Justice Alito Orders Pennsylvania to Respond to Businesses' Request to Lift Shutdown Order

Justice Samuel Alito on Tuesday ordered Pennsylvania to respond to businesses’ request to lift Gov. Thomas Wolf’s coronavirus shutdown order, reports the SCOTUS Blog.

The request, which was filed by the campaign of Danny DeVito, an Allegheny County Republican and candidate for the state House of Representatives, and a group of local businesses, asserts that Wolf’s order is doing “unprecedented damage to the economy.”

"[T]he Order violated the Petitioners rights not to be deprived of their property without due process of law guaranteed by the [Fifth and 14th Amendments], the right not to have their property taken without just compensation guaranteed by the [Fifth Amendment], their right to judicial review guaranteed by the [5th and Fourteenth Amendments], their right to equal protection of the law guaranteed by the [14th Amendment], and their right to free speech and assembly guaranteed by the [First Amendment]," their court filing says.

Without intervention, the petitioners say theirs and “tens of thousands of other businesses may not be able to recover from the severe financial distress caused by the Order."

Wolf, who says he plans to reopen the economy on a “regional, sector-based approach,” has until Monday to respond to the filing.

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