The governmental orders by layer
The orders that reached this industry came from every layer of government the Suspension Clause admits: the President and the federal agencies; the governors, State health officers and State boards of health; the State supreme courts and corrections departments; the mayors, county judges and local health officers of the largest metropolitan areas; the school boards and licensing agencies; the tribal governments; the territorial governors; and the courts. This section inventories them by layer and states, for each layer, what the orders said about worship, schools, events, food and shelter, visitation, offices and the workforce. The State pages and metro pages of the Library carry every jurisdiction's instruments with dates and exhibit identifiers.
The universe
The COVID Analysis and Mapping of Policies project coded more than 20,000 national- and State-level COVID-19 policies for the fifty States, Puerto Rico and Guam between January 2020 and June 2022, 95 percent of them issued before November 23, 2021, together with approximately 8,000 county policies.14 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, and "most jurisdictions issued multiple orders."15 The Council of State Governments counted 2,065 executive orders of governors and State agencies between February and June 29, 2020.16 The Department of Health and Human Services' policy-order dataset carries 4,218 entries, 1,707 State and 2,511 county, for the period March 23, 2020 to August 31, 2021, and its curation ended in the spring of 2021, so that it is a floor for 2020 and no measure of 2021.17 On July 2, 2021, thirty-five States had emergency declarations in force and nine had statewide face-covering requirements; on September 21, 2021, twenty-five States had emergency declarations and eleven had statewide face-covering requirements.18 The Library indexes each instrument cited on this site with its issuer, dates, operative words and grade, and is cited for what each exhibit says, not for its count.
The federal layer
The second quarter of 2020
The President declared a national emergency on March 13, 2020 and, the same day, the Bureau of Prisons suspended social, legal and volunteer visits, inmate transfers and staff travel at every federal institution for thirty days, renewing the suspension in thirty-day phases and restricting contractor access to "those performing essential services (e.g. medical or mental health care, religious, etc.)"; in-person social visiting did not resume, under plexiglass, distancing and capacity limits, until October 3, 2020.19 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services directed every nursing home on March 13, 2020 to restrict all visitors and non-essential personnel except for compassionate-care situations, and its successor memoranda kept screening, testing and outbreak-suspension conditions on visitation in force through the third quarter of 2021.20 The Department of Veterans Affairs announced a "No Visitor" stance at every VA nursing home on March 10, 2020 and, from March 23, 2020, the discontinuance of committal services and military funeral honors at every national cemetery with witnesses limited to ten family members; the Department's announcements are cited as its own statements of the restrictions it imposed on its facilities, facts and circumstances of the period, and not as orders.21 The Families First Coronavirus Response Act compelled paid leave from April 1 to December 31, 2020 for every employee under a quarantine order or caring for a child whose school or place of care an order had closed.22 The President invoked the Defense Production Act to prioritize and allocate health and medical resources and to prevent hoarding, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services designated scarce materials, including the masks and sanitizer that every congregation and pantry needed to reopen.23 The Social Security Administration announced the closure of every local office to the public from March 17, 2020, a closure that ran to April 7, 2022; the announcement is cited as the agency's statement of that fact and not as an order.24 The Attorney General directed every United States Attorney on April 27, 2020 "to be on the lookout for state and local directives that could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens," a federal instrument that presupposes the existence and force of the State orders limiting religious gatherings.25 The entry proclamations of January 31 and February 29, 2020 suspended the entry of persons who had been in China and Iran, and the Department of State suspended routine visa services worldwide on March 20, 2020, including the R-1 religious-worker visas on which foreign clergy and religious orders depend.26 The Department of Agriculture's nationwide child-nutrition waivers under section 2202 of the Families First Act, in use for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, changed how every parochial school and church-run summer program served meals.27
The third and fourth quarters of 2020
The Bureau of Prisons' modified operations, the CMS visitation conditions, the FFCRA leave mandate and the entry proclamations continued; CMS added the nursing-home testing rule of September 2, 2020 and the visitation memorandum of September 17, 2020; the President directed the CDC on August 8, 2020 to consider measures to halt residential evictions, and the CDC ordered a nationwide halt in residential evictions from September 4, 2020, extended by Congress through January 31, 2021; the Department of State resumed visa services only post by post from July 15, 2020; and Proclamation 10052 suspended the entry of H-1B, L-1, J and H-2B workers from June 24 through December 31, 2020, extended to March 31, 2021.28
The first and second quarters of 2021
Executive Order 13991 (January 20, 2021) required masks and distancing of "on-site Federal contractors; and all persons in Federal buildings"; Executive Order 13998 directed the face-covering requirement for travel; the CDC's order of January 29, 2021 required every person to wear a mask on every conveyance and at every transportation hub from 11:59 p.m. on February 1, 2021 "until further notice," an airborne-transmission control that also required every conveyance operator to refuse boarding to, and to disembark, non-compliant persons, and the Transportation Security Administration's security directives enforced it on every airport, bus, rail and transit system in the country; Proclamations 10143 and 10199 continued and expanded the entry suspensions; the CDC required a negative test of every arriving air passenger from January 26, 2021.29 The Department of Homeland Security continued the land-border restrictions with Canada and Mexico in monthly notifications.30 CMS revised its nursing-home visitation memorandum on April 27, 2021, keeping outbreak-testing and screening conditions in force, and on May 21, 2021 required every long-term-care facility to report staff and resident vaccination status.31 The CDC extended its eviction moratorium on June 24, 2021 through July 31, 2021.32 OSHA's Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard took effect June 21, 2021 and reached every hospital, nursing home, home-health agency and hospice, including those operated by religious orders and denominations.33 The TSA's Security Directive 1582/84-21-01A took effect May 12, 2021.34
The third quarter of 2021
