Winds of Change? Pete Hegseth Said Meeting With Ernst Went Very Well
Progressive Host Nails Why Hunter Biden Got a Lengthy Blanket Pardon
Hollywood Is Killing Itself: Good
Trump Unravels Welker in First Post-Election Interview, and Illegals Have the Press Off-Ba...
Whiskey Resurgence in the Heart of the Rebellion
Pardoning the Unpardonable
Why Are Politicians So Weak? Part Two
From Legislation to Litigation: The Battle Over Tobacco Harm Reduction
When the Left Cannot Succeed, Its Joy Comes From the Failure and Harm...
Javier Milei – One Year Later
It Sure Looks Like the Bidens Snubbed Harris, Emhoff at Kennedy Center Honors
Alleged Killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Faces Multiple Charges in Pennsylvania
American Life League Discovers Shocking Truths About the Country's Most Trusted Charities
Trump Picks a Familiar Name for General Counsel of OMB, and This Time...
Harmeet Dhillon Nominated for Role in Trump's Administration
Tipsheet

Appeals Court Allows Greg Abbott's Executive Order Banning Mask Mandates to Remain in Effect

AP Photo/LM Otero, File

Gov. Greg Abbott took to Twitter on Wednesday night to celebrate a decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that allows his ban on mask mandates in schools to remain in effect. 

Advertisement

The decision from the court's three-judge panel, as reported by Brian Lopez with the Texas Tribune, found that there was no harm caused for students with disabilities:

The case was originally filed in August by the advocacy group Disability Rights Texas, which argued that the governor’s order and the Texas Education Agency’s enforcement of the ban put disabled children at risk and denied them access to public education.

The order from the three-judge panel stated that there had been “no concrete, or actual or imminent, injury as a result of the enforcement” of Abbott’s executive order.

“The district court’s analysis rests on the faulty premise that the only accommodation available to plaintiffs is their schools’ ability to impose mask mandates,” the panel’s decision stated.

The order is another chapter of the monthslong legal dispute between parents, a disability rights organization and Texas officials over whether the state was violating the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, also known as the ADA.

Disability Rights Texas accused the state of violating the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act, which forbids organizations and employers from excluding or denying individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to receive program benefits and services.

Advertisement

The panel's decision, as highlighted by Emily Donaldson and Talia Richman with The Dallas Morning News, overturned an injunction from federal Judge Lee Yeakel, who ruled that the ban on mask mandates violated the rights of students with disabilities. 

As Donaldson and Richman wrote:

In his ruling, Yeakel concluded that the governor’s executive order interfered with schools’ ability to satisfy their obligations under federal disability law.

But in a court filing, the 5th Circuit judges pushed back on the notion that the absence of mask mandates would translate to harm for the students involved in the lawsuit.

“The risks of contracting COVID-19 for these plaintiffs are certainly real, but the alleged injury to plaintiffs from the enforcement of [the governor’s order] is, at this point, much more abstract,” the judges wrote.

They also took issue with Yeakel’s “blanket injunction” that prohibited the enforcement of Abbott’s ban in all of Texas’ public schools, calling the decision overbroad.

Injunctions must be narrowly tailored, they wrote, adding that Yeakel’s could have only addressed seven students involved in the case and their school districts.

Texas' mask mandate has been tied up in the courts, and thus making headlines, for some time now. 

In May, Gov. Abbott signed an executive order which in part mentioned that the "Texas Education Agency shall revise its guidance such that, effective 11:59 p.m. on June 4, 2021, no student, teacher, parent, or other staff member or visitor may be required to wear a face covering."

Advertisement

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has also recently issued a stay for state attorney generals who last month sued to stop President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for private employers. Texas was one of the states involved in the lawsuit, as was South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Utah. 

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement