The Supreme Court of Virginia dismissed a lawsuit from Chesapeake parents challenging Governor Glenn Youngkin’s school mask mandate opt-out order. The Monday opinion found procedural problems with the lawsuit, which in an unusual move was filed directly with the Supreme Court instead of a lower court. It also found that state law used to support rigid mask mandates allows school boards flexibility, but warned that it was not offering an opinion on the legality of Youngkin’s underlying Executive Order Two.
“By allowing school boards to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended COVID-19 mitigation strategies ‘to the maximum extent practicable,’ SB 1303 necessarily gives the boards a degree of discretion to modify or even forgo those strategies as
they deem appropriate for their individual circumstances,” the court wrote. “With respect to implementing policies on student masking, that discretion persists even if EO 2′s masking exemption provisions are unlawful.”
2021 Senate Bill 1303, sponsored by Senator Siobhan Dunnavant (R-Henrico), began as a bipartisan effort to require schools to be open full-time, but Republicans were surprised mid-summer when then-Governor Ralph Northam cited it as state law requiring schools to follow CDC masking guidelines, prompting pushback from Republicans and some school boards. When Youngkin took office, he issued EO Two, requiring schools to allow parents to opt out of the mandates. That prompted pushback from Democrats and other school boards. In a separate lawsuit, last week the Arlington County Circuit Court issued a temporary injunction in favor of several school boards, blocking enforcement of EO Two while that case proceeds.
Monday’s Supreme Court opinion doesn’t affect the injunction, but Republicans see it as a sign of potential weaknesses in the other legal challenges to EO Two.
“As I have maintained, the Supreme Court of Virginia today released a decision that clearly stated SB 1303, the bill that opened Virginia schools in the fall, does not constitute a mask mandate,” Dunnavant said in a Monday press release.
Attorney General Jason Miyares and his office are defending the administration against the lawsuits.
In a press release, Miyares said, “The governor and I are pleased with today’s ruling. At the beginning of this pandemic, Governor Northam used his broad emergency powers to close places of worship, private businesses, and schools and impose a statewide mask mandate. Nearly two years later, we have better risk mitigation strategies and vaccines, and we know much more about the efficacy of requiring children to wear masks all day.”
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Glenn Youngkin” by Glenn Youngkin. Background Photo “Supreme Court of Virginia” by Morgan Riley. CC BY 3.0.