The quarters section states the quarter in full. In summary: the CDC conveyance order and the TSA directives were in force on every day (SD 1582/84-21-01A to September 13; SD 1582/84-21-01B from September 14 to January 18, 2022); the CDC's eviction moratorium ran to July 31 and its successor order of August 3 to August 26, 2021, when the Supreme Court vacated the stay; the CMS visitation conditions, the OSHA Healthcare ETS and its inspection directive, the entry proclamations and the land-border notifications were in force throughout; Executive Order 14042 of September 9, 2021 directed vaccination clauses into federal contracts, reaching the faith-based and nonprofit contractors that run Head Start, refugee, housing and human-service programs; the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force reinstated face coverings in every federal building on July 29, 2021, together with its vaccination-attestation and meeting-size conditions; the Department of Veterans Affairs required vaccination of its Title 38 personnel from July 26, 2021 and of "volunteers and contractors who work in VHA facilities, visit VHA facilities or otherwise come into contact with VA patients" from August 13, 2021, reaching every volunteer chaplaincy in the VA system; and the Bureau of Prisons' modified operations continued.35
The fifty States
The industry's regime
In every State and the District of Columbia the industry's operation was reached in the same sequence. First, between March 12 and April 6, 2020, a gathering ban of 250, 100, 50 or 10 persons in every State but South Dakota and North Dakota, whose March and April orders closed venues and directed local governments and enclosed retail businesses to restrict gatherings of ten (Ex. SEC-16-088; Ex. SEC-16-089), with the ban in at least thirty-nine jurisdictions naming religious, spiritual, faith-based or worship gatherings in terms and in the rest reaching them by its generality; second, between March 19 and April 7, 2020, a stay-at-home or closure order that in at least twenty-five States made no exception for worship or confined it to video and teleconference, that named "religious and secular nonprofit organizations" among covered entities, that closed every school and confined child care to essential workers' children, and that ordered every business and not-for-profit to telework; third, from May through July 2020, reopening orders that capped worship at ten, twenty-five, fifty or one hundred persons or at 25 to 50 percent of capacity, required distancing between households, prohibited or restricted singing, and conditioned every reopened function on a written protocol; fourth, in the Northeast, the West Coast, the upper Midwest, Colorado, Kentucky and Nevada, a winter re-tightening between October 2020 and March 2021 that cut the caps to ten, twenty-five or 25 percent, re-closed schools and prohibited events; and fifth, a stepped expiry of the worship caps between December 7, 2020 (Colorado) and June 30, 2021 (Washington and Oregon), with statewide face-covering and other exposure-control orders, school orders and emergencies continuing thereafter. The State pages of the Library carry every jurisdiction with dates and exhibit identifiers; this subsection states the analysis by region.
The Northeast
Connecticut prohibited gatherings of fifty "as well as religious, spiritual or worship gatherings of such size" on March 16, 2020, cut the limit to five on March 26, raised worship to 25 percent or one hundred indoors and one hundred fifty outdoors on May 29, 2020, to 50 percent or two hundred on October 8, back to 50 percent or one hundred on November 6, extended every order through February 9 and then April 19, 2021, lifted the caps on March 19, 2021 and repealed the worship section on May 20, 2021.36 New Jersey cancelled "Gatherings of individuals, such as parties, celebrations, or other social events" and ordered every resident home on March 21, 2020, permitted indoor gatherings of 25 percent or fifty on June 9, 2020 with a recital that "certain gatherings - including religious services and political activity - are particularly important to the functioning of the State," held religious gatherings at 25 percent or one hundred fifty from September 4, 2020, kept them at 25 percent or one hundred fifty while cutting other indoor gatherings to ten on November 17, 2020, raised them to 35 percent on February 5 (Executive Order 219) and 50 percent on March 1, 2021 (Executive Order 225), restated with a floor of twenty-five persons on March 19 (Executive Order 230), and lifted the percentage caps effective May 28, 2021 and the last indoor gathering limits effective June 4, 2021 (Executive Order 242, signed May 24); its telework mandate ran to June 4, 2021 (Executive Order 243) and its public health emergency ended June 4, 2021.37 New York cancelled "Non-essential gatherings of individuals of any size for any reason" on March 23, 2020, reduced every non-essential in-person workforce to zero, permitted religious gatherings of ten on May 21, worship at 25 percent on June 6 and 33 percent thereafter, imposed the cluster caps of 25 percent or ten and 33 percent or twenty-five on October 6, 2020, kept its mandatory religious-services guidance at 50 percent into 2021, and lifted its capacity limits on June 15 and its emergency on June 24, 2021.38 Massachusetts capped gatherings at 250, then 25, then 10 in March 2020, reopened places of worship on May 18, 2020 only under mandatory workplace safety rules, capped indoor gatherings at 25 from July 6, 2020, cut outdoor gatherings to 50 on August 11 (Order No. 46), cut gatherings to 10 indoors and 25 outdoors at residences on November 6 (Order No. 54) and at venues on December 13, 2020 (Order No. 57), held every venue including worship at 25 percent from December 26, 2020 to February 8, 2021, and rescinded its general orders on May 29, 2021.39 Pennsylvania closed every non-life-sustaining business on March 19, 2020, ordered every resident of the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh counties home on March 23, capped gatherings at 25 in the yellow phase and 250 in the green phase (worship exempt from the fixed-number cap but not from the face-covering and distancing requirements, the exposure-control conditions the phase orders attached to every gathering), capped indoor events by a percentage-of-occupancy calculator from October 9, 2020, ordered every business to telework "unless impossible," imposed workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements (face coverings, employee screening and visitor bans) and cut indoor gatherings to 10 percent and outdoor gatherings to 15 percent of maximum occupancy on November 27, 2020, cut them to ten and fifty persons from December 12, 2020 to January 4, 2021, raised them to 15 and 20 percent on March 1, 2021, and ended its mitigation orders on May 31, 2021 and its statewide face-covering order, the last of its airborne-transmission controls on indoor public places, on June 28, 2021.40 Rhode Island named "places of worship" in its March 28, 2020 orders, reopened worship at 66 percent on June 30, cut social gatherings to ten on October 30, worship to 50 percent on November 8 and to 25 percent from November 30, 2020 (the Pause, carried at 25 percent from December 21), raised it to 40 percent on February 25 and 80 percent on May 7, 2021, and lifted the caps on May 21, 2021.41 Maine capped "faith-based events" at ten on March 18, 2020, reached "any for-profit, non-profit" entity on March 24, permitted worship of