The Arkansas Supreme Court today refused the state’s request for a stay of Circuit Judge Tim Fox’s order preventing the state from enforcing a state law banning mask requirements in public schools.
Fox issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit joined by parents, the Little Rock School District and Pulaski County officials against the 2021 law banning school mask mandates.
Legislators want the law reinstated. Governor Hutchinson entered the case to argue the legislature had overstepped its authority in curbing executive authority. He has declined to support a statewide mask rule but says he supports local decisions. Dozens of school districts have imposed mask requirements since the court ruling blocking the state law.
But some of the opposing arguments were made for the first time on the appeal. It would have been unusual for the Supreme Court to block a lower court order based on arguments that weren’t part of the original trial of the case.
The case can continue to trial with the injunction by Fox remaining in place. No date has been set.
UPDATE: The denial came in a brief order without comment. However, two dedicated Republican justices, Barbara Webb (wife of former Republican Party chair Doyle Webb, who also once was on Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s staff) and Shawn Womack, a hyperpolitical former Republican senator, said they would have granted the stay. Justice Rhonda Wood, who has a family member that works for one of the law firms participating in the case (on the side of masks), did not participate. For the record, that left Chief Justice Dan Kemp and Justices Karen Baker, Courtney Hudson and Robin Wynne in opposition to the stay. Former Republican Party operatives are targeting the seats held by Baker ad Wynne in 2022, if you’re counting. The justice theoretically run as non-partisans, but Republican candidates in recent years have openly displayed their party ties.