Financial Services

The governmental orders by layer

The orders that reached this industry came from every layer of government and every class of authority the Suspension Clause names: Congress, the President and the federal agencies that back, insure, regulate and supervise the industry's loans, deposits, policies and securities; the governors and State health officers; the State legislatures; the State banking superintendents and insurance commissioners; the State supreme courts and chief justices; the officers of the largest metros; the recorders, clerks and motor-vehicle commissioners; and the courts of the United States. This section inventories them by layer; the State and metro pages of this site carry each jurisdiction's records with dates.

The universe

Between March 1 and May 31, 2020, forty-two States and territories issued mandatory stay-at-home orders covering 2,355 of the nation's 3,233 counties.¹⁷ On July 2, 2021, thirty-five jurisdictions had emergency declarations in force and nine had statewide face-covering requirements; on September 21, 2021, twenty-five jurisdictions (twenty-four States and the District) had emergency declarations and eleven had statewide face-covering requirements, by the Kaiser Family Foundation's count, which includes requirements of narrower scope.¹⁸ The Library's index is a count of the instruments The COVID Project has retrieved and verified, never a count of the orders that reached any employer, and each exhibit is cited for what it says.

The industry's own measure

The Bureau counted 6.9 million borrowers who had entered forbearance under the CARES Act, 2.1 million borrowers more than three months behind and 11 million renter and homeowner households significantly overdue as of the winter of 2020-21; California's Insurance Commissioner counted more than $1.75 billion in premium returned by the State's auto insurers for 2020 under his orders.¹⁹ Those figures are the industry's own record of the orders' reach, stated as facts and circumstances.

The federal layer

The second quarter of 2020

The President proclaimed a national emergency on March 13, 2020, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services had declared a public health emergency on January 31, 2020, renewed on April 21 and thereafter without interruption through the third quarter of 2021.²⁰ The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council told every institution on March 6 to plan for "social distancing to minimize staff contact, telecommuting, redirecting customers from branch to electronic banking services"; the Federal Reserve, the Comptroller and the FDIC recognized on March 13 that institutions "may need to temporarily close or otherwise reduce access to a facility"; the NCUA announced "a strict offsite policy for all employees" on March 16 and moved every examination off site (Letter to Credit Unions 20-CU-02, a supervisory letter cited as context).²¹ On March 18 the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs suspended foreclosures and evictions on every mortgage their programs back for sixty days, and the Department of Agriculture followed on March 19.²² On March 24 the Federal Reserve reduced reserve ratios to zero and Treasury designated the sector's workers essential critical infrastructure under CISA's guidance of March 19, restated in Version 3.0 on April 17.²³ On March 27 Congress enacted the CARES Act: section 4021 compelled every furnisher to report accommodated accounts as current; section 4022(b) compelled forbearance of up to 360 days on the borrower's attestation; section 4022(c)(2) barred every servicer of a federally backed mortgage from initiating "any judicial or non-judicial foreclosure process" for sixty days from March 18; section 4023 compelled multifamily forbearance with a bar on evictions; section 4024 barred eviction filings on covered dwellings for 120 days, to July 24, 2020; and section 4013 permitted institutions to suspend troubled-debt-restructuring accounting for pandemic modifications, which the agencies' interagency statements of March 22 and April 7 (guidance) addressed.²⁴ On April 2 the Small Business Administration published the Paycheck Protection Program rule that fixed what every lender in the program could do from April 3; on April 3 the Bureau and the prudential regulators issued the Joint Statement under which "servicers must provide a forbearance" and "may not require any additional information from the borrower before granting a CARES Act forbearance"; on April 14 and April 17 the agencies deferred appraisals for 120 days because appraisers could not enter homes; on April 21 the NCUA published its Temporary Regulatory Relief rule; on April 24 the Federal Reserve deleted Regulation D's six-transfer limit because confined depositors could not reach the branch; on May 28 the Comptroller's interim final rule permitted national banks' and federal savings associations' shareholder, director and member meetings to be held remotely (Ex. AGY-FED-FINANCIAL-020), as OCC Bulletin 2020-51 of May 12 (guidance) had announced, with NCUA's Letters 20-FCU-02 and 20-FCU-04 (guidance) carrying the practice for federal credit unions; and on May 14 and June 17 the housing agencies extended their moratoria to June 30 and then August 31, 2020.²⁵ The SEC exempted issuers, funds and advisers from their filing and in-person board-meeting rules on March 4, 13, 20, 25 and 26 and extended the board relief on June 19; the CFTC issued no-action letters on March 17 and April 24; FINRA issued Regulatory Notice 20-08 on March 9.²⁶ The Families First Coronavirus Response Act bound every health insurer and plan from March 18 to cover testing "without imposing any cost-sharing requirements ... prior authorization, or other medical management requirements," and compelled paid leave from April 1 to December 31, 2020 for every employee under a quarantine order or caring for a child whose school an order had closed; the EBSA and IRS Joint Notice of May 4 ordered every plan and insurer to disregard the Outbreak Period from March 1, 2020 in every COBRA, HIPAA and claims deadline.²⁷ USCIS closed to the public from March 18 to June 4; the Department of State suspended routine visa services on March 20; DHS deferred the I-9 physical-inspection rule from March 20; Proclamations 10014 and 10052 suspended immigrant and then H-1B and L-1 entry; and the land borders with Canada and Mexico were confined to essential travel from March 21, 2020 by monthly notices.²⁸

The third quarter of 2020

The housing agencies extended the moratoria to December 31, 2020 on August 24 and 27, and the President directed them on August 8 to continue them; the Bureau's Regulation X interim final rule took effect July 1; the Federal Reserve announced the off-site resumption of examinations on June 15; the agencies issued the Joint Statement on Additional Loan Accommodations (guidance) on August 3; the President ordered student-loan payment relief continued on August 8; and on September 1 the CDC ordered a nationwide halt to residential evictions effective September 4, 2020.²⁹ The Department of State announced on July 14 a phased resumption of visa services beginning July 15; the land-border notices ran monthly; Proclamation 10054 amended Proclamation 10052 on June 29; and the public health emergency was renewed July 23.³⁰

The fourth quarter of 2020

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 extended the CDC order to January 31, 2021; the FHFA release of December 2, HUD Mortgagee Letter 2020-43 and VA Circular 26-20-40 extended the agency moratoria to January 31 and February 28, 2021; the NCUA extended its Temporary Regulatory Relief rule to December 31, 2021 on December 22 and, by Letter 20-FCU-04 (guidance), carried the virtual-meeting practice into 2021; the agencies published the Temporary Asset Thresholds rule on December 2; FINRA's Regulatory Notice 20-42 and temporary Rule 3110.17 governed every 2020 and 2021 branch inspection; and Proclamation 10131 extended the entry suspensions to March 31, 2021.³¹

The first quarter of 2021

Executive Order 13991 of January 20 required face coverings, physical distancing and adherence to the other CDC public health measures of "on-site Federal contractors; and all persons in Federal buildings"; Executive Order 13998 of January 21 directed the conveyance face-covering order, which the CDC issued January 29, effective February 1, "until further notice," binding every operator to require face coverings, to refuse boarding to a person without one and to disembark the noncompliant, and which the TSA enforced by Security Directive from January 31; Proclamation 10143 of January 25 continued the entry suspensions; the CDC extended the eviction order to March 31 on January 29 and to June 30 on March 29; FHFA extended the foreclosure and REO eviction moratoria to February 28, then March 31, then June 30, and extended forbearance to fifteen and then eighteen months on January 19, February 9 and February 25; HUD's Mortgagee Letters 2021-03 and 2021-05 and VA's Circulars 26-21-2 and 26-21-5 did the same; EBSA Notice 2021-01 of February 26 kept the Outbreak Period tolling in force on a rolling one-year-per-individual basis; FAQs Part 44 restated the testing and vaccine coverage mandates from January 5 and 12, 2021; the CFTC's Letter 21-04 continued remote-operation relief; and on March 11 Congress enacted the American Rescue Plan Act, whose section 9501 bound every plan and insurer to the COBRA premium subsidy from April 1 and whose section 9651 re-enacted the Suspension Clause.³²

The second quarter of 2021

The Bureau's Bulletin 2021-02 of April 1 put every servicer on notice of enforcement scrutiny of staffing and forbearance exits; its Regulation F interim final rule bound every debt collector to the CDC order from May 3; the NCUA renewed prompt-corrective-action relief on April 26 to March 31, 2022; the CFTC's Letter 21-10 carried remote-operation relief to September 30, 2021; the TSA's Security Directive 1582/84-21-01A carried the conveyance order's face-covering and boarding-refusal requirements, airborne-transmission controls on every commute, to September 13, 2021; Proclamation 10199 of April 30 added India to the entry suspensions; the CDC extended the eviction order to July 31 on June 24; FHFA, HUD, VA and USDA extended the foreclosure moratoria to July 31 on June 24 and 25, with FHA forbearance requests accepted through September 30; the Bureau published its final Regulation X rule on June 30, effective August 31; and the land-border notices ran to July 21.³³

