Court Hands Youngkin Important Win on Mask Order; NJ, Delaware Also Dropping School Masks – Opinion

The first day Virginia Governor. Glenn Youngkin was inaugurated as Virginia’s governor on January 15. One of his first executive orders allowed parents to remove their children from mask mandates. It is in both the best interests for the Virginia children and their parents.

But that didn’t stop people who seem to want to be hidebound to masks from objecting. The Order has been faced with multiple obstacles, such as from Chesapeake parents. The parents claimed Youngkin was required by law to wear masks.

The Virginia Supreme Court has now ruled against the challenge. They noted that the law did not require the use of masks, and dismissed the petition.

“We dismiss the petition because the relief requested does not lie against any of the respondents,” the court wrote in its ruling. “Absent an explicit command that Governor Youngkin take definite positive action in conformity with a mandatory and ministerial duty, mandamus cannot control or restrict his effort to influence school masking requirements, even if such effort is unlawful.”

Youngkin and his attorney general, Jason Miyares, cheered the dismissal as a victory for the “rights of parents to make decisions regarding their child’s health, education, upbringing, and care.”

A challenge from Chesapeake has been rejected by the Supreme Court of Virginia @GovernorVA‘s EO2.

Virginia families are ecstatic about this win. https://t.co/OtEFdqkudJ

— Jason Miyares (@JasonMiyaresVA) February 7, 2022

While this was a good result for Virginia and parents, it’s not over yet. This wasn’t a decision on the ultimate merits of the executive order and litigation on that continues. A court placed a temporary restraining order against the executive order being implemented after seven school districts refused to comply with their mandates. The matter is still under litigation.

While the Virginia Left tries desperately to preserve the masks of the right, liberal governors elsewhere are removing the mask mandates.

On Friday, February 11th at 8am, we are lifting the DE state mask mandate in public indoor settings.

The mask requirement in K-12 public & private schools and child care facilities expires at 11:59pm on Thursday, March 31.

We’re in a much better place than we were several weeks ago. pic.twitter.com/rofUXN2hzW

— Governor John Carney (@JohnCarneyDE) February 7, 2022

Schools will no longer be required to wear masks starting March 7.

The difficult task of balancing public health with normalcy can be hard. This is possible due to the declining number of COVIDs, and increased vaccination rates. https://t.co/CjnIYZycCe

— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) February 7, 2022

You even had Gov. Murphy from N.J. stated that we must learn to deal with it.

Given the decreasing severity of the new variant and the increase in vaccines, we believe that this is the moment to be optimistic.

— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) February 7, 2022

The governors, as a whole, have supported the statement.

“To be clear, this is not about pro-mask vs. anti-mask, but rather parents making decisions about what’s best for their child’s health,” Youngkin said. “And we are pleased to see that other states, including New Jersey and Delaware, are following our reasoning and a path to normalcy.”

We’re not all the way there, but there’s a lot of positive movement.