admin
The Pennsylvania Department of Health quietly filed a proposed rewrite of Chapter 27 — the rules that govern how the state handles communicable diseases — and it should make every freedom-loving Pennsylvanian raise an eyebrow. The package would expand reporting requirements, broaden disease-control powers and, most controversially, give health officials explicit authority to enter homes, schools and other places “as necessary to carry out contact tracing or partner services.” House Republican Leader Jesse Topper is right to call this a red flag: these are proposed regulations that smell a lot like the lockdown playbook, and they deserve a hard, public look.
What the proposed regulations actually say
On paper, the Department says it is updating reporting lists and aligning state rules with federal standards — a reasonable-sounding goal. But tucked into the draft is language that gives investigators the authority to “enter an apartment, building, health care facility, school, college or university, or other location as necessary to carry out contact tracing or partner services.” The packet also tightens rules on access to health data and changes readmission rules for students and health workers. In short: wider surveillance, broader investigatory reach, and more administrative power concentrated in one agency.
Why Republicans are sounding the alarm
Leader Topper and other House Republicans have seized on the entry-and-data language — and for good reason. Parental rights advocates are furious about provisions that could allow private interviews with students without notifying a parent or guardian. Civil-liberties defenders point to Fourth Amendment concerns when officials can effectively cross a threshold for contact tracing without a warrant. And politically, this comes at a bad time for Governor Josh Shapiro, who talks a lot about freedom while his Department advances rules that read like an insurance policy for future mandates.
Process matters — and so does public pushback
Here’s the legal reality check: these are proposed regulations, not a final order, and they must clear a public-comment process and IRRC review. The Department can and often does revise language after feedback. That’s exactly what should happen here. Pennsylvanians should use the comment period to demand clarity, limit any warrantless-entry language, and insist on legislative debate instead of executive rulemaking when fundamental rights are at stake. The Commonwealth’s Supreme Court rulings during the COVID era (the Corman decisions) already warned against sidestepping formal rulemaking — and the Department appears to be trying to codify powers the courts pushed back on.
Make no mistake: public health needs planning. But planning that borrows the worst instincts of lockdown-era governance — opaque rules, broad discretion, phone-it-in oversight — is a fast track to eroding trust and liberty. Governor Josh Shapiro’s administration can fix this the easy way: withdraw the overbroad provisions, work with the legislature, and write limits into any final rule so parents, property owners and privacy advocates don’t have to fear an overreaching state investigator. If the administration won’t do that, voters and lawmakers should make sure these proposed regulations die in the comment box where they belong. After all, freedom isn’t a footnote in a bulletin — it’s the point.
