The governmental orders by layer
The orders that reached this industry came from every layer of American government: the President, the CDC, the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Transportation, the Coast Guard and OSHA; the Governors and health secretaries of every State and the District of Columbia; the mayors, county judges and health officers of the largest metropolitan areas; the gaming, alcohol, lodging and health regulators whose licenses condition every revenue function; the convention-center authorities, port authorities, tribal governments and territorial governors; and the courts, school boards and transit agencies whose orders governed the industry's counterparties and workforce. This section inventories them by layer. The six quarters section applies them by quarter.
The universe
The CDC's own count is that 42 States and territories issued mandatory stay-at-home orders between March 1 and May 31, 2020, covering 2,355 of 3,233 counties (73 percent), that "most jurisdictions issued multiple orders," and that eight extended past May 31, 2020.7 The largest verified United States count of pandemic policy measures is more than 20,000 national and State policies through June 2022, 95 percent of them issued before November 23, 2021.8 The Council of State Governments' data record 2,065 executive orders of governors and State agencies between February and June 29, 2020.9 KFF's fifty-State files, captured at each quarter boundary, show that on July 2, 2021 Hawaii still required quarantine of all travelers and Kansas and Rhode Island still kept travel quarantines, and that on September 21, 2021, 25 jurisdictions kept emergency declarations in force and 11 kept statewide mask requirements.10 TSA's published checkpoint counts fell from more than 2.35 million travelers on a single day in early March 2020 to 113,147 on a single day in April 2020, and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics recorded full-year 2020 airline passenger traffic at less than half of 2019.11 The Library holds, for this industry, the lodging, travel, casino, convention and quarantine instruments of every State, the largest metros, the federal agencies and the ecosystem; the counts on the Library's own pages are counts of the instruments indexed there, and nothing more.
The federal layer
The predicates
The Secretary of Health and Human Services determined on January 31, 2020 that a public health emergency existed and renewed the determination every ninety days through the period, including on April 15 and July 19, 2021.12 The President declared a national emergency on March 13, 2020, continued it in February 2021, and it ran until Congress ended it in April 2023.13 The President's Stafford Act determination of March 13, 2020 and the major-disaster declarations for every State followed.14 These are predicates and are cited as such; the orders below are the limitations.
The second quarter of 2020
Proclamations 9984, 9992, 9993 and 9996 suspended the entry of persons present in China, Iran, the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom and Ireland in the fourteen days before travel; Proclamation 10041 added Brazil on May 24, 2020; each, as continued by Proclamation 10143 from January 26, 2021, ran until Proclamation 10294 revoked the series effective November 8, 2021.15 The Department of Homeland Security funneled inbound flights to designated airports from February 2, 2020 and confined the Canadian and Mexican land borders to "essential travel" from March 20-21, 2020, excluding "Individuals traveling for tourism purposes (e.g., sightseeing, recreation, gambling, or attending cultural events)," and renewed the limits monthly.16 The CDC issued the No Sail Order on March 14, 2020 and extended it on April 9 and July 16, 2020, suspending embarkation of passengers on every cruise ship in United States waters.17 The CDC's Title 42 order of March 20, 2020 suspended the introduction of covered persons across the land borders.18 The FAA waived slot-usage requirements at JFK, LaGuardia and Reagan National because of collapsed demand; the Department of Transportation conditioned CARES Act payroll support on minimum air service to every point served, an order that kept aircraft flying to hotel markets no guest was permitted to reach; Amtrak cut the Northeast Corridor to 40 percent of service and suspended Acela.19 The Department of State suspended routine visa services on March 20, 2020, closing the pipeline of J-1 and H-2B seasonal workers; USCIS closed its offices to the public from March 18 to June 4, 2020.20 The Families First Coronavirus Response Act's paid-leave mandate bound every employer under 500 employees from April 1 to December 31, 2020.21 The PPP interim final rule of April 2, 2020 and the CARES Act's foreclosure moratorium governed the industry's lenders and landlords.22
The third and fourth quarters of 2020
The No Sail Order was extended on July 16 and September 30, 2020 to October 31, 2020 and replaced on October 30, 2020 by the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order, "a phased approach to resuming cruise ship passenger operations" under which no passenger voyage sailed from a United States port until the summer of 2021.23 The entry proclamations and land-border notices continued; the DHS funneling notices ended September 14, 2020.24 The CDC's residential eviction moratorium began September 4, 2020.25 The Title 42 order was replaced on October 13, 2020 and continued.26 The Coast Guard's Marine Safety Information Bulletin 02-20 announced, in successive changes, the reporting and infection-control requirements that 33 C.F.R. § 160.216 and the Captain of the Port orders under 33 C.F.R. § 160.111 imposed on every vessel arriving at a United States port; the bulletins are cited as the Coast Guard's account of that regime, not as orders.27
The first and second quarters of 2021
Executive Order 13991 of January 20, 2021 imposed workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements (masking and distancing) on every on-duty federal employee, on-site contractor and visitor to federal buildings and lands; OMB Memorandum M-21-15 capped federal building occupancy at 25 percent until June 10, 2021.28 The CDC's amended order of January 25, 2021, effective January 26, "prohibits the introduction into the United States of any aircraft passenger departing from any foreign country" without a negative pre-departure test or documentation of recovery.29 Proclamation 10143 of January 25, 2021 continued the Schengen, United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil suspensions and added South Africa; Proclamation 10199 added India effective May 4, 2021.30 The CDC's conveyance order took effect at 11:59 p.m. on February 1, 2021: "Persons must wear masks over the mouth and nose when traveling on conveyances into and within the United States" and "at transportation hubs," and "[a] conveyance operator ... must require all