Des Moines Sun

In response to this setback, Bleeding Heartland writer Laura Belin tweeted, "Who's up late and wants to read about how @IAGovernor's own words helped sink #Iowa's mask mandate ban in federal court?"

In May, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law that disallows schools from issuing mask mandates. This decision was met with immediate opposition, specifically a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and co-opted by the Arc of the United States. They sued in September to overturn the mask mandate ban. 

In October, a federal judge blocked the ban. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals will decide the fate of the lawsuit, which states that the ban violated state disability rights by making school unsafe for immunocompromised students. The state’s defense against the suit claims that disallowing a statewide ban on mask mandates would be “too broad,” KMTV reported Nov. 18. 

The Des Moines Register reported that Arnold & Porter attorney Elizabeth Theodore, one of the parties representing the plaintiffs, stated: "Schools must be allowed to tailor school policy to accommodate students with disabilities, whether that requires masking across the entire school or a particular classroom or some more limited form of masking or no masking, potentially.”

Local parents are working with not only the ACLU and Arc of the United States, but also Disability Rights Iowa and the Duff Law Firm.