A Pennsylvania court on Wednesday struck down a statewide mask mandate that required children inside K-12 schools to wear a face covering.
The court sided with the ranking Republican in the state Senate and parents who challenged the mandate.
The judges 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 state’s disease control law does not give health secretaries "the blanket authority to create new rules and regulations out of whole cloth, provided they are related in some way to the control of disease or can otherwise be characterized as disease control measures," wrote Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon, a Republican, for the majority.
She said the judges "express herein no opinion regarding the science or efficacy of mask-wearing or the politics underlying the considerable controversy the subject continues to engender." (Fox News)
"Today’s ruling validates what we have said all along: mask decisions should be made by parents and school boards, not unelected bureaucrats,” said state Sen. Jake Corman and Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward in a statement. “A blanket mandate does not address the unique needs and circumstances of individual communities, and it takes power away from the people who are in the best position to protect our kids.”
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While the Wolf administration immediately filed an appeal, effectively keeping the mandate in place, some school districts already said masking will become optional based on the ruling.
The ruling comes after Gov. Tom Wolf said earlier this week that the decision to require masks in schools would go back to local school districts Jan. 17, 2022.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has just struck down the statewide school mask mandate!
— Phillip Kline (@PhillDKline) November 10, 2021
Important victory for the rule of law and parental rights!
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