The New Hampshire Democratic Party has filed a federal lawsuit against the New Hampshire House of Representatives as well as the state of New Hampshire alleging that the Republican state House leader’s refusal to hold hearings online put the lives of legislators at risk.
The lawsuit, filed on June 15, cites the recent deaths of former House Minority Speaker Robert “Renny” Cushing and State Rep. Katherine Rogers, both Democrats, with strong implications that in-person hearings held by the House were to blame for their deaths.
Specific to Cushing’s death, the lawsuit states that the 69-year-old was battling advanced prostate cancer when he “reluctantly attended ” a House session on Jan. 6 and in doing was “exposed to multiple potentially lethal interactions with others.”
“In-person attendance presented a clear life-threatening danger to Plaintiff Cushing from the filing of this petition until his death,” the suit states.
Specific to Rogers, who had also been waging a battle with cancer prior to her death, the suit states that just prior to her death the 67-year-old talked about the immense dangers of attending in-person legislative hearings and that she was scared when she learned that a House member she sat near had recently tested positive for COVID-19.
“Regardless of the direct causation, it is clear that defendants’ refusal to allow for an accommodation of remote attendance placed her in a position where she unfairly had to choose between her life and her obligations to her constituents.”
Cushing and Rogers, who died in March and April respectively, were among six Democrats who filed a similar lawsuit last year against House Speaker Sherman Packard. They asked for an emergency injunction against in-person attendance of House hearings, but a federal court denied the request.
State Rep. David Cote, a Democrat, led the filing of the new suit, which seeks a temporary injunction that would permit legislators with health problems to attend future House hearings remotely.
Cote, who replaced Cushing as House minority leader after Cushing’s death on Mar. 7, was also a party to the original suit. He suffers from cerebral palsy and recently told The Epoch Times that he has coronary artery disease, which combined, make his health too fragile to risk attending House hearings.
Cote told The Epoch Times that the suit is not meant to hold anyone accountable for Cushing and Roger’s death, but to stop dangerous in-person hearings.
He places most of the blame on Packard for refusing to hold full House hearings remotely. Cote pointed out that the NH Senate held remote hearings and that several legislative committees held and continue to offer hearings live online.
“Under the previous speaker, a Democrat speaker, The House had asked for and gotten an advisory from the New Hampshire Supreme Court that it was constitutionally possible for the house to meet remotely,” said Cote, “then - then came the November elections and we lost the majority.”
Democrat Steve Shurtleff was speaker of the House until the 2020 elections handed control of the 400-member NH House over to the Republicans. Republican Dick Hinch was named Speaker of the House but died only nine days later from COVID-19.
Packard replaced him and refused to institute mask mandates and any social distancing requirements.
He also denied Democrats’ request for House members to attend hearings remotely, saying it would be unconstitutional.
Packard did not respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment about the pending suit. In response to last year’s lawsuit, Packard released a statement saying he had “legislative immunity.”
In response to comment from the state, Michael Garrity, director of communications and legislative affairs for the NH Department of Justice, released a statement to The Epoch Times saying the state of NH “disputes many of the allegations and characterizations” in the complaint and is preparing its response to the court action.
In contrast, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice filed a 29-page brief in support of the complaint, siding with the Democrats and accusing the House Republicans of violating disability laws. The DOJ also argues in its brief that Packard’s legislative immunity doesn’t apply, “because the State, which is the real party in interest, cannot claim it.”
In addition to Cote and the NH Democratic Party, House Democrats Kendall Snow, Paul Berch, Diane Langley, and Charlotte DiLorenzo are also named as plaintiffs in the complaint. The suit outlines varying ailments each have ranging from rheumatoid arthritis to severe kidney disease. According to the suit, for example, Snow is 81 years old, lives in a senior citizen facility, and suffers from respiratory problems due to a 2017 bout with Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
DiLorenzo, 71, is identified in the suit as an African American and is thus at a “substantially increased risk of being infected” by COVID. It notes that she suffers from such severe asthma that “due to the car fumes produced by the vast number of vehicles” in the parking lot outside a House session, she suffered an asthma attack and had to leave early.
The suit also names NH House Clerk Paul Smith as a defendant, claiming he is liable because he played a role in the adoption of the House’s pandemic policies.
