HARRISBURG – Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Bellefonte) and Representative Jesse Topper (R-Bedford) criticized the Wolf Administration for its latest legal maneuver to lock parents out of the decision-making process on school mask mandates.
In a 4-1 decision on Wednesday, the Commonwealth Court voided the Wolf Administration’s school masking order, which was issued under a 1955 law designed to mitigate the spread of disease. The court rightfully sided with Corman, Topper and other plaintiffs who claimed the law only allowed for control measures against the sick or the exposed – not healthy Pennsylvanians.
However, the Wolf Administration appealed the Commonwealth Court’s decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, triggering an automatic stay of the ruling. This means that despite the court’s ruling, the mask order will now remain in effect until the appeal to the state Supreme Court is resolved.
“This is just another frustrating scheme by the Wolf Administration to circumvent the will of the people,” Corman and Topper said. “The law could not be clearer in this case. The Acting Secretary does not have the authority to issue blanket mandates unilaterally. These decisions belong in the hands of parents and school boards, and we will not stop fighting until that power is returned to them.”
Corman urged the state Supreme Court to resolve the case as quickly as possible to finally put an end to the Wolf Administration’s continued overreach.
“The people made their voice abundantly clear on the Wolf Administration’s unilateral mandates when they amended the Pennsylvania Constitution in May,” Corman and Topper said. “We need to have this case resolved as soon as possible to ensure parents and school boards can begin to make the right decisions for their kids and communities instead of having those decisions forced upon them by unelected bureaucrats.”
Original source can be found here.
