On April 18, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle revoked the federal nationwide mask mandate requiring travelers to wear masks while using transportation services, ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Health Freedom Defense Fund initiated in July of 2021.
Mizelle ruled that the mandate was unlawful as it exceeded the statutory authority of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its implementation violated administrative law and rulemaking procedures.
Last year, the Health Freedom Defense Fund, an organization that asserts no person, business, institution, organization or government has the right to force a person to put something into their body against their will, filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, various government officials and the CDC, alleging the federal mask mandate was unlawful and violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
The APA governs the process by which federal agencies develop and issue regulations, including requirements for publishing notices of proposed and final rulemaking in the Federal Register, and provides opportunities for the public to comment on notices of proposed rulemaking.
Numerous videos have surfaced of airline passengers cheering and celebrating upon learning from flight crew members that the mask mandate had been revoked. Hours after the ruling, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) declared that it would no longer enforce the mask mandate, as well as prominent transportation companies, including United Airlines, Delta Airlines and Amtrak, announcing that masks would become optional for passengers and employees.
The ruling comes as the CDC is reporting daily averages of 54,696 new cases, 1,941 new hospitalizations and 311 deaths, trending downward from March. Amidst Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the United States, stating that the U.S. is “out of the pandemic phase,” the Biden administration announced plans to appeal Mizelle’s ruling.
The U.S. Department of Justice issued a statement, saying “The Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disagree with the district court’s decision and will appeal, subject to CDC’s conclusion that the order remains necessary for public health. The Department continues to believe that the order requiring masking in the transportation corridor is a valid exercise of the authority Congress has given CDC to protect public health. That is an important authority the Department will continue to work to preserve.”
On April 21, following advice from the CDC, the Biden administration officially announced it would be appealing the court’s decision. However, it has not motioned for an emergency pause on the decision, which would effectively halt the ruling and reinstate the mask mandate as the ruling would be reviewed and undergo an appeals process.
The appeal will first go through the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, and, if continued, would advance to the Supreme Court, which has already denied the vaccine-or-mask mandate for large businesses and the CDC’s pandemic-era pause on evictions.
