HARRISBURG – The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has nullified the statewide school mask mandate issued by Secretary of Health Alison Beam in September, aligning with a similar ruling from the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania handed down last month and dealing a legal blow to the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf.
Late Friday afternoon, the state’s high court issued a brief per curiam order explaining that it affirmed the earlier ruling from the Commonwealth Court, and that a related opinion would soon follow.
It was also noted that state Supreme Court Justice Thomas G. Saylor did not participate in the decision.
Republican gubernatorial candidate and Senate President pro tempore 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) first filed suit in the Commonwealth Court in September against the Wolf Administration, including Beam.
The plaintiffs argued that her mask mandate order was invalid, since it did not proceed through the state’s regulatory review process and due to recently-approved amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution curtailing Wolf’s emergency powers – and the Commonwealth Court agreed with that rationale.
The Commonwealth Court had ruled on Nov. 10 that an order issued by Beam, which took effect in September and mandated that students, teachers and support staff in all Pennsylvania public schools, private schools and child care facilities wear face coverings when inside, regardless of vaccination status, was unenforceable.
However, five justices from the state Supreme Court had issued a per curiam order on Nov. 30 that the mask mandate would instead be continued until the state’s high court heard oral arguments in the case. Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Justice Sallie Updyke Mundy dissented from that Nov. 30 order, while Saylor again did not participate.
Prior to Friday's ruling, it was speculated that the state Supreme Court, which is comprised of a majority of Democratic judges, may have found favor with the Wolf Administration’s case more so than did the Commonwealth Court, which features a majority of Republican judges.
However, that was not the case.
During oral arguments, while Senior Deputy Attorney General Sean A. Kirkpatrick opined that Beam possessed authority to impose the school mask mandate through a regulation which seeks to manage infectious diseases, as a form of “modified quarantine” – plaintiff counsel Thomas Breth countered that the Wolf Administration had relied upon language calling for “any other disease control measure” to justify Beam’s order, and not the argument of “modified quarantine.”
Breth said their issue was caused by the state going outside the regulatory process.
A spokesperson for Wolf issued a statement on the state Supreme Court ruling.
“The administration’s top priority from the beginning of this pandemic has been and remains protecting public health and safety, including students and staff, to ensure in-person learning continues. We are awaiting an opinion on the decision, but the outcome is extremely disappointing. That said, the administration recognizes that many school districts want to ensure a safe and healthy learning environment for students and staff, and we are hopeful they will make appropriate mitigation decisions moving forward,” Wolf Administration Press Secretary Elizabeth Rementer said.
“The administration urges school districts to prioritize the health and safety of their students and staff when making mitigation decisions. Masking is a proven and simple way to keep kids in school without interruption and participate in sports and other extra-curricular activities. Universal masking in schools, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend, reduces the risk that entire classrooms will need to quarantine due to a positive COVID-19 case.”
The Wolf Administration urged all eligible Pennsylvanians to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and booster shot, and to vaccinate children ages 5 and older.
Wolf had initially expressed the need for a universal, statewide order after many of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts did not impose their own mask mandates and due to several thousand students having tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the new school year.
Wolf announced last month that he would return authority over mask mandates to local school districts in January.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania case 83 MAP 2021
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania case 294 M.D. 2021
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com