Georgia Governor Kemp’s office seeks to block Atlanta mask mandate in court

https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/kemps-office-files-lawsuit-seeking-to-block-atlanta-mask-mandate/JJQ5DQW2QFE6PN7TTVO2ISNFDQ/

By Greg Bluestein
July 16, 2020

Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration went to court Thursday seeking to block Atlanta from enacting coronavirus restrictions and requiring residents to wear masks, setting up a legal showdown between the state and local governments over efforts to contain the disease.

The state filed a lawsuit challenging Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ July 10 decision to revert to “phase one” guidelines that push restaurants to close dining rooms and urge residents to leave home only for essential trips. It also casts the city’s new mask requirements as “void and unenforceable.”

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Bottoms said she was ready for a legal battle to defend the city’s order, pointing out that she and two family members are among the more than 100,000 Georgians who have tested positive for the disease.

“A better use of taxpayer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing,” said Bottoms. “If being sued by the state is what it takes to save lives in Atlanta, then we will see them in court.”

The legal complaint, filed in Fulton County Superior Court, came one day after Kemp signed a statewide order that explicitly bans cities and counties from enforcing mask mandates. Atlanta and a dozen other cities have adopted such requirements, defying an order from Kemp that encourages but not mandates them.

Many of those cities vowed to enforce the mask mandates despite Kemp’s legal maneuvering, including local officials in Kemp’s hometown of Athens and the mayor of Savannah, which had enacted the first such requirement in the state.

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About two dozen states have mandated the use of masks, including the Republican-led governments of Texas and West Virginia. Alabama joined the group Wednesday, with Gov. Kay Ivey saying it’s essential to “slow the spread and turn these trends in a different direction.”

Republican governors in other Southern states have allowed local restrictions even if they resist statewide mandates.

Georgia has experienced a steady rise in coronavirus infections since June, and the hospitalization rate has climbed just as sharply. Data released Wednesday show roughly 84% of the state’s intensive care units are in use, and the nearly 2,800 people now hospitalized statewide with the illness is the highest on record.

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