Gov. Ron DeSantis will appeal a ruling by a Tallahassee Circuit Court judge that was intended to curtail parental rights.
DeSantis very well could win on appeal.
The ruling by Judge John Cooper says an order by DeSantis prohibiting government schools for requiring children to wear masks without giving parents the ability to opt out is “without legal authority” and that individual rights are limited by their impacts on others, based on Florida Supreme Court decisions in 1914 and 1939.
Cooper said adults have the right to drink alcohol but not to drive drunk and a right to free speech but not to yell “fire” in a crowded theater.
DeSantis did not authorize drunk driving or yelling in theaters. His order said that parents can and should make health care decisions for their children. It is line with state law.
Liberals were jubilant over the trial court ruling and the Democrat agricultural commissioner did a little gloating online, possibly in preparation for an attempt to become governor.
But it hasn’t been heard by a higher court yet.
The same day, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked San Antonio’s mask mandate for government schools, upholding that state’s governor, who had issued a similar order.
Like much of the debate over the pandemic, this one is more politics than science.
Liberals want people to bow to the majesty of government as it makes sweeping proclamations affecting them and their children. LIbs are in an all-out push for marxism and an all-powerful federal government, and are not going to let individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution stand in their way.
Cooper doesn’t know any more about science than anyone else. He says in his ruling that great weight must be given to Centers for Disease Control guidelines, which change frequently.
Why? The CDC is a government bureaucracy, not a pontiff believed by acolytes to be infallible.
When the coronavirus arrived in America, the CDC initially recommended that most Americans not wear masks. On April 3, 2020, the CDC abruptly reversed this position, according to Jefferey Anderson, former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Cooper may not know there is no science proving that masks accomplish anything. There is, however, data showing children are in a low-risk category when it comes to the Red Chinese virus.
Randomized control trials have found little to no evidence that masks work to prevent viral transmission—either from the wearer to others or vice versa.
Even the liberal New York magazine has cast doubt on the CDC report blessing face masks, saying it may have omitted key information, such as a study of Georgia elementary schools.
One healthcare expert was quoted in the magazine as saying, “The CDC cannot ‘follow the science’ because there is no relevant science.”
There are many other criticisms of the CDC guidance, and of a CDC study that claimed great benefit from statewide mask mandates.
In other words, it is not “settled science.”
Or law.
