When Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas issued an order requiring face masks, it was because business conventions and conferences had expressed trepidation about visiting the city.
“They said that they weren't comfortable coming to Kansas City and Missouri when we had a rising infection rate and a low vaccination rate,” Lucas said at a press conference. “That's what we were interested in addressing. I'm not interested in red state and blue city battles. This is not about politics. This is not about power. This is not about control.”
Nevertheless, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt took issue with Lucas’ mandate because it did not follow the proper protocol outlined in House Bill (HB) 271, which Gov. Mike Parson signed into law on June 15. To extend local health orders, including a mask mandate, HB 271 requires the approval of county commissions, city councils, or elected boards.
“Certainly, it's a concern from a public health perspective but I do think it's probably just a reflection of larger politicization of the pandemic,” said Clay Goddard, Missouri Foundation For Health’s senior director of public health transformation.
Schmitt sued Lucas, the Kansas City, Missouri Health Department, and Jim Ready, director of the Kansas City, Missouri Regulated Industries Division, alleging that the mask mandate is unreasonable, unconstitutional, arbitrary, and capricious.
"I filed suit against Kansas City to stop the imposition of a mask mandate on the people of the Kansas City region," Schmitt said in a statement online. "This continued unconstitutional and unreasonable government overreach must stop, especially in the face of a widely available vaccine. I will always stand up for the liberties of the people of Kansas City and Missouri.”
Mask mandates, however, are popping up elsewhere, for instance in some state court systems, such as the Eastern District Court of Appeals.
“We are requiring everyone be masked,” Chief Judge Sherri Sullivan told the St. Louis Record. “When the attorney general comes to court, he wears a mask and when the attorneys who are arguing their cases come to the podium, they can remove their mask only if the panel agrees. Then, the Marshall is wiping down everything in between each attorney arguing. We're staggering the arguments further apart so that we can clear the courtroom before the next case starts.”
Judge Sullivan was appointed by former Democratic Governor Mel Carnahan.
Democrat Lucas, who also is an attorney, accused Schmitt of trying to win the 2022 election with attention from the lawsuit as he campaigns to replace Roy Blunt as U.S. Senator. He added that there is no doctrine allowing a mayor to ignore Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance.
“The attorney general has never said anything about our power to issue health orders and he has never said anything about our power in Kansas City to be able to keep the people of Kansas City safe,” Lucas said. “This lawsuit is about getting clicks. This is about getting attention. It is not about saving lives.”
Since Schmitt filed the lawsuit, the Kansas City Council approved a proposal mandating masks, potentially rendering the attorney general's lawsuit moot, according to Goddard.
“Typically, mayors can issue emergency orders in a state of emergency, which circumvents council action,” he said. “What the legislature wanted to see was a full governing body making those decisions outside of a mayor’s ability to proclaim that.”
Schmitt also sued Tishaura Jones, the mayor of St. Louis, and Jackson County Executive Frank White. Like Lucas, Jones and White issued mandates requiring local residents to wear masks.
“When you see a move to try to remove local authority from these mitigation measures, in my opinion, and based on my experience, that's a huge mistake because local officials oftentimes understand their local situation much better than a statewide entity would,” Goddard told the St. Louis Record. “This is a political issue, which is unfortunate. I don't think you should ever politicize public health issues but that's the situation we find ourselves in.”