The third quarter of 2021

The quarter is stated in full in the six-quarters section below. On July 1, 2021 the federal foreclosure moratoria ran to July 31; the CDC order ran to July 31 and was re-imposed for substantial- and high-transmission counties from August 3 to August 26; CARES Act § 4021 bound every furnisher; the Bureau's Bulletin 2021-02 and Regulation F § 1006.9 bound every servicer and collector; FHA forbearance and HECM extension requests ran to September 30; the ARPA COBRA subsidy, the FFCRA and CARES coverage mandates under the public health emergency renewed July 19, and the EBSA tolling bound every insurer and plan; the NCUA's temporary relief ran to December 31, 2021 and its prompt-corrective-action relief to March 31, 2022; the CFTC's Letter 21-10 ran to September 30; the SEC's in-person board relief continued; FINRA Rule 3110.17 governed the year's inspections; and the NCUA's Letter 21-CU-06 of July 19 (a supervisory letter, cited as context) began Phase 1 of on-site operations only where conditions had sufficiently moderated. On July 30, 2021 FHFA, HUD, VA and USDA extended the foreclosure-related eviction moratoria on REO, FHA, VA and USDA properties to September 30, 2021. On August 31 the Bureau's Regulation X rule took effect and barred the first foreclosure notice or filing on most mortgages absent the temporary safeguards through December 31, 2021. On September 27 and 29 HUD and VA extended the forbearance windows to the end of the national emergency. The conveyance face-covering order, the TSA directives, the entry proclamations and the land-border notices ran on every day of the quarter; Executive Order 14042 of September 9 required every covered federal contract to carry the Task Force's safety clause.³⁴

The fifty States

The industry's regime

In every State the industry was reached first by the March 2020 stay-at-home or closure order, which permitted branches only under an essential-services designation and under distancing, telework and capacity conditions, and which closed the dealerships, showings, recorders and motor-vehicle offices through which its loans are made; second, by the State's own moratoria on foreclosure, eviction, repossession and garnishment and its forbearance and credit-reporting mandates, issued by governors, legislatures, banking superintendents and courts between March 16 and April 20, 2020, in force in nineteen States and the District on some day of the third quarter of 2021, and in twelve of those States carried by statute, proclamation or court order past September 30, 2021; third, by the insurance regulators' grace-period, cancellation-moratorium and refund instruments; fourth, by the capacity and telework orders of the reopening and the winter re-tightening and the workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements (screening, distancing and face coverings) they carried; and fifth, by the indoor face-covering reinstatements of July through September 2021, airborne-transmission controls imposed on every indoor public space with a duty on the operator. Each State's page carries its instruments with dates; this section states the pattern by region.

The Northeast

New York: Executive Orders 202.6 and 202.8 reduced every non-essential in-person workforce by 100 percent from 8 p.m. March 22, 2020 with "banks or lending institutions" essential under the Empire State Development guidance; Executive Order 202.8 halted evictions and foreclosures for ninety days, closed the DMV to in-person business and tolled every deadline; Executive Order 202.9 made a regulated institution's refusal of a ninety-day forbearance an unsafe and unsound practice, implemented by 3 NYCRR Part 119; Executive Order 202.13 and the Department of Financial Services' consolidated emergency regulation of March 29-30, 2020, amending 11 NYCRR Parts 185 and 187 (Insurance Regulations 27-A and 27-C) and 3 NYCRR Part 405 and adding 11 NYCRR Part 229 (Insurance Regulation 216) (Ex. NY-101), imposed a premium moratorium to July 7, 2020; the Chief Administrative Judge suspended eviction and foreclosure matters and non-essential filings from March 16 to May 25, 2020; the Tenant Safe Harbor Act followed June 30, 2020; the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of December 28, 2020 stayed foreclosures and evictions to May 1, 2021, chapter 104 of 2021 to August 31, 2021 and chapter 417 of 2021 to January 15, 2022; 10 NYCRR Subpart 66-3 required a face covering of every unvaccinated employee and customer from June 23 to August 27, 2021, an airborne-transmission control carrying an employer duty; and the HERO Act required every employer's airborne-disease plan by August 5, 2021.³⁵ New Jersey: Executive Order 107 of March 21, 2020 listed banks among essential retail in paragraph 6 and imposed a telework mandate on every business in paragraph 10; Executive Order 122 of April 8, 2020 capped essential retail including bank branches at 50 percent under infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements (face coverings for employees and customers and cleaning and sanitizing protocols); Executive Order 106 of March 19, 2020 barred every removal from residential property by eviction or foreclosure, stayed writs of possession and directed sheriffs to refrain, and P.L. 2021, c. 103 of June 4, 2021 kept it alive to January 1, 2022; Executive Order 249 and P.L. 2021, c. 188 of August 4, 2021 barred foreclosure removals to November 15, 2021 and eviction removals to August 31 or December 31, 2021 by income tier; Executive Order 123 of April 9, 2020 directed property and casualty, life and health insurers to refrain from cancelling for nonpayment to January 1, 2022, and DOBI Bulletin 20-15 imposed a mandatory 90-day property and casualty grace period; the Motor Vehicle Commission's agencies, road tests and inspection facilities were closed to the public from March 16 to July 7, 2020; Executive Order 192 imposed workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements (face coverings, six-foot distancing, daily health checks and the exclusion of symptomatic workers) from November 5, 2020, and Executive Orders 242 and 243 kept those duties for unvaccinated or unverified employees through the third quarter of 2021.³⁶ Pennsylvania: the closure of every business that is not life-sustaining from March 19, 2020, with "Credit Intermediation" on the life-sustaining list; the statewide stay-at-home order from April 1 to June 4, 2020; the Worker Safety Order of April 15, 2020 binding every in-person business including branches; the Supreme Court's judicial emergency closing the courts to the public and staying evictions and ejectments from March 18 to May 11, 2020; the Governor's stay of eviction and foreclosure notices from May 11 to August 31, 2020; PennDOT's driver and photo license centers closed from March 16, 2020; the notary in-person requirement suspended for real-estate closings from March 25, 2020 and Act 15 of 2020's remote notarization; the Universal Face Coverings Order, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor business, from July 1, 2020 to June 28, 2021; and telework "[u]nless not possible" from July 16, 2020 to April 3, 2021.³⁷ Massachusetts: COVID-19 Order No. 13 of March 23, 2020 closed every non-essential brick-and-mortar premise with financial services on the essential list; chapter 65 of the Acts of 2020 imposed the eviction and foreclosure moratorium and the mandatory 180-day forbearance with no negative credit reporting from April 20 to October 17, 2020; chapter 257 of 2020 tied notices to quit and continuances to the CDC order and chapter 20 of 2021 re-tied them and extended video counseling and remote notarization to December 15, 2021; chapter 71 of 2020 authorized virtual notarization to December 15, 2021; the Registry of Motor Vehicles limited in-person transactions from March 15, 2020 to May 29, 2021; and the Supreme Judicial Court closed the courthouses except for emergencies from March 18, 2020.³⁸ Connecticut: Executive Order 7H's 100 percent in-person reduction for non-essential businesses from March 23, 2020 with financial institutions essential under DECD guidance; Executive Order 7G's suspension of non-critical court operations and every deadline from March 19, 2020; Executive Order 7X's bar on notices to quit and summary process from April 10, 2020, extended through June 30, 2021; Executive Order 7ZZ's Phase 2 reopening of June 17, 2020 under the DECD Sector Rules for Offices, which held offices at 50 percent and directed that "Those who can work from home should continue to do so," carried in the Phase 2.1 rules of November and December 2020; Executive Order 12D of June 30, 2021 requiring a UniteCT application and a 30-day notice before any notice to quit, to February 15, 2022; the Judicial Branch's Mortgage Foreclosure Standing Order of September 24, 2020; Insurance Bulletin IC-40's 60-day grace period made binding by Executive Order 7S; the DMV's branches closed from March 20, 2020; and Executive Orders 12A and 13A's face-covering duties for unvaccinated persons, airborne-transmission controls on every indoor business, in the third quarter of 2021.³⁹ Rhode Island: stay-at-home from March 28 to May 8, 2020 with financial services critical; DBR Banking Bulletin 2020-2 and Insurance Bulletins 2020-3, 2020-4 and 2020-5, the last running to July 6, 2021; the Supreme Court's continuance of every non-emergency civil matter from March 17, 2020; and the Supreme Court's screening and universal courthouse face-covering orders of July 20 and August 13, 2021.⁴⁰ New Hampshire: Emergency Order #4 of March 17, 2020 prohibited every eviction proceeding and every judicial and non-judicial foreclosure during the State of Emergency, ended July 1, 2020; Emergency Order #17 closed non-essential workplaces from March 27 to June 15, 2020 with financial institutions essential; Emergency Order #11 authorized remote notarization from March 23, 2020 to June 11, 2021; and NHID Bulletins INS 20-021-AB and 20-24-AB governed signatures and telehealth.⁴¹ Vermont: Addenda 5 and 6 suspended every non-critical in-person business from March 24, 2020 and conditioned banking to ATM and drive-through operation; Addendum 10 suspended in-person real-estate transactions from April 10, 2020; Act 101 stayed every pending and new ejectment and foreclosure action and writ from March 13, 2020 to July 15, 2021; Act 95 authorized remote notarial acts to July 15, 2021; Administrative Order 49's judicial emergency ran from March 16, 2020 to March 1, 2022 with CARES Act certifications; Gubernatorial Directive 3 suspended DMV in-person transactions from March 18, 2020; DFR Emergency Rule H-2020-02-E of March 16, 2020 and Bulletins 210 through 218 governed insurers in 2020 and Emergency Rule H-2021-01-E bound them from July 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022.⁴² Maine: Executive Order 19's closures and telework mandate of March 24, 2020 and Executive Order 28's stay-at-home order from April 2 to May 31, 2020; Executive Order 40 limiting evictions and writs of possession for the emergency plus thirty days; the Proclamation of Insurance Emergency of March 12, 2020 and Bulletins 442, 443 and 444, each to July 31, 2021; Executive Order 18 extending motor-vehicle compliance dates because of Bureau of Motor Vehicles closures; Executive Order 37's remote notarization; and the courthouse face-covering reinstatement of August 16, 2021, an airborne-transmission control on every court facility.⁴³ Delaware: the Fourth and Fifth Modifications' closure of every business outside the essential list and shelter in place from March 24, 2020 with "Teleworking must be maximized" for the businesses permitted to operate, financial institutions among them; the Sixth Modification's bar on residential foreclosures, sheriff's sales, ejectments and summary possession and its section E bar on insurance lapses for nonpayment, continued as court-supervised stays to July 12-13, 2021; the courthouses closed to the public from March 23 to June 8, 2020; the Superior Court's CARES Act foreclosure affidavit order of July 21, 2020; DelDOT/DMV services suspended from March 16-17, 2020; the Eleventh Modification's remote notarization from April 15, 2020; and universal courthouse face coverings, an airborne-transmission control on every court facility, re-imposed August 16, 2021.⁴⁴

