in a written response to Blacklock<\/a> that she has health issues that make her highly susceptible to infection. She said she required others to wear masks for her own protection.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe justices wrote in their order that while they sympathize with Benson over her health issues, they believe facial visibility is essential in a properly functioning justice system and called the mandate an \u201cunfair and unduly burdensome imposition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRequiring all those present in a publicly accessible workplace to wear face masks to accommodate one person\u2019s health vulnerability is not the kind of reasonable measure contemplated by state and federal employment laws,\u201d the court wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dallas attorney Brian Hail, who filed a complaint earlier this month about the judge\u2019s mask rule on behalf of a colleague, on Friday applauded the court\u2019s ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very pleased,\u201d Hail said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m exceptionally pleased with how quickly the court acted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hail filed a May 4 complaint with Judge Ray Wheless, the administrative judge who presides over the region that includes Dallas County, on behalf of attorney Scott Frenkel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Frenkel had been barred from participating in a medical malpractice case before Benson earlier this year because he refused to wear a mask. The lawyer wouldn\u2019t comply with the order because he can\u2019t wear a covering over his nose and mouth for long, Hail said. When Frenkel told Benson\u2019s court bailiff he wouldn\u2019t wear one because the order was unlawful, the bailiff threatened to lock him up if he didn\u2019t stop arguing about it, Hail said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hail said Frenkel has seen Benson at multiple social and fundraising events where no one wore masks, including one earlier this year attended by about 75 people.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a judge to put herself above the rule of law undermines confidence in the system,\u201d Hail said.<\/p>\n
Wheless told The Dallas Morning News earlier this month that the mask issue had been a persistent one with Benson. He said he told her in December 2023 that she had no legal authority to require masks and warned her she could get disciplined by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Benson has presided over Dallas County Court at Law No. 1 since 2006. She was defeated in the March 3 Democratic primary by Erin\u00a0Nowell, a former appellate court judge. Benson’s term ends Dec. 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Supreme Court on Friday ordered a Dallas County judge to stop requiring masks in her courtroom.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28,92331,89138],"class_list":["post-314653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-courts","tag-tp-dallas-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}