persons onboard to wear masks"; TSA's Security Directives 1582/84-21-01, 1544-21-02 and 1542-21-01 and Emergency Amendment 1546-21-01 imposed the rule on surface carriers, aircraft operators and airport operators, who "must ensure direct employees, authorized representatives, tenants, and vendors wear a mask at all times in or on the airport," and the Transportation Security Oversight Board ratified them on April 20, 2021; the FRA's Emergency Order 32 imposed it on every railroad from March 1, 2021.31 The CDC published the Conditional Sailing Order's technical instructions on May 5, 2021; the Department of Transportation's Order 2021-4-13 of April 29, 2021 conditioned the third round of payroll support on minimum service through September 30, 2021; the Coast Guard's implementing bulletin MSIB 02-21 carried the conveyance order's airborne-transmission controls into every maritime conveyance and hub.32 OSHA's national emphasis program of March 12, 2021 and its healthcare emergency temporary standard of June 21, 2021 governed the inspection and the counterparty layers.33 The eviction moratorium was extended on January 29, March 29 and June 24, 2021.34
The third quarter of 2021
The conveyance order, Security Directive 1582/84-21-01A (to September 13, 2021) and -01B (announced August 20, 2021; effective September 14, 2021), the airport and aircraft directives and their successors and FRA Emergency Order 32 were in force on every day of the quarter, and the Coast Guard's implementing bulletin MSIB 02-21 (Changes 2 and 3) carried the order's requirements to every maritime conveyance and hub throughout.35 Proclamations 10143 and 10199 and the inbound testing order were in force on every day; the land-border notifications published June 23, July 22, August 23 and September 22, 2021, effective June 22 through July 21, July 22 through August 21, August 22 through September 21 and September 22 through October 21, 2021, confined the Canadian and Mexican borders to essential travel, and the Secretary announced on October 15, 2021 that the limits would lift for vaccinated travelers on November 8, 2021.36 The Conditional Sailing Order was in force throughout in every port outside Florida; as to Florida ports it bound the lines to July 23, 2021 and was thereafter administered by the CDC as recommendations under the preliminary injunction in Florida v. Becerra, while the Captain of the Port requirements under 33 C.F.R. § 160.216 that MSIB 02-20 Change 7 announced, the conveyance order and the inbound testing order bound every Florida port on every day of the quarter; the CDC extended the Order on October 25, 2021 to January 15, 2022.37 The Title 42 order was reassessed and continued on August 2, 2021.38 The eviction moratorium ran to July 31 and was re-imposed for high-transmission counties from August 3 to August 26, 2021.39 The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force's model safety principles of July 29, 2021 required every on-site federal contractor to attest to vaccination or submit to testing, masking and distancing, with the Certification of Vaccination form of August 6, 2021; Executive Orders 14042 and 14043 of September 9, 2021 required a safety clause in every covered federal contract and vaccination of every federal employee; the Department of Transportation's Acquisition Directive 2021-02 of September 17, 2021 imposed entry procedures on every on-site contractor at DOT facilities; and the President's memorandum of August 17, 2021 kept the 100 percent FEMA cost share for emergency work through December 31, 2021.40 The Department of Transportation's minimum-service order ran to September 30, 2021.41 The Secretary renewed the public health emergency on July 19, 2021.42
The fifty States
The pattern
Every State and the District of Columbia limited this industry by order in the second quarter of 2020; forty-two States and territories confined the guest to his home; at least twenty-four States and the District quarantined the arriving traveler at some point in 2020; eleven States closed lodging to leisure guests or banned short-term rentals outright (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Delaware, Connecticut, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Arkansas and Idaho), as did the resort counties of California, Colorado, Utah and Florida and the Virgin Islands; every State with commercial casinos closed them; every convention center in the Library's record closed; and every State closed hotel restaurants to dine-in service and hotel pools, gyms, spas and ballrooms with them.43 The reopening orders of May through July 2020 replaced closure with condition: occupancy caps on rooms in New Mexico (25 to 100 percent by county tier for fifteen months), Massachusetts (25 and 40 percent from December 26, 2020 to May 29, 2021), New Hampshire (50 percent of rooms) and Connecticut (the binding Sector Rules for Hotels and Lodging); capacity caps on ballrooms, banquets and casino floors everywhere; traveler forms, quarantine attestations and test certificates at check-in in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Mexico and New York City; closed or capped pools and gyms; and casino reopening protocols that removed every other machine and every other seat.44 The winter of 2020-21 re-tightened: Illinois' Tier 3 confined hotels to registered guests and forbade every hotel meeting; Washington prohibited every business meeting and retail event in a venue from November 17, 2020; Michigan closed Detroit's casinos again; Nevada's Statewide Pause cut casinos to 25 percent; Massachusetts cut lodging to 25 percent; New Mexico closed lodging to all but health-care, extended-stay and quarantine guests for the uncertified; Pennsylvania imposed test-or-quarantine on every inbound guest; the Regional Stay at Home Order barred hotel reservations for non-essential out-of-state travel across Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley; and Oregon's freeze and county tiers, Colorado's Level Red, Minnesota's Dial Back, Ohio's curfew and Kentucky's 25-per-room cap did the same work in their States.45 The 2021 transition ran from Iowa's February 7 to Hawaii's December 1: Texas March 10, Mississippi March 3, Arizona March 25, Alabama April 9, Colorado April 16, Utah April 10, Tennessee April 28, West Virginia April 20, Georgia and Arkansas in April and May, Maryland May 15, Nebraska May 24, Connecticut May 20, Rhode Island May 21, New Jersey May 28 and June 4, Massachusetts May 29, Kentucky June 11, Pennsylvania May 31 and June 28, Ohio June 2, Illinois June 11, Vermont June 14, North Carolina May 14 (caps) and July 30 (its face-covering order, the last of its workplace exposure-control requirements), California and New York in mid-June, Michigan June 22, Minnesota June 30, Oregon June 30, Washington June 30, New Mexico July 1, and Hawaii's statewide gathering and spacing caps December 1, 2021 with its quarantine rules and its face-covering rule, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor space, running through 11:59 p.m. March 25, 2022.46 Several States legislated or ordered against local mandates during 2021 (Florida, Texas, Georgia, Arizona, Iowa and Oklahoma among them); in those States the third quarter of 2021 was carried by the federal layer, by the preemption instruments themselves (which are orders limiting commerce: Florida's section 381.00316 forbade every business to condition entry on vaccination documentation on pain of a $5,000 fine; GA-38 forbade governmental entities to require vaccination and preempted local face-covering and exposure-control rules), by the school and court orders, and by the county health authorities whose directives the States then litigated.47
