COVID wins big in SC Supreme Court, ball is in Legislature’s court to revisit mask ban

COVID-19 was the big winner in today’s South Carolina Supreme Court.

In a 5-0 decision, the court ruled that a poorly-conceived proviso in the state budget is the law of the land and that means local cities and towns like Columbia cannot enact or enforce local mask mandates for our school children.

“I used that mechanism in the power of the purse in the state budget to protect our citizens and protect their liberty against what was going on with masks and vaccines,” Rep. Stewart Jones, R-Laurens told The State of the language he crafted.

The proviso reads, “No school district, or any of its schools, may use any funds appropriated or authorized pursuant to this act to require that its students and/or employees wear a facemask at any of its education facilities. This prohibition extends to the announcement or enforcement of any such policy.”

With today’s ruling, those two sentences effectively prevent communities across South Carolina from taking every possible measure to slow the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.

Jones introduced the measure when cases were dropping and South Carolinians seemed to return to some sense of normalcy, but in a few short months the situation is very different, something the elected officials in Columbia recognized.

After Mayor Stephen Benjamin declared a state of emergency, Columbia challenged the proviso by enacting a local city ordinance requiring masks for school children in grades K-12. State Attorney General Alan Wilson filed a lawsuit against the city challenging the mandate and on Thursday the court ruled that the Columbia ordinance cannot stand.

In a 14-page ruling, the court found that “the City’s legal opinion is incorrect” and that the city does not have the authority to impose and enforce the mask mandate ordinance.

The opinion states, “We fully recognize that strong and passionate opinions exist on both sides of this debate. Yet, we must remind ourselves, the parties, and the public that, as part of the judicial branch of government, we are not permitted to weigh in on the merits of the facemask debate. Rather, we are a court that is constitutionally bound by the rule of law—specifically, separation of powers—to interpret and apply existing laws; we do not, and cannot, set public policy ourselves. Instead, the people of South Carolina, through their elected state representatives, set the state’s policy.”

In this case, that policy was the proviso inserted in the budget with little fanfare at the time.

“We appreciate that the South Carolina legislature and the City of Columbia have differing views on whether parents of school children should decide whether their children must wear masks at school or whether the government should mandate that decision,” Justice Kittredge wrote.

He continued, “While allowing school districts flexibility to encourage one policy or the other, the state legislature has elected to leave the ultimate decision to parents. Conversely, the City of Columbia has attempted to mandate masks for all school children by following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, which has the effect of disallowing parents a say in the matter.”

Where does that leave South Carolina?

As of Aug. 31, just 48% of the state’s residents were fully vaccinated and 10,743 of our residents have died from COVID-19.

Schools that opened just days ago are switching to virtual learning again and again as positive COVID-19 cases continue to rise.

Our hospitals are overflowing with COVID-19 patients in intensive care units.

And the country’s leading health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,still lists getting vaccinated and wearing masks among the top actions we can do to protect ourselves.

The court’s ruling may on its face be about “the rule of law” as Wilson said in a statement issued today, but in reality it is about our ability as a society to work together for the sake of public health and to protect the most vulnerable among us.

The State Legislature has an opportunity here.

Senate President Harvey Peeler can call for an emergency session and the legislature can revisit the mask mandate ban.

As cases climb and the number of deaths increase, it is the right decision to make.

Give South Carolina a fighting chance.

This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 4:40 PM with the headline "COVID wins big in SC Supreme Court, ball is in Legislature’s court to revisit mask ban."