In Resurrection School v. Hertel, (6 Cir., May 25, 2022), an en banc panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held by a vote of 13-1-3 that a free exercise challenge to Michigan's COVID mask mandate for school children is moot. The mandate is no longer in effect. The suit was brought by a private religious school and two parents of school children. One judge concluded that the preliminary injunction appeal moot, but the proceedings for a declaratory judgment and permanent injunction are not. The majority said in part:
For all the reasons recited above—the changed circumstances since the State first imposed its mask mandate, the substantially developed caselaw, the lack of gamesmanship on the State’s part—we see no reasonable possibility that the State will impose a new mask mandate with roughly the same exceptions as the one originally at issue here. This claim is moot—indeed palpably so.
Judge Bush in a 31-page dissent joined by two other judges said in part:
[T]he majority’s decision to declare the entire case against MDHHS moot—rather than simply deciding the preliminary-injunction appeal—has stripped us of a valuable opportunity to clarify the law of our circuit. What the majority should have done, instead, is rule solely on the interlocutory order before us.
Fox2 Detroit reports on the decision.
