Decision means schools, colleges and cities can continue to mandate face masks or other COVID protocols – at least for the time being
On November 2, 2021, the Arizona Supreme Court, after only two hours of deliberation, found that several provisions of the 2022 state budget, including a controversial ban on face mask mandates in K-12 schools, violate a provision of the state constitution requiring individual bills to encompass a single subject.
To the surprise of many, the justices unanimously upheld a trial court ruling that several of the budget bills violated a section of the Arizona Constitution known as the “single-subject rule.” That rule mandates that legislation embrace “one general subject” and that the subject be clear in the title of the bill.
Among a long list of provisions in the bill struck down, some barred school districts and charter schools from imposing face mask requirements to curb the spread of COVID-19, prohibited the teaching of “critical race theory” in K-12 schools, barred colleges and universities from requiring COVID vaccines or testing of students, and prohibited cities and counties from requiring people to show “vaccine passports.” They are now all blocked.
When the legislature will reconvene to reconsider the bills is not yet known. It may well reinstitute the bans at a future date, after following proper protocol for bill drafting.