The Mid-Atlantic and the South

Maryland: the Stay-at-Home Order of March 30, 2020 with banks essential under the Office of Legal Counsel's guidance; the Order of March 16, 2020 prohibiting evictions of tenants with substantial loss of income; Order 20-04-03-01 of April 3, 2020 barring self-help auto repossession, suspending the Notice of Intent to Foreclose system and barring commercial evictions, restated October 16 and December 17, 2020 and in force to August 15, 2021; the Judiciary's suspension of foreclosures and evictions from March 25, 2020 and closure of the courts to the public from March 16 to June 5, 2020; Order 20-03-30-04's remote notarization to August 15, 2021; and Order 21-06-15-01 fixing July 1 and August 15, 2021 as the end of the residual orders.⁴⁵ The District of Columbia: Mayor's Orders 2020-053 and 2020-054 closing non-essential businesses and confining residents from March 24 and 30, 2020 with banks essential; Act 23-286's section 202 compelling every DISB-regulated mortgage servicer to grant 90-day deferments during the public health emergency and sixty days after; the Council's eviction moratoria from Act 23-247 of March 17, 2020 to the Eviction and Utility Moratorium Phasing Act of July 24, 2021; the Superior Court's stays of evictions and foreclosures and tolling of deadlines from March 18, 2020; the DMV's appointment-only regime from June 23, 2020 to July 19-20, 2021; and Mayor's Order 2021-097's universal indoor face-covering requirement from July 31, 2021, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor business enforced by $1,000 fines.⁴⁶ Virginia: Executive Order 55's stay-at-home order from March 30 to June 10, 2020 with financial institutions essential; 16VAC25-220's emergency temporary standard from July 27, 2020 and permanent standard from January 27, 2021 binding "every employer, employee, and place of employment" through the third quarter of 2021, amended September 8, 2021; and the Supreme Court of Virginia's judicial emergency from March 16, 2020 extended without interruption into 2022, with the suspension of writs of eviction for nonpayment from August 10 to September 7, 2020.⁴⁷ North Carolina: Executive Order 121's stay-at-home order from March 30 to May 8, 2020 with financial services essential under section 2(C) and directed to telework "to the maximum extent possible"; Executive Order 120's direction that registers of deeds continue operating with precautions; Executive Order 142's residential eviction moratorium and Executive Order 171 making the CDC order enforceable as State law, extended to June 30, 2021; the Chief Justice's directives postponing summary ejectment from March 13 to June 1, 2020 and December 14, 2020 to January 14, 2021; the Department of Insurance's Order and Bulletin 20-B-06 activating the disaster provisions of G.S. 58-2-46 in all 100 counties; S.L. 2020-3's five-month DMV credential extensions and emergency video notarization; and the state of emergency to August 15, 2022.⁴⁸ Georgia: the shelter-in-place order from April 3 to 30, 2020 with banks permitted as critical infrastructure under sixteen mandatory measures; the Supreme Court's statewide judicial emergency from March 14, 2020 to June 30, 2021; the Commissioner of Insurance's Directives 20-EX-7 (March 26 to May 25, 2020), 20-EX-9 (December 3, 2020 to February 1, 2021) and 20-EX-11 (December 31, 2020 to January 30, 2021), and Directives 21-EX-1 and 21-EX-2 (August 16 and 17, 2021) with Bulletin 21-EX-3 (September 15, 2021), suspending utilization review and post-acute preauthorization through September 30, 2021; remote notarization from March 31, 2020 continued into the third quarter of 2021 under the Economic Recovery State of Emergency; and Executive Order 08.19.21.03's mitigation duty on every in-person organization.⁴⁹ Florida: Executive Order 20-91's Safer at Home from April 3 to May 4, 2020; Executive Order 20-94 of April 2, 2020 suspending foreclosure and eviction causes of action, extended by Executive Orders 20-121, 20-137, 20-159, 20-180 and 20-211 to October 1, 2020; the Supreme Court's suspension of writs of possession; the Office of Insurance Regulation's Memoranda OIR-20-04M (premium leniency, virtual inspections, telework) and OIR-20-05M; section 381.00316's bar from July 1, 2021 on requiring vaccination documentation, at $5,000 per violation; and AOSC21-17 governing court operations through the third quarter of 2021.⁵⁰ Kentucky: Executive Order 2020-257's Healthy at Home from March 26, 2020 with life-sustaining businesses including financial institutions permitted only with telecommuting "to the fullest extent possible"; evictions suspended from March 26 to August 24, 2020 and Executive Order 2020-700's 30-day notice and meet-and-confer regime to March 31, 2021; the Supreme Court's continuance of eviction dockets from March 16, 2020 and its Administrative Order 2021-28 placing eviction cases in abeyance from August 9, 2021; the Department of Financial Institutions' Guidance on Relief for registrants of March 24, 2020 and the Department of Insurance's order of March 18, 2020, each extended to January 15, 2022 by HJR 1 of September 7, 2021; the Healthy at Work office cap of 50 percent from May 11, 2020, with its infection-prevention requirements of screening, distancing and sanitation; the face-covering mandate, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor business, from July 10, 2020 to June 11, 2021; and the state of emergency through the quarter.⁵¹ Tennessee: Executive Orders 22 and 23's stay-at-home from April 2 to 30, 2020 with financial institutions and "Appraisal, title and real estate services" essential; the Supreme Court's stay of evictions and ejectments to May 31, 2020 and suspension of jury trials to July 3, 2020 and again from November 2020 to March 31, 2021; Executive Orders 26 and 52's remote notarization from April 9, 2020 to April 28, 2021; and the Supreme Court's order of August 26, 2021.⁵² Louisiana: Proclamation 33 JBE 2020's stay-at-home from March 23 to May 15, 2020 with State offices closed to the public; evictions suspended by executive action through the Supreme Court's orders of May 15 and June 5, 2020 and prescription suspended from March 17 to June 5, 2020; the Department of Insurance's Emergency Rule 40 imposing a cancellation and non-renewal moratorium from March 12 to May 12, 2020 and Emergency Rule 46 (issued August 12, 2021; effective August 9, 2021); the Office of Motor Vehicles' statewide closure; and Proclamation 137 JBE 2021's statewide indoor face-covering mandate from August 4, 2021, an airborne-transmission control binding every branch lobby.⁵³ Texas: Executive Order GA-08's "work from home" direction of March 19, 2020 and GA-14's telework mandate and CISA-only essential services from April 2, 2020; the occupancy percentages of GA-18 through GA-32 and GA-29's face-covering requirement, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor business enforced by $250 fines, from July 3, 2020 to March 10, 2021; the Supreme Court's Fourth and Twelfth Emergency Orders staying residential evictions from March 19 to May 2020 and its Twenty-Seventh Emergency Order's Eviction Diversion Program with mandatory sixty-day abatements from September 17, 2020, renewed through the Thirty-Ninth and Fortieth Emergency Orders into 2022; the Department of Insurance's Bulletin B-0007-20 disaster determination extending claim deadlines and B-0020-20 on midterm premium audits; TxDMV's waiver of title and registration requirements from March 16, 2020 to April 14, 2021 with county tax offices by appointment; the Dallas County Clerk's closure of every office to the public from March 24, 2020 with recording for title companies only; the Governor's suspension of the notary personal-appearance statutes from April 8, 2020 for the life of the disaster declaration; GA-38's reporting duties and vaccination-proof prohibitions from July 29, 2021; and SB 968's section 161.0085 on every business from June 16, 2021.⁵⁴ Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina, Oklahoma and West Virginia: stay-at-home or business orders from April 2020 with financial institutions essential (Alabama April 4 to 30; Mississippi's Executive Order 1466 April 3 to 27; South Carolina's Home or Work Order April 7 to May 3; Oklahoma's Safer at Home March 25 to April 30; West Virginia's Executive Order 9-20 March 24 to May 4, with "financial institutions" and "real estate, appraisal and title services" essential under section 3(u)); eviction and foreclosure suspensions in Alabama (April 3 to June 1, 2020), Mississippi (April 3 to June 1, 2020) and South Carolina (the Chief Justice's order of March 18 to May 15, 2020); Arkansas' Supreme Court requiring a CARES Act pleading in every eviction filing from April 28 to July 25, 2020 and suspending in-person witnessing and notarization to May 30, 2021; Mississippi's Bulletin 2020-3 mandatory sixty-day cancellation moratorium across every line from March 24, 2020 and Executive Order 1467's remote notarization into the third quarter of 2021; Oklahoma's PC Bulletin 2020-01 grace-period extension and the courthouse and county-clerk closures from March 27 to May 15, 2020, with Tulsa's, Oklahoma City's and Norman's face-covering ordinances, airborne-transmission controls reaching "banks and financial services" by name; West Virginia's Insurance Commissioner's Emergency Orders 20-EO-01, 20-EO-02 and 20-EO-03 as modified by 20-EO-09 and running past the quarter, Executive Order 7-20's inspection suspension to October 1, 2021, and the state of emergency all quarter; South Carolina's SCDMV appointment-only regime from April 8, 2020 and its trial-court orders extended July 30, 2021 "because of the delta variant" to August 27, 2021; and Alabama's ALEA offices "Closed Until Further Notice" and the Supreme Court's judicial emergency re-declared August 20, 2021.⁵⁵

