AUSTIN, Texas — Granting a reprieve for mask mandates in Texas, at least for now, the Texas Supreme Court rejected Attorney General Ken Paxton's attempt to void three temporary restraining orders that had been issued by a Travis County judge — including one that allowed all Texas school districts to require masks indoors.
In addition to allowing the restraining orders to remain in force, the all-Republican Supreme Court told Paxton that he could not skip an intermediate appellate court in his attempt to enforce Gov. Greg Abbott's July 29 executive order, which prohibited local officials from implementing mask mandates.
The Paxton challenge will now be heard by the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals, where five of the six justices are Democrats.
The Supreme Court provided no reasons for its decision in a short order handed down Thursday evening.
On Sunday, state District Judge Jan Soifer of Travis County granted restraining orders requested by Harris County to enforce its public school mask mandate; by the Southern Center for Child Advocacy, which applied to school districts statewide; and by eight school districts, seven in South Texas and one in the Dallas area.
Paxton had asked the Supreme Court to void those orders while justices considered whether Abbott's emergency powers allowed him to ban mask mandates by cities, counties, school districts and local health officials.
But Paxton did not challenge a fourth restraining order issued by Soifer — one that allowed mask mandates in all Travis County schools, so that order remains in effect as well.
