Colorado GOP lawmaker, Michelle Malkin sue governor over coronavirus orders

A GOP Colorado lawmaker and conservative activist Michelle Malkin have filed a lawsuit against Gov. Jared Polis (D) and other government agencies over their coronavirus prevention orders. 

Colorado House Minority Leader Patrick Neville and Malkin say Polis and state and local health agencies overstepped their authority, including with a mask mandate, in the lawsuit filed late Wednesday with the Colorado Supreme Court, The Denver Post and The Colorado Sun reported. 

The lawsuit alleges that the Colorado Disaster Emergency Act, which extends the governor’s powers during an emergency, violates the separation of powers that requires laws to be passed by the legislature. 

“The essence of Petitioners’ Complaint is that the chief executive by executive order is purportedly making new laws and implementing new public policies which wholly usurp the power of the legislative department to make the laws, a power which has been delegated by the People through their Colorado Constitution exclusively to the legislative department,” court documents said. 

Neville and Malkin call more than three dozen executive orders made by Polis and the health agencies unconstitutional, adding that they cause “unjust injury to the fundamental civil rights, liberty interests, and property rights of each Petitioner.” 

Among the contested orders is Polis’s mask mandate issued on July 17, according to the Sun.

Malkin posted on Facebook that she is suing the governor “over his unconstitutional, junk science-basked mask mandate.”

The governor said in a statement obtained by The Hill, “We are free to be on the side of a deadly virus that has taken the lives of too many friends, parents, and loved ones, or on the side of Coloradans. I’m on the side of Coloradans.”

Neville responded to Polis’s comments in a tweet, saying “King Polis thinks advocating for our constitution, seeking citizen and legislative input is ‘siding with a deadly virus.’”

Another reason why I am filing this lawsuit. King Polis thinks advocating for our constitution, seeking citizen and legislative input is “siding with a deadly virus”. What is he afraid of? Not having complete control? https://t.co/zJp3WTQkrf

— Rep. Patrick Neville (@PatrickForCO) August 27, 2020

In addition to Polis, the lawsuit also names the heads of El Paso County Public Health, the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment as defendants.

The latter two agencies declined to comment to The Hill.

Updated 8:20 p.m.