Federal court finds Texas Governor’s ban on mask mandates violates ADA News
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Federal court finds Texas Governor’s ban on mask mandates violates ADA

The US District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order banning mask mandates violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on Wednesday.

On July 29, 2021, Governor Abbot issued Executive Order GA-38, preventing any “governmental entity, including a county, city, school district and public health authority” from requiring “any person to wear a face covering or to mandate that another person wear a face covering . . . .”

The plaintiffs in the case are seven students in Texas public schools with disabilities including “Down syndrome, a heart defect, asthma, immune deficiency, underlying reactive airway disease, spina bifida, chronic respiratory failure, and cerebral palsy.” Due to their disabilities, plaintiffs are at risk of developing severe symptoms from COVID-19.

The ADA requires that state and local governments “include children with disabilities equally” in free public schools mandated by the Texas Constitution. The court found no exceptions in the executive order for school districts that determine “a mask mandate [to be] necessary to comply with its ADA obligations.”

Without an exception, “Plaintiffs are either forced out of in-person learning altogether or must take on unnecessarily greater health and safety risks than their nondisabled peers.” Thus, the court concluded that GA-38 violates the ADA.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is now permanently enjoined from enforcing the executive order. Paxton stated that he strongly disagrees with the ruling, and his agency “is considering all legal avenues to challenge this decision.”