Few mask lawsuits remain as Missouri AG asks legislature to clarify law behind legal blitz • Missouri Independent

Three months after Legal professional Common Eric Schmitt launched a authorized blitz in opposition to 47 college districts throughout the state, almost all of the circumstances have petered out as COVID an infection charges plummeted and masks mandates have been lifted.

However 4 circumstances reside on.

Whereas he’s moved to drop almost each lawsuit he filed, Schmitt has opposed makes an attempt by Columbia Public Faculties and the St. Charles R-VI Faculty District to have their circumstances dismissed. He argues that regardless that the districts don’t have masks mandates in place now, they might reimpose them sooner or later. One other lawsuit targets College Metropolis Faculties, which nonetheless has a mandate in place. 

In the meantime, Lee’s Summit R-7 Faculty District has refused to let Schmitt dismiss his swimsuit in opposition to the district, submitting a counterclaim asking a choose to declare the legal professional basic overstepped the boundaries of his authority by ordering colleges to finish masking necessities.

Either side say they proceed to combat on to reply the underlying questions as soon as and for all of whether or not state regulation permits college districts to require masks and the extent of the legal professional basic’s authority.

“The Missouri Structure doesn’t set up the legal professional basic as an autocrat-in-chief, whose orders on any subject of the day have to be obeyed,” Lee’s Summit argued in a March submitting.

Chris Nuelle, a spokesman for Schmitt, accused Columbia Public Faculties of taking part in video games by “imposing and rescinding masks mandates, and we’re going to place an finish to these video games as soon as and for all.”

Whereas the controversy continues to play out within the courthouse, the legal professional basic’s authorized technique is being known as into query within the statehouse.

The Senate overwhelmingly refused to revive $500,000 it lower from Schmitt’s finances in retaliation for the lawsuits, and the chamber’s GOP leaders prompt the legal professional basic was motivated by his marketing campaign for U.S. Senate.

And a Republican lawmaker who labored on laws final yr that has turn into the idea for Schmitt’s authorized campaign stated the legal professional basic’s workplace approached him to make clear the regulation to make sure it really does apply to high school districts.

“I had my doubts as as to whether or not it utilized to native college districts,” Jim Murphy, a St. Louis Republican who sponsored laws final yr to limit the scope of public well being orders, stated of the definition of political subdivision cited within the regulation.

“I didn’t suppose that the statute actually outlined it nicely sufficient,” he stated. “So I sort of agree with the college districts on that.”

Authorized saga

Faculty districts and Schmitt have been engaged in a long-running tango that’s grown to observe a well-recognized sample.

Rising circumstances prompted districts to enact masks mandates, sparking litigation by the legal professional basic’s workplace. Because the wave of circumstances fell, so did masking necessities, resulting in lawsuits being dismissed and Schmitt’s workplace declaring victory.

No district exemplifies that greater than Columbia Public Faculties.

The district was the primary to be sued by Schmitt in August over its masks guidelines. In September a Boone County Circuit Court docket choose declined to permit Schmitt to make use of the case as a category motion lawsuit in opposition to all districts with masks necessities, and it was later dismissed by Schmitt when the district allowed its masks mandate to run out.

A new spherical of litigation quickly adopted when Schmitt’s workplace as soon as once more sued the district in January after a brand new masks mandate was enacted.

Out of the 47 lawsuits Schmitt filed, he has made a movement to dismiss in all however three. Columbia is a type of three.

Michelle Baumstark, a spokeswoman for Columbia Public Faculties, stated persevering with the case, “is a waste of time, vitality, sources and public {dollars} for all sides.”

“Why would the AG proceed the lawsuit in opposition to our district when he has dismissed his different circumstances in opposition to college districts who don’t have a masks requirement?” Baumstark stated. “A court docket choice in a single county court docket has no authorized impression on selections by different college districts in different counties all through the state.”

It’s an analogous level the St. Charles Faculty District has raised, arguing the court docket ought to dismiss the case for lack of a masks mandate. 

However the legal professional basic’s workplace has opposed that movement, arguing in a submitting final month that “whether or not college districts can drive college students to put on masks to restrict the unfold of COVID-19 is clearly a matter of public significance” and that with COVID circumstances anticipated to extend sooner or later, the difficulty will solely recur.

A listening to on St. Charles’ movement to dismiss is about for Thursday, whereas a three-day trial is scheduled for October within the lawsuit in opposition to CPS.

Lee’s Summit Faculty District isn’t prepared to surrender, both.

