With the coronavirus pandemic truly and utterly unwilling to release us from her suffocating grip, there are a number of state lawmakers who’ve hitched their wagon to the anti-vaccine, anti-mask caravan and are now dealing with some unforeseen political fallout.
For a good while there, it seemed as though we were on the downhill side of this thing. The world was reopening, mercifully, and we could dance and mingle and be merry once again.
But then came the delta variant, and all of the doom and gloom that accompanies such a prolonging force for evil.
The aforementioned public officials had already figured that they were out of the woods, and so they began to give in to the demands of some of their more fervent followers, issuing orders and mandates that would make it illegal for any business or institution to require masks or proof of vaccination from its customers.
But these orders are standing up to state and federal judges.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s statewide ban on mask mandates has hit its second legal setback, as a judge in Dallas County temporarily blocked it from being enforced amid a nationwide rise in new coronavirus cases.
The temporary order by Judge Tonya Parker issued late on Tuesday allows officials in the state’s second-most populous county to require masks indoors, despite Abbott’s July order against such mandates. A hearing on Aug. 24 will determine whether to extend the temporary order.
The change in cases was a major factor in the decision.
The top elected official in Dallas County, Judge Clay Jenkins, who sought the court order issued late Tuesday, said preventative steps such as mask-wearing are needed to combat a spike in new cases of COVID-19.
“Models predict ongoing dramatic increases in cases and hospitalizations over the coming weeks that will exceed the peak earlier this year unless behavior change takes place,” he said Tuesday on Twitter.
A similar statute was also struck down by a judge in Florida, putting Sunshine State Governor Ron DeSantis on the defensive in recent days.
