San Bernardino County's efforts to stop Gov. Gavin Newsom's stay-at-home orders may have failed so far in courts, but the county will continue challenging rules that treat all communities the same when they have different levels of coronavirus spread, a county spokesman said.
"There are still communities within the county that have red, orange and yellow tier numbers but have to toil under the purple tier," San Bernardino County spokesperson David Wert said in an email to the Southern California Record. "That was the point of the lawsuit – to allow those communities to be regulated in accordance with their local numbers, not countywide numbers."
The county isn't going to stop looking for solutions, Wert said in a separate statement last week.
"The county is disappointed and weighing its options," Wert said on Jan. 19 in comments published earlier this week in the Daily Press in Victorville. “But the county will continue to use all avenues to seek fair treatment for all of our communities.”
In December, San Bernardino County asked the California Supreme Court to allow the county greater autonomy from the state in its COVID-19 measures, claiming that Gov. Gavin Newsom's stay-at-home order exceeded his authority under the California Emergency Services Act.
"The governor is not permitted to act as both the executive and legislative branch for nine months under the California Emergency Services Act," Board of Supervisors Chairman Curt Hagman said in a news release issued at the time. "If it is concluded that the act allows him to do so, the act is unconstitutional as it permits the delegation of the Legislature's powers to the executive branch in violation of the California Constitution."
The Supreme Court denied the county's petition earlier this month. The petition failed to get the four or more votes necessary to grant review, a Judicial Council of California spokesperson said.
The county has been billed at just under $76,000 by the law firm it hired to handle the case, according to Wert.