The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Pennsylvania
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Police power of the Commonwealth
- Issued
- 1929-04-09 Apr. 9, 1929
- Effective
- Standing law throughout 2020 and 2021 (read as 1929-04-09)
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing since Apr. 9, 1929 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Quarantine and isolationStanding duty
- Addressees
- the Department of Health (duty and power); owners and occupants of premises (sec. 2102(d), (e): duty to comply with the Department's abatement orders; expense recoverable by claim or action)
- Character
- statutory authority
- Collection
- Standing duties: Pennsylvania DUT-PA
Operative words
The Department of Health shall have the power, and its duty shall be: (a) To protect the health of the people of this Commonwealth, and to determine and employ the most efficient and practical means for the prevention and suppression of disease;... (c) To order... the causes of disease and mortality, to be abated and removed, and to enforce quarantine regulations
Penalty
Abatement by the Department at the owner's or occupant's expense (sec. 2102(d), (e)); violation of any Department order or regulation punished under 71 P.S. sec. 1409 (Ex. DUT-PA-007) and 35 P.S. sec. 521.20 (Ex. DUT-PA-001)
What it required
Made it the Department of Health's statutory duty, not merely its power, to employ 'the most efficient and practical means for the prevention and suppression of disease,' to order abatement of 'the causes of disease and mortality,' to enforce quarantine regulations, and to enter and abate on premises whose 'owner or occupant... fails to comply with any order of the department,' at the owner's or occupant's expense. Character as recorded: statutory_authority (enabling power; binds through the orders issued under it).
Retrieval noteSection 2102(a) is recited in PA-002 ('71 P.S. sec. 532(a)'), PA-007, PA-008 and the face-covering orders, and was the Secretary's stated authority in Corman (PA-045 at 14). The section's duty to 'protect the health of the people' is the same command the Department of Health Act of 1905 sec. 8 states (Ex. DUT-PA-007).