Shapiro's Health Department Wants Power to Enter Your Home Without a Warrant

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is pushing new health regulations that would hand his Department of Health sweeping authority reminiscent of the darkest days of COVID lockdowns, and he's doing it while gearing up for re-election.

The proposal, submitted by the Department of Health under Regulation 10-242, would let state officials enter homes and schools without a warrant, access private medical records without consent, and reimpose mask mandates in schools, all under the banner of "disease control measures.” Because the department answers directly to the governor's office, critics say the change would let Shapiro, or any successor, unilaterally enforce these powers statewide.

The irony is hard to miss. Pennsylvania voters amended their constitution in 2021 specifically to strip the governor's office of unchecked emergency powers after Gov. Tom Wolf's pandemic-era shutdowns crushed small businesses and kept kids out of classrooms. Shapiro's new plan sidesteps that guardrail entirely: it doesn't require a declared emergency to take effect.

House Republican Leader Jesse Topper has called on the administration to pull the regulations, warning they echo COVID-era overreach that Pennsylvanians have not forgotten. State Rep. Michele Brooks was similarly blunt, saying residents remember how these powers were abused once already.

The Shapiro administration insists the update is about combating outbreaks of measles and cyclosporiasis and modernizing outdated disease-reporting rules, nothing more, a department spokesperson said. But watchdogs at PA Family note the fine print goes further than public health: officials could reportedly interview students privately at school, without notifying parents, as part of contact tracing.

Commonwealth Foundation's Megan Martin put it plainly: Pennsylvania is a constitutional republic built on separation of powers, and Shapiro would do well to remember it. Small businesses shuttered, students fell behind, and families were barred from dying relatives' bedsides last time politicians decided the rules didn't apply to them.

Pennsylvanians said never again in 2021. Shapiro's latest move suggests he didn't get the message.