The Midwest

Illinois: Executive Order 2020-10's stay-at-home from March 21, 2020, with section 12(f) naming banks, currency exchanges, consumer lenders, credit unions, appraisers, title companies and financial markets as essential subject to Social Distancing Requirements and section 2 ceasing eviction enforcement; Executive Order 2020-16 suspending every vehicle repossession from March 27, 2020; Executive Order 2020-25 suspending garnishments and wage deductions from April 14, 2020 to June 25, 2021; Executive Order 2020-30 barring residential eviction filings from April 23, 2020; Executive Order 2020-29 suspending in-person insurance requirements from April 20, 2020 to August 21, 2021; the Secretary of State's Driver Services facilities closed from March 17 to May 31, 2020 and again from November 17, 2020 to January 4, 2021; Executive Order 2020-32's face-covering requirement, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor business, and 50 percent essential-retail cap from May 1, 2020 and the Tier 3 order returning offices to 50 percent with mandatory remote-work facilitation from November 20, 2020; the Supreme Court's M.R. 30370 eviction certification from December 22, 2020 to October 3, 2021 and the Cook County General Administrative Orders staying eviction enforcement from March 14, 2020 to October 3, 2021; Executive Order 2021-13's phase-out of June 11, 2021 with enforcement stayed through October 3, 2021; and Executive Order 2021-20's universal indoor face-covering requirement, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public place, from August 30, 2021, amended by Executive Order 2021-22 of September 3, 2021 to add the employer duty and re-issued through October 16, 2021 by Executive Order 2021-23 of September 17, 2021.⁵⁶ Indiana: the stay-at-home order from March 24 to May 1, 2020 with financial institutions open under distancing and "professional services should be conducted virtually or by telephone whenever reasonably possible"; Executive Order 20-06 barring eviction and foreclosure filings from March 19, 2020, extended to August 14, 2020; the Supreme Court's tolling with no interest from March 23 to August 14, 2020; IDOI Bulletin 252's cancellation and non-renewal moratorium and testing coverage mandates; the BMV's branches closed March 24, 2020 with 128 reopened by appointment May 11, 2020; the face-covering mandate, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public space, from July 27, 2020 to April 6, 2021; and the Supreme Court's remote-authority order of May 7, 2021 until further order.⁵⁷ Ohio: the Stay at Home Order from March 23, 2020 with financial institutions essential; Executive Order 2020-08D of April 1, 2020 requesting a ninety-day suspension of commercial evictions and foreclosures; H.B. 197's tolling of court and recorder deadlines from March 9 to July 30, 2020; ODI Bulletin 2020-03's sixty-day grace period and continuation of coverage for reduced-hours employees for the life of the emergency; the BMV's deputy registrars closed from March 18 to May 26, 2020; and the Director's facial-covering order, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor business, from July 23, 2020 to June 2, 2021.⁵⁸ Michigan: Executive Order 2020-21's prohibition of in-person work not "necessary to sustain or protect life" from March 24, 2020 with financial services as critical infrastructure at minimum in-person operations; Executive Order 2020-19's bar on the removal or exclusion of tenants and land-contract vendees, extended to July 15, 2020; the Supreme Court's Administrative Order 2020-17 rewriting eviction procedure from June 9, 2020 and, as amended July 2 and 26, 2021, staying eviction proceedings for CERA applicants through the third quarter of 2021; Administrative Order 2020-14's SCAO-gated phased court return to July 26, 2021; Executive Order 2020-110's remote-work mandate and MIOSHA's emergency rules of October 14, 2020 on every employer (Rule 5(8): "The employer shall create a policy prohibiting in-person work for employees to the extent that their work activities can feasibly be completed remotely"), amended May 24 and rescinded June 22, 2021; the Secretary of State's branches closed March 24, 2020 and appointment-only from June 2020; and remote notarization from April 8, 2020 to June 30, 2021.⁵⁹ Wisconsin: Emergency Order 12's Safer at Home from March 25 to May 13, 2020 with financial institutions essential under Social Distancing Requirements and landlords barred from entering leased premises; DHS Emergency Order 15's eviction and foreclosure moratorium from March 27 to May 26, 2020; the Supreme Court's orders of June 5 and October 21, 2020 on the CARES Act and CDC moratoria in Wisconsin eviction proceedings (record evidence of the federal moratoria's operation in the State's courts) and its county-plan regime with mandatory face coverings, an airborne-transmission control in every courthouse, from May 22, 2020 to May 21, 2021; OCI's bulletin of March 20, 2020 suspending on-site examinations and disapproving deemed-approval filings; WisDOT's service centers closed March 20 and appointment-only from March 23, 2020; and the local health officers' orders under Wis. Stat. § 252.03 that carried the metros after Wisconsin Legislature v. Palm.⁶⁰ Minnesota: Executive Order 20-20's "[a]ll workers who can work from home must do so" from March 27, 2020 with financial services critical; Executive Order 20-14 of March 23, 2020 suspending eviction filings and writs of recovery, including by mortgage holders after redemption, modified by Executive Order 20-79 to June 30, 2021 and phased out by Laws 2021, 1st Spec. Sess., ch. 8, art. 5 (lease terminations and filings barred except on enumerated grounds to October 12, 2021; nonpayment evictions against pending rental-assistance applicants barred to June 1, 2022); Executive Order 20-81's face-covering requirement in indoor businesses, an airborne-transmission control with a business duty to require compliance and $1,000 and $25,000 penalties (July 22, 2020; effective 11:59 p.m. July 24, 2020, to May 14, 2021) (Ex. MN-027); Executive Order 20-99's telework mandate from November 2020 to April 14, 2021 and the all-business Preparedness Plan to June 30, 2021; and the DVS exam stations and deputy registrar offices closed to May 4, 2020.⁶¹ Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota: Iowa's proclamations suspending evictions from March 19 and foreclosures from March 22, 2020 to May 27, 2020, its Insurance Division's Bulletin 20-04 grace period to June 30, 2020, its Division of Banking's remote-work authorization for mortgage licensees from March 18, 2020, its statewide telework directive and face-covering requirement, airborne-transmission controls on every indoor business, from November 2020 to February 6, 2021, and its Supreme Court's courthouse face coverings, an airborne-transmission control on every court facility, reimposed August 27, 2021; Missouri's Stay Home Missouri Order from April 6 to May 3, 2020, its DCI Bulletins 20-05, 20-07 and 20-10, its remote notarization and remote witnessing orders to August 27, 2021, and the St. Louis and Kansas City indoor face-covering orders, airborne-transmission controls with a duty on the operator, from July 26 and August 2, 2021; Kansas's Executive Order 20-10 barring financial institutions from initiating foreclosures for COVID-related default from March 23 to May 31, 2020, reinstated by Executive Order 20-61 from August 17, 2020 and reissued as Executive Order 21-13 to June 15, 2021, its stay-at-home order with the Kansas Essential Function Framework from March 30 to May 3, 2020, its Executive Order 20-52 face-covering duty, an airborne-transmission control on every business, on "employees, customers, visitors, members, or members of the public" from July 3, 2020 to March 31, 2021, its remote notaries and witnesses to June 15, 2021 and its Supreme Court's deadline suspensions to August 2, 2021; Nebraska's directed health measures to May 24, 2021, its Executive Order 20-13 accelerating online notarization because closings required physical presence and waiving bank examination and cash-count rules from April 1, 2020 to June 1, 2021, its Executive Order 20-05 waiving title, registration and lien deadlines because "counties have continued to close local offices," and its eviction-trial deferral from March 25 to May 31, 2020; North Dakota's closures from March 20 to April 30, 2020, its Supreme Court's Administrative Order 27 suspending eviction proceedings statewide to April 1, 2021 and its face-covering order, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor business, and capacity limits from November 14, 2020 to January 18, 2021; and South Dakota's Executive Order 2020-12 requiring every employer to implement CDC practices and encourage telework from April 6 to 28, 2020, its motor-vehicle titling suspensions because county courthouses were closed, and its Supreme Court's judicial emergency of March 13, 2020 with circuit courthouse orders listed as currently approved on September 8, 2021.⁶²