The Northeast
Maine closed "all lodging operations and accommodations" from noon April 5, 2020, suspended online reservations, extended the closure to May 31 and, under EO 57 (June 9, 2020), from July 1, 2020 required every lodging operation to collect a Certificate of Compliance (negative test within 72 hours or fourteen-day quarantine) as a prerequisite to check-in, a rule lifted for domestic travelers on May 1, 2021, with EO 57 itself expiring June 30, 2021.48 Vermont suspended lodging on March 25, 2020, limited it to enumerated purposes and suspended online reservations on March 30, quarantined every non-essential arrival, reopened lodging by steps from May 22, 2020 and kept its quarantine-and-certificate regime in successive forms until June 14, 2021.49 New Hampshire restricted "all lodging providers" to vulnerable populations and essential workers from April 6, 2020, suspended online reservations, reopened lodging June 5, 2020 under mandatory guidance (50 percent of rooms; out-of-State guests to attest to fourteen days' quarantine), and from November 15, 2020 to May 7, 2021 made its travel guidance mandatory for every resident and visitor.50 Massachusetts confined lodging to essential purposes under Order No. 13, reopened it June 8, 2020 with "no events, functions, or meetings," quarantined every arrival from August 1, 2020 to March 22, 2021 under Order No. 45 ($500 per day), cut Operators of Lodgings to 25 percent from December 26, 2020 and to 40 percent from February 8 to May 29, 2021, and rescinded the regime May 29, 2021.51 Connecticut prohibited non-essential lodging by EO 7T from April 2, 2020 to June 17, 2020, then placed hotels under binding DECD Sector Rules to May 20, 2021, and quarantined travelers from Affected States from July 24, 2020 to March 19, 2021 with a $1,000 civil penalty.52 New York quarantined travelers from designated States from June 25, 2020 (EO 205; civil penalty up to $10,000), added international arrivals and the traveler health form September 28, 2020, imposed test-out rules November 4, 2020, kept the domestic rule to April 1, 2021 and the order to June 25, 2021; it closed casinos from March 16, 2020 to September 9, 2020 and capped catering and banquet events at 50, 25 and 10 through the winter.53 New Jersey closed casino gaming floors at 8:00 p.m. March 16, 2020, reopened them July 2, 2020 at 25 percent under Division of Gaming Enforcement standards, closed hotel gyms to September 1, 2020, imposed hotel sanitization and front-desk staffing directives from July 9, 2020, capped indoor gatherings at 10 from November 17, 2020 and lifted its indoor limits June 4, 2021.54 Pennsylvania marked "Traveler Accommodation" "No" on its life-sustaining list of March 19, 2020, closed casinos from March 17 to June 9, 2020 and again December 12, 2020 to January 4, 2021, capped events at 25 indoors and 10 to 25 percent of occupancy through the winter, imposed test-or-quarantine on every inbound traveler from November 20, 2020 to March 1, 2021, and let its orders expire May 31 and June 28, 2021.55 Rhode Island quarantined every non-work arrival from March 28, 2020, kept a hot-spot quarantine with test-out to July 6, 2021, capped catered events at 50 and 100, and governed lodging under RIDOH regulation to August 31, 2021.56
The South
Delaware quarantined every out-of-State arrival from March 30, 2020, closed Commercial Lodging to leisure guests from April 7 to June 1, 2020, set hotel common areas at 30 percent from June 1, closed casinos March 24 to June 1, 2020 and capped them to May 21, 2021, and declared a Public Health Emergency on July 12, 2021 and ended its State of Emergency at 12:01 a.m. July 13, 2021.57 The District of Columbia declared hotels' "conference facilities, ballrooms, and dining-in facilities of their restaurants" non-essential on March 24, 2020, closed hotel pools to the spring of 2021, quarantined non-essential travelers from July 27, 2020 and tested them from November 9, 2020, lifted its capacity limits May 21 and June 11, 2021, and reinstated universal indoor face coverings, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor space enforced by fine and license suspension, on July 31, 2021.58 Maryland closed casinos and racetracks from March 16 to June 19, 2020, prohibited convention events by health directive from June 12, 2020, capped convention and banquet facilities at 50 percent to May 15, 2021, and required testing or quarantine of travelers from December 17, 2020 to January 31, 2021.59 Virginia ceased all campground reservations under fourteen nights from April 1, 2020 and capped hotel meeting space under its gathering caps (10, 50, 250, 25, 10, 50, 100 in sequence) to May 28, 2021.60 Florida quarantined arrivals from the New York tri-State area and Louisiana from March 24 and 27, 2020 with highway checkpoints, suspended every vacation rental from March 28 to May 4, 2020 and beyond under EO 20-87 and its extensions, closed hotel gyms March 20, 2020, suspended on-premises alcohol sales at bars from June 26 to September 14, 2020, lifted every State cap September 25, 2020, voided the local orders that had continued May 3 and July 1, 2021, and from July 1, 2021 forbade every business to require vaccination documentation of a patron.61 Georgia banned vacation rentals from April 9 to April 30, 2020, forbade conventions before July 1, 2020 and then permitted them only under tiered rules, capped gatherings at 50 without distancing to April 8, 2021, and on August 19, 2021 suspended inconsistent local ordinances and barred compelled business enforcement.62 South Carolina quarantined tri-State and New Orleans arrivals from March 27, 2020 and, from 5:00 p.m. April 3 to May 1, 2020, prohibited every lodging establishment from "making or accepting new reservations or bookings" from travelers from CDC-identified areas; it capped events as Gatherings from August 3, 2020 to March 1, 2021.63 North Carolina confined lodging to lodging and carry-out from March 27, 2020, capped venues through Phase 3 and a nighttime curfew to February 26, 2021, and lifted caps May 14, 2021.64 Tennessee confined hotels, lodges and short-term rentals to lodging and carry-out from March 31 to