Texas federal judge blocks a federal mask and vaccine mandate implemented by Biden administration for school-readiness program.
QUICK FACTS:
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Friday that a federal judge in Texas had blocked a federal mask and vaccine mandate implemented by Joe Biden’s administration for the Head Start program, Newsmax reports.
- “I just halted another illegal federal vaccine and mask mandate,” Paxton tweeted Friday.
- Paxton said the rules are unconstitutional, emphasizing parents should be the ones to make these decisions.
- “We didn’t think that was right,” Paxton told Fox News. “We thought that was a parental choice, not a Joe Biden choice, so we sued them, arguing that he didn’t have the authority – statutory or constitutional – to do this. I think parents are going to be glad they get to make the decision. This is a victory for freedom in America.”
- Federal judge James “Wesley” Hendrix of the U.S. District Court Northern District of Texas on Friday ordered implementation of the mandate to be halted.
- Hendrix wrote an opinion expressing how the federal Health and Human Services agency making the regulations cannot act without Congressional approval.
WHAT TEXAS GOVERNOR ABBOTT SAID:
“Texas just beat Biden again,” Gov. Greg Abbott exulted on Twitter after Friday’s ruling was announced.
“The Court writes: ‘It is undisputed that an agency cannot act without Congressional authorization’,” Abbott added. “That would apply to all of Biden’s orders.”
BACKGROUND:
- Head Start is a school-readiness program for infants, toddlers, and pre-school children in low-income families, Newsmax explains.
- Lubbock ISD and Paxton argued in a Dec 10 lawsuit that the program would be harmed by mask mandates and vaccine mandates.
- Friday’s ruling applies only to Texas, but a similar lawsuit aimed at halting the Head Start mandates nationwide, filed Dec 21 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, has been joined by 25 states, The New York Post reports.