fifty on June 1, 2020, 50 percent or one hundred seated from October 13 (Executive Order 14 FY 20/21, issued October 6), fifty indoors on November 4, five per thousand square feet or fifty on February 12, 2021 and 50 percent on March 26, and lifted the caps on May 24, 2021.42 New Hampshire, Vermont and Delaware followed the same pattern: New Hampshire permitted worship at 40 percent from May 22, 2020 under mandatory guidelines, ended its statewide face-covering mandate, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public space, on April 16, 2021, its mandatory business guidelines and travel quarantine May 7, 2021 (Emergency Order #90), and its emergency June 11, 2021; Vermont ordered "all businesses and not-for-profit entities in the state" to telecommute on March 23, 2020, capped gatherings at 250, 50, 10, 25 and then a single household through the winter, and lifted its limits on June 14, 2021; Delaware permitted worship at 30 percent from May 20, 2020, over 250 only by plan from September 4, cut worship to 30 percent or ten on December 14, 2020 and 50 percent or twenty-five on February 19, 2021, and lifted its caps on May 21, 2021.43
The Mid-Atlantic and the District of Columbia
Maryland capped gatherings at 250, 50 and 10 between March 12 and 19, 2020, ordered every resident home on March 30, permitted worship at 50 percent from May 15, 75 percent from September 4 and 50 percent again from November 20, 2020, lifted the worship cap on March 12, 2021, and terminated eighteen of its orders on July 1, 2021 and the remaining fourteen orders and the state of emergency itself on August 15, 2021 (Order 21-06-15-01).44 The District of Columbia capped gatherings at fifty, then ten, ordered residents home on March 30, 2020, permitted worship at 50 percent or one hundred in Phase Two, cut it to 50 percent or fifty on November 23 and 25 percent or two hundred fifty on December 16, 2020, and lifted its capacity limits on May 21, 2021; the District Court's opinion in Capitol Hill Baptist Church v. Bowser recites the sequence and enjoined the outdoor-worship limit on October 9, 2020.45 Virginia banned gatherings of ten "including ... religious ... events" on March 23, 2020, ordered residents home on March 30, held gatherings at 50, then 250, then 25, exempted worship from the ten-person cap of Executive Order 72 only on the exposure-control conditions of distancing and face coverings, and lifted its restrictions on May 28, 2021.46 West Virginia designated "religious gatherings" essential while capping other gatherings at ten on March 23, 2020, held gatherings at 100, then 25, then 10 by county color code, imposed a statewide face-covering order, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public place, and ended its general restrictions on April 20 and June 20, 2021.47
The South
Kentucky prohibited "all mass gatherings," expressly including "faith-based" events, on March 19, 2020, ordered residents home on March 25, permitted worship at 33 percent from May 20, cut gatherings to ten on July 20, 2020 while providing that public-facing businesses "must comply" with the capacity and distancing orders, closed every public and private school to in-person instruction from November 23, 2020, kept every middle and high school remote to January 4, 2021 and permitted elementary schools to reopen from December 7 only outside Red Zone counties, tightened again on November 20, 2020, and lifted its capacity rules on June 11, 2021; its school and child-care face-covering order of August 10, 2021 (Executive Order 2021-585), an airborne-transmission control on every classroom and child-care room in the State, ran until the General Assembly's House Joint Resolution 1 took effect on September 7, 2021, and the Board of Education's and the Cabinet's emergency regulations of August 12, 2021 ran until Senate Bill 1 of the Special Session nullified them on September 9, 2021.48 North Carolina's Executive Order 121 of March 27, 2020 named "Religious entities" and "religious and secular not-for-profit organizations, including food banks" among covered entities and made religious facilities "subject to" its mass-gathering limits; the State held gatherings at 10 and 25, then 25 and 50, then 10 and 50 through the winter, and ended its general restrictions on May 14, 2021, with an emergency in force through August 15, 2022.49 Louisiana capped crowds at 250, 50 and 10, ordered residents home on March 22, 2020, held churches and faith-based organizations to 75 percent of total occupancy with six feet between households and lobbies closed while cutting other indoor crowds to seventy-five in its Modified Phase Two (Proclamation 168 JBE 2020, § (4)(a), (c), (e), November 24, 2020, effective November 25), imposed a statewide face-covering order from July 13, 2020 to April 28, 2021, ended its general restrictions on May 26, 2021, and reinstated universal indoor face coverings statewide, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public place, by Proclamation 137 JBE 2021 from August 4 to October 27, 2021.50 Mississippi capped gatherings at ten on March 24, 2020, ordered residents home on April 1, held gatherings at 20 and 50, then 10 and 50 with religious services excepted, and ended its general orders on March 3, 2021.51 Alabama capped gatherings at 25 on March 19 and 10 on March 28, 2020, ordered residents home on April 4, imposed employer duties and, from July 16, 2020, a statewide face-covering order, together the workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements of its Safer at Home orders, and ended its Safer Apart order on May 31, 2021.52 Georgia capped gatherings at ten unless six feet apart on March 24, 2020, ordered every resident to shelter in place on April 3, provided in terms that "No business, establishment, corporation, non-profit corporation, organization, or county or municipal government shall allow more than ten (10) persons to be gathered at a single location," held gatherings at 25 from June 1 and 50 from June 16, 2020 to April 7, 2021, and suspended enforcement of every local order that "conflicts, varies, or differs" from its own from April 3, 2020.53 Tennessee capped gatherings at ten on March 22, 2020, ordered residents home on March 31 while permitting "Visiting a place of worship or attending a wedding or funeral" as an essential activity, provided on April 28, 2020 that no local entity "shall issue an order or measure regarding places of worship," capped indoor gatherings at ten from December 20, 2020 to January 19, 2021 (Executive Order 70), with the spectator ban and remaining provisions carried to January 31, 2021 (Executive Orders 74 and 75), and ended its orders on April 28, 2021.54 Texas's Executive Order GA-09 of March 22, 2020 prohibited "elective medical, surgical, and dental procedures" and GA-14 of March 31 ordered every person to minimize gatherings, treated religious services as essential "conducted consistent with" federal guidance, and superseded local orders that conflicted with it; GA-29 exempted worship from the statewide face-covering order, the airborne-transmission control it imposed on every other indoor venue, while capping every other venue; GA-34 lifted the State's caps on March 10, 2021 and barred local face-covering mandates; GA-38 of July 29, 2021 consolidated the bar, and the State's disaster declaration was renewed monthly through the third quarter of 2021.55 Florida's Safer at Home order of April 1, 2020 ran to May 4, its gathering ban of