Pa. school mask lawsuit backed by group that challenged 2020 election results

[BumRushDaShow]

Pa. school mask lawsuit backed by group that challenged 2020 election results

Updated: Sep. 09, 2021, 5:47 p.m. | Published: Sep. 09, 2021, 4:32 p.m.
Story by Jamie Martines of Spotlight PA and Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA


HARRISBURG — Just before the start of the Labor Day holiday weekend, the top Republican in the state Senate sued Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration over its new mask mandate for Pennsylvania schools as well as child-care and early learning centers. But Jake Corman did not do so in his official capacity as president pro tempore of the chamber. Instead, as a parent of two school-age children, he helped file a lawsuit backed by a conservative, nonprofit law firm with ties to former President Donald Trump that has led litigation to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, including in Pennsylvania.

Corman, state Rep. Jesse Topper (R., Bedford), and a group of other parents are being represented by Thomas King, a partner at a small western Pennsylvania law firm and general counsel for the Pennsylvania Republican Party. But for his services in the mask case, King told Spotlight PA his legal expenses are covered by the Amistad Project, an initiative of the Thomas More Society that former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani once described as a “partner” in the campaign’s legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Though the group has been involved in several election-related lawsuits in Pennsylvania since last fall, little is known about who funds it or how it chooses its cases. A spokesperson for the organization did not respond to requests for comment. The latest lawsuit was filed just days after Wolf’s acting health secretary, Alison Beam, issued a mask mandate for all public and private schools in the state, as well as early learning and child-care centers. The GOP-controlled House of Representatives is returning to the Capitol from its summer recess earlier than planned to consider how to block the order.

Corman hasn’t yet committed to moving up the Senate’s return, but he has been highly critical of the mandate on conservative radio and, late last week, with little fanfare or public notice, joined the lawsuit with the other parents. The senator did not respond to a request for an interview. Corman’s spokesperson, Jason Thompson, said taxpayer dollars are not being used to pay his legal fees. Similarly, a spokesperson for Topper said the House of Representatives is not paying his legal fees. “Legislatively, I looked into it, and I realized the General Assembly was not an aggrieved party in this matter,” Topper said Wednesday. In talking with Corman, Topper said they realized that they felt the same way as other parents with children in school. “We have every right as aggrieved parents to file this suit,” Topper said.

Read more: https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/09/pa-school-mask-lawsuit-backed-by-group-that-challenged-2020-election-results.html

Corman is a fucking loon like the rest of them. I keep saying this over and over. Lay down with the infested dogs and wake up with their fleas.