Louisiana Western District Judge Terry Doughty freed the young children enrolled in Head Start from the Biden administration’s COVID-19 mandate. Young children, ages 3-5 years old, in 24 states are no longer under mandates for COVID-19 vaccines and face masks.

Doughty first issued a temporary injunction in January but Wednesday’s ruling was on the merits of the case. The injunction is a permanent one. The Biden administration can appeal, but why? Joe Biden already declared that “the pandemic is over” … right?

The judge’s ruling said that the Biden administration doesn’t have the authority to issue mandates without Congress. He said the stage was being set for school districts to succumb to tyranny.

The Head Start program provides young children ages 3 to 5 years, and their families at or below the federal poverty level with early childhood education and resources. Under the Biden administraton’s manate, all teachers, contractors, and volunteers in Head Start programs to be fully vaccinated. The Republican
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry filed the lawsuit on Dec. 21, saying the Head Start mandate is “beyond the Executive Branch’s authority, contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”

Doughty, who was appointed by President Trump, quoted founder James Madison in his ruling: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elected may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

“Courts are protectors of the United States Constitution and its delegated powers,” Doughty went on to say in his ruling. “The separation of powers keeps the three branches equal. If one branch attempts to exceed its constitutional powers it is the judicial branch’s duty to stop it.

The 23 other states involved in the lawsuit besides Louisiana are Alabama; Alaska; Arkansas; Arizona; Florida; Georgia; Indiana; Iowa; Kansas; Kentucky; Mississippi; Missouri; Montana; Nebraska; North Dakota; Ohio; Oklahoma; South Carolina; South Dakota; Tennessee; Utah; Wyoming; and West Virginia. Let’s hope that the states not involved are filing lawsuits to stop the Biden administration’s mandates, too. Why should there be a two-tier system with most schools doing away with COVID-19 mandates while low income children in government programs must still abide by the mandates?

Judge Doughty wrote that individual liberty trumps the potential public interest of a vaccine mandate. “Although vaccines arguably serve the public interest, the liberty interests of individuals mandated to take the COVID-19 vaccine outweigh any interest generated by the mandatory administration of vaccines.”

This is particularly true with young children. There has never been any scientific evidence that COVID-19 poses a real threat to young children. There were not reports of schools being affected by large numbers of children infected with the coronavirus. It was cruel and abusive to impose the same restrictions on children that were placed on adults. The government put in place a mask mandate for all children involved in Head Start who are older than two. The mandate includes all indoor situations and outdoor situations when social distancing cannot be maintained. The policy is out of step with the CDC recommendations. CDC no longer recommends general mask-wearing. Most schools are mask-free.

Doughty’s decision clarifies that the pandemic is over. Young children in government programs should be allowed to toss their face masks. Face masks in schools did enough damage to students during the pandemic, as studies now show. Stop the abuse.