Pennsylvania Supreme Court upholds lower court decision throwing out mask mandate

[mountaineer]

Pa. Supreme Court upholds lower court decision throwing out mask mandate
Paula Reed Ward
Friday, Dec. 10, 2021 4:15 p.m.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Friday affirmed a lower court ruling that the state’s acting secretary of health did not have the authority to issue a mandatory mask mandate for schools in August.

The ruling ends the mandate effective immediately. Going forward, school districts can implement their own masking policies as they see fit.

The court, in a four-sentence order, affirmed a decision by the state Commonwealth Court last month that said that Acting Secretary Alison Beam did not follow the proper rule-making procedures when she issued the mask requirement for anyone entering a K-12 school building.

The order said an opinion would follow.

Elizabeth Rementer, a spokeswoman for Gov. Tom Wolf, said the administration was evaluating the decision, but considered the outcome “extremely disappointing.”   ...

Duquesne University Law Professor Bruce Ledewitz said the fact the ruling came so quickly means that the Commonwealth Court decision was “solidly received” by the Supreme Court.

“The arguments are not about masks, but administrative authority. It means the argument against the mandate were very solidly grounded,” he said.

Ledewitz said that the decision shows the Supreme Court is not partisan.   ...

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Of course Wolf is disappointed. He loves it when bureaucrats overstep their authority. It's what they do.

[240B]

Masks are stupid. Even Fauci said so, before he turned into a megalomaniacal self-declared "God of Science".
"I am Science! and what I say must never be questioned or doubted, unless you hate God ..."

[libertybele]

I'm so sick of having to wear a mask at the doctors.  Before you go in for a procedure you need a mask, but during the procedure, no mask and after the procedure no mask.  So what's the point and where's the logic?

[mountaineer]

I'm so sick of having to wear a mask at the doctors.  Before you go in for a procedure you need a mask, but during the procedure, no mask and after the procedure no mask.  So what's the point and where's the logic?

The hospital I use is the worst. Mask police at the door, making sure you're masked and not letting you go anywhere until making sure you have an acceptable reason to have entered the premises. Then you get where you're going - in my case, most recently, for an MRI - and take off the mask. I told the technician I can't breathe with that thing on, and I'm sure not going to lie in that claustrophobic tube for 45 minutes not able to breathe. She said no problem, take it off. Everyone survived. 

You'd think doctors would be the last to require masks, since they - more than anyone - should know how utterly ineffectual they are at preventing the spread of a virus that is so much smaller than the mask's microscopic openings.

[mountaineer]

... "The practical impact of the decision will depend on which schools and school districts impose their own masking requirements," ABC 6 wrote.

The state Supreme Court justices upheld a lower-court ruling that the acting state health secretary Alison Beam, did not possess the authority to require masks, did not follow state legislation regarding enacting regulations, and acted without a required existing disaster emergency declared by the governor in place.

The lower-court found Pennsylvania's disease control law does not give health secretaries "the blanket authority to create new rules and regulations out of whole cloth, provided they are related in some way to the control of disease or can otherwise be characterized as disease control measures."

"The lawsuit was filed by Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre; state Rep. Jesse Topper, R-Bedford; two religious schools; three public school districts; and several parents of schoolchildren," ABC 6 reported. ...

The Post-Millennial

Beam took over the Pa. health department when the lovely Rachel "Dick" Levine was hired away by the Biden Administration. 

[GtHawk]

I'm so sick of having to wear a mask at the doctors.  Before you go in for a procedure you need a mask, but during the procedure, no mask and after the procedure no mask.  So what's the point and where's the logic?

The last time I actually had an appointment to physically see my doctor they screened me before I could enter. They asked if I had been coughing, I said yes but tried to explain that I was asthmatic and having a flare up when she rudely said "it's yes or no" next question are you experiencing pain, well I have chronic pain and the answer and her response went the same way. Because of the ignorant officious bitch I was ushered into a little room out in BFE and cooled my heels for a long time before the Doc showed up, no weighing, no BP, no temp, nada. Well not nada because I gave the Doc and the administrator a full ration.

[240B]

The mask nazis will still wear them and will try to intimidate others not wearing a mask.
To the Left, the mask is like wearing a swastika in the 30s. It is an outward symbol of fidelity to the State and to the current regime. They will NEVER stop wearing and requiring a mask, even after COVID is long gone.
Because to the Leftists, wearing a mask has little or nothing to do with COVID. It is about making a statement.