The Texas Supreme Court sided with Texas Governor Greg Abbott ruling that his ban on local mask mandates can stand. The ruling came after some Texas cities deliberately went against Gov. Abbott’s orders and re-imposed mask mandates on citizens.
The Hill reports:
The series of Friday rulings temporarily allowed Texas’s four most populous counties — Harris, Dallas, Bexar and Travis — to enforce mask mandates. The state Supreme Court ruling has now blocked them, although trial court hearings scheduled for Monday in San Antonio and Aug. 24 in Dallas, where decisions will be made as to issue temporary injunctions that would allow mask mandates, will still proceed.
Abbott, who issued the executive order against mask requirements on July 29, celebrated the Supreme Court decision on Twitter. His order doesn’t stop those who want to take protective steps from doing so, he argued.
“The ban doesn’t prohibit using masks,” he wrote. “Anyone who wants to wear a mask can do so, including in schools.”
In a statement last week, Abbott slammed government mandates, saying “the path forward relies on personal responsibility.