Court agrees to enforce ruling against PA school mask mandate

Court grants The Amistad Project’s request to lift stay on ruling voiding mandate

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania/November 17, 2021 – The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has granted The Amistad Project’s request to lift an automatic stay on the court’s previous ruling voiding Pennsylvania’s statewide school mask mandate.

“The court rightly recognized that the governor was trying to use a procedural maneuver to keep an unlawful order in place,” said Tom King, lead attorney for Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter, & Graham LLP. “Our case against the order already prevailed on the merits, and now the rule of law will be upheld.”

“The decision to require masks in schools is one that properly belongs with individual school boards, in consultation with parents,” said Phill Kline, director of The Amistad Project. “State officials bypassed the normal democratic process to put this order in place, and this court is doing its duty by striking down executive overreach.”

DETAILS:

On November 10, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of The Amistad Project’s lawsuit against Pennsylvania’s school mask mandate, ruling that the order was void ab initio. The Wolf administration immediately appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and under the Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure the appeal triggered an automatic stay of the ruling. The ruling lifting this stay will take effect on December 4.

REF: Case No. 294 M.D. 2021

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

# # # # #