Appeals court tosses Staten Island judge’s anti-mask ruling

Hon. Ralph Porzio. Brooklyn Eagle photo

The city’s mask fight is over, and this round goes to the Health Department.

A state appeals court has wiped out a Staten Island judge’s decision that struck down New York City’s COVID-era mask mandate for toddlers, blasting the lower court for “playing doctor” and overruling health experts.

The Appellate Division, Second Department, ruled on Oct. 22 that Supreme Court Justice Ralph Porzio went too far when he declared the city’s 2021 order requiring children over age two to wear masks in daycare “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.”

The panel said the judge had no business conducting his own research and second-guessing the medical community.

“The courts will not substitute their judgment of a public health problem for that of eminently qualified physicians,” the justices wrote, calling Porzio’s independent health analysis improper.

The order, issued by then-Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi at the height of the pandemic, has long been rescinded, but the city pushed to have Porzio’s decision erased from the books to prevent it from being cited as precedent.

The appellate court agreed, dismissing the case as moot and vacating both of Porzio’s rulings in full.

The decision effectively restores the city’s authority to impose health mandates in emergencies and slaps down the growing trend of trial judges overturning them on their own terms.