A Travis County District Judge Tuesday heard more testimony and arguments over several Rio Grande Valley school districts who sued Gov. Greg Abbott for the ability to issue mask mandates at a local level, a step expressly prohibited by an executive order the governor issued in May.
A temporary restraining order from last week allowed the suing districts to begin the school year with mandates in place. Meanwhile, an order issued by Hidalgo County Health Authority Dr. Ivan Melendez just before the start of the school year mandates masks locally unless districts vote to opt out of it.
The court heard several hours of testimony on masks from representatives from Hidalgo County and other parties related to the suit on Monday. It heard more discussion from witnesses and attorneys Tuesday.
Judge Catherine Mauzy, who heard the testimony and arguments, said she was set to hear testimony on two related TROs tomorrow. Mauzy considered issuing a temporary injunction Tuesday and said she expected to issue orders later this week.
“It’s a very difficult time in which we live and the issues that have been presented in this case are extremely important, and I want everyone to know that the court recognizes it as such,” she said.
Representing Valley school districts, O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo attorney David Campbell argued the governor was overstepping his bounds with the mask fight.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that the governor’s view of the Texas Disaster Act essentially asks this court to declare him a constitutional dictator in Texas,” he said. “And that is not the law.”
Campbell said districts are obligated to protect students and staff, and to exert control over their facilities. He said districts suing the governor were simply trying to find a legal avenue to do just that.
“Because that is the only thing the school districts are trying to do in this case,” he said. “We are only trying to exercise the same rights that private property owners have across Texas to adopt reasonable masking requirements to protect our students, protect our staff.”
Representing Abbott, Kimberly Gdula decried local superintendents willfully going against the governor’s order.
“This kind of disregard for the rule of law is a threat to democracy in normal circumstances, but where Texas is under a state of declared disaster, that disregard is particularly dangerous,” she said. “I know that this is kind of a trite phrase, but we are a nation and a state of laws, and the claims that are made by plaintiffs and intervenors in this case simply cannot be reconciled with the language of Texas law, which in this case is referring to the disaster act.”
Arguing that districts who testified didn’t track mask use and couldn’t determine whether voluntary mask use would protect students and staff, Gdula said she felt a temporary injunction was unwarranted.
“Frankly your honor, they just haven’t shown that what they’re asking this court to do would address the injury that they claim they are subject to,” she said. “The court actually heard from one parent, one of the intervenors, that even with a mask mandate — which is what this intervenor is asking this court to permit — she still isn’t sending her kids to in-person school.”
