PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Does the Pennsylvania Department of Health have the authority to issue a statewide mandate requiring everyone in schools wear masks to protect against COVID-19? That was the issue before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Sean Kirkpatrick, the lawyer representing the Pennsylvania Department of Health, said the mask requirement in schools is a modified quarantine and is allowed under the powers given to the department by the State Legislature.
He said courts have repeatedly ruled that masks not only protect the person wearing them, they also protect people around them.
Kirkpatrick argued that the Health Department could have quarantined everyone and prohibited in-person learning, or it could do nothing.
Instead, he argues, the department did exactly what it was designed to do, by introducing what he calls a "modified disease control mechanism" of required masks which, in his words, is "tailored to address both issues."
Thomas Breth, the lawyer representing parents, said the Department of Healthh is contradicting itself in its argument.
He said his clients support protecting children, but he said a problem occurs when a department goes outside the regulatory process, which he argued is what happened here.
That argument was successful in Commonwealth Court which threw out the mask requirement last month. The Department of Health appealed to the state Supreme Court.
There is no timeline for a decision, but the Supreme Court has ruled the mask mandate can stay in place until they decide.
Gov. Tom Wolf has said the decision to require masks will return to local control and individual school districts next month.
