Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates will be allowed to stand, at least temporarily, the Texas Supreme Court announced Sunday.
The all-Republican court temporarily blocked mask mandates in two counties until their cases can be heard, affirming Abbott’s executive order that prohibited government entities from issuing mask mandates.
As the delta variant of the coronavirus surges, several school districts and some Texas counties have defied the Republican governor’s order. The cases the court considered were those of Bexar County, home to San Antonio, and Dallas County.
The counties were trying to impose mask requirements in schools, which will not be permitted now, at least until the courts review the matter further.
Bexar County will maintain its mask mandate despite the ruling, the city of San Antonio said in a statement Sunday.
The statement said the ruling “has little practical effect” because a trial court will hear the counties’ case on Monday.
The Dallas Independent School District announced late Sunday that it will also continue requiring masks for students and staff despite the Supreme Court’s order, the Dallas Morning News reported.
“Until there’s an official order of the court that applies to the Dallas Independent School District, we will continue to have the mask mandate,” Superintendent Michael Hinojosa told the publication.
After appeals courts sided with the counties on Friday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) tweeted: “We have taken this mask mandate to the Texas Supreme Court. The rule of law will decide.”
Paxton’s office argued that the Texas Disaster Act of 1975 “definitively makes the governor the ‘commander in chief’ of the State’s response to a disaster,” meaning local entities could not defy his orders.
On Friday, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona sent Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) letters raising concerns about their executive actions prohibiting school districts from “voluntarily adopting science-based strategies for preventing the spread of Covid-19 that are aligned with the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
“The ban doesn’t prohibit using masks,” Abbott tweeted Sunday evening. “Anyone who wants to wear a mask can do so, including in schools.”
Texas Rep. Chris Turner (D) responded on Twitter, telling the governor, “It’s not too late to do the right thing,” and asking him to rescind the order that “ties the hands of local leaders.”
Judge Clay Jenkins, who issued the Dallas County mask mandate, tweeted Sunday that the court “narrowly ruled,” saying: “We won’t stop working with parents, doctors, schools, business + others to protect you.”
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