On Tuesday, Missouri GOP Attorney General Eric Schmitt issued letters to local public health agencies invalidating all mask mandates in school districts and public health agencies. The letters prompted St. Louis Democratic mayor Tishaura Jones to tweet feverishly, “Please help us! Our Attorney General @Eric_Schmitt is literally trying to kill us!”
Please help us! Our Attorney General @Eric_Schmitt is literally trying to kill us! https://t.co/5W79dEwyPr
— Tishaura O. Jones (@tishaura) December 8, 2021
Schmitt fired back on Twitter with this salvo: “You’re the mayor of the murder capital of the United States, violent crime rages on and you want to defund the police and yet you’re obsessed with the forced masking of 5 year olds. Your administration and priorities are a total disaster.”
You’re the mayor of the murder capital of the United States, violent crime rages on and you want to defund the police and yet you’re obsessed with the forced masking of 5 year olds.
Your administration and priorities are a total disaster. https://t.co/gEluZxMwxx
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) December 8, 2021
“You should stop enforcing and publicizing any such orders immediately. Failure to follow the court’s judgment may result in enforcement action against you to remove orders the court has determined are unconstitutional and illegal. We encourage you to take immediate action to remove all unconstitutional and illegal orders,” Schmitt wrote in his letter to local public health agencies regarding mask mandates.
“Schmitt also argued that state law does not allow school districts to issue their own mask mandates, quarantine requirements or other orders,” Fox 4 noted.
In a news release, Schmitt stated, “The recent decision from the Cole County Circuit Court is consequential as it relates to public health orders.” He added, “Today I sent a letter to public health agencies and school districts across the state informing them of the decision and demanding they rescind and cease enforcement and publicizing of public health orders, mask mandates, quarantine orders, or other orders that were declared null and void by the recent decision. Public health authorities and school districts have gone unchecked, issuing illegal and unconstitutional orders in their quest to aggregate, maintain, and exert their new-found power. My Office will enforce the Court’s order across the state,” KY3reported.
“It means the health orders that are out there from these local public health bureaucrats are null and void,” Schmitt said in later remarks. “The legislature has delegated to the state department but not the locals and therefore their (orders) are illegal. We also sent a letter to the school districts because the legislature has never delegated the ability to issue health orders, essentially mask mandates, to school districts either. … The ability to issue a health order related to a quarantine has never been delegated to a school district.”
In May, The Telegraph noted, “St Louis, Missouri, holds the unenviable record of the highest murder rate in America, ahead of Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit for the sixth year running. … Questions have been asked, therefore, as to why she [Jones] wants to cut $4 million from the $171 million policing budget and shut down one of the city’s two prisons. ‘More police doesn’t prevent crime,’ says the 49-year-old.”
Podcast host and former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly offered a simple but stark message to the citizenry of St. Louis: “Good luck St. Louis.”
Good luck St. Louis. https://t.co/TUrDMpSbYm
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) May 19, 2021