ten from April 3 to May 4, and its Executive Order 20-92 superseded conflicting local orders; Executive Order 21-102 (May 3, 2021) suspended every local COVID-19 mandate, the statute signed the same day (Chapter 2021-8) with Executive Order 21-101 voided local emergency orders from July 1, 2021, and the State's emergency ended June 26, 2021.56 South Carolina, Arkansas and Oklahoma capped gatherings and closed businesses in March and April 2020 (Arkansas naming "places of worship" in Executive Order 20-13; Oklahoma's Fourth Amended Executive Order 2020-07 of March 24, 2020 prohibiting "Social gatherings of more than ten people" and barring nursing-home visitation in its ¶ 21); the three States then imposed airborne-transmission controls of differing reach: Arkansas required every person in the State to wear a face covering from July 20, 2020 to March 31, 2021; South Carolina required face coverings in restaurants, State buildings and every capped gathering venue from August 3, 2020 to March 5, 2021; Oklahoma required face coverings on State property from November 17, 2020 to March 12, 2021 while Tulsa, Norman, Stillwater and Oklahoma City imposed general face-covering ordinances, the same class of control, from July 2020 to dates between April 30 and June 1, 2021; and the three States ended their general orders between March 1 and June 7, 2021.57
The Midwest
Ohio's Director's Order of March 22, 2020 stayed every person home, covered "any for-profit, non-profit, or educational entities, regardless of the nature of the service, the function it performs, or its corporate or entity structure," permitted religious gatherings and charitable services under its exemptions only on conditions, confined food provided by "schools and other entities" to "a pick-up and takeaway basis," imposed a statewide face-covering order, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public place, from July 23, 2020 to June 2, 2021, held gatherings to April 5, 2021 and rescinded its health orders on June 2, 2021.58 Illinois stayed every resident home on March 21, 2020, prohibited "any gathering of more than ten people" while permitting "the free exercise of religion, provided that such exercise must comply with Social Distancing Requirements and the limit on gatherings of more than ten people" (April 30, 2020), made the ten-person limit a recommendation for worship on May 29, 2020, held gatherings at fifty in Phase 4, cut them again in Tier 3 from November 20, 2020, reached Phase 5 on June 11, 2021, and reinstated statewide indoor face coverings from August 30, 2021 as workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements, with vaccination-or-testing conditions on health-care, school and State workers in the same order, and imposed school face coverings, the same class of control, from August 4, 2021.59 Michigan stayed residents home on March 23, 2020, capped gatherings at 10 and 100 from June 1, 2020, re-closed through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services' orders from October 5, 2020 after the Supreme Court of Michigan's decision of October 2, 2020, and rescinded its orders on June 22, 2021.60 Minnesota stayed residents home on March 25, 2020, prohibited gatherings over ten on May 18, permitted worship at 25 percent or two hundred fifty from May 26, 2020 (Executive Order 20-62) and 50 percent or two hundred fifty from June 10, 2020 (Executive Order 20-74), closed venues and prohibited social gatherings on November 20, 2020 while holding the worship cap, and ended its general orders on May 27 and 28, 2021 and its peacetime emergency on July 1, 2021.61 Wisconsin's Emergency Order #12 of March 24, 2020 named "Weddings, funerals, and religious entities" and "religious and secular nonprofit organizations, including ... food banks and food pantries" and confined religious gatherings to fewer than ten per room; the Supreme Court of Wisconsin held Emergency Order 28 unenforceable on May 13, 2020; the State's face-covering order, an airborne-transmission control on every enclosed public space, ran from August 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 and its 25 percent capacity order from October 8 to November 6, 2020; local orders governed thereafter.62 Indiana stayed residents home on March 23, 2020, imposed county-tiered gathering caps of 250, 100, 50 and 25 from November 15, 2020, and lifted them on April 6, 2021.63 Iowa prohibited "Social, community, spiritual, religious, recreational, leisure, and sporting gatherings and events of more than 10 people" on March 17, 2020, "including but not limited to parades, festivals, conventions, and fundraisers," lifted the ten-person gathering prohibition on May 27, 2020 while binding every establishment to mandatory distancing rules to February 6, 2021, imposed telework and face-covering requirements in the winter of 2020-21, workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements that ran beside those distancing rules, and ended its general orders on February 7, 2021.64 Kansas capped gatherings at ten from March 25 to May 3, 2020 and imposed a face-covering order, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public space, from July 3, 2020 to March 31, 2021; Missouri ordered residents home from April 6 to May 3, 2020 and left its 2020-21 regime to St. Louis, Kansas City and their counties; Nebraska imposed directed health measures capping venues at 25 percent from November 11, 2020; North Dakota confined travelers and capped venues at 25 percent with a statewide face-covering order, the same class of control, from November 13, 2020 to January 18, 2021; South Dakota's Executive Order 2020-12 of April 6, 2020 ordered "All employers, both for profit and not-for-profit" to implement CDC hygiene practices, staggered shifts, employee screening and telework where possible.65
The West
California's Executive Order N-33-20 ordered every resident home on March 19, 2020; the State permitted worship at 25 percent or one hundred from May 25, 2020 (the order the Supreme Court declined to enjoin on May 29, 2020); closed indoor worship in the monitored counties on July 13, 2020; placed worship under the Blueprint tier chart from August 31, 2020, with indoor worship prohibited in Tier 1 and capped at 25 or 50 percent in Tiers 2 to 4; imposed the Regional Stay at Home Order from December 6, 2020 to January 25, 2021; was enjoined as to the Tier 1 prohibition on February 5, 2021 and as to its three-household rule for religious gatherings in homes on April 9, 2021; made the worship caps recommendations on April 12, 2021; and ended the Blueprint on June 15, 2021, keeping its health-care, school and Cal/OSHA orders in force.66 Washington's Proclamation 20-25 of March 23, 2020 prohibited "all people in Washington State from leaving their homes or participating in social, spiritual and recreational gatherings of any kind regardless of the number of participants"; the State permitted worship under its Safe Start phases from June 1, 2020, re-closed under Proclamation 20-25.8 (issued November 15, effective November 17, 2020) to January 11, 2021, capped worship at 25 percent or two hundred in its winter roadmap, ended its general restrictions on June 30, 2021, and reinstated universal indoor face coverings statewide on August 23, 2021, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public setting.67 Oregon's Executive Order 20-12 of March 23, 2020 prohibited non-essential gatherings "regardless of size" without six feet; Executive