King Phil may let your child finally remove their masks… before the end of the current school year.
“I think there’s a real shot of that,” Governor Murphy replied during a PIX11 interview on Thursday.
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How swell of him!
The continued compulsory masking of New Jersey school kids – despite a growing body of evidence that most masks aren’t very effective at stopping Omicron – has become increasingly controversial. The teacher’s union wants it, but a growing number of parents are questioning the widsom of the policy.
Murphy’s own Democrat legislature declined to renew his emergency powers earlier this month largely over disagreement on K-12 masking. The recently-reelected governor’s legislatively-confirmed authority to continue mandating masks expired on January 12th, but Murphy declared a new health emergency and renewing the mandate on his own.
He’s walking on constitutionally questionable ground.
“It’s unclear if Governor Murphy had the authority to declare a new Public Health Emergency that essentially grants himself the same powers the Legislature allowed to expire,” said state Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) back on January 12th. “What is clear, however, is that New Jersey’s emergency power laws are so vague and broadly written that the Governor risks little by making a new declaration to claim the extra power he wants. That’s why we need to fix our laws to set explicit new limits on emergency powers and ensure the Legislature has a strong oversight role.”
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