Missouri attorney general files lawsuit over Kansas City’s mask mandate
The lawsuit asks the court to invalidate the mask mandate
Updated: 6:02 PM CDT Aug 3, 2021
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um the first thing I wanted to know what I was actually reading the ST louis county order today and I know that the court said something interesting that I would like to remind everybody of It said the court notes that although some will take this court’s ruling as a victory, there is no victory. While the COVID-19 virus remains a significant threat to public health and there’s no question remains a significant threat to public health. There can be no victory until the residents of ST Louis County in that case, in the state of Missouri are no longer risking their health well being and lives at the hand of the COVID-19 virus. I have a few thoughts um, to share and I will go ahead and start with them and then I’ll take any questions you might have. I think the first thought I have is very simply this. I understand the Attorney general’s action today. I think Kansas City will be victorious in its litigation. We actually filed our order based on much of what we have seen in the earlier complaints of the lawsuit that was filed over in Eastern Missouri. That is why you saw a site health advice. That’s why you saw a site a C. D. C. Order that was ignored in the Attorney General’s brief. And that’s why you continue to hear us talk about the very real public health concerns at issue. This for us is not about politics, this is not about power, this is not about control. It’s about how can we save lives in Kansas City, in western Missouri and in our region. And the way we can do that is by listening to health experts. It’s by listening to medical advice. It’s by recognizing the two lawyers battling on twitter doesn’t get us anywhere. But instead, what we need to do is actually think about the very real challenges we’re facing in Kansas city. You all do the stories you all have heard. You’re hearing hospital directors, you’re hearing physicians talk about capacity concerns at our Children’s hospital, at all of our hospitals in Kansas city, you’re hearing people who are having concerns with having relatives and others that are falling ill. You’re seeing the numbers in Missouri, which every day are a challenge. And to me the solution is that we try our level best to make sure that we get control of this challenge in Kansas city and in Missouri and that we not spend time further politicizing this pandemic. Now there are some who would say that mask orders or mandates or vaccine mandates or anything under the sun do just that. I think the opposite. There is not a mayor who was sworn into office, there is not a leader who was sworn into office and who says, I want to control your business. I want to restrict how much money we can make in our community. I want to have anything to do with what we’ve had to do over the last year and a half, but we have faced this challenge and the question for all of us, ultimately will be in Missouri and Kansas and in Kansas city, will we meet the moment before us? We have issued up to this point, more than 10 orders. The Attorney general has never said anything anything about our power to issue health orders. He has never said anything about our power in Kansas city to be able to keep the people of Kansas city is safe, this is about getting clicks, this is about getting attention, it is not about saving levels here in Kansas city government, we will continue to fight hard to do so. I hope most of that work would just be through our efforts to get people vaccinated. Our efforts to keep people safe with responsible masking at our efforts to tell people that COVID-19 is serious. Now, it will be in part work done by our lawyers, unnecessary, our lawyers and the states lawyers doing battle in court, wasting money, wasting energy and wasting attention on an effort that has nothing to do with how we stay safe. So I’m not going to get personal because there is no reason to we issued a mask order because we wanted to keep Kansas city and safe. We issued a mask order because we started to hear from business conventions conferences, who said that they weren’t comfortable coming to Kansas city in Missouri when we had a rising infection rate and we had a low vaccination rates. That’s what we are interested in addressing. I’m not interested in Red State and Blue city battles. I’m interested in safety for Kansas city. That’s why we will fight this lawsuit. I’ve read all of the counts that the attorney general filed. There is no doctrine that says that you can just ignore CDC guidance, which I think his complaint does He. And I think it’s frankly dangerous. And I think count three or four of the petition, He claims that COVID-19 isn’t a serious risk to Children. If he actually believes that, I ask every parent in Kansas city in Missouri and in Kansas, Do you want your kid to file sick with COVID-19? Do you wanna just roll the dice? Because the attorney general thinks it’s a decent idea and cited one blog resource. I don’t want that for myself. I don’t think there is a parent in Kansas city who wants that for their unvaccinated child and that’s why we’re going to make sure that we do all we can to keep our residents safe. Are there any questions for you have different? You expect something? Yeah that’s absolutely not. I don’t expect a similar thing. Sandals counting Kansas city’s approach for very different county executive sam page. God bless them. Issued an order issued an order that preceded the CDC guidance. They issued an order where the county council had the chance to rescind that order. A few things I think are different in Kansas city. First of all, we have majority city council support and you will see that. And second we issued an order that was based on our health department information. As part of our order, we attached information that our health department had shared in connection with the risk of Covid 19. We had attached information that the C. D. C. Had shared. The attorney general I guess is other than just tweeting a picture of Braveheart and that shouts freedom. Which is the most childish thing that I think I’ve ever seen in my years in politics. But in addition to doing that he had a claim that was based almost exclusively on the procedural process used in ST louis county which was entirely different than what we saw in Kansas city. That’s why I think he will see this order uh met with success in the courts in Jackson County. I think that’s why you’ll see at least through August 28 that we continue to do the work necessary to keep Kansas City and safe. Any other questions for. Yes the data lawsuit, you know, question why 11 day said yeah okay so here’s the thing I’m a lawyer and uh that’s really the dumbest argument I’ve ever heard right because the attorney general’s actually ignoring the fact that the C. D. C. Came out with guidance early in the week early last week. We all remember it. He just ignored it didn’t even cited in his petition. The CDC came out with guidance and said we are updating our guidance. Every order that Kansas city has issued throughout this pandemic has largely tracked in whole or in part C. D. C. Guidance. And when we issued our order we said in