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An Arkansas judge temporarily barred the state from enforcing its ban on mask warrants on Friday after lawmakers left the ban in place despite a growing number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox has issued a preliminary injunction against the law Governor Asa Hutchinson signed in April banning mask requirements by government entities. The ban was being challenged by two lawsuits, including one in a school district in eastern Arkansas where more than 900 staff and students are in quarantine due to a coronavirus outbreak.
Fox spoke against the measure on several grounds, including the argument that it discriminated between public and private schools.
The law “cannot be enforced in any form, mode or form” pending further legal action, Fox said.
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Fox released the decision hours after lawmakers adjourned a special session Hutchinson called to consider revoking the ban on certain schools. Hutchinson had said the change was necessary to protect children under 12 who cannot get vaccinated as virus cases and hospitalizations skyrocket in the state.
Hutchinson faced strong opposition from his fellow Republicans, who had been inundated with calls and messages from opponents of masks in schools.
The governor, who said he regretted signing the ban, said he agreed with Fox’s decision but had no plans to reimpose the mask warrant across the board. of the state he had lifted in March. He also criticized lawmakers who opposed the action, saying many of them had taken a “relaxed, if not cavalier attitude” towards the state’s COVID-19 crisis.
“What worries me is that many just listen to the loudest voices and don’t stand up with compassion, common sense and serious action,” he told reporters.
Hutchinson was named a defendant in the lawsuit with state and legislative leaders. He left open the option of separately asking the state Supreme Court to uphold Fox’s decision on appeal.
A House panel Thursday rejected two measures that would have allowed some school districts to impose mask requirements.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson before the start of day two of the Republican National Convention July 19, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images)
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There had been growing calls to lift the ban before school started across the state later this month. The Marion School District, one of the districts challenging the warrant ban, said on Friday that 949 staff and students had to be quarantined since classes began last week due to a coronavirus outbreak . The district said 54 students and 11 staff members had tested positive for COVID-19.
“I think we are going to really regret not taking action,” said Democratic Senator Keith Ingram, House Minority Leader. “I just hope the consequences will not be fatal for the children, staff or teachers in this condition.”
Pediatricians and health officials have said masks in schools are needed to protect children, as the delta variant and Arkansas’ low vaccination rate fuel the state’s spiral of cases. The state on Monday reported its largest one-day increase in hospitalizations for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and the Department of Health said on Friday that only 28 intensive care unit beds were available in the state.
Opponents of the lifting of the ban who testified before the legislature have repeatedly cited false and discredited claims about the virus, including a woman who falsely suggested that COVID-19 does not exist.
“That’s what’s frustrating is that we don’t make decisions about data, data being respected,” said Democratic Representative Denise Garner, who co-sponsored one of the proposals to lift the ban. .
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The Republican sponsor of the term ban said he believes the state should focus on other ways to tackle epidemics in schools, such as time off for teachers who must self-quarantine.
“What I don’t want is that false sense of security that masks seem to provide because it’s an easy political tool,” Republican Senator Trent Garner said. “Let’s find the real solutions when this happens in our schools, and I think we’re woefully inadequate about it.”
On Friday, the House and Senate gave final approval to the only other item on the session’s agenda, legislation aimed at preventing the state from resuming additional unemployment insurance payments to 69,000 people in the ‘State.
Last week, a state judge ordered Arkansas to resume the payment, ruling that Hutchinson did not appear to have the authority to cut the payments. Hutchinson was one of more than two dozen GOP governors who ended their states’ participation in federally-funded payments, which were due to run until early September.
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