AG’s school mask lawsuit against Columbia will be heard in SC Supreme Court
The South Carolina Supreme Court will consider Republican state Attorney General Alan Wilson’s lawsuit against the city of Columbia’s mask mandate for elementary and middle schools.
Wilson filed the lawsuit Aug. 19 and sought original jurisdiction with the state Supreme Court, a move that attempts to bypass the lower court system. On Monday, the state’s top court said it would accept the attorney general’s suit.
“We grant the petition for original jurisdiction and the request to expedite the consideration of this case,” the state Supreme Court said in the order. The court will hear oral arguments on the matter at 10 a.m. Aug. 31.
The order noted that the city of Columbia had consented to the state Supreme Court taking the case directly, and to the matter being expedited. The order also noted that the state Municipal Association, the City of Charleston and the South Carolina Education Association would be filing supplemental briefs in the case.
Columbia City Council recently passed a measure that requires students and faculty at 43 elementary and middle schools and day cares in the city to wear masks as COVID-19 cases have risen sharply in South Carolina in the last month. The city’s move came despite a one-year law, called a proviso, written into the state budget by legislators that prevents schools from spending state funds on mask mandates.
The one-year budget law reads: “No school district, or any of its schools, may use any funds appropriated or authorized pursuant to this act to require that its students and/or employees wear a facemask at any of its education facilities. This prohibition extends to the announcement or enforcement of any such policy.”
Wilson’s lawsuit says the attorney general wants the state Supreme Court “to resolve a dispute over the controlling effect of a legislative proviso regarding mask requirements so that all jurisdictions will be informed about what law governs.”
The attorney general’s office said in a Aug. 19 release that it intends for the suit to “apply to all cities, towns, counties, and school boards that have passed or are seeking to pass mask mandates.”
Richland County Council also passed an ordinance requiring elementary and middle schools in the unincorporated areas of the county to mandate masks for students and faculty. Richland School District One’s board of trustees also has voted to require masks in schools.
The attorney general has insisted the one-year state law is clear as it relates to K-12 schools.
“Although we recognize that the city is acting out of genuine concern about the spread of the COVID-19 virus and its variants, it cannot do so contrary to the law of this state,” the lawsuit says. “The proviso is quite clear that masks are not to be mandated by government for the schools of this state.”
City officials, meanwhile, have said they have the constitutional right to protect youngsters. People under the age of 12 are not eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
“We need the Supreme Court to rule on it, and I feel sure the Supreme Court is going to support our position that it is both a Constitutional and statutory right for municipal governments to protect the health and safety of their citizens,” Columbia City Councilman Howard Duvall, the former director of the state’s Municipal Association, said on Aug. 19.
On Monday, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control announced another 3,648 new COVID cases statewide.
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 4:44 PM.