light of CDC guidance we will reevaluate our own order and we met with our health department we went through all the necessary work to see that well because the guidance has changed from actual scientists and doctors, not just a guy trying to get interviews on Fox news because the guidance has actually changed. We’re actually going to make sure that we will update our order as well. That’s the reason that you see some level of change. There is no doctrine that you are procedurally barred from ever actually adjusting what your order is because you’re ignoring what the science or what the medicine says. There is no doctrine that says you are barred to every representation ever made on face the nation Instead. What the doctrine actually says is you look every day to medical advice. I personally would love to see that our vaccination rates increased dramatically that our infection rates go down dramatically and were able to rescind this order in days or weeks. That’s my drink and I don’t think that means that we have to even have an order forever. What I think it does mean however, is that you won’t ignore the data edition. You won’t ignore the C. D. C. S. Clear and unambiguous advice about masking in dorms. You won’t ignore the clear and unambiguous direction and advice that we’ve gotten from medical professionals in this region. We’re working with our COVID-19 crisis each and every day. And frankly I find much of what he sites to be if not just embarrassing but damaging his commentary as relates to COVID 19. Not be much of a threat to kids. I just can’t believe that he would put that in an official statement from the state of Missouri. That to me is exceedingly dangerous. It’s exceedingly troubling and I think it shows and I think it shows a lack of seriousness in connection with this litigation. Yeah lawsuits that were involving mask mandates with some of the that I think yep thank you. Well here’s the thing. We’ve won a lot of lawsuits in connection with COVID-19 so far. It’s unfortunate that they had to be filed. It’s unfortunate that we have to be here today talking about lawsuits rather than talking about our efforts to expand vaccination, like being at Arrowhead Stadium this weekend with Garth Brooks concert. But that won’t distract us. We will continue to do the important work of vaccinations will continue to be a resource for every business in Kansas City that wants to make sure that its customers and its employees and anybody who comes through their space is safe and so we’ll continue to take those steps. We have been successful a number of times. The attorney general largely has not. I say, congrats to him on the ST louis county order. It’s a very different situation, both in the city of ST louis and in Kansas City, we will defend our orders vigorously because we are doing what is right. We’re doing what’s in the best interests of public health for this community and what we’re doing it for is to keep people particularly our young people, particularly the elderly folks, safe. That’s our gold star. And what we’re trying to do each and every moment and that’s what we’ll continue to do along the way. Is it normal for attorney general to file a lawsuit without talking with? No, no. And actually I appreciate that. I know we were trying to wrap. But in one of the oddest things possible, which shows how this isn’t actually I think about getting the law right or getting the vaccine right Or actually getting our COVID-19 response right. The attorney general we reached out to last week and said, let’s sit down, let’s try to figure it out. Let’s try to have some sort of conversation. He said no. and he ended up doing a number of different press interviews. He ended up tweeting about the mayor of Washington, D. C. And I think he’s more concerned about what’s happened in 1000 miles away than what’s happening right here in Missouri. That to me is exceedingly frustrating. I continue to have my phone line open for if he wants to talk about ways that we can, if he wants to have an order that fits at least in some way his world view of how this can be done. Well what we have seen from Missouri court over is this these orders are valid. It’s been upheld a number of different times in the private litigation against Kansas City. We created an opportunity for him to talk to us. It’s time for everybody involved to grow up, have that conversation and care more about public safety than public political perceptions in Poland. Thank you so much
Missouri attorney general files lawsuit over Kansas City’s mask mandate
The lawsuit asks the court to invalidate the mask mandate
Updated: 6:02 PM CDT Aug 3, 2021
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Tuesday that he has filed a lawsuit over Kansas City’s mask mandate that went into effect Monday.Schmitt said the lawsuit, which was filed in Jackson County, argues that the mask mandate imposed is unreasonable, unconstitutional, and arbitrary and capricious. “Today, I filed suit against Kansas City to stop the imposition of a mask mandate on the people of the Kansas City region. This continued unconstitutional and unreasonable government overreach must stop, especially in the face of a widely available vaccine. Requiring schoolchildren to mask all day while in school is not based in science and is completely ridiculous,” Schmitt said.Mayor Quinton Lucas, the Kansas City, Missouri Health Department and the Director of the Kansas City, Missouri, Regulated Industries Division Jim Ready are named in the lawsuit.”This for us is not about politics. This is not about power. This is not about control. This is about how we can save lives in Kansas City and western Missouri and in our region. And the way we can do that is by listening to health experts,” Lucas said in response to the lawsuit.The lawsuit asks the court to invalidate the mask mandate and issue an injunction or other appropriate relief.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. —
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Tuesday that he has filed a lawsuit over Kansas City’s mask mandate that went into effect Monday.
Schmitt said the lawsuit, which was filed in Jackson County, argues that the mask mandate imposed is unreasonable, unconstitutional, and arbitrary and capricious.
“Today, I filed suit against Kansas City to stop the imposition of a mask mandate on the people of the Kansas City region. This continued unconstitutional and unreasonable government overreach must stop, especially in the face of a widely available vaccine. Requiring schoolchildren to mask all day while in school is not based in science and is completely ridiculous,” Schmitt said.
Mayor Quinton Lucas, the Kansas City, Missouri Health Department and the Director of the Kansas City, Missouri, Regulated Industries Division Jim Ready are named in the lawsuit.
“This for us is not about politics. This is not about power. This is not about control. This is about how we can save lives in Kansas City and western Missouri and in our region. And the way we can do that is by listening to health experts,” Lucas said in response to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit asks the court to invalidate the mask mandate and issue an injunction or other appropriate relief.
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