April 28, 2020 and governed them under the Tennessee Pledge lodging guidelines to April 28, 2021.65 Kentucky instructed residents not to travel out of State and quarantined returning residents from March 30, 2020, restricted inbound out-of-State residents from April 2, closed hotel meeting and banquet space as venues to June 29, 2020 and capped it at 25 per room from November 20 to December 13, 2020, and rescinded its orders June 11, 2021.66 West Virginia closed casinos and racetracks March 18, 2020, closed State park lodges March 21, quarantined arrivals from Louisiana, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Italy and China from March 31 to May 21, 2020, barred out-of-State campground arrivals to June 10, 2020 and restricted Monongalia County hotel bars from July 14 to October 13, 2020.67 Louisiana's Gaming Control Board closed every casino at midnight March 16, 2020, reopened them May 18, 2020 at 25 percent occupancy and 25 then 50 percent of positions with temperature screening of every entrant, disabled half the devices from November 25, 2020, removed the caps April 1, 2021 with mandatory distancing in "all amenity areas," and from August 4, 2021 imposed on every gaming property a face-covering requirement on every employee and entrant, one of the infection-prevention and exposure-control conditions of the license beside the distancing and screening rules; the Governor capped conventions at 50 percent with a State Fire Marshal-approved plan from March 3 to April 27, 2021 and reinstated from August 4 to October 27, 2021 the statewide indoor face-covering mandate, an airborne-transmission control enforced by citation against the business that failed to enforce it.68 Texas quarantined air arrivals from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Orleans and, from March 29, 2020, California, Washington, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and Miami, and road arrivals from Louisiana, under DPS supervision with a $1,000 fine and 180 days' confinement, designating the hotel as the quarantine location; it prohibited valet from April 27, 2020, capped hotel restaurants, bars, pools, gyms and meeting spaces at 25, 50 and 75 percent through March 9, 2021, and on July 29, 2021 issued GA-38.69 Mississippi closed every licensed casino at midnight March 16, 2020 and reopened them May 21, 2020 at 50 percent with health screening of every entrant and no entertainment; Alabama and Arkansas closed casinos and dog tracks; Arkansas confined lodging to "authorized guests" from April 6 to June 15, 2020; Oklahoma quarantined air arrivals from the tri-State area, Washington, California and Louisiana from March 29 to May 12, 2020 and closed hotel bars, dining rooms, gyms and event space to May 1, 2020.70
The Midwest
Illinois' Gaming Board suspended gambling at the State's ten casinos from March 16, 2020 and video gaming everywhere, extended the suspension March 20 "consistent with Governor Pritzker's March 20, 2020 Executive Order," and reopened them under Phase 4 on July 1, 2020; Executive Order 2020-73 (Tier 3, November 20, 2020 to January and February 2021) provided that "Hotel room occupancy must be limited to registered guests only" and "Hotels may not host gatherings in their meeting and event spaces," closed fitness centers except by reservation at 25 percent, and prohibited casinos and video gaming from operating; Phase 5 arrived June 11, 2021 and the universal indoor face-covering requirement, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public place, returned August 30, 2021.71 Michigan's EO 2020-42 of April 9, 2020 prohibited "all travel to vacation rentals," stripped critical-infrastructure status from hotels offering "gyms, pools, spas, dining, entertainment facilities, meeting rooms, or like facilities," and provided that "No one shall advertise or rent a short-term vacation property" except for health-care responders; EO 2020-59 continued the ban and added a face-covering requirement to its workplace exposure-control rules; Detroit's casinos closed March 16, 2020, reopened August 5, 2020 at 15 percent and closed again November 18 to December 22, 2020.72 Ohio confined hotels to lodging and carry-out from March 23, 2020, closed casinos and racinos from March 13-14 to June 19, 2020 and reopened them under mandatory Responsible RestartOhio requirements including telework for every employee able to work remotely, and rescinded its orders June 2, 2021.73 Indiana's Gaming Commission closed every casino, racino and OTB from March 16, 2020, permitting reopening June 15, 2020 on approval of each casino's plan; Indiana closed campgrounds April 7, 2020, capped conventions at 250 and county caps at 250, 100, 50 and 25 from November 15, 2020 to April 5, 2021, and rescinded all directives June 30, 2021.74 Minnesota's Dial Back closed venues and prohibited gatherings from November 20, 2020 to January 10, 2021 and kept a telework mandate to April 14, 2021; Wisconsin's Emergency Order #12 required hotels to "Close swimming pools, hot tubs, and exercise facilities" and prohibited all non-essential travel to April 24, 2020, and Dane County and Milwaukee governed hotel events to June 2021; Iowa closed casinos from noon March 17 to June 1, 2020, closed hotel bars in six counties from August 27, 2020 and ended its business proclamations February 7, 2021; Missouri's Gaming Commission closed every riverboat casino from midnight March 17 to May 31, 2020; Kansas's health department kept a mandatory travel quarantine list from March 23, 2020 through at least November 18, 2021; North Dakota named hotels and rented lodging as places of confinement for arriving travelers from March 28 to September 21, 2020 and capped banquet venues at 25 and 50 percent from November 16, 2020 to January 18, 2021; Nebraska's directed health measures capped hotel conference rooms and banquet halls as gatherings from March 19, 2020 to May 24, 2021 and quarantined every international arrival from June 1 to September 13, 2020; South Dakota's municipalities closed hotel dining and Rapid City imposed enhanced room-cleaning rules.75
The West
