Free Speech

Eugene Volokh | 12.17.2024 9:03 AM

From Mayfield v. Missouri House of Representatives, decided Friday by Eighth Circuit Judge Jane Kelly, joined by Judges Lavenski Smith and Jonathan Kobes:

On August 3, 2020, while employed in the assistant clerk's office of the Missouri House of Representatives …, Mayfield sent an email to Elijah Haahr, the Speaker of the House, and Dave Schatz, the President Pro Tem of the Missouri Senate, titled "Capitol Safety." It read:

I am writing to you because I feel an ethical and moral obligation to do so. We are living in unprecedented times that requires, likewise, unprecedented actions and decisions from the leadership and citizens of our state. Those actions and decisions, or lack thereof, will be recorded in history as either appropriate measures that helped save lives, or inappropriate and resulted in an increase in lives lost.

Businesses, cities, and states across this great nation have heeded the CDC's warnings and implemented a number of measures designed to slow/stop the spread of COVID-19, including mandatory face coverings, if we are to continue in our efforts to reopen the economy and get people back to work. I am grateful the Missouri House of Representatives has implemented some of the same measures in an attempt to protect Members, staff, and visitors to our Capitol. Unfortunately, as of yet, the decision to require face coverings in the chambers and public spaces in our Capitol has not been made, leaving all who enter our Capitol at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, and ultimately, negates any benefit received by the measures that have been implemented.

It is important to consider, Members from every district in this state are convening in our chambers and then returning to their respective communities to continue campaigning and holding fundraisers for their reelection bids, or assisting in the election of their successors. It compounds an already........

© Reason.com