Order 20-25 of May 14, 2020 prohibited "All cultural, civic, and faith-based gatherings of more than 25 people"; Executive Order 20-27 of June 5, 2020 permitted gatherings of fifty indoors and one hundred outdoors in Phase II counties; the Freeze of November 17, 2020 capped faith institutions at twenty-five indoors and fifty outdoors and the "Extreme Risk" level of December 3, 2020 at 25 percent or one hundred; the State ended its general restrictions on June 30, 2021 and reinstated indoor face coverings by rule in August 2021, the same class of control.68 Nevada's Directive 013 of April 8, 2020 prohibited worship gatherings of ten or more; Directive 021 permitted fifty from May 29, 2020 (the order the Supreme Court declined to enjoin on July 24, 2020 and the Ninth Circuit enjoined on December 15, 2020); the State's pause of November 24, 2020 cut worship to 25 percent or fifty; Directive 037 permitted 35 percent or one hundred from February 15, 2021; Directive 044 (April 19, 2021) ended statewide distancing April 30, delegated capacity to county plans May 1 and ended every statewide limit June 1, 2021, while Directive 045 (May 3, 2021) kept the face-covering duty, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public space; and Directive 047 restored that control, indoor face coverings for every person in the high-transmission counties, from July 30, 2021.69 Colorado capped gatherings at ten on March 18, 2020, ordered residents home on March 26, permitted worship as a critical function on conditions, moved to a county dial from September 2020, removed the worship caps on December 7, 2020 during the Supreme Court litigation, and ended its dial on April 16, 2021, with county dial orders continuing to August and September 2021.70 New Mexico placed worship under its gathering ban on April 11, 2020, permitted 25 percent, then 40 percent, cut Red counties to 25 percent in December 2020, ended its general restrictions on July 1, 2021 and reinstated indoor face coverings, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public place, by public health order from August 20, 2021.71 Hawaii ordered residents home from March 25, 2020 and quarantined every arriving traveler from March 26, 2020, imposed a statewide face-covering order, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public place that never lapsed, from November 16, 2020, and capped social gatherings statewide at ten indoors and twenty-five outdoors by Executive Order 21-05 from August 10, 2021, with the counties' orders running throughout the third quarter of 2021.72 Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska stayed residents home in March and April 2020 (Wyoming's Order #2 of March 20, 2020 capped gatherings at ten with "no worship exemption"), imposed gathering caps and face-covering orders, airborne-transmission controls on every indoor public place, in the fall and winter of 2020-21, and ended their general orders between May 22, 2020 (Alaska, whose travel quarantine ran to February 14, 2021 and whose largest city's orders to May 3, 2021) and May 4, 2021 (Utah), with Idaho's on February 2, Montana's on February 12, Wyoming's on March 16 and Arizona's on March 25, 2021, and with Arizona's Executive Order 2021-06 of March 25, 2021 barring local face-covering enforcement outside government buildings and transit.73
The winter re-tightening
Between October 6, 2020 and March 2021, twenty-two jurisdictions cut the caps that had governed worship, education, events and rentals since the summer: New York's cluster zones (October 6, 2020); Connecticut (November 6); New Jersey (November 17); Massachusetts (November 6 and December 26); Rhode Island (November 8 and 30); Maine (November 4); Pennsylvania (November 27); Delaware (December 14); Maryland (November 20); the District of Columbia (November 23 and December 16); Virginia (December 14); Kentucky (November 20 and 23); Michigan (October 5 and November 18); Minnesota (November 20); Illinois (November 20); California (November 21 and December 6); Washington (November 16); Oregon (November 17 and December 3); Nevada (November 24); Colorado (November 20); New Mexico (November 16); and North Dakota (November 13). In every one of them the caps on the first day of 2021 were lower than the caps on September 30, 2020, and in most the first quarter of 2021 opened under the winter caps.74
The 2021 transition
The worship caps ended on the following dates: Colorado, December 7, 2020; Maryland, March 12, 2021; Connecticut, March 19 (repealed May 20); California, April 12 (recommendations) and June 15; Delaware and the District of Columbia, May 21; New Jersey, May 28 (gathering limits June 4); Minnesota, May 28; Massachusetts, May 29; Nevada, June 1; Kentucky, June 11; New York, June 15 (emergency June 24); Michigan, June 22; Washington and Oregon, June 30, 2021. On the first day of the third quarter of 2021 no statewide worship cap was in force; the statewide face-covering orders of Hawaii and, for unvaccinated persons, California, Connecticut, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island (Executive Order 21-69 to July 6, 2021 and the Department of Health's Safe Activities regulation to August 31, 2021) and Washington were in force (Pennsylvania's having ended June 28, 2021); and the emergencies of thirty-five States were in force. By September 21, 2021 the indoor face-covering orders of Oregon, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada (sixteen of seventeen counties, including Clark and Washoe), New Mexico and Washington reached every person as airborne-transmission controls on every indoor public place, and those of California, Connecticut and New York reached the unvaccinated.75
The preemption States and what carried their 2021 quarters
Texas (GA-14, GA-34, GA-36, GA-38), Florida (EO 20-92; EO 21-102 and the statute of May 3, 2021), Georgia (EO 04.02.20.01; EO 08.19.21.03), Tennessee (EO 30), Arkansas, South Carolina, Arizona (EO 2020-36; EO 2021-06), Wisconsin (the Supreme Court's decision of May 13, 2020), Michigan (the Supreme Court's decision of October 2, 2020 as to the Governor's orders only), Kansas (HB 2016 and SB 40), Montana, Utah and Wyoming (2021 statutes) restricted or superseded local orders at points in the period. In each, the quarters after the State's general orders ended were carried by the federal layer (the conveyance, eviction, visitation, entry and contracting orders in force in every State), by the State's own continuing orders (Texas's disaster declaration and GA-38 itself; Georgia's Economic Recovery emergency and EO 08.19.21.03; Arizona's emergency to March 30, 2022 and its EO 2021-06 carve-out for government buildings and transit), by the courts (the Supreme Court of Texas's Thirty-Eighth and Fortieth Emergency Orders and, from October 1, 2021, its Forty-Third; the Statewide Judicial Emergency of Georgia to June 30, 2021 and the local judicial emergencies that followed it, the Augusta Judicial Circuit's order of July 1, 2021, extended July 30 and August 30, and the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit's order of July 30, 2021), by the local school-board and county orders that were issued in the teeth of the bars and kept in force under injunctions (Dallas County's face-covering order of August 11, 2021; Harris County's school order of August 12, 2021; Houston ISD's mandate of August 12, 2021), and by the local orders the bars left standing (Savannah's Emergency Order 29 of August 24, 2021; Cobb County's emergency of August 19, 2021; the Wisconsin county and city orders; the Michigan county health orders of August 24 and 27, 2021).76
