- Dallas County Commissioner JJ Koch refused to wear a face mask during a meeting Tuesday.
- County Judge Clay Jenkins, a Democrat, subsequently had Koch, a Republican, escorted out of the meeting.
- Koch said Jenkins was in defiance of the governor's executive order against mask mandates.
Dallas County Commissioner JJ Koch was kicked out of a meeting on Tuesday for refusing to wear a face mask, The Dallas Morning News reported.
County Judge Clay Jenkins, a Democrat, led the commissioner's court meeting and asked the five commissioners attending to wear face masks due to a local spike in cases, driven by the Delta variant.
Koch, the sole Republican at the meeting, was the only commissioner to refuse Jenkins' order, according to KDFW.
Jenkins told Koch to put on a face mask or leave the room and attend the meeting virtually, said the Dallas Morning News.
When he continued to refuse to mask up, Jenkins ordered a bailiff to remove Koch from the room.
The meeting was then delayed by nearly an hour while Koch figured out a way to attend the meeting virtually from his office, reported the Dallas Morning News.
When he finally rejoined the meeting, Koch complained that Jenkins had violated Gov. Greg Abbott's executive order, which bans mask mandates.
But Jenkins argued that he has the power to enforce mask-wearing in his court due to a Texas Supreme Court decision that gives judges the power to protect people in their court rooms.
"My enemy is the virus, not each other," Jenkins said in a statement after the meeting, according to the Dallas Morning News. "My actions requiring masks in the courtroom are authorized by the Texas Supreme Court and are intended by me to keep people safe in accordance with the CDC guidelines."
Whether Jenkins has that power is a legal gray zone as he is not a judge in the traditional sense.
According to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, in Texas, county government meetings are called commissioners court, but the members of the court are members of the executive and legislative branches, not the judicial branch.
Koch said he's hired a law firm to file a temporary restraining order to stop the court from continuing proceedings without him being there in person, the Dallas Morning News said.
He moved to suspend the meeting until a court could rule on that request, but the meeting continued as usual on Tuesday.
Insider reached out to Koch and Jenkins for comment on Wednesday but did not immediately receive a response from either.