The West

California: Executive Order N-33-20's stay-at-home order of March 19, 2020 "until further notice" with the federal critical infrastructure sectors permitted; Executive Order N-28-20 of March 16, 2020 suspending State preemption so that cities and counties could bar evictions and foreclosures and requesting forbearance from financial institutions, extended to September 30, 2020; Executive Order N-37-20's eviction-enforcement rules; the Judicial Council's Emergency Rules 1 and 2 barring unlawful-detainer summonses and staying judicial foreclosures from April 6 to September 1, 2020; AB 3088 of August 31, 2020 (the Tenant Act to January 31, 2021; the Homeowner Act from September 1, 2020), SB 91 of January 29, 2021 to June 30, 2021 and AB 832 of June 28, 2021 to September 30, 2021 with the Homeowner Act to December 1, 2021; the Insurance Commissioner's Notice of March 18, 2020 requesting a sixty-day grace period, Bulletin 2020-3 ordering premium refunds for March and April in seven lines, Bulletins 2020-4 and 2020-8 extending them and Bulletin 2021-03 ordering further returns and reporting; the DMV's field offices closed from March 27 to May 8 and June 11, 2020; the Secretary of State's counters closed March 20, 2020 and the San Diego recorder's offices closed March 23, 2020; the Blueprint tiers and statewide face-covering mandate, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public space, to June 15, 2021; and the Cal/OSHA emergency temporary standard from November 30, 2020, readopted June 17, 2021, on every branch and office.⁶³ Oregon: Executive Order 20-12 of March 23, 2020 closing forty business categories and prohibiting office work where telework was available; Executive Orders 20-11 and 20-13 barring eviction enforcement and residential and commercial nonpayment evictions from March 22 and April 1, 2020; HB 4204 of June 30, 2020 forbidding lenders to treat missed payments as defaults or to foreclose during the emergency period, extended by Executive Order 20-37 to December 31, 2020; HB 4213 and HB 4401 carrying the eviction moratorium to June 30, 2021; Executive Order 21-14 of June 11, 2021 imposing a foreclosure moratorium to September 30, 2021 and Executive Order 21-30 of August 16, 2021 to December 31, 2021; SB 278 of June 24, 2021 creating a sixty-day eviction safe harbor to February 28, 2022; the OHA face-covering rules, airborne-transmission controls with a business duty, from July 1, 2020 including "all public and private office spaces" from August 13, 2020; Oregon OSHA's temporary rule of November 16, 2020 and permanent rule of May 4, 2021 on every workplace; the DMV closed to walk-ins in the spring of 2020 and lobby limits to June 30, 2021; and OAR 333-019-1025's indoor face-covering requirement for all in every indoor space including "banks" from August 13, 2021, with the operator's duty to ensure compliance and post the requirement, at $500 a day.⁶⁴ Washington: Proclamation 20-25's Stay Home - Stay Healthy from March 23 to May 31, 2020 with financial services essential; Proclamation 20-19's eviction moratorium of March 18, 2020 extended through 20-19.6 to June 30, 2021, Proclamation 21-09's tenancy-preservation bridge from July 1 to September 30, 2021 and 21-09.1 to October 31, 2021; Proclamation 20-49 barring garnishments from April 14, 2020 into 2021; Proclamation 20-46's duty to accommodate employees at higher hazard from April 13, 2020 to June 28, 2021; the Office of the Insurance Commissioner's Emergency Orders 20-02 and 20-03 grace periods; Proclamations 20-15 and 20-41 suspending in-person licensing at the Department of Licensing from March 16, 2020 into 2022; Proclamation 20-27's electronic notary from March 24 to October 1, 2020; Proclamation 20-25.8's command from November 17, 2020 that "Professional Services are required to mandate that employees work from home when possible," with offices at 25 percent, to January 11, 2021, carried by Healthy Washington's Phase 1 and 2 caps of 25 percent from January 11, 2021; Washington Ready's employer vaccination-verification duties from July 1, 2021; the L&I rule on every workplace; and Order 20-03.4 and Proclamation 20-25.15's universal indoor face-covering requirement from August 23, 2021, with businesses prohibited from admitting persons without face coverings.⁶⁵ Nevada: Directive 003's closure of non-essential businesses from March 20, 2020 with financial institutions essential and the Stay at Home Order from April 1 to May 9, 2020; Directive 013's prohibition of open houses and in-person showings of listed real estate from April 8, 2020 and Directive 021's direction from May 29, 2020 that real-estate services conduct business "telephonically or virtually to the greatest extent practicable"; Directive 008's eviction and foreclosure moratorium of March 29, 2020, phased out by Directive 025, reinstated by Directives 031, 036 and 043 to May 31, 2021, and succeeded by AB 486's mandatory stays of nonpayment evictions pending rental-assistance applications from June 4, 2021; Directive 009's tolling of limitations from April 1 to July 31, 2020; NAC 687B's emergency insurance regulation from March 5 to July 3, 2020; the DMV closed from March 16 to June 15, 2020; Directive 024's face coverings, an airborne-transmission control with a business duty, from June 24, 2020; the Statewide Pause at 25 percent from November 24, 2020 to February 14, 2021; and Directive 047's indoor face-covering reinstatement, an airborne-transmission control applied through Directive 045's business duty, in substantial-transmission counties from July 30, 2021.⁶⁶ Arizona: Executive Order 2020-12's essential-services list with financial institutions and its preemption of local closures, in force to September 29, 2021; the stay-home order from March 31 to May 15, 2020; Executive Order 2020-14's 120-day postponement of residential eviction enforcement, continued by Executive Order 2020-49 to October 31, 2020, and Executive Order 2020-21's suspension of commercial evictions from April 6 to May 31, 2020; the Supreme Court's eviction-case administrative orders from July 7, 2020 through Administrative Order 2021-129 of August 11, 2021; Executive Order 2020-26's remote online notarization; the Maricopa County Recorder's counters closed with e-recording only and the MVD appointment-only from March 23, 2020; and Executive Orders 2020-36 and 2020-40's mandatory business policies to March 25, 2021.⁶⁷ New Mexico: the Public Health Emergency Order of March 23, 2020 closing non-essential businesses with banks essential and brokers and title companies essential but minimized; the Supreme Court's stay of writs of restitution for inability to pay from March 24, 2020 to January 4, 2022 and its stay of consumer-debt garnishment and execution writs from June 5, 2020 to August 2, 2021; OSI Bulletin 2020-006 requesting cancellation moratoria and the elimination of in-person premium payment; the county-framework capacity caps, statewide face-covering mandate and traveler quarantine; the June 30, 2021 order keeping face coverings for the unvaccinated and CDC-guidance duties on businesses; and the Public Health Order of August 17, 2021 reinstating indoor face coverings for all, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public space, from August 20, 2021.⁶⁸ Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska and Hawaii: Colorado's Stay at Home from March 26 to April 26, 2020 with financial institutions permitted under distancing, Executive Order D 2020 012 limiting evictions, foreclosures and utility disconnections from March 20, 2020, D 2020 101's thirty-day cure, D 2020 223 to December 31, 2020 and D 2020 307's tenant protections from December 31, 2020, extended by its successors to July 8, 2021, D 2020 015's license-expiration rules for the DMV, DORA and the Division of Banking from March 25, 2020, D 2020 019's remote notarization and the district-court face-covering orders, airborne-transmission controls on every court facility, from July 30, 2021; Utah's Stay Safe, Stay Home Directive from March 27 to May 1, 2020, Executive Order 2020-13 suspending residential evictions for COVID-related job loss to May 15, 2020, Insurance Department Bulletins 2020-2 and 2020-3, the county stay-home orders, UPHO 2020-17's public health emergency into the third quarter of 2021 and the courthouse face-covering orders, airborne-transmission controls on every court facility, from July 30, 2021; Idaho's Order to Self-Isolate from March 25 to April 30, 2020, its Supreme Court's reduction in court services and deferral of civil matters, and the Ada County courthouse face-covering order, an airborne-transmission control on every court facility, from August 9, 2021; Montana's Stay at Home Directive from March 28 to April 26, 2020 with realtors, appraisers and financial services essential, its Directive of March 30, 2020 prohibiting residential evictions, foreclosures, trustee's sales and disconnections, its February 12, 2021 Directive barring nonpayment evictions and foreclosures as under the CDC and HHS orders to June 30, 2021, its Banking Commissioner's Proclamations permitting every State-chartered bank and credit union to close any office from March 13, 2020 to July 12, 2021, and HB 702's duties on every employer and public accommodation; Wyoming's Statewide Public Health Orders from March 19, 2020 to May 31, 2021 with Order #4's face coverings, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public place, from December 9, 2020 to March 15, 2021, its Supreme Court's Temporary Plan of March 18, 2020 extended thirteen times to July 7, 2022 and Executive Order 2020-2's emergency to March 15, 2022; Alaska's Health Mandates 011 and 012 from March 27 to April 24, 2020 with financial services essential, SB 241's moratoria on nonpayment evictions, foreclosures and motor-vehicle repossessions to June 30, 2020, Division of Insurance Bulletin B 20-08, and the courts' face-covering requirement for all visitors, an airborne-transmission control on every court facility, from August 3 and suspension of civil jury trials from August 31, 2021; and Hawaii's Third Supplementary Proclamation of March 23, 2020 confining every person to the home except to maintain the federal critical infrastructure sectors, its eviction moratorium from April 16, 2020 to August 6, 2021, the Supreme Court's Order Regarding Foreclosures of June 25, 2020 requiring a federally-backed-mortgage declaration in every foreclosure and ejectment action, the Insurance Commissioner's Memoranda 2020-3I and 2020-4A, the statewide face-covering mandate, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor business with a duty on the operator, through the quarter, the Emergency Proclamation of August 5, 2021 and Executive Order 21-05's gathering caps from August 10, 2021, and the Supreme Court's orders of August 16 and September 29, 2021 postponing every jury trial to dates after October 4 and November 16, 2021.⁶⁹

