Court explains school mask ruling

Says interim state official ‘circumvented’ law

HARRISBURG — Two weeks after it shot down Pennsylvania’s school mask mandate, the state Supreme Court on Thursday issued a 58-page opinion explaining its decision.

That opinion, written by Justice David Wecht, can be summed up rather succinctly.

The problem with the mask mandate was that former acting Health Secretary Alison Beam “circumvented” state laws and regulations in issuing that edict in August, the justices found.

So, Ms. Beam’s order was never enforceable, the high court decided, largely because it was issued in the absence of any emergency declaration by Gov. Tom Wolf or any consent by the Legislature.

Justice Wecht stressed that his court’s ruling was about the law, not about virology. The justices took no position on the volatile debate over masking as an effective way to curb the spread of COVID19.

“More than a century has passed since mankind confronted a global pandemic on the scale of the one it faces today, which todate has claimed the lives of as many as 800,000 Americans,” Justice Wecht wrote. “In 1918, as now, well-intentioned disease mitigation efforts stimulated spirited public debate, in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation, about the wisdom of various approaches to disease control and the proper role of government in that process.

“Our role in this case is limited to deciding whether it was within the acting secretary of health’s authority under existing laws and regulations to issue a statewide school mask mandate,” he added. “Respectfully, we conclude that it was not.”

Since the Supreme Court’s Dec. 10 order nixing the mask mandate the state’s school districts have made their own mask or no-mask decisions.

Mr. Wolf said he had intended to cede that decision to the school districts in January anyway.

One of the main plaintiffs in the legal fight against the school mask mandate was Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, a Republican who last month confirmed his intent to run for governor.