Matt Bush, FISM News
A state judge in Pennsylvania and a federal judge in a Texas ruling overturned their respective governor’s position on masks yesterday. The ruling struck down mandates in the opposite direction, but both cited that the governor’s office does not have the final authority on the issue.
A court ruling on Wednesday in Pennsylvania overturned a mask mandate enacted by Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration earlier this year, which required all children K-12 in the state to wear masks while at school. The judge ruled that acting Health Secretary Alison Beam did not have the authority to issue the regulation requiring masks.
According to the AP, “The judge said Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam’s mandate did not comply with the state’s laws about reviewing and approving regulations and was adopted without an existing disaster emergency declared by the governor.” The deciding factor in the ruling was that there was no “disaster emergency” declared by the governor.
This past May, Republican lawmakers in the Keystone State made the ruling easier by passing two constitutional amendments limiting the length of gubernatorial disaster declarations.
Almost simultaneously, a federal judge ruled in the opposite direction in Texas by overturning Gov. Greg Abbot’s ban on mask mandates, saying that local governments should have jurisdiction on the matter. In his ruling, Judge Lee Yeakel of U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas cited the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, saying the law does not adequately provide protections for children with disabilities.
“Children with certain underlying conditions who contract COVID-19 are more likely to experience severe acute biological effects and to require admission to a hospital and the hospital’s intensive-care unit,” Yeakel stated in the court document.
In both instances, the states are actively fighting the rulings.
As mask mandates continue to be a hot button political topic, the laws regarding them continue to be as clear as mud. It is not uncommon to have a conservative governor ban all mask mandates for their state just to have local school districts in more liberal areas require children to wear masks as seen in Texas and Florida.
The divide is intensely political. Supporters of mask mandates tend to be more liberal and say that these mandates are needed to fight the spread of the pandemic. Opponents of mask mandates tend to be more conservative and believe that mandating someone to wear a mask takes away from their individual liberty and freedom.
In the midst of this political battle about whether or not students should be forced to wear masks to school, however, it is the children who are the ones caught in the middle.
These cases do seem to hit on a common thread with both stating that local governments and school districts should have the final say. It is yet to be seen if this will continue to be the decision in other cases around the country.