Plaintiffs Fold in Challenge Against Anchorage Emergency Orders

Plaintiffs have folded in their challenge against the emergency orders issued by former Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson and former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz.

According to court filings made this month, a Notice of Settlement in the case was filed on August 2 and accepted on August 4. The terms of the settlement reached with the Municipality are not public.

The lawsuit filed in April claimed that acting Mayor Quinn-Davidson had previously issued a series of "confusing, contradictory and ultimately arbitrary and capricious Executive Orders
predicated on a continuing emergency" and that "continuing emergency orders have stripped the citizens of Anchorage of their inherent fundamental rights."

Incredibly, the lawsuit also claimed that COVID-19 was not as dangerous as originally anticipated having 'only' killed at the time the lawsuit was filed, 329 Alaska residents.

Today, Alaska DHSS announced 647 cases of COVID-19. In the past two days, nine more Alaskans have died as a result of the global pandemic bringing the total number of Alaskan lives lost to 404.

According to Alaska News Source, in a virtual public health briefing Wednesday, Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink spoke to the level of burnout currently being seen among hospital staff across the state. She called working in the hospitals right now “heartbreaking.”