Judge Blocks Arkansas From Banning Mask Mandates for Schools

School children wearing masks walk outside Condit Elementary School in Bellaire, outside Houston, Texas, on Dec. 16, 2020. Francois Picard/AFP via Getty Images

An Arkansas judge on Friday temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a ban on mask mandates, including public schools, after lawmakers left the prohibition in place.

Pulaski County Judge Tim Fox issued a preliminary injunction against the mandate, saying that it discriminated between public and private schools. The order came several hours after Arkansas’s state Legislature ended a special session and didn’t vote on the ban on mask mandates.