Butler v. Shawnee Mission School District Board of Education
Annotate this Case
The Supreme Court reversed the portion of the district court's judgment declaring 2021 Senate Bill 40 invalid and unenforceable based on certain infirmities the court observed, holding that the district court erred by ignoring the constitutional avoidance doctrine and failing to abide by it.
This case arose from a dispute regarding public school policies mandating face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. After the Legislature passed S.B. 40 imposing substantive limits on COVID-19 mitigation measures adopted by other governmental entities Plaintiffs sued the Shawnee Mission School District challenging the district's mask policy. Plaintiffs asserted S.B. 40 as the only legal authority for their lawsuit. The district court dismissed the claims as moot and then ruled that S.B. 40 was unenforceable because it violated both due process and separation of powers. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the district court erred in its analytical diversion into S.B. 40's constitutionality.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.