Coronavirus

[heyzeus]

Texas is ordering refrigerated morgue trucks for the expected overflow of deaths. Meanwhile, the governor and attorney general are suing individual cities and school districts with the temerity to require masks. The King of Texas, sorry the governor, personally ordered that no local governmental entity may require masks. My kids started school today.

The good news is that one of our firm's clients, a large community college district, is going to sue Greg Abbott to challenge his executive order, and I'm going to be the one drafting up the suit.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Texas is ordering refrigerated morgue trucks for the expected overflow of deaths. Meanwhile, the governor and attorney general are suing individual cities and school districts with the temerity to require masks. The King of Texas, sorry the governor, personally ordered that no local governmental entity may require masks. My kids started school today.

The good news is that one of our firm's clients, a large community college district, is going to sue Greg Abbott to challenge his executive order, and I'm going to be the one drafting up the suit.

Go get him, Zeus!

Spoils from forcing that vote I guess.

[Jocephus]

oh f yeah, draft that ass up

[mikechamp]

Texas is ordering refrigerated morgue trucks for the expected overflow of deaths. Meanwhile, the governor and attorney general are suing individual cities and school districts with the temerity to require masks. The King of Texas, sorry the governor, personally ordered that no local governmental entity may require masks. My kids started school today.

The good news is that one of our firm's clients, a large community college district, is going to sue Greg Abbott to challenge his executive order, and I'm going to be the one drafting up the suit.

I wish you all the best, heyzeus, but did you see this article from yesterday?

[heyzeus]

Texas is ordering refrigerated morgue trucks for the expected overflow of deaths. Meanwhile, the governor and attorney general are suing individual cities and school districts with the temerity to require masks. The King of Texas, sorry the governor, personally ordered that no local governmental entity may require masks. My kids started school today.

The good news is that one of our firm's clients, a large community college district, is going to sue Greg Abbott to challenge his executive order, and I'm going to be the one drafting up the suit.

I wish you all the best, heyzeus, but did you see this article from yesterday?

Yes, but it's quite a bit more nuanced than that article implies. In fact the legal situation in Texas is so unresolved that there are dozens if not hundreds of lawyers wondering right now what to tell their clients.

Basically the state Supreme Court only stayed an injunction against Greg Abbott's anti-mask order that was granted by district court judges in two counties. Neither of those orders were cases involving school districts. And even at that, the Supreme Court's ruling isn't on the merits of the question of whether a governor has the authority to order cities and counties that they can't adopt an emergency mask mandate; it just says the district courts can't enforce their injunction while the cases are pending.

Then to get more confusing, there are now dozens of cities, counties, school districts, colleges, community colleges, and other local governmental entities that have adopted mask orders just for their local entity, in defiance of the governor's "thou may not adopt a mask mandate" emergency order. There aren't any higher court rulings on those yet. And each of these entities has its own statutory authority from the legislature. Can a governor by fiat suspend that authority?

And the million dollar question: Can a governor exercise his authority to suspend laws in a declared emergency in order to prevent local political subdivisions from taking measures to respond to that emergency? IE, if a governor only has emergency authority to suspend laws in order to address the emergency, can he issue orders that in fact make the emergency worse?

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Good luck, zeus! Please keep us informed as possible with progress. It's good that entities opposing the 'no mask mandate' will have excellent representation!

The Arkansas governor was stripped of his power to enforce mask mandates by the legislature back in March? of 2021 and at the same time signed a bill passed by the legislature prohibiting the state (and other agencies, including school districts) from mandating masks. The legislature refused to amend the bill when the Delta Variant showed up and it's led to school districts suing the state. A temporary injunction (or something?) is in place based on the equal rights act (namely, public schools can't mandate masks while private schools can) and the question of can the legislature take away powers granted the governor under the state constitution. Seems like a mess.

[GeddyWrox]

Kick some ASS Zeus!!!!!!!

[heyzeus]

It's all definitely a mess.

The good news in Austin, at least, is that over the past few days new cases and hospitalizations have leveled some. It's possible that more people working from home, wearing masks, etc is now showing up in the data.

The downside is that today was the first day of school for the main school district in Austin. For now, masks are required, but that could change on the legal front at any time. We are far from done with the Delta surge.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

A middle school / travel ball coach from the area, healthy 49-year old, has died of COVID. Found out this evening at an adult wood bat league game I was umpiring. I was talking with him 4 or 5 weeks ago at one of those games and umpired a ton of games with his teams the last two years. I'm in shock. His obituary says he got sick July 24 and died August 4. So sad. So avoidable. What a waste.

[AdmiralKird]

So... wait... you're saying perfectly healthy adults in their forties should be vaccinated? I'm sorry but this story doesn't apply to me because, you see, he is not me, I am me. He is, well, was, a different person, and I am probably even more healthier, plus I have the blood of the tertiary stream media flowing through my veins. No one will know what will happen to them if they get the terrorist needle jab.