School Mask Mandate Struck Down By PA Supreme Court

PENNSYLVANIA — The school mask mandate must be lifted immediately, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Friday afternoon, reaffirming a lower court's opinion that the mandate was illegal. The ruling also applies to child care facilities across the state.

This means that control over masking decisions in schools will return to individual school districts, as it was before Gov. Tom Wolf's administration issued the mandate earlier in the fall.

“Today’s ruling is a victory for parents and communities whose opinions have been ignored by the Wolf Administration for far too long," Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Bellefonte), who led the suit against the mandate, said in a statement Friday. "I have said all along that parents and school boards are in the best position to respond to COVID-19 and keep our kids safe. I am grateful the Supreme Court agreed with this position and rejected Governor Wolf’s effort to take power away from the people."

The Supreme Court had not yet published their full opinion on the case as of 4 p.m. Friday. Republican Justice Thomas Saylor did not participate in the vote.

Other leading Republicans welcomed the news.

"Yet another massive DEFEAT for liberal lockdown extremist ⁦@JoshShapiroPA⁩!" gubernatorial candidate Lou Barletta shared on social media. "Pennsylvania parents should decide what is best for their children - not unelected government bureaucrats!!"

"Another great victory for the Constitution, parents, and local rule," U.S. Congressman Scott Perry (R-10) added.

The Wolf administration made no immediate public comment on the ruling.

Gov. Wolf had announced that the mandate would be lifted on Jan. 17, 2022, before the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled it illegal last month. The appeal process has been ongoing in the weeks since.

Opening arguments in the case were heard before the Supreme Court Wednesday.

Lawyers for the state argued during that hearing that a provision in the law equates the mask mandate with a "modified quarantine" — a measure which the state is allowed to impose to limit the spread of a communicable disease.

In the lower court, Republicans successfully countered that Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam did not follow the proper procedural steps in issuing the mandate. They further argued that the mandate was illegal because a public health emergency was no longer in place at the time.

The mandate's future has been consistently murky for weeks. Gov. Wolf's administration filed an immediate appeal of the lower court's decisions, which stayed the ruling. Republican leadership then managed to have that stay lifted, and the mandate was set to be lifted on Dec. 4. The Supreme Court then reversed that decision, saying that the ruling can, in fact, be stayed until they had the chance to hear the case.

This is a breaking story. Check back for updates as they become available.