,000 from September 20) under verification thereafter; its indoor business on July 1, 2021 was two weeks old. A production company in Los Angeles County stopped on March 20, 2020, resumed on June 12, 2020 under Appendix J and worked under Appendix J on every day of the third quarter of 2021, with the County's face-covering order added from July 17; its shoot schedule was the one the protocol permitted. A staging and rental company in the Midwest lost the 2020 fairs of Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri to their boards' cancellations under the State orders, lost McCormick Place from March 2020 to July 2021, and built its 2021 fair season on inventory and crews it had idled for a year. An operation the orders had held at zero, ten, twenty-five, fifty and 150 guests for fifteen months was not a normal operation on July 1, 2021; the orders' own step dates fix the arithmetic, and the interconnected-economy section below states it in full. Fourth, the counterparty and workforce orders relied on as orders: the school, quarantine, transit, entry and vaccination-or-test instruments of subpart (B) limited the commerce, travel and group meetings on which every function of this industry depends, and the operation delayed or interrupted because of them was suspended due to them. None of these pathways requires this analysis to say that an expired order suspended anyone by its own force in the third quarter of 2021; each rests on orders in force during the quarter or on a suspension that existed during the quarter because of orders.¹⁸⁵

(E) The Service's grounds for the quarter, answered

That no orders were in effect: subpart (B) names more than eighty. That the orders had lifted before the quarter: the Hawaii, New York City, San Francisco, New Orleans, Honolulu, Los Angeles County, Pasadena, Nevada, Washington, King County, Louisiana, Oregon, Illinois, New Mexico, District and Savannah instruments were issued inside the quarter, and the federal conveyance, security-directive, entry, border and testing instruments were never lifted. That face coverings are a modification with a nominal effect: the masks-and-aisles sentence addresses "[m]odifications altering customer behavior," and the face-covering orders of this quarter were workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements addressed to the business, enforced against the business and imposing on the business, in the jurisdictions whose orders so provided, a duty to post the rule and to exclude the uncovered person; and those orders stand beside the vaccination-proof, gathering, capacity, event-closure, permit-revocation and quarantine orders of the same quarter, none of which is a face covering. That a vaccination-proof order affects customers, not the business: Key to NYC, C19-07y, the New Orleans rule and Safe Access O'ahu are addressed to the "covered entity" and the "designated business," forbid it to admit a class of persons, compel it to verify, post and record, and fine it; Tri-State holds that an order that "required Plaintiff to only employ vaccinated individuals" is an order whose compelled changes "were not voluntary."¹⁸⁶ That the employer could operate comparably: a reception, a gala, a convention or a concert that may admit only the vaccinated, only ten persons, only fifty percent or only guests under a face-covering rule is not the event it replaced, and the statute contains no comparable-operations test. That the ten percent figure was not met: the figure is the United States' safe harbor, not a requirement, and the instruments of this quarter closed, capped or conditioned the whole of every covered venue's admissions. That the instruments were guidance: every instrument in subpart (B) carries an enforcement clause; the New Orleans "Guidelines" were adopted by Public Health Advisory under La. R.S. 29:727 with a $500 fine and six months' confinement and enforced from August 23, 2021 by license suspension; Key to NYC carried fines of $1,000, $2,000 and $5,000; Hawaii's Executive Order 21-05 carried a misdemeanor under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 127A-29; New Mexico's face-covering order carried a $5,000 civil penalty per violation.¹⁸⁷

