PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

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At Commentary, Chrstine Rosen writes: The Masking Regime Is Coming Apart.

We’re in an odd cultural moment when an organization that was traditionally dedicated to protecting civil liberties goes to federal court to argue for more restrictions on those liberties. It’s a moment in which school administrators refuse to protect children from sexual assault if the act is committed by someone who has chosen to change genders, but they’ll eagerly punish students for observing a democratically elected governor’s order giving them the choice not to wear a mask.

The ACLU lawsuit also fails to make sense on its own terms. The organization claims to speak for the rights of disabled children in the Virginia school system, and hyperbolically invokes the Civil Rights movement to justify claims like, “Universal mask use may be necessary to protect some children . . . For many of these children, Governor Youngkin has effectively barred the schoolhouse door.” But as any parent of an autistic or hearing-impaired child will tell you, masks prevent their children from being able to participate fully in school. And what of the vast majority of students who struggle to hear each other speak and make meaningful, normal social connections because their faces are obscured by masks all day. Do their rights not matter?

Related: Former ACLU leader Ira Glasser slams organization’s ‘progressive’ new agenda.