A Florida judge has overturned Gov. Ron DeSantis’ mask mandate ban for schools in the state.
CBS Miami reports that Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper ruled that the governor overstepped his authority when he issued an executive order banning the mandates.
A group of parents argued in a lawsuit DeSantis’ ban on the mandates was unconstitutional and should not be enforced.
The governor’s order had given parents the sole right to decide if their children wear a mask at school.
Cooper’s ruling came after at least 10 Florida school boards, including Miami-Dade and Broward counties, voted to defy DeSantis and impose mask requirements with no parental opt-out. Their action is in reaction to a surge in Covid cases in Florida. The New York Times reports that the average number of deaths announced per day in Florida is higher now than at any other point in the pandemic.
Cooper said that while a new Florida law gives parents the ultimate authority to oversee health issues for their children, it also exempts government actions that are needed to protect public health and are reasonable and limited in scope.
A school district’s decision to require student masking to prevent the spread of the virus falls within that exemption, the judge ruled.
The judge also noted that two Florida Supreme Court decisions found that individual rights are limited by their effect on the rights of others. For example, he said, adults have the right to drink alcohol but not to drive drunk. There is a right to free speech, but not to harass or threaten others or yell “fire” in a crowded theater, he said.
DeSantis has dismissed the masking recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as not applicable to Florida, but Cooper cited numerous Florida laws and statutes covering health care in nursing homes, prisons and elsewhere that say state decision-makers should give great weight to CDC guidelines.
