Federal Court Dismisses Case Against Governor Who Prohibited Mask Mandates In Schools

A federal court dismissed a case Tuesday against Republican Iowa Gov. Kimberly Reynolds' prohibition of…

dailycaller.com

A federal court dismissed a case Tuesday against Republican Iowa Gov. Kimberly Reynolds’ prohibition of mask mandate in school districts across the state, official documents showed.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found “persuasive” the argument that “the general risks associated with COVID-19, even though COVID-19 remains an ever-present concern in society, are not enough to show ‘imminent and substantial’ harm,” court papers showed in part.

The court also decided that “because Plaintiffs have only alleged the potential risk of severe illness should they contract COVID-19 at school, the risk of harm is too speculative to satisfy the injury in fact element” and that “[e]ven if Plaintiffs could show injury in fact, they cannot carry their burden to establish traceability,” according to the papers.

The ruling was in response to the nearly two-and-a-half-year-long legal challenge by eleven parents and a disability rights group, The Arc of Iowa, to an Iowa law, House File 847, that prohibits school districts from imposing mask mandates in schools. The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit Sep. 3, 2021, arguing that it was to protect children too young to be vaccinated and who suffered from “disabilities, including underlying health conditions” that made them “particularly susceptible to severe illness, long haul COVID symptoms, or even death from COVID-19,” an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) press release noted.

The law was “a civil rights violation that puts vulnerable kids in a dangerous situation,” ACLU of Iowa Legal Director Rita Bettis Austen said, according to the release…