AUSTIN – Yesterday
Attorney General Paxton secured a ruling against imposing mask mandates
on Texas children in violation of state law. In a win for Texas
families and the rule of law, the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated a lower court’s injunction on
Texas’s statewide mask-mandate ban and ordered the court to dismiss the
underlying lawsuit.
In
July 2021, Governor Abbott published Executive Order No. GA-38. Among
other things, the Order prohibits governmental entities—including public
school districts—from imposing mask mandates: “No governmental entity,
including a . . . school district . . . and no governmental official may
require any person to wear a face covering or to mandate that another
person wear a face covering.” The Order expressly provided that it
“shall supersede any face-covering requirement imposed by any local
governmental entity or official.”
Many
school districts revolted against the Executive Order and imposed mask
requirements anyway. In response, Attorney General Paxton sent letters to these districts
to ensure they understood their responsibilities under the law and to
threaten legal action for further violations. Later, Attorney General
Paxton sued over a dozen rogue school districts for their refusal to comply with GA-38.
Meanwhile,
a group of students sued the State of Texas over GA-38, saying that it
violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act,
and the American Rescue Plan Act. The federal judge sided with the
plaintiffs against the State and concluded that GA-38 violates and is
preempted by these statutes. The judge also enjoined Attorney General
Paxton from enforcing or giving any effect to GA-38. As a result, many
school districts re-imposed mask mandates on children in school for the
2021–2022 school year.
Attorney
General Paxton appealed the district court’s order and, yesterday, the
Fifth Circuit issued an opinion reversing the lower court’s order. The
appeals court agreed with Paxton and concluded that the district court
lacked jurisdiction, vacated the injunction barring the State from
enforcing GA-38, and ordered the lower court to dismiss the suit.
“The
audacity of rogue superintendents across Texas openly violating state
law last year was alarming. These are the community leaders that are
supposed to be models for our youth to look up to, but instead they
became political activists and abandoned their duties as educators,”
Attorney General Paxton said. “It is long past time for Texas educators
to put aside their political agendas and focus on the crucial task of
educating our Texas children.”