The largest metros
The local layer
In the largest metropolitan areas the local health officer, mayor or county judge acted before the State, went further than the State, and stayed longer. The indoor face-covering orders these authorities imposed in 2020 and reinstated in July, August and September 2021 were occupational-health and airborne-transmission controls on every indoor workplace and place of assembly within their jurisdictions, and where an order carried companion controls (closure as the sanction for non-enforcement, a fine per violation, proof of vaccination at the door, gathering caps, vaccination of a facility's workforce) the sentence that describes it names them. New York City cancelled every gathering over 500 and capped every place "used for the gathering of any number of persons for purposes such as civic, social or religious functions" at 50 percent on March 15, 2020, cancelled gatherings over 50 and ordered "all businesses and not-for-profit entities in the City" to telecommute and to "reduce the in-person workforce at any work locations by 50%" on March 20, ordered that "any non-essential gathering of individuals of any size for any reason shall be cancelled or postponed" on March 25, refused every permit for a "procession, parade, street activity, special event, or use of a sound device" from July 7, 2020 into 2021, ordered every non-public school in the City to adopt the infection-prevention and exposure-control regime of face coverings, distancing and quarantine from November 5, 2020 to May 10, 2021, and, in the third quarter of 2021, required vaccination of every employee and contractor of any school or pre-kindergarten program housed in a Department of Education building and of every contracted child-care and after-school program by September 27, 2021.77 Los Angeles County prohibited "all public and private group events and gatherings" on March 21, 2020, closed indoor worship on July 13, 2020 through the Purple tier, prohibited every cross-household gathering from November 30, 2020 to January 25, 2021, and reinstated universal indoor face coverings, an airborne-transmission control, in "all indoor public settings and businesses" from July 17, 2021, with the City of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Pasadena following within five days.78 Chicago prohibited gatherings of more than ten on March 26, 2020, capped worship at 40 percent or fifty on November 16 and 25 percent or fifty on November 20, 2020, provided that event venues "may not host indoor or outdoor gatherings" and that no gathering could be held in hotel rooms or rentals, bound "any for-profit, non-profit, or educational entity, regardless of the nature of the service" to its Phase 5 duties from June 11, 2021, and ordered face coverings "when indoors in any public place" from August 20, 2021, with closure as the sanction for a business that failed to enforce the requirement and with suburban Cook County following on August 23 and Oak Park on August 6, 2021.79 Dallas County, Tarrant County, Fort Worth and Denton County and Harris County ordered that "Religious and worship services may only be provided by video and teleconference" from March 23 to 25, 2020; Dallas County's face-covering order of August 11, 2021 required "universal indoor masking for all employees and visitors" of every commercial entity, child-care center and school, and Harris County's Local Health Authority ordered universal face coverings in every school and child-care center on August 12, 2021.80 Philadelphia prohibited "all public and private gatherings of any number of people occurring outside a single household" on March 23, 2020, capped indoor gatherings at 25 from July 3, 2020, prohibited every indoor gathering outside the household from November 20, 2020 to January 15, 2021, capped indoor gatherings from January 16 to February 28, 2021 and under its Spring 2021 order from March 1, and required face coverings in "Any indoor setting" from August 12, 2021 unless the operator verified the vaccination of everyone present, and vaccination of every health-care worker in the City from August 16, 2021.81 The Bay Area's seven health officers ordered every resident to shelter and prohibited "All public and private gatherings of any number of people" on March 16, 2020, and eight health officers reinstated universal indoor face coverings on August 3, 2021, an airborne-transmission control imposed on every indoor public setting, Marin's order naming "offices, retail stores, restaurants and bars, theaters, family entertainment centers, conference centers, and State and local government offices."82 Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and Provincetown held gatherings at ten from March 2020, rolled back to Phase II Step 2 in December 2020 with indoor event spaces "closed to customers and the public," and reinstated indoor face coverings between August 12 and September 15, 2021, Cambridge's order naming houses of worship.83 Seattle and King County prohibited events of fifty or more and conditioned every gathering on March 16, 2020, and King County's Local Health Officer ordered face coverings in every indoor public space and at every outdoor event of five hundred or more from September 7, 2021.84 The Twin Cities' emergencies ran through the third quarter of 2021, with Minneapolis's indoor face-covering regulation, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor business, in force from May 26, 2020 to June 1, 2021 and Saint Paul's and the counties' facility face-covering orders from August 3, 2021.85 Denver ordered every resident home on March 23, 2020, prohibited every cross-household gathering from November 20, 2020, required vaccination of the personnel of hospitals, care facilities, shelters, schools and child-care centers by September 30, 2021, and required face coverings in every school and child-care facility from August 17, 2021, with Boulder County requiring them in every indoor public space from September 3, 2021.86 St. Louis City and County prohibited gatherings over ten from March 20, 2020, held them at ten through May 14, 2021, and reinstated indoor face coverings for vaccinated and unvaccinated persons alike, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor public building, on July 26, 2021.87 New Orleans "canceled or prohibited" every public and private gathering on March 17, 2020, capped worship at 25 percent from May 16, 2020, prohibited choirs in October 2020 and second lines and parades until May 28, 2021, reinstated indoor face coverings for every person on July 31, 2021, and required vaccination or a negative test for entry to every event space from August 16, 2021; Jefferson Parish required face coverings "in all commercial buildings, public buildings and places of worship" from July 1, 2020 and again from August 4, 2021, an airborne-transmission control that named houses of worship in terms.88 Honolulu prohibited "all public gatherings and events" from March 20, 2020, stayed residents home twice, capped gatherings at five, then ten, then twenty-five through the tiers, and held them at ten indoors and twenty-five outdoors from August 23, 2021 with face coverings indoors, the airborne-transmission control the county tiers carried with their gathering caps, throughout the third quarter of 2021.89 Atlanta, Fulton County, DeKalb and Cobb stayed