HB1 provides relief to businesses by allowing them to open during the COVID-19 pandemic. This legislation also made is so that no state or local agency shall enforce restrictions related to the state of emergency impacting the ability of any business, nonprofit organization, or religious organization to remain open and fully operational for in-person services. This legislation also deems that visitors must be allowed in residential long-term care facilities or nursing homes.
The Kentucky State House of Representatives passed and overrode the Governor’s veto for HB1 on February 2, 2021 by a vote of 72 to 22. We have assigned pluses to the ayes because Article IV, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution, requires a limitation and separation of powers and the state legislature stepping in to stop the Governor’s intrusive shut down. The right to peacefully assemble, exercise of religion and to operate a business are protected by both the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and no situation or event in the United States shall lead to the suspension of those rights. The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” and government interference in entrepreneurship and private business is in violation of that belief.