Lawsuit to Unmask Our Children
A personal fundraiser by
Unmask Our Children NYC Legal Fund$22,895
raised by 147 people
April 11 - Opposition on the stay, appeals process continues
As I have mentioned previously, it has been my aim to bring on outside counsel to work with me during this next stage of the lawsuit. To that end, I am happy to introduce attorney Adam Cohen who is cc'ed on this email. Adam is a partner at the firm Walden, Macht & Haran and his bio can be found here: https://wmhlaw.com/professionals/adam-p-cohen/. Adam has already been an incredible asset to our case. He and I worked tirelessly together this week to draft the documents needed to oppose the City’s motion to stay Judge Porzio’s decision.
We expect that the case will follow these next steps: today we will file our opposition to the City's motion for a stay pending the appeal. There will not be a hearing or oral argument on the case, which is the Court’s standard procedure. The Court may give the City a chance to reply. Either way we hope to have a decision from the Court on the full stay this week.
I want to be clear that, even with the strength of our opposition, there is no certainty that the Court will rule in our favor on the stay. We express no opinion on its likelihood. We only hope the Court listens closely to our arguments and makes the right decision.
If the court keeps the stay, the City will have the ability to keep the mandate in place during the appeal process. If the court vacates the stay, Judge Porzio’s order will stand and the toddler mask mandate will be unenforceable. We also expect to get a full briefing schedule on the City’s appeal this week. The appeal will take several months for full submission and decision. The City has not filed their appeal yet, but that is standard for this stage.
If you are interested in reading any of the papers filed on this appeal, including our opposition when it is filed tomorrow, you can get them from the e-filing website here: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/DocumentList?docketId=DC4CrT6JUPgA5XP7_PLUS_PVa/A==&display=all&courtType=Appellate%20Division%20-%202nd%20Dept&resultsPageNum=1
Please always feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns. Thank you all for your support as always.
For far too long NYC parents have had to endure City polices and regulations forcing their school age children to wear masks all day in school. Once the data was in on mask efficacy, the risk of Covid to young children and the damage caused by masking, these mandates should have been lifted. Regrettably, they were not and NYC was one of the last cities in the world to continue enforcing these mandates.
On Friday, March 4, NYC’s Mayor Eric Adams, through the DOH, finally lifted the mask mandate for school-aged children K-12. However, incredibly, he chose to continue to force children aged 2 to 4 years old to be masked while at daycares and pre-K schools. This arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable policy must be stopped.
The Law Offices of Michael Chessa PLLC is taking on the NYC child mask mandates on behalf of concerned parents by challenging their constitutionality. These mandates are anti-science, anti-child, anti-parent and against the law.
This is a complex legal battle. The first step is to give parents back the choice as how best to protect and care for their chilldren. It will not end until we are sure that the City can no longer enact and enforce these unconstitutional polices.
While Michael has taken on this case pro bono until now, this work requires hours of time, along with filing fees and administrative costs. If you are interested in our cause, please donate. Your donation will go a long way to ensure NYC parents and children never have to endure these injustices again.
A personal fundraiser by
Unmask Our Children NYC Legal Fund