Still in place for now, but clearly on shaky ground.
Best mugshot ever
San Antonio Independent School District can continue requiring its staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19, despite a judge ruling against the district Thursday in a case filed by the Texas attorney general.
Judge Angelica Jimenez of the 408th District Court denied SAISD’s plea on Thursday that state Attorney General Ken Paxton lacks the legal authority to enforce Gov. Greg Abbott’s Aug. 25 executive order, which banned public entities, such as school districts, from mandating COVID-19 vaccines. Steve Chiscano, the attorney representing SAISD, immediately appealed the ruling.
Appealing Jimenez’s jurisdiction ruling delayed a hearing requested by the state to stop SAISD’s vaccine mandate with a temporary restraining order. The school district and attorney general’s office will make their arguments again before the 4th Court of Appeals. Case information is due at the court Oct. 4, according to online court records. The lawyers will file briefs, and justices will make a decision at an undetermined date.
[…]
In a statement, the district said Jimenez’s ruling does not enforce Abbott’s executive order prohibiting vaccine mandates and that SAISD would continue its vaccine protocols.
“We do not believe the Governor and Attorney General have the legal authority to continue this lawsuit, and we respectfully disagree with the judge’s ruling,” the district said in the statement. “We know that following the executive order and not requiring vaccination of our employees is potentially deadly, and we will do what is necessary to protect the children and staff of the district.”
See here for the previous update. I’ve always thought that the vaccine mandate was a heavier lift than the mask mandates, so I won’t be surprised if Paxton eventually wins this one. But as long as that mandate remains in place, SAISD can move closer to a goal of maximizing the number of its employees who have been vaccinated. No matter the odds, that’s worth fighting for.
17 days and counting………
I hope it’s 17 days until we hear the last of this countdown… At this point I have forgotten what’s in 17 days and, in all honesty, don’t care what’s going to happen in 18 days.
In related news, AG Paxton is back in the SCOTX urgin once more for the health- and mask-minded local officials to be crushed. The Fourth COA last week confirmed (reinstated) a trial court injunction against Abbott’s GA-38 (mask mandate prohitibition order) on request of City of Lardo and Central ISD.
From their response in the SCOTX today, which echos the numerous amicus letters sent by Prof. Ron Beal, which the Supremes have been ignoring:
In the Supreme Court of Texas
IN RE GREG ABBOTT, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS,
Relator
On Petition for Writ of Mandamus
to the Fourth Court of Appeals, San Antonio
RESPONSE TO RELATOR’S EMERGENCY MOTION FOR TEMPORARY RELIEF
TO THE HONORABLE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS:
The status quo in this case, which involves a public school district, has for
many months been school district oversight of the decision to require face masks at school. During the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts, with certain exceptions, have been left alone to decide whether to require face masks. Parents, students, constituents, and voters (numbering in the tens of millions) overwhelmingly approve of public schools exercising their authority to implement face mask requirements.
As UISD will demonstrate at trial, public school districts derive this authority not
only from their inherent duty as caretakers of the health and safety of students
entrusted to their care in loco parentis, but also from a web of state statutes and
federal regulations. Because Relator lacks authority to suspend these laws, public
school districts necessarily always had the authority to follow the dictates of their
local communities when it came to face mask requirements. Great harm and shock will spread when parents throughout our state learn that this Court declined to allow UISD, and thereby hundreds of other public school districts, to present arguments against GA-38 without first inviting the threat of COVID-19 past the schoolhouse gate. This harm would be irreversible. Thus, the Court should deny Relator’s Emergency Motion for Temporary Relief.
Docket for Tex. 21-0836 here:
https://search.txcourts.gov/Case.aspx?cn=21-0836&coa=cossup
It’s another “In re Abbott” mandamus. Sort of a template-based new cottage industry at the AG’s Office.
Underlying COA case: Greg Abbott, in his official capacity as Governor of Texas
v. City of Laredo and United Independent School District, No. 04-21-00386-CV (Tex.App.- San Antonio, Sept. 23, 2021)(order granting rule 29a relief and reinstating trial court temporary injunction).
Your tax dollars at work … for virus promotion
OR: How the Supremes assure your kids get a good chance to get sick …
THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS
Orders Pronounced September 28, 2021
MISCELLANEOUS
A STAY IS ISSUED IN THE FOLLOWING PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS:
21-0836
IN RE GREG ABBOTT, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS; from Webb County; 4th Court of Appeals District (04-21-00386-CV)
relator’s emergency motion for temporary relief granted
stay order issued
[Note: The petition for writ of mandamus remains pending before this Court.]
—-
COA DOCKET: https://search.txcourts.gov/Case.aspx?cn=04-21-00386-CV&coa=coa04
SCOTX order countermanding local mask mandates in Laredo now posted.
ABSOLUTE POWER … CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY
In response to the law profs who decry the US Supreme Court’s increasing tendency to address important issues on the “shadow docket”, which may include as many as four separate writings displaying the diversity of thought (“jurisprudential philosophy”) on the polarized court, look what we get in Texas with our all-GOP supremes:
Just fiats. Devoid of reason.
But the implied logic is compelling, isn’t it: Why bother explaining anything when you have all the power and can just issue orders?
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS
NO. 21-0836
IN RE GREG ABBOTT, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS
ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS
ORDERED:
1. Relator’s emergency motion for temporary relief, filed September 24,
2021, is granted. The order on Appellees’ Rule 29.3 Emergency Motion for Temporary Order to Maintain Temporary Injunction in Effect Pending Disposition of Interlocutory Appeal, filed September 20, 2021, in Cause No. 04-21-00386-CV, styled Greg Abbott, in his official capacity as Governor of Texas v. City of Laredo and United Independent School District, in the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Judicial District, dated September 23, 2021, is stayed pending further order of this Court.
2. The petition for writ of mandamus remains pending before this Court.
Done at the City of Austin, this Tuesday, September 28, 2021.
BLAKE A. HAWTHORNE, CLERK
SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS
—
LOCUTION CREDIT: Lord Acton (1834-1902)
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton
LONE STAR CONNECT: The Acton School of Business, an edu startup established in 2002 in Austin, Texas, was named in his honor.
Pingback: More on the San Antonio ISD vaccination mandate litigation – Off the Kuff