VA Judge denies Gov’s request to immediately strike down Mask Mandates

An Arlington County judge on Thursday sided with northern Virginia’s liberal school boards, and against Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, in an early battle over the school districts’ refusal to abide by an Executive Order that would allow parents to exempt children from mask requirements in schools.

The order denied a temporary restraining order in favor of preserving the status quo while litigation proceeds — which, in northern Virginia, means school districts maintaining policies requiring universal masking.

A 2012 news profile of Judge Louise DiMatteo upon her appointment to the bench said that she is married to an Arlington Public Schools teacher named Michael Megargee. Wakefield High School’s staff directory lists him as a current science teacher. A message on a phone number listed for DiMatteo and Megargee, inquiring about whether the situation posed a conflict of interest, was not immediately returned.

In her ruling, DiMatteo wrote that in a state of emergency, governors can issue executive orders that are equal to laws–including the executive orders used by Youngkin’s Democratic predecessor Ralph Northam to require masks, and Youngkin’s EO 2, which undid that.

But a law passed in 2021 to require schools to finally re-open — backed mostly by Republicans who wanted to force northern Virginia’s schools to stop relying on virtual learning — also included language saying that the schools “shall… provide such in-person instruction in a manner in which it adheres, to the maximum extent practicable, to any currently applicable mitigation strategies… that have been provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

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