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Those opposing mask and vaccine mandates aren't likely to get help from SCOTUS, if Amy Coney Barrett has anything to say about it. / AP Photo
Good morning, beautiful people of New Jersey. You're looking particularly hot this week, and I don't just mean the temperature. <Fans self>
Recently, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott made himself into a meme -- and not in a good way -- by responding to a question about his vaccination status with a Hall of Fame-worthy non-answer: "I think that's HIPAA?"
It's not. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act deals exclusively with what information health providers and insurance companies can reveal about you.
As our Karin Price Mueller has helpfully, patiently explained multiple times, HIPPA is -- not to get all technical jargony about it -- diddly squat about whether your boss, the restaurant manager, your favorite band or a nosy reporter can ask if you've taken a simple step to protect yourself and others from a serious, contagious disease.
And yet, that concept persists of HIPAA as a some sort of Harry Potter invisibility cloak people can pull around themselves when they don't feel like doing something. The local New Jersey version of that is home rule -- it's become an all-purpose excuse for municipalities hoping to get their own way.
Several South Jersey Shore towns recently argued their home rule was being undermined by legislation enabling a wind turbine project -- 15 miles offshore. But home rule doesn't extend as far as the eye can see, or over everything that the light touches, Simba. The kingdom ends at the municipal border.
Home rule has reasonable purposes. It's why your town can allow liquor sales but not weed, or choose to charge for beach tags and parking meters, and create local planning and zoning rules. It's not about doing your own thing in a public health crisis.
This week, it's masks.
The Wall Township school board sent Gov. Murphy a letter criticizing his statewide mask mandate for school students and staff. The board president told our Jackie Roman, "Everybody believes it’s a home rule issue and it should be made at the local level."
Believing it doesn't make it so. By definition, home rule is about giving towns "the fullest and most complete powers possible" over issues of "local self-government." That may allow for more than 600 different school districts to exist, but not 600 individual responses to public health guidance in a worldwide pandemic.
And with Justice Amy Coney Barrett declining to even consider an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of Indiana University's vaccine mandate, it seems unlikely courts will look favorably on blocking a mask mandate for vulnerable children too young to even get the protection of a shot.
It's easy to get confused about this stuff. And there's no shame in being wrong, but there is danger in not trying to get the correct information. Whatever happens, we'll be over on NJ.com with the most accurate information and useful explainers to help you make the best decisions for your family, based on the best data.
Our subscribers make it all possible, so if you haven't joined our community of engaged, informed readers, you can fix that, right here.
Also this week, shocking Bruce Springsteen news, take a bite of this, an unexpected visitor joins a college student's hike, what the Census shows, and an agreement on the state's prison for women: BOSS HABIT: Proving once again that he is the Jersey-est guy to ever Jersey, it was revealed this week that Bruce enjoys visiting the same Shore town his Dad took him to, some 70 years ago. Manasquan's charms are multi-generational. IT'S A SOMETIMES FOOD: If you build it -- it being a ridiculous, yet somehow irresistible food concoction -- we'll make Jeremy Schneider eat it and report back. This time: The Guy Fieri Apple Pie Hot Dog, a tie-in with that Field of Dreams baseball game. NOPE ROPE: "It felt like a bee sting at first," is how college student Kevin Murray described it. That ouchie on his left ankle turned out to be from the bite of a rare, venomous copperhead snake that got him while on a hike! THE NEW JERSEY: The latest batch of U.S. Census data shows our state has become more diverse, more urban-centered, and Hispanic and Asian populations are booming. Newark remains the biggest city, and Lakewood is the fastest-growing. 'DELIBERATELY INDIFFERENT': That's how a Department of Justice report describes the response of officials at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility to ongoing, years-long reports of rape and other abuse by prison guards. As our Tom Moran points out, Gov. Murphy let this go on for years, but he's not the only one. Finally, remember that time in college you got arrested for, say, a drunken fraternity pledge stunt? Or that time before you got clean that your long-ago drug addiction drove you to petty crime? Maybe that old assault charge you caught in your 20s, after that one guy said the Yankees sucked?
Should minor crimes follow people their entire lives, simply because we published a newspaper brief about it decades ago that now lives online, forever? That's one of the many questions our Public Editor, Judy Locorriere, is helping us tackle. If you don't know about our Content Removal process, I encourage you to check it out.
P.S.: I'll be off next week taking care of some back-to-school related stuff. See you on the 28th, everyone.
Amy Z. Quinn Audience Editor
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