The Virginia General Assembly moved swiftly Wednesday to put the final legislative touches on a bill that bans local school systems from imposing mask mandates on students.

The legislature passed the bill Monday. Gov. Glenn A. Youngkin then amended it to add an emergency clause so that it could take effect before the typical July 1 enactment date for new legislation.

Under the amendments added by Gov. Youngkin, local school systems must allow students to opt out of mask mandates beginning March 1.

There was a brief discussion Wednesday on the House of Delegates floor about whether it’s constitutional to enact legislation on an emergency basis by a simple majority vote.

Typically it requires a 80 percent supermajority of each body of the General Assembly to enact a law on an emergency basis for it to take immediate effect.

But if the legislature passes a bill and the governor amends it, such amendments are adopted by a simple majority vote.

Democratic Delegate Marcus Simon of Fairfax found a 2010 precedent from former Republican Speaker Bill Howell indicating that governors can’t do an end run around the supermajority rules simply by adding an emergency clause amendment.

But Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert overruled Delegate Simon’s objection and cited numerous examples in the past two years when then-Gov. Ralph S. Northam, a Democrat, amended bills to add an emergency clause and the legislature accepted them on a majority vote.

Delegate Simon has said he expects a court challenge on the question.

Gov. Youngkin, for his part, planned a ceremonial bill signing Wednesday afternoon to celebrate his biggest legislative victory thus far.

In an interview with Fox News, Gov. Youngkin noted that Democrats were key to the bill’s passage and that he was pleased to see it draw bipartisan support. “If you choose your child shouldn’t wear a mask, you can make that decision, and if you want your child to wear a mask, you can make that decision as well. And that’s what Virginia is all about,” he said.

Gov. Youngkin won election in November on a campaign platform that emphasized parental choice in education. On his first day in office last month, he signed an executive order ending a statewide mask mandate in schools imposed by