Madison Kwiecinski 

News Editor

Mvk5945@psu.edu 

On Wednesday, November 10, Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon ruled that Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of the Health Department lacked the authority to have issued the mask mandate that is currently in effect in PA schools. The order, which was issued in September, was “improperly issued” and was overturned on these grounds. 

Governor Tom Wolf disagreed, and his office immediately filed an appeal of the ruling, which put the decision on golf, for now. Until it is heard on appeal, the mask mandate will stay in effect in PA schools grades K-12. 

The case was overturned in the PA Commonwealth Court, which sided 4-1 with State Representative Jesse Topper, the state Republican in the Senate who sued to originally challenge the make mandate. The judges in the case stated that the mandated Acting Health Secretary Allison Beam issued was not in compliance with state law on reviewing and approving regulations. The mandate was also issued when an existing disaster emergency was not declared in PA by the governor. 

The state’s disease control law does not give health secretaries “the blanket authority to create new rules and regulations out of whole cloth, provided they are related in some way to the control of disease or can otherwise be characterized as disease control measures,” wrote Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon, a Republican, for the majority.

The opinion also included that the judges have no opinion of the science of efficiency of wearing masks, or on the political controversy surrounding mask-mandates. The order was overturned as a means of defining the Health Secretaries authority, and stating that proper procedure was not followed when enacting the mask mandate. 

On Monday, prior to the mandate being overturned on Wednesday, Wolf announced that he planned on returning authority over masking policy to local school districts as of January, but he intended for masking to continue in child care centers as well as in early learning programs. 

The five judge panel that ruled on the case consisted of five republicans and two democrats. The sole dissenting opinion was written by Judge Michael Wojcik in which he wrote that The order issued by Beam, “was a valid interpretive rule that tracks statutory and regulatory authority conferred upon her.” 

State Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman who also sued against the mask mandate said that, for him the issues with Beam’s mask mandate was, “an end-around the constitutional amendment passed by people, limiting the executive branch’s authority during a state emergency.” 

Earlier this year, a new amendment to the PA constitution passed, which limited the governor’s power and authority to declare emergency disasters. Under new law, a Governor cannot issue an emergency disaster for longer than 21 days, and can only be extended with a majority vote of the legislature. Corman believes Allison Beam found a loophole around what voters implemented into the state constitution this year with her mandate, and that she was acting on authority she does not actually possess. 

The Wolf administration’s appeal was filed the same day that the judge ruled on the case, and will remain on hold for the time being. The case will be heard on appeal, where a final ruling will be issued, but until this is completed and the case is no longer on hold, the mask mandate will continue.