by Kerry Dougherty
It’s official.
One of the most malignant organizations in Virginia is the ACLU.
These far-left lawyers, who are supposed to be concerned with civil liberties (hey, it’s in their name: the American Civil Liberties Union), sucked their thumbs as Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam stomped all over the civil rights of Virginians for two years.
They napped when he closed businesses. They shrugged when he closed schools. They snoozed when he slammed the doors of churches and synagogues.
When kids with speech impediments had to go to speech therapy in masks, the ACLU hibernated.
They did not care about kids back then. They don’t care about kids now.
This is all about politics.
When Virginia voters elected a new governor, one determined to restore civil rights to the commonwealth, the ACLU woke up.
Governor Glenn Youngkin’s promise to take useless cloth masks off the faces of school children enraged these lefties who believe that government — not parents — knows what’s best for children.
ACLU lawyers headed to court on behalf of 12 students with a variety of health conditions from around in the commonwealth — including one in Chesapeake — to argue that by unmasking their classmates, schools were depriving them of their right to an education.
This case should be laughed out of court. Unfortunately, it’s headed to trial.
Why the sudden need to force classmates to wear masks during COVID? What did these immuno-compromised kids do in the past during cold and flu season? After all, the seasonal flu is much more dangerous to children than COVID.
On Wednesday evening, U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon, a Clinton appointee, issued a lengthy preliminary injunction in the case.
He based it on the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution that essentially says federal laws trump state laws. So, the Americans with Disabilities Act has primacy over the state law that ended the forced masking of students.
The ADA was never intended to force worthless facial decorations on healthy children to protect sick people, but the ACLU doesn’t see it that way.
While agreeing that Youngkin’s executive order removing Northam’s mask mandate was still in effect, and acknowledging that the law passed that ended forced masking of school students was legal, the judge said these 12 students could ASK their schools for reasonable accommodations.
The judge pointed out that this was not a class-action suit. His ruling applies solely to the dozen plaintiffs. On top of that, he didn’t prescribe a remedy to their situation, just said they could ask for accommodations.
ASK. Not demand.
Nevertheless, the ACLU is doing its happy dance. They no doubt believe that they’ve opened the floodgates. Soon every immunocompromised — the all-encompassing condition du jour — kid in Virginia will lawyer up and demand that his or her classmates be put back in muzzles to “protect” them from COVID. Or the flu. Or the sniffles.
This cannot be allowed to happen.
It’s still early in the legal process. Attorney General Jason Miyares should immediately attempt to stay the injunction. If the judge ultimately decides in favor of the ACLU, Miyares should file an appeal and take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.
The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990. Somehow, kids with serious medical conditions managed to get educations despite at least 33 cold and flu seasons without forcing their classmates to wear masks to class. It’s preposterous to think that the ADA was ever intended to remove all risk of illness from students in schools.
If children want accommodations, perhaps schools can construct plexiglas cubicles for the students with delicate conditions. Or conduct classes exclusively made up of the immunocompromised so they needn’t be in the same rooms as the unmasked.
Let’s be clear: This case is not really about kids. The ACLU didn’t care about kids when school doors were locked. It didn’t care about children with speech difficulties who struggled to learn during forced masking. It didn’t care about kids suspended from school for not wearing masks.
This is all about the left’s loathing of Glenn Youngkin.
They’re willing to force healthy kids into wearing worthless face masks all day in school to get back at a politician they fear and dislike.
This column has been republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed & Unedited.
