Appeals court tosses Iowa mask mandate lawsuit, affirms schools must follow disability law

Years of litigation over Iowa's law blocking the adoption of face mask mandates have ended, for now, with more of a whimper than a bang.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled that families of children with disabilities lacked standing to sue the state over the 2021 law, which barred schools from requiring students or staff to wear masks. The plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that their children were particularly medically vulnerable to COVID-19, and that the Iowa law conflicted with federal laws requiring schools to accommodate students' health needs.

They won a preliminary injunction against the law, which the state successfully appealed to the appellate court, though by that time vaccines were in wide use. The case returned to federal district court, where a judge found in November 2022 that school districts must consider medically sensitive students' requests to require mask-wearing by those around them.

Tuesday's 8th Circuit decision, though, holds that federal courts lacked jurisdiction to hear the lawsuit in the first place. The judges found that "the potential risk of severe illness should (plaintiffs' children) contract COVID-19 at school" was "too speculative" to create standing to sue, and that even if it weren't, there is no evidence that school districts have refused plaintiffs' requests for masking as a reasonable medical accommodation.

ACLU of Iowa Legal Director Rita Bettis Austen said in a statement they plaintiffs were disappointed in the decision, but proud of "what this case was able to accomplish for vulnerable children in Iowa" prior to the introduction of COVID vaccines.

"The state’s threatened enforcement of the law ... discriminated against children who were too young to be vaccinated and had disabilities, including underlying health conditions, that made them particularly susceptible to severe illness or even death from COVID," Austen said. She added that "our case obtained early relief for our clients and allowed schools across our state to work to maintain a safe school environment through the use of masking."

Gov. Kim Reynolds, in a statement, declared the state vindicated.

"Iowa was the first state to get students back in the classroom and we prohibited mask mandates in schools, trusting parents to decide what was best for their children," she said. "Elected leaders should always trust the people they serve, and I promise I would do it again.”

Does the decision change anything?

While the decision vacates the district judge's order, it's not clear how much Tuesday's decision will actually mean for school districts.

For starters, school masking rules are much less hotly contested in February 2024 than in May 2021. COVID vaccines, first introduced to the market in December 2020, have now been universally available for years, and COVID deaths and infection rates have not seen a major spike since February 2022, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the decision also echoes the district court ruling it overturns by finding that the law does not block medical accommodation requests under federal law — something even Reynolds has acknowledged. The state has argued from the start of the case that the law bans mandates unless the masks are "required by ... any other provision of law," meaning districts already were able to require masks as needed to accommodate students' medical needs.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt, in his Nov. 2022 decision, also held that Iowa must permit mask mandates as required by federal disability law, and noted that Reynolds had contradicted herself by arguing that requiring masks is not a reasonable accommodation under federal law.

And the federal appellate courts have repeatedly found the law can and should be reconciled with federal disability laws. In a May 2022 decision, the 8th Circuit directed the district court to "pay particular attention" to the provision stating that the law does not apply when any other law might require masks.

"If another state or federal law requires masks, (Iowa's law) does not conflict with that law — and thus should not be completely enjoined," the judges wrote in that case.

Tuesday's decision reaches the same conclusion, with the judge finding a lack of standing in part because the law "does not prohibit a school from complying with disability laws."

The ACLU statement makes no mention of any plans to further appeal the case, with Austen acknowledging the court's finding the law does not conflict with federal disability laws.

"We are grateful to everyone involved in this case who took a position on the right side of history against discrimination and to protect vulnerable children," she wrote.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Lawsuit against Iowa ban on school mask mandates dismissed on appeal