The U.S. District Court for Wyoming must reconsider a 2021 lawsuit it dismissed from a Laramie High School student arrested during a mask-mandate dispute, an appeals panel ruled Tuesday in Denver.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals sent Grace Smith’s case back to Wyoming with instructions to revise the dismissal ruling based on the appeals panel’s findings.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Freudenthal dismissed Smith’s suit last year saying she and her parents lacked standing and failed to state a claim that merited relief. Smith, a junior at the time of the dispute, filed the action with her parents against Albany County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees, the district’s superintendent and the high school principal.
The Smiths claimed free speech and due process violations under the U.S. Constitution and violations of Wyoming law. The case, originally filed in Wyoming District Court, was moved to the federal level where the subsequent decisions did not address the Wyoming claims.
“When a government regulation ‘require[s] or forbid[s] some action by the plaintiff,’ she ‘almost invariably’ states an injury in fact.”
U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals
Freudenthal noted that Smith had withdrawn from school, that the mask mandate had expired and therefore she suffered no actual or imminent injury. Instead, any distress was “conjectural or hypothetical,” according to Freudenthal’s ruling.
Freudenthal dismissed the suit saying Smith’s injury was “self-inflicted,” noting she trespassed voluntarily during a protest, opted out of a virtual education offered to non-mask wearers and left school altogether, according to court documents.
That didn’t sit well with the appeals panel in Denver. “We are not persuaded,” the three judges wrote.
“When a government regulation ‘require[s] or forbid[s] some action by the plaintiff,’ she ‘almost invariably’ states an injury in fact,” they wrote. “They suspended [Smith] three times and requested that local law enforcement issue her two trespassing citations, arrest her, and take her to jail.
“These allegations state an injury in fact,” the appeals panel wrote.
The panel also noted that the other option given to Smith — virtual classes — may have been adequate for educational purposes, but was a far cry from being equivalent to in-person instruction.
The Smiths’ original suit, filed in Wyoming District Court in Albany County, sought direct, consequential and punitive damages, meaning the family seeks financial redress as well as punishment of the school board, its members and the administrators.
I’m glad her case will be heard. Nobody’s rights should be violated by others, and especially not by the state, which is entrusted to protect those rights. Making an excuse to violate the rights of even one individual for the so called ‘greater good’ is a scar an entire society, and is usually the opposite of good. Did they stop teaching about Stalin or Hitler, or do some still think they where justified? It’s a pathetic shame that people think that collectivism should trump individualism. However, I’m sure they only feel that way when it’s somebody else’s individual rights that they disagree with being trampled.
Unbelievable that something so small as wearing a mask to protect everyone causes so much pain for anyone. So many have autoimmune problems and just wearing a mask could help protect them. To quote Spock in the original “Star Trek”: “The needs of the many outweight the needs of the few or the one.”
Given what we now know for fact about this virus, her mask wasn’t ever going to prevent anything from anyone. I have an autoimmune condition and this child not wearing her mask was affecting no one, nor was her choice going to cause anyone’s death. I hope she and her family get rewarded immensely as they deserve it.
At the time they were still trying to protect as many as possible and didn’t know what they know now. Also, the constitution doesn’t give anyone the right to recklessly disregard the safety of others.
Obviously, Spock never read the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
In an attention economy, another ‘It’s really about me’ case moves forward with the help of WY’s sad culture wars. Pathetic how so many once proud WY residents are now part of this groveling litigation addicted mass. Ms Smith is welcome to move to Flo-rid-a. The only victim here is common sense.
It’s a shame that in today’s America, the wants of the individual “trumps” the needs of society as a whole. The next pandemic coming is going to be so much fun. I can hardly wait.
It’s a crying shame that it took an appeals court to move this case forward. Unbelievable actions by the school and they should be dealt with accordingly, and now maybe they will be.
I’m not holding my breath for any real accountability for these crimes against a child. As much as we like to tout that we are a live and let live and freedom-loving state here in Wyoming, the fact of the matter is that most people in Wyoming love authoritarianism more than freedom. Just look at some of the other reactions. At least the district court was put in its place (for a brief moment).