(F) The finding

During the calendar quarter beginning July 1, 2021 and ending September 30, 2021, orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel and group meetings due to COVID-19, namely the federal conveyance order and security directives, the airborne-transmission controls on every conveyance and transportation hub (Ex. FED-020; Ex. FED-051; Ex. FED-052; Ex. FED-056), the entry proclamations and land-border notices (Ex. FED-200; Ex. FED-201; Ex. FED-207; Ex. FED-208; Ex. FED-232; Ex. FED-255; Ex. FED-233; Ex. FED-256; Ex. FED-234; Ex. FED-257; Ex. FED-235; Ex. FED-258), the Title 42, testing and sailing orders (Ex. FED-037; Ex. FED-038; Ex. FED-042; Ex. FED-031), the federal workplace, contractor and OSHA instruments (Ex. FED-060; Ex. FED-272; Ex. FED-063; Ex. FED-064; Ex. SEC-05-002; Ex. FED-080), the eviction orders (Ex. FED-025; Ex. FED-026), Hawaii's proclamation and Executive Orders 21-05 and 21-07 (Ex. HI-023; Ex. HI-024; Ex. HI-025; Ex. HI-027; Ex. HI-052; Ex. HI-066; Ex. HI-067), Nevada's Directives 044, 045, 047, 048, 049 and 050 and the Gaming Control Board's notice (Ex. NV-038; Ex. NV-039; Ex. NV-041; Ex. NV-042; Ex. NV-043; Ex. NV-044; Ex. NV-051), the statewide face-covering orders and workplace rules of Louisiana, Oregon, Illinois, New Mexico and the District (Ex. LA-036; Ex. LA-038; Ex. LA-040; Ex. OR-048; Ex. OR-049; Ex. IL-037; Ex. IL-042; Ex. IL-043; Ex. IL-044; Ex. NM-060; Ex. NM-062; Ex. NM-067; Ex. NM-070; Ex. DC-057; Ex. DC-077; Ex. DC-021), Washington's proclamations and orders (Ex. WA-072; Ex. WA-101; Ex. WA-102; Ex. WA-080; Ex. WA-084; Ex. WA-085; Ex. WA-111; Ex. WA-081), California's mega-event rule, threshold change and workplace standard (Ex. CA-029; Ex. CA-036; Ex. AGY-ST-HEALTH-SUBORDERS-111; Ex. SEC-17-018; Ex. CA-024; Ex. CA-035), Rhode Island's orders and regulation (Ex. RI-043; Ex. RI-044; Ex. RI-046; Ex. RI-047; Ex. RI-071; Ex. RI-036; Ex. RI-066; Ex. RI-055; Ex. RI-072; Ex. RI-098; Ex. RI-100), the State instruments of the quarter in every other jurisdiction (Ex. NM-063; Ex. NM-068; Ex. NM-071; Ex. NM-059; Ex. NM-066; Ex. NJ-052; Ex. NJ-050; Ex. NJ-051; Ex. NJ-055; Ex. NJ-056; Ex. NJ-057; Ex. NJ-058; Ex. VA-037; Ex. VA-038; Ex. VA-044; Ex. VA-045; Ex. VA-042; Ex. IL-040; Ex. IL-045; Ex. DE-053; Ex. DE-041; Ex. DE-043; Ex. DE-044; Ex. DE-045; Ex. DE-064; Ex. CO-041; Ex. CO-043; Ex. CO-091; Ex. GA-041; Ex. GA-043; Ex. GA-046; Ex. TX-036; Ex. TX-037; Ex. TX-038; Ex. TX-040; Ex. TX-041; Ex. AZ-045; Ex. AZ-084; Ex. AL-052; Ex. AL-084; Ex. AL-087; Ex. AR-073; Ex. AR-081; Ex. MS-060; Ex. OK-042; Ex. OK-043; Ex. OK-089; Ex. KY-049; Ex. KY-056; Ex. KY-058; Ex. KY-059; Ex. IN-068; Ex. IN-071; Ex. IN-092; Ex. NE-068; Ex. SD-030; Ex. SD-082; Ex. SD-088; Ex. WV-001; Ex. WV-064; Ex. WY-001; Ex. WY-060; Ex. WY-061; Ex. VT-044; Ex. VT-059; Ex. VT-060; Ex. VT-083; Ex. VT-085; Ex. NC-030; Ex. NC-031; Ex. NC-058; Ex. NC-032; Ex. ME-061; Ex. ME-074; Ex. MN-044; Ex. MN-045; Ex. MI-070; Ex. MI-072; Ex. MI-081; Ex. MI-084; Ex. MA-050; Ex. MA-054; Ex. MA-067; Ex. MD-057; Ex. MD-058; Ex. MD-060; Ex. MD-090; Ex. MD-092; Ex. UT-045; Ex. ND-080; Ex. ND-082; Ex. ND-083; Ex. IA-047; Ex. IA-056; Ex. TN-033; Ex. TN-035; Ex. TN-036; Ex. TN-051; Ex. TN-065; Ex. TN-067; Ex. SC-045; Ex. SC-054; Ex. SC-056; Ex. SC-062; Ex. SC-063; Ex. MT-071; Ex. KS-057; Ex. KS-095; Ex. PA-040; Ex. PA-042; Ex. PA-043; Ex. NY-133; Ex. NY-071; Ex. NY-073; Ex. NY-074; Ex. LA-054; Ex. CA-030; Ex. CA-033) (Idaho's