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The Superior Court has dismissed John Waters and Gemma O’Doherty’s legal challenge against laws introduced by the State due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In judicial review procedures against the State and the Minister of Health, an attempt was made to search for several recently promulgated laws, which according to them are unconstitutional and defective, annulled by a Superior Court judge.
They also wanted the court to make a statement that the challenged legislation was unconstitutional.
On Wednesday, Judge Charles Meenan dismissed his decision on a preliminary issue, that is, whether they had the right to leave or the court’s permission to bring their case to a full hearing.
The judge said that their claims were not debatable and that the court could not grant them permission to determine their challenge in a full Superior Court hearing.
The judge said the case should not have been presented through a judicial review and should have been conducted in a plenary hearing that would have involved the hearing of oral evidence.
The decision was delivered electronically. However, during the course of the hearing, the applicants indicated that they would appeal to the Court of Appeals if permission was not granted.
During the application hearing, dozens of gardaí were detained around the Four Courts to ensure compliance with social distancing rules for court hearings, where limited people can attend the courts.
Dozens of supporters of journalists had attended the Four Courts complex when the matter was brought up in court. The applicants had opposed this and argued that the public had a right to be present in court during the hearing.
That argument was rejected by the court, which said that while the proceedings were being covered by the media, the hearing was held in public.
The State, and the attorneys acting for Dáil, Seanad and Ceann Comhairle, who were notified parties to the process, had argued during a two-day hearing that permission should not be granted.
Ms. O’Doherty and Mr. Waters, who represented themselves, challenged the legislation, including the 2020 Health Preservation and Protection and other emergency measures in the Public Interest Law; the 2020 Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Law Covid-19 Act; the Order of the Health Law of 1947 (affected areas).
Its procedures also aimed to eliminate the temporary restraint regulations introduced due to Covid-19 under the Health Act of 1947.
They claimed that the laws, and the way they were enacted, are disgusting to various articles of the constitution, including travel rights, bodily integrity, and family.
Rights
They had argued that the laws amount to an “unprecedented” suspension of constitutional rights.
In opposing the license application, Patrick McCann SC, who appeared with Gerard Meehan BL for the State, argued that the application was “doomed” for various reasons, including the fact that it was procedurally flawed.
There was a failure to present expert evidence that supported their challenge in court, and they lacked the legal capacity to bring the case to a full hearing, as they had not established how the challenged regulations affect them personally, the state said.
Francis Kieran BL for parts of the notice described the challenge as “a complete frontal attack” on articles of the Constitution associated with the separation of powers.
The lawyer said that the courts should not interfere with the decisions made by the Chambers in relation to the laws presented by Covid-19, and that the license should not be granted since the issues raised cannot be resolved by a court of law.
The attorney also rejected the applicants’ claims that the laws were flawed because they had been enacted by an incoming Dáil and an outgoing Seanad, or because they had been advanced by an interim government.
Mr. Waters argued that the laws were so draconian that they constituted an exceptional circumstance that would allow the court to interfere with a decision of the legislature.
During the trial of her presentations, Ms. O’Doherty, who said the action was being brought “on behalf of the people of Ireland,” described the situation as living under “martial law” and described the Government’s actions as something “like a coup.”
During the process, he said that the people of Ireland were under mass arrest at the home, and compared the conditions under the closure as if they were in “Nazi Germany”.
The case will be brought up in court at a later date.
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