Hawaii quarantined every arriving person from March 26, 2020 under threat of a $5,000 fine and a year in jail, quarantined interisland travel from April 1 to June 16, 2020 and again from August 11, 2020 to June 14, 2021, permitted hotels only "to the extent used for lodging and delivery or carry-out food services," created the Safe Travels test exception October 15, 2020 and the test-before-departure rule November 24, 2020, cut the quarantine to ten days December 17, 2020, added vaccination exceptions in May, June and July 2021, required every hotel operator to adopt, publish and file a COVID-19 Health and Safety Plan and to house guests who test positive, issued a new Emergency Proclamation August 5, 2021 and Executive Order 21-05 on August 10, 2021 (indoor gatherings capped at ten, outdoor at twenty-five, restaurant and bar spacing), and kept the statewide face-covering requirement, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor space enforced by each county, and the Safe Travels regime through 11:59 p.m. March 25, 2022.76 Nevada closed every gaming floor from 11:59 p.m. March 17, 2020 to June 4, 2020, permitted hotel-casinos to remain open only "to avoid guest displacement or for essential or emergency purposes," closed conventions and trade shows to the public until October 1, 2020 and then capped them at 250 or 50 percent under approved plans, closed bars and bar-top gaming in seven counties from July 10 to September 20, 2020, cut casinos and gatherings to 25 percent under the Statewide Pause from November 24, 2020, stepped to 35 and 50 percent in February and March 2021, enacted SB 4 and NAC chapter 447E imposing mandatory cleaning, screening, testing and inspection standards on every public accommodation in Clark and Washoe Counties, rescinded the Board's gaming-floor protocols June 1, 2021, and reinstated in the substantial- and high-transmission counties (Clark and Washoe among them) from 12:01 a.m. July 30, 2021, by Directive 047 and Gaming Control Board Notice 2021-71, universal indoor face coverings, an airborne-transmission control that every licensee was ordered to enforce on every employee, patron and guest and that sat atop the statutory cleaning, screening and testing standards of NAC chapter 447E.77 California confined lodging to essential purposes under the stay-home order from March 19, 2020 to June 15, 2021, closed meetings and conventions in every Blueprint tier until April 2021, barred hotel reservations for non-essential out-of-State travel under the Regional Stay at Home Order from December 6, 2020 to January 25, 2021, and from June 15, 2021 governed mega-events and face coverings, the exposure controls of the State Public Health Officer's order and CDPH guidance; Riverside County confined every short-term lodging facility to pandemic response and essential workers from March 27 to May 9, 2020 and forbade any owner or agent to market a rental; El Dorado County, the Lake Tahoe Basin, Santa Clara County and San Diego County did the same in their seasons.78 New Mexico capped lodging at 50, 25, 50, 75, 60 and 25 percent by public health order from March 19, 2020 through June 30, 2021, closed uncertified lodging to all but health-care, extended-stay and quarantine guests from November 16 to December 1, 2020, quarantined every arrival from July 1, 2020 under EO 2020-054 and its amendments, closed racetrack casinos and nonprofit gaming from March 19, 2020 to February and March 2021, and reinstated universal indoor face coverings August 20, 2021, adding that airborne-transmission control to the COVID-Safe Practices its June 30, 2021 order had made binding on every business.79 Washington counted hotels as residences under the stay-home order, prohibited "all business meetings and retail events" in venues from November 17, 2020, governed hotel meeting spaces and convention centers under Miscellaneous Venues requirements to June 30, 2021, quarantined arrivals from variant countries from December 21, 2020, and reinstated universal indoor face coverings August 23, 2021 as an exposure-control requirement on every indoor space, with a prohibition on any business admitting an unmasked person.80 Oregon closed campgrounds March 23 to May 5, 2020, closed venues in its highest county tier through the winter, rescinded its orders June 30, 2021 and reinstated indoor face coverings, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor space, August 13, 2021; Colorado closed casinos from 8:00 a.m. March 17, 2020, capped them under the Dial to April 16, 2021, and its mountain resort counties, Routt and Pitkin by the orders in the Library and others by parallel public health orders, barred new lodging guests and short-term rentals in March 2020; Utah's Southeast Utah Health Department barred lodging in Carbon, Emery and Grand Counties from checking in any non-resident guest from March 17 to May 1, 2020 and then closed hotel pools, meeting rooms and convention rooms and capped occupancy; Alaska quarantined every arrival from March 25, 2020 (fine up to $25,000) with the "hotel room or rented lodging" as the quarantine location and barred quarantining guests from "pools, meetings rooms, fitness centers or restaurants," a regime that ran in successive forms to February 14, 2021; Arizona permitted hotels only "to the extent used for lodging and delivery or carryout food services," quarantined tri-State air arrivals from April 9 to May 16, 2020 and closed hotel bars and gyms June 29, 2020; Idaho permitted hotels only to house exempt persons through April 30, 2020 and quarantined every entrant from April 15 to May 15, 2020; Montana and Wyoming quarantined every non-work arrival from March 30 and April 3, 2020 and required every hotel and short-term-rental listing to carry notice of the quarantine.81
The largest metros
The local instruments
New York City established quarantine checkpoints at its boundary crossings on August 5, 2020, required from August 21, 2020 that every hotel, motel, inn and short-term rental verify a completed Traveler Health Form before granting a room, renewed that rule every five days to May 22, 2021, and from August 17, 2021 conditioned entry to every indoor dining, fitness and entertainment premises, including hotel restaurants, bars, gyms and event spaces, on proof of vaccination under the Key to NYC program, with penalties from September 13, 2021 and restatements on August 25, September 14 and September 24, 2021.82 Los Angeles County closed bars, lounges, indoor dining, entertainment venues and cardrooms in successive Stage 3 orders, barred non-essential lodging and imposed a ten-day quarantine on arrivals under its Tier 1 order of December 30, 2020, reinstated universal indoor face coverings July 17, 2021 as an exposure-control requirement on every indoor public setting and business, required them at outdoor mega-events from August 20 and vaccination or a negative test for indoor mega-events of 1,000 or more from September 15, 2021, and on September 17, 2021 ordered vaccination verification at bars, breweries, wineries, nightclubs and lounges effective October 7; the City of Los Angeles enacted hotel-worker recall and retention ordinances on June 14, 2020.83 Chicago required short-term-rental intermediaries to report every reservation twice a week from May 8, 2020, quarantined arrivals from high-incidence States from July 6, 2020 to June 29, 2021, capped meetings and social events at ten from November 16, 2020, and reinstated indoor face coverings August 20, 2021, an exposure-control requirement enforced against the business by sanction up to closure, with Cook County following August 23.84 Hillsborough County confined hotels to Essential Lodgers from March 30, 2020; Tarrant County capped hotel meeting spaces at 50 percent or 125 persons from March 18, 