Texas Supreme Court rejects Governor Abbott's ban on school mask mandates – CNN

[August 20, 2021]    (Reuters) - The Texas Supreme Court rejected Governor Greg Abbott’s intervention to suspend a mask mandate, thus allowing schools to require students to wear masks as per the mandates by local authorities, according to a CNN report  on Thursday.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks at the annual National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., May 4, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

Abbott had argued that state officials did not have time to go through the regular appeals process and allowing local governments to set their own mandate rules would cause confusion, the report added.

The ruling comes amid the coronavirus political battle in the southern United States where new infections are highest.

Several states across the U.S. have announced the change in plans on masking due to the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the country and the announcement of new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that requires fully vaccinated individuals to wear masks.

However, a few republican states clashed with local officials who are resisting their orders banning school mask mandates, to which, the U.S. President Joe Biden reacted by saying on Aug. 12 that wearing masks is not about politics but about keeping children safe.

On Aug. 18, Florida's Miami-Dade County School Board had imposed a mask mandate for the district's 360,000 students, as well as staff from Monday, defying the Governor Ron DeSantis' rule of banning local mask mandates.

(Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry)

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