In February, the district filed a counterclaim in opposition to Schmitt, arguing that his December letter ordering colleges to stop mitigation measures was illegal and that the district has no obligation to conform.

Schmitt’s letter threatened authorized motion in opposition to districts in the event that they didn’t abide by its calls for. It was despatched within the wake of a November court docket ruling through which a Cole County choose invalidated sure state well being laws relating to the management of infectious ailments. 

However Lee’s Summit argues in its counterclaim that the ruling didn’t apply to high school districts, regardless of Schmitt’s claims in any other case.

After the legal professional basic’s workplace failed to answer the district’s counterclaim below court docket guidelines, the district argued the court docket ought to enter a default judgment in opposition to the state.

“The Legal professional Common’s blithe disregard for court docket guidelines, alongside together with his voluntary dismissal of these fits earlier than he could possibly be proved fallacious in court docket, offers credence to the notion he filed this swimsuit and all of the others simply to enhance his political fortunes, caring not what occurred within the circumstances as soon as the sugar rush of publicity dissipated,” Joseph Hatley, an legal professional representing the district, wrote in a March submitting.

Schmitt’s workplace has argued the case is over because the legal professional basic moved to dismiss it. In a submitting final month, the legal professional basic’s workplace stated the district’s counterclaim is “too insubstantial — nothing greater than smoke, mirrors and legerdemain.”

Jackson County Circuit Court docket Decide Marco Roldan dominated in opposition to the district’s movement for a default judgment and in opposition to the legal professional basic’s workplace’s motions to strike and dismiss the counterclaim.

“Faculty districts are those who’ve been altering insurance policies to keep away from a ruling on the deserves,” Nuelle stated.

Hatley stated if one other variant have been to take maintain, the district must know the place the strains of authority stand. And there’s a good bigger challenge at stake, he stated.

“If the legal professional basic can go round and challenge orders that individuals mistakenly imagine he has the authority to enter on one thing like masks,” Hatley stated, “nicely what’s to cease him from considering he has that authority in relation to curriculum or the books that the college places within the library or all the opposite scorching button points.”

Whether or not college districts are topic to latest regulation

A number of college districts have argued the state regulation Schmitt depends on in his lawsuits doesn’t apply to them — some extent the legal professional basic’s workplace tacitly acknowledges stands out as the case.

Home Invoice 271, which was signed into regulation by Gov. Mike Parson final yr, imposed cut-off dates on how lengthy well being orders may endure and required a vote of a neighborhood well being authority’s governing physique with the intention to lengthen them.

The definition of “political subdivisions” the regulation relied on solely cited college districts which can be situated “in any county of the primary classification and not using a constitution type of authorities with a inhabitants of 100 thousand or extra inhabitants which incorporates all or a part of a metropolis with a inhabitants of 300 fifty thousand or extra inhabitants.”

In the meantime, different payments handed final yr in response to the COVID pandemic — resembling Senate Invoice 51, which shielded companies, healthcare suppliers and homes of worship from most COVID-related lawsuits — particularly included reference to “any college district or constitution college.”

Schmitt’s workplace has opposed districts’ arguments in court docket filings, however Murphy stated the legal professional basic’s workplace approached him with prompt modifications to the regulation to make sure it applies to colleges.

If it was the legislature’s intent to have the regulation apply to high school districts, then it must particularly state that, Murphy stated. He filed a invoice this yr that may clarify that masking orders don’t fall below the scope of well being orders Home Invoice 271 regulates and create new provisions on masks guidelines that particularly apply to boards of training.

The invoice has not but been debated by the complete Home.

“I agree with the college districts, it’s very unfastened,” Murphy stated. “And clearly, the legal professional basic thinks it could possibly be tighter, or he wouldn’t have introduced us language.”

Final week, Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake St. Louis, proposed an modification to a Home invoice that may have altered the definition of a political subdivision in final yr’s regulation by hanging the statute reference, setting an expiration date for masks orders and prohibiting colleges from imposing college students put on masks.

Onder stated he had labored on the language along with Schmitt’s workplace and described it as “clear up” language to Home Invoice 271. It was ultimately withdrawn earlier than it could possibly be voted on.

Nuelle, Schmitt’s spokesman, declined to elaborate on why the legal professional basic’s workplace felt the legislative repair was wanted. 

“We’ll use no matter laws the legislature does give us to combat again on entities persevering with to impose unlawful masks mandates,” he stated.

To Hatley, the legal professional representing the Lee’s Summit Faculty District, “it appears to me to be an implicit admission by him that we have been proper that the regulation doesn’t apply to high school districts.”

