By JOHN F. BANZHAF. Originally published at ValueWalk.
Washington’s Ban on Sizeable Home Gatherings is Legal; Governor to Limits Size of Social Gatherings, Including for Thanksgiving
Q3 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Washington State To Limit At-Home Gatherings
WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 15, 2020) – With Washington State reportedly about to join New York State in limiting private, at-home gatherings – including holiday celebrations such as Thanksgiving dinners – to a small number of guests, some are suggesting that it’s illegal to regulate gatherings regarding friends and family members in their own homes.
But, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, that’s clearly wrong, because governments already impose many restrictions upon gatherings involving family members in the privacy of their own homes, and smoking is a prime and well established example.
Some at-home family gatherings are even limited by criminal codes, and violations can even lead to arrest. Examples include spousal rape, domestic violence, child abuse (sexual or otherwise), storage of explosives (including LP gas tanks) and inflammables, having unsafe wiring, smoking marijuana (in some states), harboring dangerous animals, and many other activities.
Additional activities which are regulated to protect children include failing to have a functioning refrigerator, imposing corporal punishment which is too strict, engaging in sexual activities in their presence, not providing adequate and acceptable sleeping accommodations, exposing them to dangerous chemicals in the air or otherwise, etc.
Smoking, however, provides a clear example of just how far restrictions on even every day activities can be imposed to protect health.
While it was once argued that a man’s home was his castle, and therefore smoking in a private home cannot be prohibited, legislatures, regulatory agencies, and courts have all rejected that unsound concept and analogy.
Prohibiting Smoking In Private Homes
For example, judges in the great majority of states have issued orders prohibiting smoking in private homes where it is necessary to protect the health of children, notes Banzhaf, who helped obtain a number of them for nonsmoking parents. Sometimes the ban on all smoking in a dwelling begins 24 or even 48 hours before a child arrives.
At Banzhaf’s urging, many states now also ban smoking in homes where foster children reside.
Going even further, Prof Banzhaf helped obtain orders prohibiting persons from smoking in their own apartment or condo if the smoke drifted into other dwellings, or was exposing nonsmokers through a common ventilation system.
And, of course, smoking is often prohibited in private dwellings, in both public and private housing, not to mention also even in hospitals or asylums where persons desiring to smoking are not permitted to step outside and do so.
Indeed, notes Banzhaf, San Francisco appears poised to outlaw any smoking and vaping in apartment buildings of three or more units.
Regulating Conduct To Protect The Public Health
In short, suggests Banzhaf, governments have broad powers to regulate conduct to protect the public health, even when the conduct occurs in private dwellings.
And since the deadly risks of exposure to the coronavirus are much greater than similar exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke, especially in the small amounts which occur when smoke travels through cracks or through a common ventilation system into another apartment or condo, the legal authority of governments to regulate conduct in private homes would logically be much greater, he argues.
He also notes that if a person invited to a family or other gathering larger than permitted in New York or Washington, and contracted the COVID virus as a result, he could sue the host for violating the law, which in this case sets the standard of care which the court would likely direct the jury to apply in deciding the case and rendering a verdict for damages.
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