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According to the Associated Press, students who attend the federally-funded Head Start education program are required to masks indoors as well as outdoors when they are in close contact with others.
These guidelines impact students as young as two years old. The Head Start program is designed for children under the age of 6 from low-income families.
The federal mandate also requires teachers to receive the vaccine or else face the dire consequence of losing employment. The mandate does not give individuals the basic right to a health or religious exemption.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty recently blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on teachers, which initially had a deadline of January 31st.
Doughty argued the unconstitutional mandate wrongfully bypassed Congress.
This ruling provided a victory to teachers in 24 states who sued the federal government.
The ruling impacts the following 24 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming and West Virginia.
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Head Start is a federally funded program that promotes education for children under the age of 6 who are from low-income families.
Doughty, an appointee of then-President Donald Trump, wrote that the separation of powers is crucial to the country’s founding and quoted former President Ronald Reagan, who said “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
“If the Executive branch is allowed to usurp the power of the Legislative branch to make laws, then this country is no longer a democracy — it is a monarchy,” Doughty wrote.
Republican attorneys general who were among the 24 states involved in the lawsuit praised Doughty’s decision.
“This victory will help ensure that numerous Head Start programs will continue to operate rather than have to fire teachers and cut back services to children,” Alabama Attorney General Marshall said in a news release. “And this win will forestall the nonsensical and damaging practice of forcing masks on two-year-olds.”
It was not immediately clear whether the federal government would appeal the decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
