Partisan Mask Battle Is On in Georgia as Kemp Sues Atlanta Mayor

(Bloomberg) -- Georgia Governor Brian Kemp sued the mayor of Atlanta to stop her from enforcing a city mandate that people wear masks in public given a spike in coronavirus infections.

Kemp, a Republican, said in a statement Thursday that he filed the lawsuit to force Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to comply with his executive order blocking Atlanta and at least 14 other local governments across the state from requiring residents to wear face coverings.

Kemp said Atlanta’s “business owners and their hardworking employees” were “doing their very best to put food on the table for their families while local elected officials shutter businesses and undermine economic growth.” He maintains that the emergency powers granted him in March by the state assembly give him the power to suspend municipal orders that run contrary to his.

Bottoms, a Democrat, said in a Twitter post that the virus had already killed 3,104 of the state’s residents and infected 106,000, including her and her family, and that the lawsuit was a distraction from the real problem.

Despite Georgia’s spike, the governor has resisted calls to mandate masks, although he has “strongly encouraged” their use. Bottoms issued the mandate on March 10, a day after announcing that she had tested positive for the virus.

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