In a 54-page decision, Senior U.S. District Judge Frederic Block of the Eastern District of New York upheld New York’s statewide mask mandate for public schools, though he criticized the “current prolix array of the regulation, recommendations and requirements, guidelines and guidance” that make it challenging to apply.

Block denied a motion from the plaintiff, the parent of a 10-year-old girl with severe asthma, for a preliminary injunction based on alleged violations of her constitutional rights and decided to hold in abeyance the question of preliminary injunctive relief for her state law claims because of ongoing settlement negotiations.