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| AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File |
The Biden administration on Monday suspended enforcement of its mask mandate for airports, planes and other forms of travel after a judge said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overstepped its authority.
US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled that the CDC failed to properly explain its decision to impose the mandate or follow proper rulemaking procedures.
The Biden administration on Monday evening confirmed that travelers can ditch their masks pending a review of the ruling.
“The agencies are reviewing the decision and assessing potential next steps. In the meantime, today’s court decision means CDC’s public transportation masking order is not in effect at this time,” an administration official said.
“Therefore, TSA will not enforce its Security Directives and Emergency Amendment requiring mask use on public transportation and transportation hubs at this time. CDC recommends that people continue to wear masks in indoor public transportation settings.”
Almost immediately, Alaska Airlines announced that masks would be optional for travelers and employees alike. United Airlines quickly followed suit, announcing that masks were no longer required on domestic flights and select international flights, depending upon the arrival country’s requirements. American Airlines, Delta Airlines, or Southwest Airlines — the three carriers with the most passengers pre-pandemic — also made masks optional on Monday night. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Eleonore Sens/AFP/Getty Images |
President Joe Biden’s “Mask Mandate” on federal airplanes is illegal, a federal judge ruled on Monday in a setback to Biden’s COVID-19 agenda.
One day after taking office, Biden issued Executive Order (EO) 13998, ordering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop the Mask Mandate, and for various other federal agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to implement the CDC’s decisions. EO 13998 also covered airports and other public transportation, such as buses.
CDC issued its initial order on January 29, 2021, pursuant to Biden’s EO. Among other things, it requires almost everyone ages two and up to wear masks in airports and on airplanes, with certain narrow exceptions such as between bites when they are eating.
Various legal challenges have been filed against the mandate. (Full disclosure: The author of this article is also one of the lawyers on one such lawsuit, FRC Action v. Biden, which Breitbart News reporter Katherine Hamilton has covered.) Most recently, almost two dozen states filed a lawsuit raising several statutory and constitutional objections to the Mask Mandate.
Monday’s ruling was on one of the earliest cases, filed in July 2021. The lawsuit alleged that the Mask Mandate violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) on three separate grounds: First, that issuing the order is beyond CDC’s statutory authority granted by Congress in 42 U.S.C. § 264a. Second, that the CDC’s action was really a rule (i.e., a regulation) rather than an order, and therefore had to go through a process of public notice and opportunity for public comment before taking effect. And third, that it violates the APA because it is “arbitrary and capricious,” meaning that it was not the result of reasoned decision making. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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