HARRISBURG – The Republican leader of the Pennsylvania Senate, a Republican state representative and a group of parents are litigating to overturn a statewide school mask mandate issued by the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf.
This past Friday, state Sen. Jake Corman, Rep. Jesse Topper, Calvary Baptist Church, Hillcrest Christian Academy and 10 parents of schoolchildren in three different school districts statewide (Wyomissing Area, Butler Area and Slippery Rock Area) filed suit in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania against the Wolf Administration, including acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam.
The suit alleges Beam violated state law when she ordered masks to be worn in all Pennsylvania public schools, private schools and child care facilities, because the order didn’t proceed through the state’s regulatory review process and due to recently-approved amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution curtailing Wolf’s emergency powers.
The suit seeks an injunction to prevent the imposition of the mask mandate.
Tom King, lead attorney for Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham LLP, issued a statement on the case:
“This weekend, we filed a complaint against [Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Health Alison] Beam to deny the imposition of draconian, unlawful mask mandates that are harming children across Pennsylvania. We filed this lawsuit on behalf of Calvary Baptist Church, Hillcrest Christian Academy and 10 parents of minor children, including children with special needs,” King said.
“We are arguing before the Court that Acting Secretary Beam does not have the authority to issue such a mandate under the Disease Prevention and Control Act. Since there is no authority under Pennsylvania law to keep students out of school, Secretary Beam is trampling on the rights of schoolchildren and their parents as she denies them the right to attend school in person. This type of regulatory overreach cannot stand in a free country.”
The Amistad Project, a Virginia-based election integrity group, announced the lawsuit’s filing by its affiliated attorneys in a press release on Tuesday.
Beam’s order, which took effect on Tuesday, mandated that students, teachers and support staff wear face coverings when inside, regardless of vaccination status.
In response to the litigation, a spokesperson for Wolf countered that the state Republican Party’s actions were not in the best interest of public health and that Beam possessed full authority to hand down the mask mandate.
“The Department of Health’s authority is clearly outlined in existing law. We need Republicans to stop spending their time undermining public health and instead encourage people to get vaccinated,” Wolf Administration Press Secretary Lyndsay Kensinger said in a statement.
Wolf recently expressed that a universal, statewide order became necessary after many of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts did not impose their own mask mandates, as state officials added more than 5,000 students have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the new school year.
The Wolf Administration has until Sept. 8 to respond to the lawsuit, and a court hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16.
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com