2020; Riverside County confined short-term lodging to pandemic response from March 27 to May 9, 2020 and cancelled Coachella, Stagecoach and the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival by order in 2021; San Diego County barred non-essential lodging from December 6, 2020 to January 25, 2021 and the City of San Diego enacted a hotel-worker recall ordinance; Sacramento County did the same from December 10, 2020 to January 12, 2021 and reinstated indoor face coverings, an exposure-control requirement on every indoor public setting and workplace, July 30, 2021; Santa Clara County limited hotels to essential travel from November 30, 2020; San Francisco quarantined every arrival from outside the Bay Area from December 18, 2020, reinstated indoor face coverings August 3, 2021 as the first of its exposure-control conditions and, as the second, required proof of full vaccination for indoor dining, bars, gyms and large indoor events from August 20, 2021.85 Denver closed the Colorado Convention Center, Red Rocks and the Performing Arts Complex on March 13, 2020, required vaccination of personnel of listed entities from August 2, 2021, and Boulder County reinstated universal indoor face coverings, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public space, September 3, 2021; Detroit's health officer imposed masks, capacity and workplace rules on every open business from October 9, 2020, and Oakland County closed every public swimming pool including hotel pools from May 28, 2020; Summit County, Utah closed every resort, restaurant and bar on March 15, 2020 and expelled visitors by April 1; Orlando closed every City venue to public events on March 20, 2020 and the Orange County Convention Center cancelled its March-June 2020 calendar; New Orleans cancelled gatherings and closed reception venues from March 17, 2020, restricted Mardi Gras 2021, reinstated indoor face coverings July 31, 2021 and, as the second of its exposure-control conditions, required proof of vaccination or a negative test for entry to indoor establishments from August 16, 2021; Honolulu implemented Safe Access O'ahu (proof of vaccination or a negative test for restaurants, bars, gyms and venues) from September 13, 2021, the Safe O'ahu Response Plan from September 22 (indoor and outdoor events closed; restaurants and bars at 50 percent with 10:00 p.m. liquor service cutoffs) and Maui's Safer Outside rules from September 15, 2021; Philadelphia's Full Reopening Order bound every business from June 15, 2021 and its indoor face-covering mandate, an exposure-control requirement placed on every business operating in the City, returned August 12, 2021; Boston required face coverings in every place open to the public from August 27, 2021, an airborne-transmission control placed on the premises of every business, as did St. Louis City and County from July 26, 2021, Savannah from July 26 and again August 24, 2021 with a fifty-person cap on gatherings on City property, Kansas City from August 2, 2021, Madison and Dane County from August 19, 2021 and Montgomery County, Maryland from August 7, 2021; and Bexar County and Harris County directed masking and quarantine in schools from August 10 and 12, 2021.86 King County issued its Verification of Vaccination Order on September 16, 2021 with entry rules effective October 25, and Clark County, Nevada required face coverings of every employee from July 22, 2021 as a workplace exposure-control measure atop the statutory cleaning, screening and testing standards of NAC chapter 447E.87
The sector regulators
The gaming regulators
The Nevada Gaming Control Board enforced the Governor's shutdown on every licensee ("All gaming devices, machines, tables, games, and any equipment related to gaming activity must be shut down until 11:59pm on April 30, 2020"), conditioned reopening on June 4, 2020 on its Health and Safety Policies, added face coverings at table games June 17 and throughout the gaming floor June 26, 2020 to those policies' screening, distancing, position-removal and cleaning conditions, implemented the Statewide Pause at 25 percent, rescinded the gaming-floor protocols June 1, 2021 and imposed the face-covering requirement again from July 30, 2021 as a condition of the license.88 New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement suspended every casino and retail sports-wagering operation on March 16, 2020, adopted the Casino Association's protocols as the "baseline and minimum standards that each Atlantic City casino is required to meet or exceed in order to reopen," and reinstated certificates of operation from 6:00 a.m. July 2, 2020 "provided ... that they comply, and remain in compliance, with Executive Order Nos. 157 and 158."89 The Massachusetts Gaming Commission suspended operations at Encore, MGM Springfield and Plainridge Park from 5:59 a.m. March 15, 2020, reopened them July 6, 2020 under Minimum Requirements (three players per blackjack table; no craps, roulette or poker; no valet, coat check, promotions or events), restored roulette October 8 and craps March 11, 2021, and rescinded the orders 12:01 a.m. May 29, 2021 on conditions.90 The Louisiana Gaming Control Board's Orders 1 through 30 ran from March 16, 2020 through the third quarter of 2021 and beyond, including Order No. 24 of April 29, 2021 (distancing "in all areas of each property including the designated gaming area, lobbies, waiting areas, food and beverage facilities, customer queueing areas, all amenity areas and all back of house areas"), Order No. 27 of August 4, 2021 (face coverings on every employee and every entrant, added to the Board's distancing and screening conditions) and Order No. 29 of September 22, 2021 (forbearance of employment conditions "until patron admissions for any three-month period ... reaches the admission level for the same three-month period of 2019"), and its Chairman's letter of August 11, 2020, an announcement implementing the Board's emergency orders and cited as such, called on each casino to designate a COVID-19 Response Liaison.91 The Mississippi Gaming Commission closed every licensed casino at midnight March 16, 2020 and reopened them May 21, 2020 at 50 percent with entry screening and no entertainment, tournaments or promotions; the Missouri Gaming Commission closed every riverboat casino from midnight March 17 to May 31, 2020; the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board announced that the casinos would conclude gaming by 6:00 a.m. March 17, 2020 under the Governor's closure order of March 19, 2020 (the announcement is cited as context; the order is Ex. PA-004) and reopened them from June 9, 2020 under its protocols; the Michigan Gaming Control Board approved the Detroit casinos' reopening at 15 percent on June 8, 2020; the Ohio Casino Control Commission's Responsible RestartOhio requirements bound casinos and racinos from June 19, 2020; the Illinois Gaming Board's notices and the New Mexico Gaming Control Board's cessation notice of March 19, 2020 did the same work in their States.92
