Temperature Check Yes, Masks Maybe In Bartow Superior Courtrooms

CARTERSVILLE, GA — You’ll have to have your temperature taken and be able to vouch for your health if you enter a Bartow County courtroom, according to guidelines issued by Superior Court Judge David K. Smith.

Whether or not you’ll have to wear a mask will be up to each judge

The new rules — released in an email late Friday by Bartow County Clerk Kathy Gill and effective immediately —said that everyone “admitted to the courtroom may be required to wear face masks while in the public areas of the courthouse.” Masks will be available for those who don’t have one.

Smith’s guidelines follow a mandate from Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton that each chief superior court judge specify how COVID-19 would be handled in their courtrooms, according to Gill.

“I have cobbled this order together after researching several other circuits’ orders,” Smith wrote in a July 16 memo to court personnel and government officials.

“Please note that ours very specifically sets out the right of other constitutional offices to establish their own procedures. However, at a minimum, members of the public need to be screened by a thermometer and standard questioning,” Smith wrote. “Whether you require masks to be worn in your offices and courtrooms should be your decision, rather than mine.”

Smith’s memo notes that federal funds may be used to hire health screeners, leaving sheriff’s deputies to concentrate on running the metal detectors.

“Thank you for your cooperation in this,” Smith concluded. “I know we all look forward to better times.

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