Appeals court docket says Minnesota governor had authority to impose masks mandate

ST. PAUL — Gov. Tim Walz had the authorized authority to mandate face masks when he declared a public well being emergency within the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minnesota Court of Appeals dominated Monday.

Walz declared a peacetime emergency in March 2020 and mandated masking in most indoor public areas in July 2020. The conservative Upper Midwest Law Center sued, difficult the masks requirement as unconstitutional. Walz lifted the mandate in May 2021, at which level the Court of Appeals declared the case moot.

But the Minnesota Supreme Court in February despatched the case again to the appeals court docket to settle the important thing authorized query behind the case: whether or not the Minnesota Emergency Management Act of 1996 authorizes a governor to declare a peacetime emergency throughout a public well being emergency such because the pandemic. The excessive court docket known as it an “important issue of statewide significance.”

The appeals court docket rejected as “unreasonable” the plaintiffs’ assertions that the coronavirus “most likely” originated from a laboratory leak, in order that the ensuing pandemic didn’t happen “naturally” and due to this fact was not an “act of nature” below the state legislation.