JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Attorney General Eric Schmitt issued a legal threat to school districts and local health agencies on Tuesday, demanding they scrap COVID-19 health orders following a judge’s ruling last month.
In a statement, Schmitt said he was demanding that local governments and public school districts “rescind and cease enforcement and publicizing of public health orders, mask mandates, quarantine orders, or other orders that were declared null and void by the recent decision.”
The notification follows a November ruling by Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green that said health orders related to COVID-19 should be lifted.
“Failure to follow the court’s judgment may result in enforcement action against you to remove orders the court has determined are unconstitutional and illegal,” Schmitt said in letters to public school districts and local health authorities.
The letters say orders based on regulations “invalidated” by the judge or issued outside of the state’s Administrative Procedure Act were “null and void.”
Nick Dunne, spokesman for St. Loius Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, said Schmitt’s letter doesn’t apply to St. Louis. He said the city’s order was issued in accordance with a new state law requiring local governments to reauthorize health orders every 30 days.
Dunne said the city’s mask mandate isn’t based off of regulations targeted in the Cole County order.
“He’s just going to continue to flex the authority of his office to make his Senate campaign look good,” Dunne said. “He is using his position as an elected official to try to get himself elected to higher office.”
Schmitt is among several candidates seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2022.
Chris Nuelle, spokesman for Schmitt, said the attorney general’s office believes all COVID-19 health orders are null and void under the Cole County judge’s order.
Nuelle said beyond the court order, the city of St. Louis’ mask mandate lapsed because it wasn’t renewed in time. A case over the order’s validity is pending in St. Louis Circuit Court.
Doug Moore, spokesman for St. Louis County Executive Sam Page, said the county’s mask mandate is still in effect. He said a recent letter from the Department of Health and Senior Services said the judge’s order would not take effect for 30 days. That means the current county order is in effect until Dec. 22, he said.
The County Council, meanwhile, was scheduled to vote on a new mask mandate Tuesday night.
St. Louis-area superintendents met last month to discuss the ruling; legal advisers said rules remained in place, according to a spokeswoman for EdPlus, which serves 60 local districts.
Beth Johnston, spokeswoman for the Lindbergh School District, said Tuesday district attorneys were reviewing the letter from Schmitt. She said the district as of Tuesday was requiring mask wearing for staff and students.
“We’re letting them (the attorneys) review it, and we’ll go from there,” Johnston said.
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