Texas judge allows Austin mask rule
AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas judge is allowing Austin to continue requiring employees and customers to wear face coverings in local businesses weeks after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ended a statewide mask mandate and other covid-19 safety measures.
The ruling Friday by state District Judge Lora Livingston was at least a temporary victory for local leaders in the liberal state capital who have repeatedly clashed with Abbott over his handling of the pandemic.
Face coverings have only ever been loosely enforced in Texas, which earlier this month became the biggest state to drop covid-19 restrictions.
“This push to continue masking has never been about laws and enforcement; it’s about communicating a culture of common decency and concern for one another,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler said
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sued the city over the mandate, did not immediately react. However, he is expected to quickly appeal the ruling, which denied his request for an injunction blocking the mask mandate.
During a hearing on the case, Assistant Attorney General Todd Dickerson said state law “clearly makes the governor, not local officials, ultimately responsible for guiding the state through a statewide disaster,”
But lawyers for Austin and Travis County said the mask mandate, which requires businesses to ensure that customers and employees cover their faces while inside, are allowed under a different state law that gives local health officials the power to issue rules that protect public health.