VICTORY: Court strikes down PA school mask mandate

HARRISBURG, Penn., Nov. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of The Amistad Project's lawsuit today and voided the statewide school mask mandate issued by Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam. The ruling was issued in response to a lawsuit filed by The Amistad Project on behalf of parents and school districts who argued that the Secretary did not have the legal authority to issue the order.

"This is a victory for the rule of law in Pennsylvania," said Tom King, lead attorney for Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter, & Graham LLP. "The Secretary of Health never had the authority to enter this order to begin with, and that's exactly what the court recognized with this ruling."

The court ruled that the order was void ab initio, meaning it was invalid from the moment it was issued.

"State officials issued this order unilaterally, bypassing the normal democratic process. The court found that this is an improper action by the executive branch assuming powers that are not theirs," said Phill Kline, director of The Amistad Project. "This is another demonstration that the best decisions regarding education and children are made by parents, working with local school districts, not distant executives assuming unauthorized power."

"In previous pandemics, we've never quarantined the healthy; we've protected the vulnerable," Kline added. "During the COVID pandemic, however, governments have placed all kinds of restrictions on the healthy, which we've never done before, and this case recognizes that such conduct was never authorized by the people of Pennsylvania."

REF: Case No. 294 M.D. 2021

For more information about The Amistad Project, please visit www.theamistadproject.org.

SOURCE Amistad Project