LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Jefferson County school board is suing to challenge Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's determination that the board illegally barred a Louisville man from attending a public meeting in August because he refused to wear a mask.
The board filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Jefferson Circuit Court seeking to reverse Cameron's Dec. 5 decision, which said the school board violated the Kentucky Open Meetings Act when it barred Kurt Wallace from attending the board's meeting on Aug. 2.
Wallace refused to comply with the school board's policy, which at the time required him to either wear a face covering or take a COVID-19 test to attend the meeting at the VanHoose Education Center, according to the lawsuit. Wallace also did not apply for a waiver from the masking requirement, the board said.
The school board argues that having no control to limit the spread of communicable diseases at its meetings would curtail public participation and put staff and teachers at unreasonable risk.
It also questions whether Cameron, a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, should have recused himself from the case after publicly criticizing Jefferson County's mask mandate.
"We stand by our open meetings decision, which speaks for itself and clearly outlines the law, and we respect the right of the Jefferson County Board of Education to file an appeal," said Krista Buckel, spokeswoman for Cameron's office, in an emailed statement.
Kentucky law says public agencies must allow public attendance of their meetings, but agencies are allowed to impose conditions "required for the maintenance of order."
Cameron found that a mask-or-test requirement "is intended for maintaining public health, but it has nothing to do with maintaining order," according to the Dec. 5 decision.
Cameron's decision "would require public agencies to permit in-person attendance for anyone presently infected with a communicable disease, whether it be COVID-19, Chicken Pox, Measles, Polio, Ebola, etc," the school board alleges.
"The Attorney General's Decision places the public meeting attendance rights of persons with communicable diseases above those of the public at large and forces public servants to risk exposure to potentially life-threatening disease simply to do their jobs," according to the lawsuit.
The school board also asks that a judge review whether Cameron should have rescued himself from deciding Wallace's open meetings law appeal.
The school board filed as evidence what it described as a campaign email in which Cameron described the mask policy as "absurd", "against common sense" and "a blight on our personal freedoms."
Under Kentucky law, attorney general decisions regarding open records and open meetings issues are legally binding unless one of the parties takes the dispute to court.
