Brach v. Newsom — U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 2:20-cv-06472

Case summary

Matthew Brach and thirteen other individual plaintiffs, one of them a minor identified by initials, filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief on July 21, 2020 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 2:20-cv-06472-SVW-AFM, and a first amended complaint on July 29, 2020. The suit is brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Governor of California, the Attorney General of California, the State Public Health Officer and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, all in their official capacities, over California's framework restricting in-person instruction in counties on a statewide COVID-19 monitoring list. On August 21, 2020 District Judge Stephen V. Wilson denied the plaintiffs' ex parte application for a temporary restraining order. The Ninth Circuit granted expedited calendaring of the appeal.

Case at a glance

What does the complaint claim?

The first amended complaint alleges that the Governor's order and the associated guidance and directives, and the defendants' enforcement of them, violate the plaintiffs' rights to substantive due process and to equal protection free from arbitrary treatment by the State under the Fourteenth Amendment, the right to be free from federally funded state action resulting in a disparate impact on racial minorities under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and federal disability rights statutes. It seeks declaratory relief and temporary, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief invalidating and restraining enforcement of the order, and attorneys' fees.

What did the court decide?

It denied a temporary restraining order. The order of August 21, 2020 records that the plaintiffs filed the application on August 3, 2020 against numerous state officials, seeking to enjoin enforcement of California's school reopening framework, which prohibits in-person education in counties on a statewide COVID-19 monitoring list, and that for the reasons articulated in the order the application is denied. The order also grants the defendants' request for judicial notice as to each of the exhibits cited in it.

What measure was challenged?

The order records that on July 17, 2020 the California Department of Public Health issued its "COVID-19 and Reopening In-Person Learning Framework for K-12 Schools in California, 2020-2021 School Year", and that the framework prohibits in-person education in counties on the statewide COVID-19 monitoring list.

Summary written from the documents on this page; every sentence is sourced.