Marion School District

The city of Little Rock is imposing a mask mandate in public places, defying a state law enacted last week that prohibits such mandates. The announcement Thursday by Mayor Frank Scott Jr. came the same day two Arkansas school districts filed a lawsuit against the state and Gov. Asa Hutchinson challenging the constitutionality of the new law.

As members of the Arkansas General Assembly began a special session Wednesday to consider a proposal by Gov. Asa Hutchinson to revise a ban on mask mandates, the head of an east Arkansas school district said the number of students in quarantine because of possible exposure to the coronavirus had grown to more than 750.