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Gov. Greg Abbott has battled municipalities such as San Antonio as they try make their own policies to battle the current wave of COVID-19 cases.
The ruling by the all-Republican panel of judges overrides a ruling by the 4th Court of Appeals, which last week cleared local officials to require students, faculty and staff to wear masks on public school campuses.
The appeals court's ruling essentially kept in place a ruling by a district judge in Bexar County that allowed city and county officials to move ahead with school mask requirements as try to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases.
The latest Texas Supreme Court ruling approved a stay requested by Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton. However, the judges have not yet ruled on a separate state request to permanently lift an injunction against a July order by Abbott barring local officials from issuing mask mandates.
Abbott has been embroiled in legal battles with local officials in San Antonio, Dallas and other locations over his string of orders seeking to limit their ability to contain the highly contagious delta variant with mask and vaccine requirements.
On Wednesday, the governor announced an executive order banning COVID-19 vaccine mandates regardless of a vaccine’s approval status with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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