The alcohol, lodging and health regulators
Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation suspended on-premises alcohol sales at every vendor deriving more than half its revenue from alcohol from June 26, 2020, amended the order July 1, 2020 to reach vendors "not licensed to offer food service" and to forbid nightclubs, and rescinded it effective September 14, 2020; it also administered the vacation-rental suspension and the county reopening plans.93 Connecticut's Department of Economic and Community Development issued the Sector Rules for Hotels and Lodging (June 17, 2020; July 20, 2020; December 11, 2020), "legally binding and enforceable" under EO 7ZZ, with a 50 percent capacity limit for most businesses and mandatory closing times.94 New Hampshire's Lodging Reopening Guidance (mandatory under Emergency Orders #40 and #52) capped rooms at 50 percent and required the out-of-State guest's quarantine attestation; New Jersey's Department of Health directed hotel sanitization and front-desk staffing under P.L. 2020, c. 37; Rhode Island's Department of Health governed Lodging Operations by regulation to August 31, 2021; Nevada's SB 4 and NAC chapter 447E imposed cleaning, screening, testing and inspection standards on every public accommodation in Clark and Washoe Counties from August 31, 2020.95 The State parks and wildlife agencies closed campgrounds, lodges and commercial tour permits, and their releases record the closures: Hawaii's DLNR announced on March 20, 2020 that it had suspended every commercial ocean and trail tour permit; Washington's agencies announced that recreation lands would reopen May 5, 2020 for local day use with "Visitor centers, camping, and other overnight accommodations" closed under the Governor's proclamations; and California State Parks announced the re-closure of State campgrounds in December 2020 under the Regional Stay at Home Order (Ex. CA-020). The releases are cited as the agencies' accounts of those actions, not as orders.96
The federal transportation and maritime regulators
The Coast Guard's MSIB 02-20, in Changes 3 through 7 (March 16, 2020 to May 5, 2021 and through the third quarter of 2021), announced the reporting and infection-control requirements that 33 C.F.R. § 160.216 and the Captain of the Port orders imposed on every vessel arriving at a United States port, including the confinement of crews aboard; its Seventh District bulletin of March 29, 2020 announced that foreign passenger vessels were required to increase medical capability because "Medical facilities in the Port of Miami ... are no longer accepting MEDEVAC patients"; PortMiami's release recorded the cessation of sailings and the waiver of lay-berth fees from March 13, 2020; and MSIB 02-21 and its Changes 1 through 3 carried the conveyance order's airborne-transmission controls into every maritime conveyance and hub from February 1, 2021. The bulletins and releases are cited as the agencies' accounts of the regime the orders imposed, not as orders.97 The FAA's slot waivers, the Department of Transportation's minimum-service orders of April 7, 2020, January 15, 2021 and April 29, 2021, its order of June 3, 2020 on the Chinese carriers, the FRA's Emergency Order 32 and the Port of Seattle's and Greater Orlando Aviation Authority's face-covering policies, the airport operators' exposure controls on tenants and concessionaires, were the aviation and surface layer.98
The counterparties
Orders on the industry's counterparties
The convention centers closed by order or by the orders' gathering bans: the Javits Center held "no events since March 10th" and became a medical station and emergency warehouse; McCormick Place "had been closed since March of 2020" and, as the Authority's release records, reopened only in July 2021; the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center became the 1,000-bed Boston Hope facility in April 2020 and hosted no public convention until September 3, 2021; the Pennsylvania Convention Center closed from March 2020 to June 2021; the Orange County Convention Center cancelled its March-June 2020 calendar; the Colorado Convention Center was ordered "ACCESS RESTRICTED" on March 13, 2020.99 The courts suspended jury trials and confined proceedings: the Supreme Court of Texas's Thirty-Eighth and Fortieth Emergency Orders ran through the third quarter of 2021, and its Forty-Third, issued September 21, 2021, took effect October 1; the Hawaii Supreme Court postponed all jury trials on August 16 and September 29, 2021; the Central District of California's Chief Judge's orders activated continuity operations and required face coverings of every person entering its courthouses as one of its access and exposure controls.100 The schools closed in the spring of 2020 in every State and, in the third quarter of 2021, operated under face-covering and quarantine directives that governed the workforce's children (New Jersey EO 251; Harris County; Bexar County; the Hawaii DOH guidance, cited as such; the Navajo Nation's Safe Schools Framework).101 The transit agencies placed the commuting workforce under the federal order's airborne-transmission controls and their own rules, and the MTA imposed a $50 fine.102 The landlords and lenders operated under the moratoria.103
The ecosystem
The mechanisms
The interconnected economy reached this industry through six mechanisms, each carried by an order: the border and entry mechanism (the proclamations, land-border notices, funneling notices and inbound testing order removed the foreign guest and the Canadian and Mexican day visitor from March 2020 to November 8, 2021); the travel-quarantine mechanism (the quarantines of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Alaska, New Mexico, Kansas, Chicago, the District of Columbia, San Francisco and Santa Clara made the trip itself the thing the order forbade or burdened); the gathering mechanism (the caps and venue closures cancelled the convention, the wedding and the tour group); the cruise mechanism (the No Sail and Conditional Sailing Orders removed the pre- and post-cruise hotel night in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Port Canaveral, Galveston, New Orleans, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego and Honolulu, and Providence barred cruise vessels from its port November 22, 2020); the workforce mechanism (stay-at-home orders, school closures, quarantine directives, the transit exposure controls and the visa suspension); and the counterparty mechanism (the closed convention center, the closed casino next door, the closed attraction, the cancelled festival and the suspended court calendar).104 Foreign orders (the Canadian and Mexican border closures from their side, the European and Asian departure restrictions) are treated as facts and circumstances by category, not as the orders of an appropriate governmental authority.
