Missouri AG has sued 45 school districts with mask rules
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed nine additional lawsuits against school districts with mask mandates this week, bringing the total number of systems targeted to 45.
Schmitt, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, has cast school mask mandates as government intrusion on private family decisions.
But left untouched in the wave of litigation are charter schools, including some in Kansas City, that also require masks for students. Though privately operated, charters are publicly funded like traditional public schools.
Schmitt's spokesman did not explain what separates charter schools from the long list of school systems defending the attorney general's lawsuits.
"We're currently evaluating our legal options on mask mandates in charter schools, but the Attorney General has been eminently clear that parents, not school districts or bureaucrats, should be able to decide what's best for their children," Schmitt's spokesman Chris Nuelle said Tuesday in response to questions about how the office chose which schools to sue.
—The Kansas City Star
Oath Keepers member says Jan. 6 panel is obstructing his criminal case
WASHINGTON — A Florida member of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia charged in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection accused Congress of obstructing the criminal case against him, signaling one possible long-shot defense at a trial set for July.
The House select committee probing the attack on the Capitol is tainting the jury pool in Washington by unfairly portraying those who participated in the riot as “monstrous domestic terrorists,” Kelly Meggs, one of the Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy, said in a court filing Wednesday.
Meggs and other Oath Keepers, including founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes, entered pleas of not guilty yesterday. Meggs argues that the committee’s hearings are “perjury traps” that aren’t restrained in ways that presume innocence, as they are in court. Rhodes, along with the leader of the Proud Boys group, were subpoenaed by the committee in November.
“One might reasonably argue that the Select Committee is intimidating witnesses, tampering with witnesses, as well as massively violating the due process rights of these defendants by its flood of publicity and extra-judicial statements condemning in public these defendants,” Meggs’ lawyer said.
The lawyer signaled he’ll seek to have the case moved to another city or tossed out because of the alleged actions by members of Congress, who he argues should “remain silent until these cases come to trial.”
—Bloomberg News
California bill would ban single-use smoking products like cigarette filters
California could see fewer cigarette butts and vape pods on the streets under a measure introduced Tuesday.
Assembly Bill 1690 would ban single-use cigarette filters, e-cigarettes and vape products in the state with the aim of benefiting the environment and public health.
"For more than half a century, tobacco filters have caused a public and environmental health crisis that found renewed vigor in recent years as the tobacco industry began to sell electronic vape products," Assembly member Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood), who introduced the bill, said in a news release Tuesday.
"Our planet is at a critical tipping point — cigarette filters destroy our environment unlike any other discarded waste, and the toxic chemicals found in electronic vapes seep into our fragile ecosystems, all while also damaging individuals' health with hazardous smoke," Rivas said.
The ban would authorize local prosecutors to levy a fine of $500 per violation, defined as the sale of one to 20 items.
—Los Angeles Times
Prince Andrew demands jury trial in civil sex case
LONDON — The Duke of York has demanded a trial by jury in the civil sex case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre.
Giuffre, also known as Virginia Roberts, alleges Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her in three different locations between 2000 and 2002.
Andrew submitted 11 reasons why the case should be dismissed, including that Giuffre's claims are "barred by the doctrine of consent" and by "her own wrongful conduct."
In the court document which communicated his reasons for requesting a dismissal of the case, Andrew's lawyers concluded: "Prince Andrew hereby demands a trial by jury on all causes of action asserted in the Complaint."
In Giuffre's allegations, she accuses Andrew of sexually abusing her at the London home of disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, at pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein's New York mansion and Epstein's private island, Little St James.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan previously denied the duke's application to dismiss the case.
—dpa
