The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- North Dakota
- Level
- State
- Authority
- N.D.C.C. 44-04-19, 44-04-21.1
- Issued
- 2021-02-24 Feb. 24, 2021
- Effective
- 2021-02-24 (facts of Sept. 15, 2020) (read as 2021-02-24)
- End
- n/a (opinion) (read as 2021-03-31)
- In force
- Feb. 24, 2021 to Mar. 31, 2021
- Quarters
- 2020 Q32021 Q1
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Courts and public officesWorkplace rulesOther
- Addressees
- governmental bodies (Steele County); members of the public attending a public meeting
- Character
- agency interpretation
- Collection
- Standing duties: North Dakota DUT-ND
Operative words
Pursuant to Steele County's Covid policy, the doors to the Steele County Courthouse were locked at the time of the meeting. All access doors had a public notice with a number provided for building access and Covid screening.... The required health screening takes approximately 30 seconds to answer 3 questions and do a forehead temperature scan.
Penalty
What it required
Records, as the State's chief legal officer found the facts, that a North Dakota county in September 2020 conditioned entry to its courthouse and to a public meeting on a COVID-19 health screening (three questions and a forehead temperature scan) under a written county policy, and concludes that 'The Steele County Commission did not violate N.D.C.C. 44-04-19 at its September 15, 2020, special meeting,' the screened entry having satisfied the open-meetings guarantee of public access. Character as recorded: agency_interpretation (Attorney General opinion; order_operating_condition layer).
Retrieval noteThe character code is used for a governmental body's own COVID-19 access condition, which the Attorney General treated as consistent with the open-meetings statute; the opinion imposes no duty on private employers. It is recorded for what it shows: screening and temperature checks as a condition of entry were the practice of North Dakota governmental bodies in September 2020 and were accepted as lawful by the State's chief legal officer. All ten 2020 letter opinions, eleven 2020 open-records opinions, four 2021 letter opinions and twelve 2021 open-records opinions were downloaded and screened; none addresses the mask, capacity or closure orders. Opinion 2020-O-08 (July 16, 2020; Department of Health) concerns disclosure of disease-control records under 23-07-20.1 and 23-01.3-07.