Virginia Mask Karen Resistance May End By Valentine's Day as Democrat Senator Tells Them: Fix a Date Certain to End Mandatory Masking, Or I'll Vote With the Republicans To Change the Law to Force You To

I noted earlier than the schools were basing their #Resistance on a prior Virginia law which ambiguously referenced the CDC guidelines. The schools resisting the governor's executive order claims the law incorporates the CDCs recommendations and therefore encodes them into law, and an executive order can't overcome a law.

Well, yeah, but the law they're referencing doesn't mandate masking. It just talks about schools using CDC guidelines as a guide. And as previously mentioned, schools already pick and choose from their guidelines. It's certainly true that a law trumps an executive order, but first, the thing you're saying is a law has to actually be a law and not just some crap you're saying.

Still, that's the legal pretext they're using to #Resist, and a court case will take time.

The Virginia House of Delegates flipped to the Republicans, but the Virginia senate does not come up for reelection until 2023, and it's currently held by Democrats, 21-19, so there's no way they could just change the law to just make it clear that masking is optional.

Or... could they?

One Democrat Senator has had enough of the masking and is telling the schools they have a short grace period to decide their own "off ramp" for masking, but after that, he's voting with the Republicans to end it.

Seven school districts, including Prince William but not Loudoun, filed a lawsuit against the state on Monday challenging the executive order.

"At issue is whether locally-elected school boards have the exclusive authority and responsibility conferred upon them by Article VIII, § 7 of the Constitution of Virginia over supervision of the public schools in their respective communities, or whether an executive order can unilaterally override that constitutional authority," Fairfax County Public Schools, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

"With COVID-19 transmission rates high, our hospitals at crisis level, and the continued recommendation of health experts to retain universal mask-wearing for the time being, this is simply not the time to remove this critical component of layered health and safety mitigation strategies. School divisions need to continue to preserve their authority to protect and serve all our students," it continued.

But the standoff may not need the courts to be resolved. On Monday, Chap Peterson, a moderate Democrat who joined with Republicans to force school re-opening last year, said in an email to the Fairfax County Parents Association that Fairfax's school board "must define an 'off ramp' for mandatory masking. That means plainly stated metrics as well as a final deadline (e.g. Valentine's Day). They should announce that immediately. The forced masking policy is going to end very soon, i.e. in a few weeks. Otherwise, the General Assembly will again step in. IT IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE LONG-TERM SOLUTION."

Republicans control the state house, while the Democrats control the state senate 21-19, meaning that any bill backed by Republicans and Peterson can be passed into law, with the Senate tie being broken by Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, a Republican.

It would be terrific if Winsome Sears' first major official action were to break the tie in the Senate to end Virginia's mask mandate.

By the way, Luke Rosiak's article is worth reading for the drama of the Virginia Mask Standoff, besides just his scoop on this Democrat's turn to the light.

posted by Ace at 05:24 PM

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