Arc of Iowa v. Reynolds
Overview
Arc of Iowa v. Reynolds (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Cir., Jan. 25, 2022): Plaintiffs sought to block enforcement of an Iowa statute prohibiting mask requirements in schools. Plaintiffs alleged that the law placed children with disabilities at heightened risk of injury or death from COVID-19. The district court blocked the law, holding that the state law violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. The 8th Circuit upheld the district court’s decision in part because federal disability law requires reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, and mask requirements constitute these kinds of reasonable accommodations. Still, the 8th Circuit found the lower court’s order “more broad[] than necessary,” and returned the case to the lower court for a more tailored order prohibiting the defendants from preventing reasonable accommodations in schools and ensuring that schools provide reasonable accommodations for children with disabilities. Read the full decision here.
View all cases in the Judicial Trends in Public Health – February 15, 2022.