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By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services
Arizona schools are free to require students and staff to wear masks on campus, at least for the time being, because the retroactivity clause in a law banning mask mandates is effectively meaningless.
In a ruling Monday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner said the state law banning such mandates approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature at the end of June is not yet in effect.
Under Arizona law, new laws are effective 90 days after the legislative session ends, which is Sept. 29 this year.
Warner acknowledged an exception for emergency measures exists. But he said this particular law does not qualify.
“They require a two-thirds vote and this statute was not approved by a two-thirds majority,” Warner wrote.
The judge also said a clause in the measure making it retroactive to June 30 is legally meaningless.
“A retroactivity clause is not an emergency clause and cannot be used to avoid the two-thirds vote requirement needed to make a statute immediately effective,” the judge said.
Warner was no more impressed by arguments by Alexander Kolodin, attorney for a teacher in the Phoenix Union High School district who filed the suit, that HB2898, which contains the ban on mask mandates is an appropriations measure which, by law, is immediately effective.
