Attorneys Chuck Kitchen of Raleigh and Lydia Boesch of Pinehurst filed the lawsuit on behalf of Freedom Matters in Moore County, Commissioner McCall and her daughter-in-law, Cortney Johnson McCall, a schoolteacher and mother of school-age children. McCall has spoken out forcefully against the mask mandate that applies to all public school pupils, saying the requirement was unnecessary and emotionally harmful.
The primary cause of action in the plaintiffs’ lawsuit is that a state of emergency in relation to the Covid-19 no longer exists. If a state of emergency no longer exists, Cooper’s authority to continue to issue executive orders is terminated. The suit also challenges the continuing mask requirements in public schools under both statutory and constitutional grounds. It s at least the third lawsuit Kitchen has filed on behalf of plaintiffs; previous lawsuits were filed since early May in Moore and Carteret counties.