residents home from March 24 to 28, 2020 until the State superseded them on April 3; Atlanta required face coverings indoors of "all persons in a public place, including private businesses and establishments" from July 28, 2021, an airborne-transmission control on every indoor workplace in the City; Savannah required face coverings in every school, hospital and conveyance from July 26, 2021 and barred groups over fifty on City property from August 24, 2021.90 Detroit's health department capped indoor gatherings at ten from October 9, 2020, and Oakland and Wayne Counties required face coverings, exposure-control requirements on every classroom, in every school and day care from August 24 and 27, 2021.91 Las Vegas's courts required face coverings of every entrant from July 19, 2021 and Clark County required them of every business employee from July 22, 2021; Phoenix's courts restored distancing on July 28 and universal face coverings on August 9, 2021; San Diego's isolation and quarantine orders removed every case and every unvaccinated close contact from every workplace through the third quarter of 2021.92 Baltimore County, Nashville, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Orlando's Seminole County, Pittsburgh, Riverside, Sacramento, San Antonio, Louisville, Tampa's Hillsborough County, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis and Salt Lake City carried gathering caps naming worship in 2020 and face-covering, school or facility orders in the third quarter of 2021; the metro pages carry the exhibit identifiers.93
The sector regulators
Corrections
Every State corrections department and the largest county jails suspended visiting, volunteer entry, tours and programming in the second week of March 2020, and with them every prison ministry, chaplaincy volunteer and religious-education class conducted by outside organizations: Nevada on March 7; Ohio on March 11 (volunteers "indefinitely"); Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Georgia and Missouri on March 12; Arizona, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin and Alaska on March 13; New Jersey, New York, Iowa and Harris County on March 14; Arkansas (naming "those with faith-based groups"), Nebraska, New Mexico and Alabama on March 16; California statewide on March 20, 2020. Texas's suspension ran seventeen months; New Jersey resumed chaplaincy only with attendee limits and "singing ... suspended"; the District of Columbia cancelled "off-unit religious services"; the departments' announcements of those suspensions and conditions are cited as their own statements of the restrictions they imposed on their institutions, facts and circumstances of the period, and not as orders, the operative instruments being the departmental directives the Library holds as such; and in the third quarter of 2021 California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania imposed vaccination or testing conditions on every contractor, volunteer and visitor entering a prison, and Colorado required vaccination of every staff member of its 24/7 facilities (August 30, 2021) and announced on September 28, 2021 the same condition for every visitor, volunteer, vendor and contractor from October 7, 2021.94
Nursing homes, hospitals and hospices
CMS's guidance of March 13, 2020, the State health departments' orders and the hospitals' own visitor policies under State orders closed every nursing home and hospital in the country to clergy, chaplains and volunteer ministries except for compassionate-care visits; CMS's memoranda of September 17, 2020 and April 27, 2021 kept screening, testing and outbreak-suspension conditions in force through the third quarter of 2021; and the health-care-worker vaccination orders of California (August 5), New York (August 26), New Jersey (Executive Order 252, September 7), Washington (Proclamation 21-14, August 9), Oregon, Maine, Rhode Island, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Philadelphia (August 16) and Los Angeles County (August 12, 2021) reached every religiously affiliated hospital, nursing home, hospice and home-care agency and their chaplains.95
Schools and child care
The State education departments' closure orders of March 2020 closed every public and private school; the local health authorities of Dallas, Tarrant and Harris Counties, Montgomery County, Maryland, Toledo-Lucas County, Dane County and New York City ordered non-public schools closed or virtual in the fall of 2020; and in the third quarter of 2021 the school and child-care face-covering orders, workplace infection-prevention and exposure-control requirements on every school as an employer and on every parochial school and church child-care center within their terms, of New Jersey (Executive Orders 251 and 264), Connecticut (13A), Kentucky (2021-585), Illinois (2021-18), Delaware (August 16), Pennsylvania (September 7), New York (10 NYCRR 2.60), Oregon, Washington, California (July 12), Louisiana (August 4), Virginia (August 12) and Rhode Island (Executive Order 21-87, August 19), and the staff vaccination-or-testing orders of New Jersey (Executive Order 253), Connecticut, Washington, Oregon, California and New York City reached every parochial and private religious school and every church child-care center in those States by their own terms ("public, private, and parochial"); Prince George's County Public Schools announced that every student and staff member would be masked from September 8, 2021 (Ex. AGY-LOCAL-DISTRICTS-AUTHORITIES-017, the school system's announcement, cited as context for the requirement and not as an order).96
Tribal governments and the territories
The Yakama Nation stopped longhouse and church services on March 24, 2020 and required face coverings of every business "whether licensed by the Yakama Nation or the State of Washington" from June 26, 2020 through the third quarter of 2021, an airborne-transmission control enforced by fines; the Mescalero Apache Tribe prohibited indoor worship from November 23, 2020 (Executive Order 20-15) to January 4, 2021 and capped it at 25 percent from January 4 to June 30, 2021 (Executive Order 20-16); the Pascua Yaqui Tribe closed church grounds from May 27, 2020 to May 26, 2021; the Navajo Nation's weekend lockdowns closed every gathering on at least sixteen weekends in 2020. Puerto Rico's Executive Order 2020-038 kept religious services electronic during its May 2020 reopening, Guam capped worship at 25 percent from October 3, 2020, and the Northern Mariana Islands capped churches at 50 percent from June 15, 2020; Puerto Rico's Executive Order 2021-065 (August 30, effective September 2, 2021) imposed face coverings, an airborne-transmission control, in every indoor space and at outdoor gatherings of fifty or more, to September 23 and then October 14, 2021.97
The counterparties
Orders on the people this industry serves and depends on
The stay-at-home orders confined the member and donor base; the school orders kept the families home; the visitation orders separated the congregation from its members in hospitals, nursing homes and prisons; the venue orders closed the ballrooms and halls where galas are held; the transit orders governed every commute; the court closures suspended guardianship, legal-aid and eviction dockets; the eviction moratoria governed every nonprofit housing provider; and the food-supply orders and PPE allocation rules governed every pantry's inputs. The interconnected-economy section below states the mechanism for each.
