By
NICK GOSNELL
Hutch
Post
HUTCHINSON — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said the legal work continues to defend Senate Bill 40, the changes to the state's Emergency Management Act, at the Kansas Supreme Court.
"They've given us a schedule for the briefings, for both parties to file their written arguments, that extends into about mid-September," Schmidt said. "We're moving along. We also asked the Supreme Court to stay the decision below, to put it on hold, to take us back to the status quo and leave that in place while this appeal plays itself out."
The Court has neither agreed to a stay, nor said they won't. They've left that open for now. In fact, there's just a lot of uncertainty about the whole case.
"There were changes in June of 2020. There were changes in January of 2021. There were changes again in late spring of 2021. Then the court came in and invalidated some portion of the changes in late spring of 2021, but it's not clear how much was invalidated and even to the extent it's invalidated, what law takes its place. We think it's the January enactments. The Governor has argued that at least, to some extent, it takes you all the way back to pre-COVID law. It is a terrible muddled mess right now."
This makes it exceedingly hard for local governments, particularly counties, as many of them function as the Board of Health in their jurisdictions, to decide what cover they do or don't have to mandate masks or not or to do anything else until the question on remedies and which law controls is finally decided.