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(LifeSiteNews) — A federal appeals court upheld Texas’ ban on forced masking in schools, ending a lower court’s November injunction that had permitted the mandates.
In a 2-1 decision Monday, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning mask mandates in the Lone Star State’s schools could once more go into effect.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott can maintain his ban on school mask mandates, a federal appeals court ruled https://t.co/MkqOP4StzX
— Bloomberg (@business) July 25, 2022
Abbott had issued an executive order last year “prohibiting governmental entities in Texas — including counties, cities, school districts, public health authorities, or government officials — from requiring or mandating mask wearing,” the governor’s office said in a press release.
The press release added that “[a]fter June 4 [2021], no student, teacher, parent, or other staff member or visitor can be required to wear a mask while on campus.”
“We can continue to mitigate COVID-19 while defending Texans’ liberty to choose whether or not they mask up,” Gov. Abbott was quoted as saying.
Some school districts responded to the order by defiantly imposing mask mandates anyway, leading Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to file a bevy of lawsuits in a bid to force administrators to remove the illegal masking rules.
RELATED: Texas school district defies Gov. Abbott’s ban on mask mandates, adds masks to dress code
In November 2021, a federal judge issued an injunction against the governor’s order, thereby giving schools the green light to keep forcing kids to mask up at school.
The Monday decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rolls back the November injunction, once more blocking schools from imposing mask mandates.
Judge Andrew Oldham wrote in the majority opinion that “It is plainly within the State’s power to remove one possible accommodation from consideration, so long as other reasonable options remain.”
Other options named by Oldham included plexiglass barriers (which may do more harm than good in preventing the spread of COVID), hand sanitizer, social distancing, and experimental, abortion-tainted COVID jabs.
Texas has already banned any entity from imposing COVID jab mandates through a series of executive orders.
Oldham was joined in his ruling by Judge Don Willett. Both Oldham and Willet were appointed by former President Donald Trump.