The ecosystem
The mechanisms
Six mechanisms carried orders addressed to others into this industry's operation. Borders and entry: the entry proclamations, the land-border notifications and the Title 42 order closed mission trips, pilgrimages, visiting clergy and denominational conventions with foreign participants from January 31, 2020 through the third quarter of 2021.98 Workforce, schools and child care: the school closures, the FFCRA leave mandate and the quarantine orders removed staff and volunteers from the premises by law.99 Travel and gatherings: the interstate traveler quarantines of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Hawaii, Chicago and others, the gathering limits of every State and the cruise and conveyance orders ended the convention, retreat and mission calendar.100 Courts and public offices: the court and recorder closures converted or closed the venues in which the industry's guardianships, adoptions, housing cases and charitable registrations proceed.101 Transit: the CDC conveyance order and the TSA directives conditioned every commute and every volunteer's trip from February 1, 2021 through the third quarter of 2021.102 Health care as counterparty: the visitation conditions and health-care-worker vaccination orders conditioned every chaplaincy and every religiously affiliated facility's workforce.103 Foreign orders (the border closures of Canada and Mexico, the entry bans of other nations) are treated as facts and circumstances and never as orders of an appropriate governmental authority.
The standing duties
Beneath every layer above lay a further 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 offenses that punished disobedience of health and emergency orders, the sanitary codes enforced by summary closure, and the liability shields that protected only the organization that complied with governmental standards, guidance and protocols. Each is an order from an appropriate governmental authority on the Suspension Clause's own terms: a statute or rule that commands conduct is an order, and a legislature, a health department, a labor department and an occupational-safety agency are each an appropriate governmental authority. The pandemic directives gave each duty its content. Seven States are stated below; the site's standing-duties pages carry every State.104
The orders' own operating conditions
The reopening orders cited above let this industry operate only on conditions, and the verbs are commands. Kentucky: "All businesses permitted to operate ... must follow ... social distancing and hygiene guidance from the CDC and the Kentucky Department of Public Health. Failure to do so is a violation of this Order" (Executive Order 2020-257 ¶ 3). Ohio: "Businesses must require all employees to wear facial coverings" (Stay Safe Ohio Order, April 30, 2020). Michigan: businesses "that continue in-person work must adhere to sound social distancing practices and measures" (Executive Order 2020-42 § 10). New York: "businesses or entities must be operated subject to the guidance promulgated by the Department of Health" (Executive Order 202.31). Missouri: "every person and business in the State of Missouri shall abide by social distancing requirements" (Director's Order of April 27, 2020). California: reopened sectors "must, when they do so, continue at all times to practice physical distancing" (order of May 7, 2020). Texas: "Every business establishment in Texas shall operate at no more than 50 percent of the total listed occupancy" (GA-28 ¶ 1), a cap that bound this industry's offices, halls and rentals but from which ¶ 1.b excepted "religious services, including those conducted in churches, congregations, and houses of worship"; every person was directed to the DSHS protocols by "should" (¶ 14), a recommendation, so that in a Texas sanctuary the compulsion rested on the statutes and shield below.105
The standing statutes
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), enforced by misdemeanor and felony (§§ 81.085(h), 81.087; Government Code § 418.173), beside the employer's duty to maintain "a place of employment that is reasonably safe and healthful" (Labor Code § 411.103).106 California: "Every employer shall furnish employment and a place of employment that is safe and healthful for the employees therein" (Labor Code § 6400), and from November 30, 2020 "Employers shall establish, implement, and maintain an effective, written COVID-19 Prevention Program" (8 C.C.R. § 3205).107 Ohio: no person in charge of a place of public accommodation or trade who has reason to believe its users are exposed to a dangerous, contagious disease "shall negligently fail to take reasonable measures to protect the public from exposure to the contagion" (R.C. 3701.81(C)), and every employer owes a safe place of employment "for the employees therein and for frequenters thereof" (R.C. 4101.11).108 Missouri: the Department's disease-control orders bind on pain of a class A misdemeanor (RSMo 192.020, 192.320), and every employer shall "adopt and provide approved and effective devices, means or methods for the prevention of such industrial or occupational diseases" (RSMo 292.300).109 Kentucky: the Governor's and Cabinet's orders "shall have the full force of law" (KRS 39A.180), and "Each employer ... Shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards" (KRS 338.031).110 Michigan: "An employer shall: (a) Furnish to each employee, employment and a place of employment that is free from recognized hazards" (MCL 408.1011), which MIOSHA's emergency rules spelled out: "The employer shall develop and implement a written COVID-19 preparedness and response plan."111 New York: every workplace shall provide "reasonable and adequate protection to the lives, health and safety of all persons employed therein or lawfully frequenting such places" (Labor Law § 200), and, by the HERO Act of May 5, 2021, in force from July 4, 2021, with every plan due by August 5 and activated on September 6, 2021, "each employer shall establish an airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plan" (Labor Law § 218-b(4)(a)).112 Over all seven lay 29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(1): "Each employer ... shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards," which OSHA enforced against the pandemic hazard by citation from September 10, 2020.113
The liability shields' compliance condition
The legislatures then said what a complying organization owed. Texas protects a person from exposure liability, for every action 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" (Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 148.003(a)(1)(B)). Kentucky protects "an owner who follows any executive action to prevent the spread of COVID-19" (2021 SB 5). Michigan immunizes "A person who acts in compliance with all federal, state, and local statutes, rules, regulations, executive orders, and agency orders related to COVID-19" (2020 PA 236 § 5). Ohio's HB 606 set a culpability floor and provided that "A government order, recommendation, or guideline shall neither create nor be construed as creating a duty of care upon any person that may be enforced in a cause of action," a clause confined to civil tort duty. Missouri enacted no shield until August 28, 2021, California none (violation of a statute raising the presumption of negligence of Evidence Code § 669), New York one for health-care providers alone. In every one of the seven, compliance with the governmental health standards was what an organization owed; the standing duty, filled with the content the health authorities gave it, was the vessel of the infection-prevention and exposure-control measures the Service calls voluntary (answered among the fourteen positions below).114