Lawsuit Challenges Youngkin Masking Order Under Federal Disability Rights Law

- NPR, Feb. 3, 2022.

A group of parents of students with disabilities — including several Northern Virginia families — has filed a lawsuit challenging Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's controversial executive order ending the statewide school mask mandate in favor of parents choosing to mask or not mask their children.

The complaint argues that the order violates disabled students' right to access public education under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The lawsuit represents a new line of legal reasoning against the order, which has two other legal challenges pending.

"Executive Order 2 is a blanket ban on school districts requiring universal mask use. It provides for no exceptions. It applies regardless of how narrow a mask mandate is (e.g., requiring masks only when students are in classrooms, cafeterias, and other group spaces). It does not recognize that universal mask use may be necessary to protect some children," the complaint says.

Lawyers from the ACLU of Virginia, the Washington Lawyers' Committee, Brown Goldstein & Levy, the disAbility Law Center of Virginia, and Arnold & Porter filed the suit in U.S. District Court on Tuesday on behalf of more than a dozen families whose children have disabilities such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, asthma, Down syndrome, lung conditions, organ and blood stem cell transplants, and weakened immune systems, all conditions the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define as at high risk...

- More,
https://www.npr.org/local/305/2022/02/03/1077891321/lawsuit-challenges-youngkin-masking-order-under-federal-disability-rights-law



- Youngkin with Md. Gov. Hogan in Jan. 2022.