Judge temporarily blocks Arkansas from enforcing ban on mask mandates

An Arkansas judge on Friday temporarily blocked the state from enforcing its ban on mask mandates after lawmakers left the prohibition in place, even as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rise. 

Earlier this week, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said he wished the law he signed could be undone, in particular, so that local schools would have the flexibility to impose their own mask requirements. He called lawmakers into a special session to consider rolling back the ban for some schools, but lawmakers adjourned without overhauling the ban.  Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox issued a preliminary injunction against the law that Hutchinson signed in April banning mask requirements by governmental entities. The ban was being challenged by two lawsuits, including one from an east Arkansas school district where more than 900 staff and students are quarantining because of a coronavirus outbreak. Fox ruled against the measure on multiple grounds, including the argument that it discriminated between public and private schools.