Tuesday, November 30th, 2021
Karlsruhe to school closings
Verdict: Federal emergency brake was legal
The Federal Constitutional Court rejected constitutional complaints against the federal emergency brake in the spring. In the morning, the Karlsruhe judges announced that exit restrictions and school closings were constitutional.
The school closings as well as exit and contact restrictions in the spring were constitutional. The Federal Constitutional Court announced this in the morning. Accordingly, the federal government was allowed to impose the restrictive measures under the “Federal Emergency Brake”. The Karlsruhe judges thus rejected several constitutional complaints, including complaints from students and parents. For the first time, however, the court recognizes a “right of children and young people vis-à-vis the state to school education”, as the court in Karlsruhe announced. The school closings had seriously interfered with this right.
When deciding that the school closings were still legal, the Federal Constitutional Court took into account a number of specific political framework conditions. The right to school was confronted with “overriding public interest” in the form of defense against dangers to life and health. The vaccination campaign only started in April of this year. In addition, school closings were only permitted from a seven-day incidence of 165. In addition, the federal states were constitutionally obliged to replace the absence of face-to-face teaching with distance teaching, even while the federal emergency brake was in force.
As the Federal Constitutional Court also decided, the fact that the school closings were limited to a good two months also spoke in favor of their admissibility. This ensured that the protection of life and health would not become less urgent due to vaccination progress. In addition, the federal government had already taken precautions before the federal emergency brake was passed so as not to burden schoolchildren as much in the future as possible.
Advising the federal and state governments at lunchtime
The verdict was eagerly awaited because a lockdown is being discussed again. Now there is greater clarity as to what would be legally possible. The federal and state governments had announced that they would join a conference call at 1 p.m. to discuss the ruling. The conversation is not intended to replace the Prime Minister’s Conference scheduled for December 9th. Far-reaching decisions are therefore not yet to be expected, as Chancellery Minister Helge Braun said in the “early start” at ntv. Health Minister Jens Spahn said the verdict creates clarity. The federal emergency brake was proportionate because the state had to protect the life and health of its citizens. “This should now also provide orientation for the parties who have so far ruled out stricter measures due to legal concerns,” said the CDU politician.
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder is now urgently calling for a new “federal emergency brake” after the Karlsruhe ruling on the corona policy. “Confirmation across the board,” wrote the CSU chairman on Twitter on Tuesday. The Federal Constitutional Court has declared all central measures to combat pandemics to be legal. All Bavarian regulations were also in accordance with the basic rights. “This refutes everyone who has tried to paint a different picture,” stressed Söder and demanded: “This is the basis for a new federal emergency brake. We now have to act quickly.”
The Greens health expert Janosch Dahmen has welcomed the decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court on corona restrictions. The ruling gave legal certainty for additional protective measures in order to now consistently fight the fourth wave, wrote the member of the Bundestag on Tuesday on Twitter. It would be necessary to implement further measures quickly. He had previously said: “We need a uniform partial lockdown in many regions of the country in order to break the fourth wave.” This does not mean general, but targeted closings where the situation is out of control. “Schools and daycare centers should, however, remain as open as possible with masks and daily tests.”
FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki expressed disappointment. He called on the federal states to quickly use the options provided by the current Infection Protection Act, as reported by the “Rheinische Post”. After the decision of the constitutional judges in the third wave of pandemics in spring, the federal government was allowed to impose exit and contact restrictions on the so-called corona emergency brake. “The verdict is disappointing, but the Federal Constitutional Court is the final decision-maker. This has to be respected in the constitutional state,” Kubicki told the newspaper. And: “The federal states must now use the possibilities of the Infection Protection Act on their own responsibility instead of playing buck.”
Leading representatives of the traffic light, such as Green bosses Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, as well as SPD chairman Saskia Esken had emphasized the importance of the judgment. Before the announcement, Habeck had said that it was completely clear what had to happen: “The contacts must be reduced, 2G must be implemented nationwide in a binding manner for all public institutions except for the needs that one has in supermarkets or pharmacies.”
Habeck can imagine “improvements”
One will have to contest the winter with further uniform measures. “I can imagine that in the light of the ruling, the law will be touched again on December 15th and will be made more specific or improved,” said Habeck. The call for tougher countermeasures had recently become louder in view of the new Omikron variant and the force of the fourth corona wave.
“We have to look at the verdict and its justification very carefully, of course, but we are also in a different situation today,” said SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken on ZDF. She referred to the higher vaccination quota than in the spring, “so that those who have been vaccinated and who are now being boosted can expect that we will differentiate on the issue of restrictions, contact restrictions and also restrictions for large events and events Similar “.