The standing duties
Beneath the emergency orders lay a fourth layer that bound every employer in this industry on every day of the six quarters whether or not any order named it: the standing statutes that commanded every person to prevent and control communicable disease and every employer to furnish a safe and healthful workplace, the offense provisions that punished disobedience of health and emergency orders, the sanitary codes enforced by summary closure, and the liability shields that protected only the business that complied with governmental standards, guidance and protocols; each is an order from an appropriate governmental authority on the Suspension Clause's own terms, and the pandemic directives gave each its content.105 The eight principal States are set out here; the fifty-one-State table is on the site's standing duties page.
First, the orders let a hotel, restaurant, casino or venue operate only on conditions, and the verbs are commands. Texas: "Every business establishment in Texas shall operate at no more than 50 percent of the total listed occupancy."106 Delaware: "all businesses that permit customers onto their premises shall also comply with the following restrictions."107 Arizona: any business that "serves the public or is an employer shall develop, establish, implement and enforce policies that adopt guidance from" the CDC, the Department of Labor, OSHA and ADHS.108 Florida: restaurants "may serve patrons at indoor seating so long as they limit indoor occupancy up to fifty (50) percent of their seating capacity."109 Ohio: "Businesses must require all employees to wear facial coverings."110 Wisconsin: "To the greatest extent feasible, Essential Businesses and Operations shall comply with Social Distancing Requirements."111 Nevada: "All employers shall require employees who interact with the public to wear face coverings, to the maximum extent possible."112 Missouri: "every person and business in the State of Missouri shall abide by social distancing requirements."113 An order clause written in "should," or converted to a recommendation (Texas, March 10, 2021; Arizona, March 25, 2021; Nevada's distancing clause, May 1, 2021), is recorded as a recommendation; from those dates the compulsion rests on the standing statutes, the shields and the federal duty.114
Second, standing law commanded the same conduct before any order issued. 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." (Ex. DUT-TX-001.) Behind it stand the control-measure orders and offenses of chapter 81 and Labor Code section 411.103, under which "Each employer shall" provide "a place of employment that is reasonably safe and healthful," use "methods of sanitation and hygiene" and "take all other actions reasonably necessary."115 Ohio makes it an offense for any person "having charge of a public conveyance or place of public accommodation, amusement, resort, or trade" to "negligently fail to take reasonable measures to protect the public from exposure to the contagion," and its frequenter statute imposes a safe-place duty on every employer.116 Wisconsin's safe-place statute commands every employer to furnish a place of employment "safe for employees therein and for frequenters thereof" and to "do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect the life, health, safety, and welfare" of each.117 Nevada requires that hotel "lobbies and other portions or appurtenances of hotels used by tenants shall be kept in a clean and sanitary condition."118 Florida binds every public lodging and food-service establishment through chapter 509 on pain of fine and license suspension, and makes violation of "any requirement adopted by the department pursuant to a declared public health emergency" a second-degree misdemeanor.119 Arizona commands that law enforcement "shall enforce orders issued by the governor" and makes knowing refusal to obey one a class 1 misdemeanor.120 Delaware punishes violation of any emergency order with $50 to $500 or six months "for each violation."121 Missouri's department "shall make and enforce adequate orders" against communicable disease, whose violation is a class A misdemeanor, and section 292.300 commands every employer to "adopt and provide approved and effective devices, means or methods for the prevention of such industrial or occupational diseases."122 Over all eight lay the general duty clause: "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," which OSHA measured against the CDC's guidelines from April 13, 2020, enforced by citation from September 2020 and saw affirmed in 2022 as a willful violation against a tax office that refused masks and distancing.123
Third, the legislatures fixed the standard of care as compliance. Texas protects a business from an exposure claim commenced on or after March 13, 2020 unless the claimant proves it "knowingly failed to implement or comply with government-promulgated standards, guidance, or protocols intended to lower the likelihood of exposure to the disease."124 Arizona presumes good faith, retroactively to March 10, 2020, only for a business that "adopted and implemented reasonable policies related to the public health pandemic."125 Florida immunizes only a defendant that "made a good faith effort to substantially comply with authoritative or controlling government-issued health standards or guidance."126 Nevada immunizes an entity only "[i]f the entity was in substantial compliance with controlling health standards."127 Ohio, Wisconsin and Missouri set culpability floors without a compliance clause, stated here as their texts read: Ohio's Am. Sub. H.B. 606 provides that a government order, recommendation or guideline "shall neither create nor be construed as creating a duty of care," leaving Ohio's compulsion to R.C. 3701.352, 3701.81(C) and 4101.11 and the orders' own conditions; Wisconsin's 2021 Act 4 yields only to "reckless or wanton conduct or intentional misconduct"; Missouri's took effect August 28, 2021.128 Delaware enacted no business shield; its ordinary standard of care stood. The premise is the same in every form: compliance with governmental health standards is what a business owed. A hotel that capped its rooms, closed its pool, screened its housekeepers and masked its front desk was not choosing; it was complying, and the command reached it from order, statute and shield at once.