“Why would he go to the legislature and ask to have the regulation amended to repair one thing that he has argued in court docket didn’t have to be fastened?” Hatley stated.

Mother and father as plaintiffs

Schmitt’s workplace has vowed to launch new lawsuits in opposition to colleges if masks mandates return, and he’s continued to harness incensed dad and mom’ advocacy by encouraging them to submit data on their children’ curriculum and whether or not it touches on the tutorial idea of essential race idea.

It’s an analogous tactic Schmitt employed when he launched an “unlawful mandates” tip line in December to gather proof of faculties imposing mitigation measures. Emails despatched to the inbox and obtained by an open information request by The Unbiased present that at the least 46 dad and mom who have been plaintiffs within the lawsuits in opposition to districts had despatched in emails passing alongside district bulletins, sharing their frustrations with their colleges and urging Schmitt to take motion.

“Sufficient is sufficient,” one mother or father wrote in a December e mail to the inbox. “Can I be added as a plaintiff to any swimsuit coming ahead in opposition to the Parkway Faculty District on this matter?”

That mother or father was later one among three plaintiffs in Schmitt’s lawsuit in opposition to the district.

Christine McDonald, a spokeswoman for EducationPlus, a nonprofit that fosters collaboration with over 50 college districts within the St. Louis space, stated Schmitt’s tiplines can erode a college’s group and belief with dad and mom.

“If there are actual issues, they need to be elevating it with their college leaders, and never the AG in order that they are often addressed,” McDonald stated.

However Mike Gross, who had been among the many hundreds who had reached out to the legal professional basic’s workplace, stated Schmitt has been one of many few officers who he feels has stepped as much as assist dad and mom.

Earlier than Gross was a plaintiff in Schmitt’s lawsuit in opposition to the Fox C-6 Faculty District, he had been a part of a lawsuit with one other mother or father in opposition to the district final yr. It was ultimately dismissed when the district’s masks mandate had lapsed.

“We noticed it as an ineffective apply,” Gross stated of necessary masking. “It wasn’t doing something besides exerting management over the scholars.”

Gross, who has three kids within the Fox Faculty District, stated one among his kids was despatched dwelling for not sporting a masks. In the end, he doesn’t imagine college boards have the power to require masks and he want to see dad and mom have a selection in whether or not their children put on them. Mother and father within the space fashioned an advocacy group, Mother and father Advocating Change for Children, or P.A.C.Okay., and Gross stated he’s misplaced buddies and acquired hate mail over his efforts.

“It’s not been a nice expertise,” Gross stated. “However in the long run, I do all of it for my children and I’d do all of it the identical manner over once more tomorrow.”

Nuelle declined to elaborate on how dad and mom have been chosen as plaintiffs for the lawsuits, and stated the workplace wished to incorporate involved dad and mom, “to make sure that their voices are heard.”

As a part of the recently-launched “College students First Initiative,” Schmitt has despatched open information requests to high school districts, together with asking Springfield Public Faculties for a decade’s price of textbook titles, the Springfield Information-Chief reported.

Requested if the legal professional basic’s workplace equally plans to make use of submissions it receives by the brand new initiative as the idea of future authorized motion, Nuelle stated its goal “is to shine a light-weight on objectionable curriculum and practices in Missouri’s colleges, and work with the legislature to extend transparency in Missouri’s colleges.”

Republican senators have been vocal of their criticism in latest weeks.

“I don’t like our tax {dollars} getting used to primarily sue our personal residents and our personal elected native officers,” stated Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican who pushed to chop the additional $500,000 out of Schmitt’s finances.

Senate President Professional Tem Dave Schatz, a Sullivan Republican and one among Schmitt’s opponents for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, stated “it’s nicely throughout the rights of the Legal professional Common to go down that path” and sue colleges.

“However whether or not this was extra of a capability to attract consideration to himself and his workplace for that objective,” Schatz stated, “I feel the legal professional basic has made it adamantly clear that he has executed some issues that I feel attracts consideration.”

For Gross, it’s a thought that’s crossed his personal thoughts.

“On this scorching button challenge,” he stated, “are we getting used as a pawn for his political achieve?” 

“However I imagine that he’s critical,” Gross added. “He’s obtained children that go to high school right here in Missouri. I’d wish to imagine that these lawsuits are actual and those which can be transferring by proper now in St. Charles and Columbia are, the truth is, good circumstances, and so they’re gonna make a distinction.”