Eric Schmitt had no authority to end school mask mandates as Missouri AG, judge rules

A Jackson County judge ruled Friday that Eric Schmitt had no legal authority as Missouri attorney general to force school districts to end their COVID-19 mask mandates.

Judge Marco Roldan, in his 18-page ruling, found that Schmitt, a Republican who was elected to the U.S. Senate last year after four years as state attorney general, did not follow Missouri law when he ordered the Lee’s Summit School District to stop enforcing its COVID-19 mitigation efforts in 2021.

“There exists no Missouri law allowing the Attorney General to involve himself in a School District’s efforts to manage COVID-19 or other disease within its schools,” Roldan wrote in his ruling.

The ruling offers a scathing rebuke of Schmitt, who had sued Lee’s Summit and dozens of other school districts at the height of the pandemic. Schmitt regularly touted the suits on social media and used them to elevate himself in his Senate campaign.

“Parents and students followed the Attorney General’s lead, leading to even greater confusion than the pandemic had already caused,” Roldan wrote.

Schmitt’s U.S. Senate office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, Schmitt’s Republican successor, also did not respond.

Representatives for the Lee’s Summit School District championed the ruling as proof that Schmitt overstepped his authority.

“This ruling affirms that Missouri law empowers locally elected School Boards to control district

operations,” Rodrick Sparks, president of the Lee’s Summit School Board, said in a statement Monday. “We’re thankful for this decision and the clarity it provides for our continued efforts to serve our students, staff and community.”

Nearly all of the lawsuits Schmitt filed in early 2022 were eventually dropped or dismissed, which he touted as a victory. But Lee’s Summit instead filed a counterclaim, asking for Roldan to issue a judgment against Schmitt.

The district had asked the court to prevent Missouri attorneys general from “intruding into the affairs” of public school districts, arguing that Schmitt’s “bullying” toward school districts “poses a danger to the statutory balance of authority between elected state and local officials.”

Roldan, in his ruling, found that Schmitt had incorrectly relied on a 2021 ruling by a Cole County judge that considered local health department orders to stop the spread of COVID-19 violated the Missouri Constitution.

Roldan wrote that the 2021 ruling had nothing to do with school districts.

“Aside from lacking any authority over locally elected boards of education, the Attorney General’s orders did not follow Missouri law and were therefore without legal force or effect,” Roldan wrote.