Lexington Catholic High School will drop its mandatory mask mandate:
- Beginning January 10, 2022, Lexington Catholic High School will switch to a mask “optional” COVID policy for all students and staff, principal Matthew George told families in a letter this week.
“Lexington Catholic will closely monitor the health and safety of everyone in our building and throughout our community. Optional masking may be suspended at any time if the need arises and return to mandatory masking,” George said.
For the short term, Catholic Diocese of Lexington Bishop John Stowe has extended the mask mandate through January 7, 2022.
This story was published on Friday, November 26th, so with the new panic over the Omicron variant, who knows if the mask mandate will actually be lifted. Even if the principal decides that it should, Bishop John Stowe could, and my guess is probably would, override it. There is no statewide mask mandate in Kentucky, because the General Assembly greatly restricted the Governor’s ’emergency’ authority under KRS 39A.
Judge in Ky. blocks federal contractor vaccine mandate, granting AG Cameron’s request
By Austin Horn | Tuesday, November 30, 2021 | 3:42 PM EST | Updated: 5:31 PM EST
A federal judge in Kentucky issued a preliminary injunction effectively blocking implementation of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal government contractors and subcontractors on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove, who serves the Eastern District of Kentucky, issued the opinion and order Tuesday afternoon. It came in response to a challenge from Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who joined many other state attorneys general in challenging the mandate.
“This is not a case about whether vaccines are effective. They are,” Van Tatenhove wrote. “Nor is this a case about whether the government, at some level, and in some circumstances, can require citizens to obtain vaccines. It can.”
There’s more at the original. Judge Tatenhove’s ruling was on very narrow grounds, that the vaccine orders were not properly issued:
- One key argument of the U.S. government that received some pushback was President Biden’s use of a procurement statute to justify the mandate for contractors and subcontractors. Van Tatenhove wrote that “even for a good cause” like limiting the spread of COVID-19, Biden could not go beyond his congressionally delegated authority in implementing the statute.
“It strains credulity that Congress intended… a procurement statute to be the basis for promulgating a public health measure such as mandatory vaccination,” Van Tatenhove wrote. “If a vaccination mandate has a close enough nexus to economy and efficiency in federal procurement, then the statute could be used to enact virtually any measure at the president’s whim under the guise of economy and efficiency.”
Sadly, things are worse in the Keystone State:
Pennsylvania’s school-mask mandate will stay in place for now, state Supreme Court says
The court granted a request from Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to keep the mandate in place while it appeals a lower court ruling striking down the requirement.
by Maddie Hanna | Tuesday, November 30, 2021
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said Tuesday that the state’s school-mask mandate can remain in place at least for the next week while Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration appeals a lower-court ruling striking down the requirement.
The order followed a request from Wolf’s administration to keep the mandate in place while it appeals the Commonwealth Court ruling that faulted the state Health Department for how it imposed the requirement.
Siding with Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R., Centre) and other parents, the Commonwealth Court said Nov. 10 that acting Health Secretary Alison Beam had overstepped her authority in ordering masking at the start of the school year by failing to follow the state’s procedures for implementing new regulations. The court later set Dec. 4 as the day for the mandate to be lifted, an action sought by Corman.
The state’s highest court said the mandate could stay in effect pending consideration of the appeal, which is scheduled for oral arguments Dec. 8. “Nothing in this order shall be construed as a position regarding the merits of this appeal,” the court said.
Had the mandate expired Saturday, school districts would have faced the decision of whether to require masking. Some, including Philadelphia, have indicated no immediate plans to lift masking, though mandates have remained a fraught topic in a number of area communities.
Wolf said earlier this month that he expected to lift the state mandate Jan. 17. That announcement came prior to the Commonwealth Court ruling.
One of us is absolutely certain that Governor Wolf would have found some reason not to lift the order on schedule. Let’s face it: Democratic politicians just love to order people around!