By Joshua Fechter and Isabella Zou, The Texas Tribune
Aug. 9, 2021
“Top Dallas County official files legal challenge to Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates as coronavirus rages in Texas” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic pushes Texas hospitals to the brink, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins implored a judge late Monday to buck Gov. Greg Abbott and give local officials the ability to make it mandatory for residents to wear masks.
“The enemy is not each other,” Jenkins said in a statement. “The enemy is the virus and we must all do all that we can to protect public health. School districts and government closest to the people should make decisions on how best to keep students and others safe.”
It’s the most drastic recent assault on Abbott’s authority over the state’s pandemic response by a county or city official.After Abbott lifted the statewide mask mandate in March, he stripped cities, counties and school districts of the ability to put their own mask rules in place if the pandemic flared up again. As the delta variant has spread unchecked, Abbott has held firm.
Now, Jenkins is trying to regain powers he had earlier in the pandemic.
In a Monday legal filing, Jenkins accused Abbott of threatening lives, exceeding his authority and illegally overruling local officials’ ability to enact measures like mask mandates.
Such measures are well within city and county leaders’ powers to fight an “imminent threat to public safety,” Jenkins’ suit says, and Abbott doesn’t have the power to say otherwise. Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jenkins wants a judge to prevent Abbott from enforcing his ban on mask mandates — and confirm Jenkins has the power to put a mandate in place if he deems it necessary. If Jenkins can’t do so, he argues, “many people will unnecessarily get seriously ill or die.”
“Governor Abbott’s attempts to prevent Judge Jenkins from protecting citizens threatens lives,” the suit reads. “Dallas County is in a precarious situation as the delta variant has increasingly ravaged the city.”
Jenkins’ move comes as the delta variant drives up hospitalizations across the state and depletes the number of beds available for the state’s sickest patients. In the state hospital region that includes Dallas — an area that’s home to more than 8 million people — there are 100 beds in intensive care units, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Less than 9% of the region’s 15,545 hospital beds were available Monday.
As the virus resurges, Abbott has largely stripped cities, counties and school districts of the ability to enact sweeping measures to slow the rampant spread of the virus they had earlier in the pandemic.
On top of his ban on mask mandates, Abbott forbade local leaders from enacting occupancy restrictions on businesses to prevent large groups of people from gathering and potentially spreading the airborne virus to one another.
That’s largely left mayors, county judges and school leaders to simply implore people to wear masks and get vaccinated.
Jenkins filed his request as part of an ongoing lawsuit between himself and Dallas County Commissioner J.J. Koch, according to The Dallas Morning News, which first obtained a copy of the court filing.
Koch sued Jenkins Thursday after the county judge ordered the commissioner to be removed from a public meeting where Jenkins mandated mask wearing, according to The News.
School districts are also resisting Abbott’s executive order, which prevents them from requiring mask wearing even though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance to recommend “universal indoor masking by all students.” Dallas ISD announced Monday morning that it will require students and teachers to wear masks on campus. Houston ISD’s superintendent has said he wants to issue a mandate as well, and the school board is scheduled to discuss the idea later this week.
Abbott added the issue to the second special session agenda he unveiled Thursday, asking lawmakers to write into law that districts cannot require students to wear masks or get vaccinated.
The move falls in line with Abbott’s approach to the pandemic in recent weeks — emphasizing individual responsibility over government intervention. After ending statewide mandates earlier this year, he has gone farther on that approach by banning local measures and trying to protect the rights of the unvaccinated. He has drawn criticism across the board from public health experts and officials on the city, state and federal level who note that the surge in COVID cases has made it more necessary than ever to enact these mandates.
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This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/09/texas-mask-mandates-greg-abbott-dallas-county-clay-jenkins/.
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