Appeals court dismisses lawsuit over Gov. Inslee’s WA pandemic emergency mandates

A Washington state appeals court has dismissed the appeal of a Pasco-based nonprofit challenging Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee’s use of emergency proclamations related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unpublished opinion released Tuesday means the Silent Majority Foundation v. Inslee is “officially dead,” the foundation posted online.

The three judges of Division II Court of Appeals ruled that emergency orders related to COVID-19 have been rescinded and that the Silent Majority’s case is moot.

The court considered whether there were matters of continuing and substantial public interest that warranted a definitive ruling, but decided against it.

“... (T)he COVID-19 pandemic was a unique circumstance that is unlikely to recur,” the judges said.

Any ruling would be unlikely to provide future guidance to public officials, they said.

The appeal was filed on behalf of the Silent Majority Foundation by Pete Serrano, an attorney who also serves on the Pasco City Council, and attorney Austin Hatcher of Spokane after a Thurston County judge had ruled in Inslee’s favor.

The Silent Majority Foundation argued that Inslee failed to find a state of emergency in all 39 Washington counties before using emergency powers to amend two proclamations related to face masks and vaccine requirements in March 2022.

The foundation claimed that there was no COVID-19 emergency in about a third of the state’s counties then.

One of the proclamations amended the COVID-19 vaccine mandate to include contractors working for the secretary of state. The other proclamation rescinded most of the state’s mandate requiring masks indoors but continued to require them in certain settings, such as hospitals, nursing homes and jails.

Thurston County Judge Carol Murphy found that Washington state law permits the governor to declare and maintain a state of emergency on a statewide basis without considering conditions county by county.

The pandemic was not a localized disaster such as a flood, she said.

“Rather, it is a highly contagious viral disease that spread quickly throughout the world by a person-to-person transmission,” she said.