The winter re-tightening and the 2021 transition

Between October 14 and December 31, 2020, eleven jurisdictions returned this industry's offices and contact centers to telework or cut their occupancy (New York's cluster zones, Illinois' Tier 3, Minnesota's Executive Order 20-99, Washington's Phase 1, Pennsylvania's "[u]nless not possible" order, New Jersey's Executive Order 192, Iowa's statewide telework directive, California's Regional Stay at Home Order, Michigan's MIOSHA rules, Nevada's Statewide Pause and Colorado's Level Red), and six jurisdictions re-imposed or newly enacted foreclosure and eviction stays (Nevada's Directive 036 of December 15, New York's COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of December 28, Oregon's HB 4401 of December 23, Illinois' Executive Order 2020-72 of November 13 and M.R. 30370 of December 22, North Carolina's Executive Order 171 of October 28 and Maryland's Order 20-12-17-02 of December 17).⁷⁰ The general business restrictions then expired in steps, from Texas on March 10, 2021 through Pennsylvania (May 31), New York (May 19 and June 25), Massachusetts (May 29), New Jersey (June 4), Illinois (June 11), Kentucky (June 11), California (June 15), Michigan (June 22), Oregon, Washington and Maine (June 30) and New Mexico (July 1, 2021); the moratoria did not follow that calendar: New Jersey, New York, California, Illinois, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Minnesota, Maryland, Vermont and Delaware carried theirs past July 1, 2021 by the statutes and proclamations named above, Michigan, New Mexico, Connecticut, Texas, Arizona, Kentucky, Hawaii, Colorado and the District did so by court order, proclamation or statute as the third quarter of 2021 states below, and the federal moratoria ran to July 31 and September 30, 2021.⁷¹ Where a State preempted local business orders (Texas, Florida, Arizona and Georgia), the State's own courts carried the eviction and foreclosure dockets under the Supreme Court of Texas's Eviction Diversion Program, Florida's AOSC21-17, Arizona's Administrative Orders 2021-120 and 2021-129 and Georgia's judicial emergency, the States' emergency declarations continued, and the federal layer applied in every one of them.⁷²

The largest metros

The local instruments

The local layer reached this industry through the same three doors as the State layer: the branch, the collection process and the public office. Harris County cancelled or controlled the first-Tuesday foreclosure, tax and judicial sales from the May 5, 2020 sales to the May 4, 2021 sales by thirteen occupancy and cancellation orders (two of them amended orders) and by its Outdoor Gatherings Order of July 3, 2020, which by its terms swept in the July 7, 2020 sales, closing the Bayou City Event Center at which they were held and ordering that the sales "shall not proceed"; Bexar County postponed the July 7 and August 4, 2020 foreclosure sales and its County Judge's first order of March 18, 2020 asked landlords and foreclosing lenders to suspend evictions and foreclosures for thirty days; the Justice Courts of Bexar County governed eviction filings by their Fourth and Fifth Orders to October 3, 2021.⁷³ The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas stayed writs of possession from March 16 to July 10, 2020, barred foreclosure filings to July 10 and landlord-tenant filings to July 26, 2020, stayed sheriff sales to September 2021, ran the Municipal Court eviction moratorium to June 30 and then October 3, 2021 and administered the CDC order; the Montgomery County Recorder of Deeds closed to the public on March 19, 2020 and took recordings by mail only; Bucks County postponed sheriff sales and suspended writs; Camden County halted sheriff sales and evictions and closed its offices indefinitely.⁷⁴ The Fifth Judicial District of Pennsylvania ordered on April 6, 2020 that the Allegheny County Sheriff "shall not execute any Writs of Possession" until the end of the emergency, prohibited new residential landlord-tenant filings from August 7 to 31, 2020, continued residential sheriff sales to September 7, 2021, and from August 6 to October 31, 2021 ordered that "no Order of Possession shall be issued or acted upon as long as the CDC Order continues to apply"; Pittsburgh's Chapter 782 barred evictions without good cause from March 3 to August 3, 2021.⁷⁵ The Chancery Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County stayed foreclosures to October 17, 2020 and moved hearings remote; Cook County's General Administrative Orders stayed eviction enforcement from March 14, 2020 to October 3, 2021; Chicago's Order 2020-9 imposed workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control duties (distancing, face coverings, sanitation and screening) on "any for-profit, non-profit, or educational entity" from June 5, 2020 through the third quarter of 2021, and Cook County's order of December 11, 2020 directed every office to facilitate remote work.⁷⁶ Los Angeles County's eviction moratorium ran from March 4, 2020 to September 30, 2021 and was extended to January 31, 2022; the City of Los Angeles barred residential evictions from March 15 and commercial evictions from March 17, 2020; the Superior Court closed its courthouses March 17-19, 2020 and suspended trials; the County's orders closed "offices in non-critical sectors" in July 2020 and ordered non-essential offices to "cease in-person operations until further notice" on December 30, 2020, held essential offices at 25 percent, and reinstated universal indoor face coverings, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public setting with a duty on the operator, on July 17, 2021.⁷⁷ San Diego County placed bank employees under a face-covering requirement on April 27, 2020, one of the airborne-transmission controls it imposed on essential businesses, closed non-critical offices on July 15, 2020 and reached every business with its employer case-reporting order of October 10, 2020; the City of San Diego's eviction moratorium ran from March 25 to May 31, 2020 and its commercial moratorium from March 14 to June 30, 2021.⁷⁸ The Bay Area's seven jurisdictions sheltered every resident from March 16, 2020, required a Social Distancing Protocol at every facility from March 31, 2020, and reinstated indoor face-covering requirements, airborne-transmission controls with a duty on the operator, on August 3, 2021 in an order that named "offices, retail stores, restaurants and bars, theaters, family entertainment centers, conference centers, and State and local government offices"; San Francisco's commercial eviction moratorium ran from March 18, 2020 through November 2020 and beyond, and Santa Clara County's court required face coverings, an airborne-transmission control, in every courthouse from May 12, 2020 through the third quarter of 2021.⁷⁹ Sacramento County ceased non-essential operations at physical locations from March 19, 2020 and closed "offices for non-critical infrastructure sectors" on July 14, 2020; the Superior Court declared court holidays and closed every courthouse from March 20, 2020 and limited writs of possession to those issued before March 18, 2020; the City's eviction moratorium ran from March 17, 2020; and the County ordered universal indoor face coverings, an occupational-health and airborne-transmission control, in every workplace from July 30, 2021, declaring that its order "takes precedence over the more permissive ETS regarding employee face coverings."⁸⁰ The Riverside Superior Court suspended unlawful detainers from March 16, 2020 and kept its clerk's offices at reduced hours and its public access remote through the third quarter of 2021; Orange County (Florida) and Osceola County ordered every resident to stay home and every retail and commercial business outside their essential lists closed from March 26, 2020, and the Ninth Judicial Circuit directed its clerks to "suspend all actions related to mortgage foreclosure causes of action, cancel all pending mortgage foreclosure sales, and suspend all actions related to residential eviction causes of action" through May 19, 2020, then closed its facilities to the public and reinstated face-covering requirements and access limits, airborne-transmission controls on every court facility, from August 23, 2021.⁸¹ Nassau County's Sheriff stayed evictions from March 13, 2020; the 36th District Court in Detroit imposed its own eviction moratorium from March 13, 2020 and Wayne County adopted the MIOSHA remote-work mandate as a county order on October 16, 2020; Hennepin County District Court suspended eviction matters from March 31, 2020, closed its suburban courthouses May 1 and restricted access from May 18, 2020 until further order; the Eighth Judicial District Court in Las Vegas stayed civil discovery, writs of execution and garnishment from March 20, 2020, closed its Clerk to in-person filing June 1, 2020 and required face coverings, an airborne-transmission control, in every courtroom from July 19, 2021; the Orleans Parish courts suspended eviction hearings from March 13, 2020 and the 19th Judicial District Court closed to May 1, 2020 with its Clerk's recording office open four hours a day; Denver's Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse closed from March 16 to May 31, 2020 and the 20th Judicial District administered the CDC eviction procedures; the Superior Court of Fulton County and the Cobb County courts held no evictions from March 14, 2020; the Fairfax County government closed its buildings including the Clerk's and permit counters on March 27, 2020; the Dallas County Clerk closed every office to the public on March 24, 2020 and Dallas County closed its tax and passport offices, the Dallas City Council's Ordinance 31521 governed eviction notices from April 22, 2020 through the third quarter of 2021, and the Denton County justice courts suspended eviction citations; Seattle's residential and small-business eviction moratoria of March 14 and 17, 2020 were extended to January 15, 2022; the Salt Lake County Health Department barred landlords from entering leased premises from March 30 to May 1, 2020 and Salt Lake City barred City assistance with evictions from April 10, 2020 to May 4, 2021; Milwaukee's Stay-At-Home Order barred landlords from entering leased premises from March 25, 2020; the Fayette County Clerk limited its counters from March 16, 2020 and closed its office to the public from March 27, 2020 to April 12, 2021, suspending every vehicle transfer and notary commission and holding mailed recordings unprocessed "until we return"; the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas cancelled sheriff's sales and stayed writs of possession and orders of sale from March 20 to May 29, 2020 and suspended garnishments to June 1, 2020, and the Franklin County Municipal Court administered the CDC moratorium through August 2021 and issued new eviction-filing rules on August 5, 2021; the Cuyahoga County Treasurer suspended tax foreclosures and sheriff sales from March 19, 2020 and the Court of Common Pleas stayed every foreclosure and every writ of possession to July 31, 2020; the Hamilton County courts suspended every jury trial and relocated the Clerk's in-person operations from March 16, 2020, and Cincinnati's Ordinance 0137-2021 barred eviction actions for tendered arrears from April 28 to June 18, 2021; Cleveland's Resolution 346-2020 suspended hardship evictions for sixty days from March 23, 2020; Mecklenburg County's Stay at Home Order of March 24, 2020 limited real estate to "appraisal and title services"; Jackson County's Stay at Home Order of March 22, 2020 permitted professional services only "when necessary to assist in compliance with legally mandated activities" and Kansas City suspended in-person zoning meetings; and Honolulu confined automobile dealers to on-line sales from April 3 to 30, 2020.⁸²