Stage 4 guidelines, Ex. ID-013, and the Texas Education Agency's guidance of September 2, 2021, Ex. TX-053, are cited as the States' own statements of their regimes and not as orders), the vaccination-proof and gathering orders of New York City, San Francisco, New Orleans and Honolulu (Ex. MET-NYC-017; Ex. MET-NYC-018; Ex. MET-NYC-019; Ex. MET-NYC-021; Ex. MET-NYC-040; Ex. MET-NYC-043; Ex. MET-SFO-008; Ex. MET-SFO-010; Ex. MET-SFO-049; Ex. MET-SFO-011; Ex. MET-MSY-025; Ex. MET-MSY-027; Ex. MET-MSY-028; Ex. MET-MSY-029; Ex. MET-MSY-030; Ex. MET-HNL-032; Ex. MET-HNL-033; Ex. MET-HNL-035; Ex. MET-HNL-037; Ex. MET-HNL-038), the Los Angeles County, Pasadena and City of Los Angeles orders (Ex. MET-LA-018; Ex. MET-LA-019; Ex. MET-LA-054; Ex. MET-LA-056; Ex. MET-LA-036; Ex. SEC-25-001), King County's orders (Ex. MET-SEA-002; Ex. MET-SEA-001), Savannah's order (Ex. MET-ATL-017), the local face-covering orders inside every venue (Ex. MET-CHI-026; Ex. MET-CHI-041; Ex. MET-PHL-019; Ex. MET-PHL-071; Ex. MET-PHL-065; Ex. MET-BOS-013; Ex. MET-BOS-014; Ex. MET-BOS-063; Ex. MET-DEN-033; Ex. MET-MKE-023; Ex. MET-MKE-024; Ex. MET-CLT-001; Ex. MET-CLT-045; Ex. MET-SDF-017; Ex. MET-CMH-048; Ex. MET-CMH-050; Ex. MET-CMH-049; Ex. MET-STL-021; Ex. MET-STL-022; Ex. MET-STL-069; Ex. MET-KC-002; Ex. MET-KC-003; Ex. MET-KC-006; Ex. MET-KC-045; Ex. MET-KC-046; Ex. MET-KC-067; Ex. MET-KC-068; Ex. MET-SAC-015; Ex. AK-095; Ex. AK-096; Ex. NE-080; Ex. NE-081; Ex. IA-067; Ex. SC-061; Ex. MET-BAL-017; Ex. MET-DCM-023; Ex. MET-DFW-028; Ex. MET-HOU-039; Ex. MET-SAT-064; Ex. MET-SAT-067; Ex. MET-SLC-029; Ex. MET-LAS-009; Ex. MET-PDX-014; Ex. MET-BNA-076; Ex. MET-PHX-025; Ex. MET-PHX-014; Ex. MET-PHX-015; Ex. MET-PHX-016; Ex. MET-LAS-019; Ex. MET-PIT-036; Ex. MET-CIN-007; Ex. MET-CMH-044; Ex. MET-CMH-046; Ex. MET-HOU-052; Ex. MET-HOU-053; Ex. MET-ORL-047), the vaccination-or-test orders on the industry's part-time workforce (Ex. MET-PHX-002; Ex. MET-TPA-033; Ex. MET-CMH-047; Ex. MET-MSP-020; Ex. MET-CLE-026; Ex. MET-CLE-036; Ex. MET-LA-023; Ex. MET-LA-055; Ex. MET-MSY-032; Ex. OR-046; Ex. OR-047; Ex. OR-051; Ex. OR-052; Ex. DC-075; Ex. DC-076), the school face-covering and quarantine orders (Ex. MET-HOU-038; Ex. MET-SAT-066; Ex. MET-DET-013; Ex. MET-DET-015; Ex. AK-093; Ex. AK-094; Ex. NE-109), the quarantine and isolation orders (Ex. MET-SAC-016; Ex. MET-SAC-017; Ex. MET-PIT-014; Ex. MET-SAN-022), the sector regulators' instruments (Ex. AGY-ST-GAMING-RACING-076; Ex. AGY-ST-GAMING-RACING-077; Ex. AGY-ST-GAMING-RACING-078; Ex. AGY-ST-ALCOHOL-041) and the continuing suspension the orders of the five preceding quarters caused, caused a temporary delay, interruption or termination of a more than nominal portion of the operations of employers in this industry throughout the United States. They did so by capping every social gathering in Hawaii and every restaurant, bar and social establishment there, by barring the unvaccinated from every indoor event venue in four of the nation's largest event markets, by conditioning the industry's largest events in five States and three counties, by cancelling every event on Savannah City property, by placing every person inside every venue in eight jurisdictions and more than thirty localities under workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements, universal face coverings enforced by the venue among them, by quarantining its exposed staff, by governing every school building its events use and every parent on its crews, by conditioning every commute, tour and international engagement, and by leaving in place on July 1 an operation the orders of the preceding fifteen months had dismantled and not yet permitted to be rebuilt. The convention authorities' own records of the reopening dates of McCormick Place and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-027; Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-044) and North Carolina's school toolkit (Ex. NC-072) are cited as context, not as orders.¹⁸⁸

