By The Seymour Tribune
SEYMOUR — Indiana District 69 Rep. Jim Lucas took to social media Wednesday afternoon to announce plans to draft legislation that would limit the governor’s power in emergency situations.
In his post, the Seymour businessman said he feels the executive order signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb mandating wearing masks is unconstitutional. On the social media post commenting about the mask executive order, Lucas is shown wearing pantyhose over his head in a photo.
“The governor’s office is stating that the Indiana General Assembly granted emergency powers to the governor by passing IC 10-14-3 in 2003, and he is within his authority to do what he’s doing,” Lucas said.
“I am drafting legislation for next session to rescind this level of power, as one person was never intended to have this much power in a constitutional republic,” he said. “The constitutions are a restraint on government, and this obscene overreach is one of the many reasons the constitutions were written, and we are required to swear an oath to uphold them.”
When asked about how well his potential legislation would be supported, Lucas said he knows support will be there.
Lucas was not the only government official and others who took issue with the order or a want a special section to deal with other issues related to COVID-19 including allowing no-excuse absentee balloting during all elections and $2 billion in spent federal assistance fund and improving the criminal justice system and policing.
The list includes Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, state Senate Minority Leader of Indiana Democrat Timothy Lanane and Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Donald Rainwater. All three have asked the governor to call a special legislative session to discuss the mask mandate and other issues with the judicial and legislative branches of the state government.
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
