Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton threw down the gauntlet on Wednesday, issuing a 6:00 p.m. deadline for the City of Austin and Travis County to rescind local masking requirements. Failure to do so, Paxton said, would result in legal action.
“Otherwise, on behalf of the State of Texas, I will sue you,” Paxton said in a letter to Mayor Steve Adler and County Judge Andy Brown.
Paxton told the city and county that, despite their belief to the contrary, local jurisdictions do not have the authority to override the orders issued by Governor Greg Abbott.
The 6:00 p.m. deadline came and went with neither Brown nor Adler backing down. Adler issued the following statement:
“Judge Brown and I will continue to do everything within our power, continuing existing health authority orders and using every tool available to us to reduce the spread of the virus, to keep as many people as alive as possible, to safely open up schools to more in-person learning and safely more businesses. We will fight Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton’s assault against doctors and data for as long as we possibly can.”
“Wearing masks is perhaps the most important thing we can do to slow the spread of COVID-19, to further open schools to more students for in-person learning, and to increasingly open businesses safely while minimizing the risk of any need to pull back. The Governor’s order and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s efforts to end mask mandates creates ambiguity about masks where none should exist.”
Both Adler and Brown have said they have no plan to allow the public to choose whether or not they wear a mask in public.
