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Texas attorney general sues Austin officials over local mask mandate

11 March 2021
Dan Ackermann

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Austin authorities, seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent city and Travis County officials from enforcing a face mask mandate.

Why it matters: The lawsuit claims that Austin Mayor Steve Adler, Travis County Judge Andy Brown and Mark Escott, interim medical director and health authority for the city, are illegally defying an order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott last week that rescinded the statewide mask mandate.

Context: The suit alleges the governor's order "preempts more restrictive local emergency orders."

  • The executive order,which took effect Wednesday, does allow local governments to enforce mask mandates in regions where coronavirus hospitalizations rise above 15% of bed capacity for seven consecutive days.
  • It also allows businesses to require masks on their properties, and many large chain stores in the state have continued the practice.

What they're saying: Paxton threatened to sue local officials who maintain mask mandates on Wednesday, saying in a tweet that, "City/county leaders must not be thinking clearly."

  • "Maybe it’s oxygen deprivation from quintuple-masking. Whatever the case, they’ve tried this before. They lost. Travis County and Austin have a few hours to comply with state law or I’ll sue them. And they’ll lose again," he added.

Judge Andy Brown's office told CNN that although the city's mask mandate is valid, it will "not pursue any enforcement actions of this order in deference to the Court."

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.