Posted on 12/08/2021 10:40:43 AM PST by lightman
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on one of the most divisive issues facing the state at the moment – the state-imposed mandate that children must wear face masks while in school to protect against COVID-19.
Yet the nearly hour-long session in Philadelphia wasn’t really about the virus or controlling its spread or whether wearing those masks is an effective response to the pandemic.
Instead, the arguments centered on whether the state’s Acting Secretary of Health, Alison Beam, had the legal authority to issue the mask mandate.
As Justice Debra Todd observed, the high court was being tasked with conducting “a very, very small analysis of what is really a very big issue.”
The issue came before the Supreme Court after the Wolf Administration appealed a Commonwealth Court ruling that upended the school mask mandate. That lower court found Beam lacked the power under state law to require mask wearing in schools.
As of now, the school mask requirement remains in force until the Supreme Court rules on the appeal. Gov. Wolf has said that in any case the mask or no mask call will revert to the local school districts next month.
This is more a political dispute than a medical one. It pits the Democratic Wolf against the Republican majority Legislature. One of the lead challengers of the mask requirement is Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, who recently announced his candidacy for governor.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Sean Kirkpatrick spent his time before the high court trying to convince the justices that Beam did indeed have authority to impose the mask mandate under a regulation that addresses the management of infectious diseases.
Kirkpatrick said Beam decided to act because “the Delta variant (of the virus) was causing a lot more harm to children. A lot more children were being hospitalized.”
He called the masking rule a “modified disease control mechanism” that state regulations allow the Health Department to deploy.
It was preferable, at least in a logistical sense, to requiring that students be tested daily for COVID-19 before entering their classrooms, Kirkpatrick said.
“How does that regulation trump the fundamental right of a parent to determine what it best for their child?” Justice Kevin M. Dougherty asked. “Share with me how an unelected official’s mandate trumps a constitutional right.”
“Doesn’t this measure actually address what’s best for other children…so they’re not spreading this disease to one another?” Justice Todd asked.
“You’re reading it correctly, your honor,” Kirkpatrick said in reply to Todd’s question. He cited the argument that with COVID-19 some degree of individual rights “ends at your neighbor’s nose.”
Kirkpatrick argued that the masking rule was an “appropriate restriction” that allowed school to return to in-person education amid the continuing pandemic.
Chief Justice Max Baer asked if individual school districts would be barred from imposing their own mask mandates if Beam’s directive is voided by his court.
“I don’t believe so, your honor,” Kirkpatrick said.
Attorney Thomas Breth represented the masking mandate opponents. Justice Todd asked him whether state regulations would allow for the mandatory testing of students for the virus instead of the masking requirement.
“I don’t believe there is a regulation that provides the authority for that,” Breth said.
When Todd asked if his clients would also oppose mask mandates imposed by individual school districts, Breth replied, “We would certainly do that analysis.”
Protecting children is important to his clients as well, he said. “The problem we have is when you go outside the regulatory process,” Breth said.
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And skin rashes, and decreased brain function and growth due to hypoxia.
The PA SC is probably the most corrupt court in the nation. They actively participated in overruling the legislature during the election. They took it upon themselves to reconstruct election law even though the US constitution specifically gives that duty to the legislature. They did everything they could to make cheating an easy task. The PA SC is a leftist communist, lawless corrupt group of individuals. They should all end up in Gitmo.
its a 5-2 Democrat court...
They violated the law and constitution with rulings during the election I would be beyond shocked to see them strike these unconstitutional and illegal mandates down.
PA Supreme Court is basically a kangaroo court
masking as gov’t policy is about symbolism and power, nothing else
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