PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court has struck down Pennsylvania's school mask mandate, ruling that Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam didn't have the authority to issue the requirement under the state's Disease Control and Prevention Law.
Instead, the court sided Wednesday with Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman and other parents, who argued that Beam needed to follow a formal process to create a new regulation rather than imposing the blanket requirement.
"In the absence of a declared emergency, and where such orders are not otherwise authorized by statute or regulation, the Governor and the executive agencies of the Commonwealth must follow the prescribed procedures for rulemaking," Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon said in the court's opinion.
The court's order declares the mandate void. Spokespeople for Gov. Tom Wolf and Beam didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decision noted the judges had "no opinion regarding the science or efficacy of mask-wearing or the politics underlying the considerable controversy the subject continues to engender."
Wolf announced this week that he expected the mask mandate would end Jan. 17, calling it "time to prepare for a transition back to a more normal setting."
Beam said Tuesday the January end doesn't mean the administration is telling districts to lift their own masking requirements, but was returning the decision to the local level.
"They know the CDC's (recommendation) still stands with saying that if you want to retain in-person instruction, keep the masks on," she said in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer.
