## Facts

- The Governor of Kentucky declared a state of emergency on March 6, 2020, in response to COVID-19.
- The Governor and state health officials issued executive orders and emergency regulations addressing public health risks, including limits on gatherings, business closures, and phased reopening requirements.
- Several Northern Kentucky businesses challenged the reopening restrictions and the Governor’s emergency authority in circuit court.
- The Boone Circuit Court issued a temporary restraining order and other injunctive relief prohibiting enforcement of certain emergency measures.
- The Governor sought extraordinary writ relief in the Kentucky Supreme Court to prevent enforcement of the trial-court injunctions and to resolve challenges to the emergency orders and statutory authority.
- The Kentucky Supreme Court stayed injunctive orders directed at the Governor’s COVID-19 response, consolidated related matters, and reviewed the legality of the emergency measures and the lower courts’ injunctions.

## Issues

1. Whether the Governor properly declared a state of emergency under KRS Chapter 39A.
2. Whether KRS Chapter 39A is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power under Kentucky separation-of-powers principles.
3. Whether emergency action had to proceed exclusively through administrative rulemaking under KRS Chapter 13A rather than executive orders and emergency regulations under KRS Chapter 39A.
4. Whether the challenged COVID-19 orders and regulations violated the Kentucky Constitution, including the prohibition on arbitrary governmental action.
5. Whether the circuit court properly granted injunctive relief prohibiting enforcement of the emergency orders and regulations.

## Decision

- The court held the Governor’s emergency declaration complied with KRS Chapter 39A.
- The court rejected the nondelegation challenge and upheld KRS Chapter 39A as constitutional.
- The court held KRS Chapter 39A permits use of executive orders and emergency measures without requiring exclusive reliance on the KRS Chapter 13A administrative-regulation process.
- The court concluded the challengers did not prove the orders were arbitrary or unconstitutional on the record presented.
- The court determined the lower courts abused their discretion in issuing broad injunctions against enforcement of the COVID-19 response measures and directed that the injunctive relief not stand.
- The court ordered further proceedings consistent with its opinion.

## Legal Principles

- KRS Chapter 39A authorizes the Governor to declare a state of emergency and exercise broad, statutorily bounded emergency powers tied to the existence of an emergency.
- A nondelegation challenge fails where the legislature supplies policy statements, standards, and limits, and retains ultimate authority to modify or terminate the statutory scheme.
- Emergency-management authority under KRS Chapter 39A operates alongside, and is not displaced by, ordinary administrative rulemaking procedures under KRS Chapter 13A.
- Under Kentucky’s constitutional prohibition on arbitrary governmental action, challengers bear the burden to show the government acted without a rational basis or reasonable relation to a legitimate governmental objective.
- Injunctive relief is extraordinary; courts must weigh likelihood of success, irreparable harm, and equities, including potential harm to public health, and should not enjoin emergency measures absent a sufficient showing under these standards.

## Conclusion

The Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the Governor’s COVID-19 emergency declaration and related executive measures under KRS Chapter 39A, rejected constitutional and statutory challenges on the record presented, and ruled that the trial courts erred by enjoining enforcement of the emergency response.


Beshear v. Acree, 615 S.W.3d 780 (Ky. 2020)