In a stinging rebuke to Governor Pritzker’s school masking Executive Order, an appellate court today struck down the mandate on the grounds that since the legislature’s rules committee (“JCAR”) recently “objected to and suspended” the mandates’ renewal, “none of the rules found by the circuit court to be null and void are currently in effect.”
However, the ruling explicitly left the door open to school districts to impose their own mandates.
In referring to the temporary restraining order issued by a Sangamon county judge earlier this month, the court stated that it “in no way restrains school districts from acting independently from the executive orders or the IDPH in creating provisions addressing COVID-19.”
Thus, the ruling seems to throw the contentious issue back to the school boards, where it was hotly contested in districts across the state prior to Pritzker’s Executive Order.
In the Fox Valley, several school boards reacted to the temporary restraining order by changing their policies to “mask recommended, not required,” citing the ruling’s requirement of “due process” before mandating masks. Other’s ignored the ruling and maintained the mandate.
As a result of today’s appellate court ruling, it appears that school boards will be forced to choose masking policies on their own, without reference to legal constraints.
And that will make for some interesting board meetings.