The August and September 2021 reinstatements

Between July 17 and September 17, 2021 the following local authorities ordered every person to wear a face covering indoors in every business open to the public, with a duty on the operator, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor workplace: Los Angeles County (July 17), Pasadena (July 22), St. Louis City and County (July 26), Sacramento County (July 30), Kansas City (Mayor's Order 21-01, effective August 2, replaced August 19 by Ordinance 210694) and Jackson County (August 9), the seven Bay Area jurisdictions (August 3), Wyandotte County (August 5), Oak Park (August 6), Baltimore City (August 10), Durham (August 9), Orange County, North Carolina (August 11), Philadelphia (August 12), Raleigh (August 13), Charlotte and Mecklenburg County (joint proclamation announced August 16 and effective August 18, and countywide by Board of Health Rule from August 31), Dane County (August 19), Chicago (August 20), Cook County (August 23), Boston (August 27), Illinois statewide (August 30), Cambridge (September 3), New Orleans (July 31), Jefferson Parish (August 4), Boulder County (September 3), Columbus, Bexley and Whitehall (September 10), Worthington (September 16), Atlanta (July 28) and Savannah (July 26) until the Governor's order of August 19, Dallas County (August 11-16), Bexar County (August 10-11) and Tucson (August 13); the courts of Maricopa County (August 9), Hamilton County (August 11), Marion County (August 16), the Fifth Judicial District (August 10), Cuyahoga County (August 5), Franklin County (August 5-6), the Ninth Judicial Circuit (August 23), the Sixth Judicial Circuit (August), the Riverside Superior Court (continuous) and the Eighth Judicial District (July 19) required face coverings in their courthouses; and Louisville (August 2), Salt Lake City (July 28), Cuyahoga County (August 3), Louisville's Metro Council (August 12), Allegheny County (August 9) and Tampa (September 7) imposed face-covering or vaccination-or-testing conditions on their own buildings and workforces.⁸³ Each of those orders reached every branch lobby, agency office and advisory office in its jurisdiction, and the metro pages of this site tabulate them.

The sector regulators

The State insurance regulators

Between March 12 and April 15, 2020 the insurance regulators of at least thirty-one States and the District issued grace-period, cancellation-moratorium, premium-refund or operating instruments, several with the force of law: Mississippi's mandatory sixty-day moratorium on cancellation and non-renewal for nonpayment across every line from March 24, 2020; New Jersey's Executive Order 123 and Bulletin 20-15's mandatory ninety-day property and casualty grace period, with Executive Order 123 in force to January 1, 2022; California's Bulletin 2020-3 ordering refunds for March and April 2020 in seven lines, extended by Bulletins 2020-4 and 2020-8 and followed by Bulletin 2021-03's further returns and reporting; Delaware's Sixth Modification section E to July 13, 2021; New York's premium moratorium to July 7, 2020; Connecticut's IC-40 made binding by Executive Order 7S; Texas's disaster determination under Insurance Code § 542.059(b); Maine's Insurance Emergency and Bulletins 442 through 444 to July 31, 2021; West Virginia's Emergency Orders 20-EO-01, 20-EO-02 and 20-EO-03 as modified October 15, 2020 and running past the quarter; Georgia's Directives and Bulletin 21-EX-3 suspending utilization review through September 30, 2021; Vermont's Emergency Rule H-2020-02-E, Bulletins 210 through 218 and Emergency Rule H-2021-01-E from July 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022; Illinois' Executive Order 2020-29 suspending in-person insurance requirements to August 21, 2021; and the bulletins and orders of Oklahoma, Indiana, New Mexico, Ohio, Wisconsin, Washington, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii, Iowa, Missouri, Utah, Alabama, Alaska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Oregon, Maryland and Kentucky.⁸⁴

The State banking departments

New York's Department of Financial Services codified the forbearance mandate in 3 NYCRR Part 119; Maryland's Commissioner of Financial Regulation held lending-limit suspension authority under Order 20-04-03-01; Montana's Banking Commissioner permitted every State-chartered bank and credit union to close any office from March 13, 2020 to July 12, 2021; Nebraska waived its bank examination and cash-count rules from April 1, 2020 to June 1, 2021; Iowa's Division of Banking notified bank presidents of temporary branch closures on March 12, 2020 and authorized remote work for mortgage and other licensees from March 18, 2020; Rhode Island's DBR issued Banking Bulletin 2020-2; Kentucky's Department of Financial Institutions issued its Guidance on Relief for registrants on March 24, 2020, extended to January 15, 2022; New Jersey's DOBI issued Bulletin 20-06's no-action position for licensees working from home; Colorado's Executive Order D 2020 015 governed the Division of Banking's license expirations; and the District's Act 23-286 compelled deferments from every DISB-regulated servicer.⁸⁵

The courts of the States

Every State's court of last resort or chief justice acted under express constitutional and statutory authority to suspend jury trials, close courthouses, refuse non-essential filings, stay evictions, foreclosures, writs, sheriff's sales and garnishments, and convert proceedings to remote form, and the court orders of at least twenty-nine States remained in force in the third quarter of 2021. The Chief Administrative Judge of New York suspended eviction and foreclosure matters and non-essential filings from March 16, 2020; the Supreme Court of Texas stayed residential evictions from March 19, 2020 and ran the Eviction Diversion Program from September 17, 2020 into 2022; the Supreme Court of Illinois' M.R. 30370 required an eviction certification from December 22, 2020 to October 3, 2021; the Supreme Court of Michigan's Administrative Order 2020-17 stayed eviction proceedings for CERA applicants through the third quarter of 2021; the New Mexico Supreme Court stayed writs of restitution to January 4, 2022 and garnishment writs to August 2, 2021; the Hawaii Supreme Court required a federally-backed-mortgage declaration in every foreclosure and ejectment action from June 25, 2020; the Vermont Supreme Court's Administrative Order 49 carried CARES Act and CFPB certifications from March 16, 2020 to March 1, 2022; the Arizona Supreme Court governed eviction cases by administrative order from July 7, 2020 through August 11, 2021; the Chief Justices of South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, Louisiana, Delaware, Iowa, North Dakota, Kansas, Kentucky and Virginia suspended or conditioned evictions and foreclosures on their own calendars; and the Cook County, Philadelphia, Allegheny, Franklin, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Hennepin, Denver, Orleans, Fulton, Cobb, Dallas, Harris, Bexar, Las Vegas, Detroit, Nassau, Orange and Riverside courts named above did the same locally.⁸⁶

Recorders, clerks, motor-vehicle departments and notaries

Motor-vehicle offices closed to the public or went appointment-only in at least twenty States and the District in March 2020, under the States' closure orders, as the agencies' closure notices in the Library record (cited as context for the closures the orders compelled), and several ran by appointment into 2021 (the District to July 19-20, 2021; Maryland's MVA under Order 21-06-15-01; Oregon's DMV lobby limits to June 30, 2021; Washington's Department of Licensing under Proclamations 20-15 and 20-41 into 2022); the recorders of Maricopa, San Diego, Dallas, Montgomery (Pennsylvania), Fayette, Cook, Madison, Mecklenburg and other counties closed their counters or limited them to appointment, e-recording or mail, as their notices record; twenty-five States rewrote the law of notarial acts within weeks of the closures, and in Massachusetts (to December 15, 2021), Vermont (to July 15, 2021), Maryland (to August 15, 2021), Mississippi (for the emergency plus fourteen days), Georgia (into the third quarter of 2021), Texas (for the life of the disaster declaration), New Jersey (made permanent) and New York (to June 25, 2021) the regimes ran through or into the third quarter of 2021.⁸⁷

The federal supervisors and self-regulatory bodies

The Federal Reserve, the Comptroller, the FDIC, the NCUA, the Bureau, the SEC, the CFTC and FINRA are inventoried in the federal layer above; their rules and exemptive orders are conditions on the supervision, examination, meetings, filings, inspections and remote operation of every institution they regulate; their letters and announcements (the NCUA's Letters to Credit Unions, the Federal Reserve's statements, OCC bulletins and FINRA's notices) are guidance, cited here as context and as the supervisors' own record of the regime; and the NCUA's Letter 21-CU-06 of July 19, 2021 is the sector supervisor's own dating of when the strict offsite policy of March 16, 2020 began to lift.⁸⁸

The counterparties

Dealers, brokers, appraisers and closings

Automobile dealerships were closed as non-essential retail in the spring of 2020 in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington and most stay-at-home States and confined to on-line sales in Honolulu; real-estate showings were barred in Nevada, Vermont, Michigan and Washington and real estate was confined to "appraisal and title services" in Mecklenburg County; appraisers worked under the stay-at-home orders and the federal 120-day deferral; and closings depended on the notarial and recorder regimes above.⁸⁹

Small-business borrowers and commercial tenants

The industry's commercial borrowers are the restaurants, retailers, gyms, hotels, contractors, manufacturers and professional firms whose orders are catalogued on the other industry pages of this site; the commercial-eviction and utility-shutoff bars of New Jersey, New York, Arizona, Oregon, California's cities and the District reached their premises directly; and the Paycheck Protection Program's rules fixed what a lender could do for them from April 3, 2020.⁹⁰

Households, schools, child care and transit

The customer and member base lived under the stay-at-home orders of forty-two States and territories, the face-covering orders of every State that issued one, airborne-transmission controls on every indoor public space, and the confinement of the winter of 2020-21; the workforce's children were under the school closures of 2020 and the school face-covering and quarantine orders of the 2021-22 year in eighteen States and the District; the FFCRA leave mandate ran to December 31, 2020; and the conveyance face-covering order and the transit agencies' rules conditioned every commute from February 1, 2021.⁹¹

Courts and sheriffs

The collection process of this industry runs through the courts, the clerks and the sheriffs, and each was closed, conditioned or stayed by the orders inventoried above.

