The Left, especially in America, tends to seize power by declaring an urgent crisis. The bad news is that under these conditions, the rule of law is essentially postponed with judges refusing to intervene and “make the crisis worse”.

The good news is that, at least for now, a crisis can’t continue indefinitely and thus the rule of law kicks in again.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled against Los Angeles Unified School District’s vaccination mandate on Tuesday, instead opting to side with a father-son duo who challenged the mandate. 

Judge Mitchell Beckloff ruled that the current LAUSD mandate clashed with both California state law and the state health and safety code by not allowing exemptions for personal beliefs. 

LAUSD, with over half a million students, is the second-largest school district in the country. 

California has arguably been the most militant, perhaps after New York, about vaccine mandates. Judge Mitchell Beckloff is an elected official in a place where not only Democrats, but lefties, tend to control much of the electoral system.

So this is a serious win for the rule of law.

The father, only identified in court documents as G.F., and his 12-year-old son, D.F., had awaited a decision for more than three months, after Judge Beckloff had initially issued a tentative decision that was leaning in favor of LAUSD at the time. 

On Tuesday, he ruled that the Board of Education’s authority is “great, but not unlimited,” and that only the state had the authority to issue such a mandate.

“While LAUSD argues the court’s ruling should apply to D.F. only, the court finds no justification for such a limitation given the board’s lack of authority to adopt the resolution,” Beckloff said. 

This is yet another issue, at a very local level, of how much authority agencies and various officials have seized, particularly during the pandemic.

There’s no reason that the Board’s authority should be “great”, period, but at least Judge Beckloff acknowledged that it’s not “unlimited”.