EXPLAINER: Texas mask battle looks to courts for resolution

By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) — The legal battle over whether Texas communities can require students and others to wear masks in response to the current surge in COVID-19 cases remains entangled in a series of lawsuits, orders and appeals.  Ten counties and cities and 52 school districts or systems around the state have imposed mask mandates in defiance of Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning such measures.  Abbott has argued a law known as the Texas Disaster Act gives him broad power in deciding how best to respond to emergency situations. The counties, cities and school districts say the act does not give Abbott unlimited power.