The ecosystem

The mechanisms

Six mechanisms carried orders addressed to others into this industry's operation, each an order in its own right: supply chain and borders (the land-border notices, the entry proclamations and the Title 42 order, which confined cross-border customers, correspondent relationships and the staff of offshore operations centers); workforce, schools and child care (the FFCRA mandate, the school closures, the quarantine orders); travel and gatherings (the interstate quarantines, the gathering limits that ended member meetings and seminars); courts and public offices; transit; and health care as counterparty (the health-care-worker vaccination orders of August 2021, which governed the hospitals and nursing homes that are the institutional customers of the industry's benefits and insurance functions).⁹² The Library's organizer notices for this industry record the conventions, conferences and member meetings of 2020 and 2021 that those gathering orders cancelled or moved online, with the organizer's stated action and the venue jurisdiction's orders in force on the event's dates. Foreign orders, including the national lockdown order of India (March 24, 2020) and the Philippines' Luzon community quarantine (March 16, 2020), under which the offshore operations and contact centers serving American institutions operated in the spring of 2020, are facts and circumstances cited by category.⁹³

The standing duties

Beneath every layer inventoried above lay a further layer that bound every employer in this industry whether or not any order named it: the standing statutes commanding every person to prevent and control communicable disease and every employer to furnish a safe workplace, the offenses punishing disobedience of health and emergency orders, and the liability shields of 2020 and 2021 that protected only the complying business. Each is an order from an appropriate governmental authority on the Suspension Clause's own terms, because a statute or rule that commands conduct is an order and the legislature, the health department and the occupational-safety agency are each such an authority; the pandemic directives gave each duty its content. The layer is stated here for eight States (Texas, California, Florida, Arizona, New Jersey, Colorado, Michigan and Illinois); every State's standing duties are set out at /duties.⁹⁴

The first layer is the orders' own conditions of operating, and the verbs are commands. Texas: "Every business establishment in Texas shall operate at no more than 50 percent of the total listed occupancy of the establishment" (GA-28, Ex. TX-021) and, in every commercial entity, GA-29's universal face-covering requirement, the airborne-transmission control the State imposed on every indoor commercial space (Ex. TX-022), each "an offense punishable under Section 418.173" (GA-28 and GA-29 recitals, Ex. TX-021, Ex. TX-022; Gov't Code § 418.173, Ex. DUT-TX-012). California: those engaging with reopened businesses "must, when they do so, continue at all times to practice physical distancing" (Ex. CA-015), until the industry guidance "will not be mandatory" from June 15, 2021 (Ex. CA-029). Arizona: every business that "serves the public or is an employer shall develop, establish and implement policies based on guidance from the CDC, Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and ADHS" (Executive Order 2020-36 ¶ 5, Ex. AZ-019; Ex. AZ-020; Ex. DUT-AZ-013), until March 25, 2021 (Ex. AZ-037). New Jersey: every employer with a workforce at a worksite "is required to abide by the following requirements, at minimum" (Executive Order 192 ¶ 1, Ex. NJ-036). Colorado: employers "shall take all of the following measures within the workplace to minimize disease transmission" (Public Health Order 20-28 § II.I, Ex. CO-020; Ex. CO-041). Michigan: every business permitted to operate "must, at a minimum" adopt a preparedness plan, screening, distancing, face coverings and sanitation (Ex. MI-027; Ex. MI-054). Illinois: "To the greatest extent feasible, Essential Businesses and Operations shall comply with Social Distancing Requirements" and "must take proactive measures to ensure compliance with Social Distancing Requirements" (Executive Order 2020-10 § 1 ¶¶ 2, 15(a), Ex. IL-005; Ex. IL-043; Ex. IL-037). Florida drew the line itself: Executive Order 20-139's "encouraged" protocols are "guidance and not enforceable under section 252.47, Florida Statutes," its section 4 conditions enforceable (Ex. FL-034).⁹⁵

The second layer is the standing law, which commanded the same conduct before any order issued and after the last expired. Every one of the eight States punished disobedience of a health or emergency order as a crime (Texas, Ex. DUT-TX-005, Ex. DUT-TX-006, Ex. DUT-TX-012; California, "a separate offense for each day," Ex. DUT-CA-003, Ex. DUT-CA-007; Florida, Ex. DUT-FL-001, Ex. DUT-FL-008; Arizona, Ex. DUT-AZ-001, Ex. DUT-AZ-007; New Jersey, Ex. DUT-NJ-006; Colorado, Ex. DUT-CO-003, Ex. CO-013; Michigan, Ex. DUT-MI-003, Ex. DUT-MI-004, Ex. DUT-MI-010; Illinois, Ex. DUT-IL-014, Ex. DUT-IL-004, Ex. DUT-IL-019), Illinois attaching its Class A misdemeanor from August 7, 2020 to "[a]ny business, service, facility or organization open to the public or employees" that did not require face coverings and distancing. Texas states the duty on the person: "The state has a duty to protect the public health. Each person shall act responsibly to prevent and control communicable disease" (Health and Safety Code § 81.002, Ex. DUT-TX-001). Every one of the eight bound every employer to a safe workplace, by its own statute (Texas Labor Code § 411.103, "a place of employment that is reasonably safe and healthful," Ex. DUT-TX-013; Ex. DUT-CA-009, Ex. CA-023, Ex. CA-024, Ex. DUT-AZ-008, Ex. DUT-NJ-009, Ex. DUT-MI-013) or by the federal clause alone (Florida and Colorado, Ex. DUT-FL-015, Ex. DUT-CO-009; Illinois, whose own act reaches public employers only, Ex. DUT-IL-007, Ex. DUT-FED-001), and the federal clause reached all eight: "Each employer ... shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees" (29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(1), Ex. DUT-FED-001). OSHA said in March 2020 that the clause "requires employers to provide their employees with a workplace free from recognized hazards" (Ex. FED-088), cited under it from September 2020 (Ex. LAW-487) and in 2021 cited an auto insurance agency in Denver under it (Ex. DUT-FED-069) and, on a citation of April 2021, obtained a willful general-duty violation, affirmed by the Review Commission's judge in June 2022, against a tax-preparation office that refused face coverings and distancing (Ex. DUT-FED-073).⁹⁶

The third layer is the liability shields, by which the legislatures declared compliance with governmental standards the standard of care. Texas protects a business unless it "knowingly failed to implement or comply with government-promulgated standards, guidance, or protocols intended to lower the likelihood of exposure to the disease," for every action commenced on or after March 13, 2020 (Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 148.003, Ex. DUT-TX-015; Ex. DUT-TX-014); Florida only a defendant that "made a good faith effort to substantially comply with authoritative or controlling government-issued health standards or guidance" (§ 768.38, Ex. DUT-FL-012); Arizona and Michigan condition theirs on pandemic policies and on compliance with every COVID-19 statute, rule and order, retroactive to March 10 and March 1, 2020 (Ex. DUT-AZ-010; Ex. DUT-MI-015; Ex. MI-056). Illinois enacted no business shield but conditioned an employer's rebuttal of the workers' compensation presumption on CDC- or IDPH-based practices (Ex. DUT-IL-005; Ex. DUT-IL-006; Ex. DUT-IL-012); California enacted none and left Evidence Code § 669's presumption of negligence (Ex. DUT-CA-013); Colorado postponed three bills, each conditioned on compliance (Ex. DUT-CO-013; Ex. DUT-CO-018; Ex. DUT-CO-020, legislative history only); New Jersey shielded health care only (Ex. DUT-NJ-007). In all eight, compliance with the governmental health standards is what a business owed: by the shield's own condition in Texas, Florida, Arizona and Michigan, by the statutory presumptions of Illinois and California, and in Colorado and New Jersey by the ordinary standard of care enforced through the safe-workplace statutes and the orders' penalties (Ex. DUT-CO-003; Ex. DUT-CO-009; Ex. DUT-NJ-006; Ex. DUT-NJ-009).⁹⁷

The Library keeps the line each instrument drew: the Texas protocols, Florida's "encouraged" clauses, Arizona's requirements after March 25, 2021, California's industry guidance after June 15, 2021 and Illinois' Phase 5 protocols are recommendations, compulsory only through the safe-workplace statutes, the general duty clause and the shields' conditions. A bank, agency or lender that distanced its lobby, screened and masked its staff and sent its back office home under those instruments was discharging duties, and a duty commanded by statute is an order; the Service calls the measures "voluntary," and the answers section below takes up that sentence.