Attorney general sues mayor over Kansas City mask mandate, alleging ‘arbitrary’ order
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is suing Mayor Quinton Lucas, alleging the city’s mask mandate is unconstitutional as the region grapples with a wave of coronavirus infections and hospitalizations.
The Republican attorney general filed a lawsuit in Jackson County Circuit Court on Tuesday, arguing the order is arbitrary and capricious. Lucas denounced the suit and vowed to vigorously defend the directive, predicting the city will prevail.
The suit marks Schmitt’s latest legal challenge against a new set of mask mandates in Missouri. It may not have an immediate impact on the Kansas City mandate, which went into effect on Monday. His court filing doesn’t ask for a temporary restraining order, a request that could quickly get the case in front of a judge.
But his action sets in motion a legal showdown over the future of the directive, which the mayor and other local officials say is needed as the region battles the delta variant even as Republicans and others scoff at mandatory masking.
“Today, I filed suit against Kansas City to stop the imposition of a mask mandate on the people of the Kansas City region. This continued unconstitutional and unreasonable government overreach must stop, especially in the face of a widely available vaccine,” Schmitt said in a statement.
The lawsuit contends the mask directive is not an “appropriate disease control measure” and is inadequate to control the spread of COVID-19. The order’s requirement that school children wear a mask, Schmitt said, “is not based in science and is completely ridiculous” — a notion at odds with the American Academy of Pediatrics and other health experts who have called for masking in schools.
The defendants, the suit alleges, ignored that children “are less likely to get COVID-19, less likely to get seriously ill if they do get it, and are less likely to transmit the disease while, at the same time, suffering disproportionately” from masking rules.
Schmitt names as defendants Lucas, Jim Ready, the director of the Kansas City Regulated Industries Division, and the Kansas City Health Department.
The mandate requires masks to be worn in indoor public spaces. Lucas announced the order amid rising numbers of cases and a growing realization by public health officials that fully-vaccinated people with breakthrough infections can still spread the virus.
“This for us is not about politics. This is not about power, it’s not about control,” Lucas said at a late afternoon news conference. “It’s about how can we save lives in Kansas City, in western Missouri and in our region.”
“You’re hearing hospital directors, you’re hearing physicians talk about capacity concerns at our children’s hospital and all of our hospitals in Kansas City,” he added a short time later.
Schmitt’s filing resembles the lawsuit he filed last Monday against mask mandates in St. Louis City and County. He asked for a temporary restraining order against the county after its council voted to repeal the mask order but County Executive Sam Page maintained the vote wasn’t binding.
A St. Louis County Circuit judge granted the order Tuesday, halting that mask mandate. The order narrowly pertained to the council’s authority to repeal the order.
Schmitt, who is campaigning for U.S. Senate, has appeared several times on Fox News and conservative radio to discuss the legal fight. But Lucas tweeted last week that a request to meet with Schmitt to head off the litigation was declined.
On Tuesday, the mayor called for recognizing that “two lawyers battling on Twitter doesn’t get us anywhere” — referring to Schmitt and himself.
The lawsuit comes as cases spike across the Kansas City region. More than 900 cases were reported on Friday, according to data compiled by the Mid-America Regional Council. Hundreds of additional cases continue to be reported each day.
More than 150 new hospitalizations were also reported Friday, according to MARC. The average number of new hospitalizations each day has been rising since early June, from a low point of 39 to 133 earlier this week.
Missouri lawmakers this year gave county and city councils the ability to revoke public health orders, including any that “places restrictions on the opening of or access to” businesses, churches, schools and other gathering places. The St. Louis County Council last week tried to use that power to rescind its mask mandate, leading to legal confusion as the county executive, Sam Page, insisted the order still stood.
That kind of confusion hasn’t occurred in Kansas City. The city council has made no move to overrule Lucas’s order, though the council will likely have to vote within a month if Lucas wants to extend it. He said Tuesday that the majority of city council supports the order.
Much of Schmitt’s complaint argues that Lucas didn’t justify his decision to require masks. The attorney general accuses the mayor of flip-flopping over an order, noting that Lucas said on CBS Face the Nation that “at this point thus far that it is not necessary for Kansas City” before announcing a new order two days later.
Lucas didn’t rule out an order, but Schmitt called his position a “dizzying reversal.” The lawsuit says the mayor “admitted that COVID-19 orders are political decisions and not purely medical or scientific decisions.”
“There is no evidence that Defendants considered the underlying data, science, and evidence that fail to justify issuing a mask mandate at this time,” the lawsuit says.
Lucas said the lawsuit ignores the Centers for Disease Control guidance issued before the order, calling it the “dumbest argument ever.” The CDC last week recommended that even vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas where the coronavirus is surging.
“Frankly, I find much of what he says to be, if not just embarrassing, but damaging,” Lucas said, adding that he couldn’t believe what the lawsuit said about how COVID-19 impacts children.
Lucas said he hopes that the infection rates go down and that the order can be rescinded in the coming days or weeks.
Lucas said it’s important to not spend time further politicizing the pandemic.
“The question for us ultimately will be — in Missouri and in Kansas and in Kansas City — will we meet the moment before us?” Lucas said.
The Star’s Jeanne Kuang contributed reporting
This story was originally published August 3, 2021 at 4:08 PM.