What this analysis does not claim was in force

This analysis does not rely, for the third quarter of 2021, on any statewide order closing banquet halls, event venues, concert venues or theaters, because none was in force; any statewide gathering cap other than Hawaii's from August 10; any statewide percentage cap on venues other than Hawaii's from August 10 and Washington's over-10,000 rule; any stay-at-home order; any statewide vaccination-proof order on patrons (the instruments were Honolulu's, New York City's, San Francisco's, New Orleans's, the Pasadena and Los Angeles County mega-event orders, Nevada's large-event condition and California's mega-event rule); New York's Executive Order 202 series and the catered-events rule (rescinded June 15 and 25, 2021); New Jersey's gathering caps (ended June 4, 2021); Pennsylvania's mitigation orders (expired May 31, 2021); Massachusetts' Orders 1 to 68 (rescinded May 29, 2021); Illinois' Phase 4, Tier and Bridge orders (superseded June 11, 2021); Michigan's health-department gathering orders (rescinded June 22, 2021); California's Blueprint and the Los Angeles County tier protocols as binding tier caps (superseded June 15, 2021; Appendix J continued as the County's production protocol and is relied on for that footing); Washington's phase caps (expired June 30, 2021); Oregon's county framework under Executive Order 20-66 (June 30, 2021); New Mexico's county framework (June 30, 2021); the DiMartile injunction and the fifty-person wedding cap it addressed; the FilmLA permit suspension (ended June 12, 2020); the FFCRA leave mandate (expired December 31, 2020); Proclamation 10014 (revoked February 24, 2021) and Proclamation 10052 (expired March 31, 2021); the No Sail Order (superseded October 30, 2020); the 2020 closure orders, the winter re-closures and the spring 2021 caps of every State that withdrew them before July 1, 2021, each of which is relied on only for the quarters in which it was in force and, for this quarter, only as the cause of the continuing suspension its own step dates prove; the post-period instruments, stated precisely as such: Hawaii's Emergency Proclamation of October 1, 2021 (Ex. HI-029), cited only for its verbatim restatement of Executive Order 21-05 and to fix that order's duration; the Supreme Court of Texas's Forty-Third Emergency Order (Ex. TX-065; issued September 21, 2021; effective October 1, 2021); Tennessee Executive Order 88 (Ex. TN-037; issued September 30, 2021; effective 11:59 p.m. October 5, 2021); Washington Proclamation 21-16 (issued October 18, 2021; effective November 15, 2021), Nevada Directive 051 (November 30, 2021), Cook County Order 2021-11 (effective January 3, 2022), Rhode Island Executive Order 21-116 (December 20, 2021), Los Angeles County's October 7, 2021 verification order and King County's October 25, 2021 entry requirement (each cited here only as an order issued inside the quarter whose compelled preparation began on issuance), Executive Orders 14042 and 14043's contractor and employee obligations (October 15 and November 22, 2021), Proclamation 10294 (November 8, 2021) and Hawaii's Executive Order 21-08 (November 12, 2021). The proof for this quarter rests visibly on none of them.¹⁸⁹