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A Florida federal judge has overruled President Biden’s national mask mandate for public transportation. The CDC didn’t follow the rules and didn’t explain itself. Just “wanting to keep us healthy” isn’t a good enough reason. Some 20 states were fed up with the mandate to the point of joining Florida in a multistate lawsuit against the administration. Let’s get on with our lives.
End the madness
The Associated Press disclosed the news,
“The decision Monday by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa also said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention improperly failed to justify its decision and did not follow proper rule-making. The CDC recently extended the mask mandate, which was set to expire on April 18, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S.”
The Health Freedom Defense Fund had filed this case. Mizelle ruled that the CDC isn’t supposed to do this, regardless its motivations. The mandate “exceeded the CDC’s statutory authority, improperly invoked the good cause exception to notice and comment rulemaking, and failed to adequately explain its decisions.”
Unlawful mandate
The ruling also said that “our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends.” The order continued, “The Court DECLARES UNLAWFUL and VACATES the Mask Mandate, remanding it to the CDC for further proceedings consistent with this order. The Court directs the Clerk to TERMINATE President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., as a Defendant to this action, to ENTER final judgment in favor of Plaintiffs as prescribed in this order, and to CLOSE this case.”
The Florida Governor and Attorney General Ashley Moody introduced a 20 state lawsuit against the mandate. DeSantis declared, “Florida has led the nation in standing up to misguided federal government policies and fighting back against heavy-handed mandates that have no scientific backing, If politicians and celebrities can attend the Super Bowl unmasked, every U.S. citizen should have the right to fly unmasked. It is well past time to get rid of this unnecessary mandate and get back to normal life.”
Let’s get back to normal
States participating in the lawsuit include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia. The TSA has backed down. It will no longer enforce its security directives and emergency amendment requiring masks in public transportation. New security directives that were supposed to take effect the next day have been abandoned.
Judge Mizelle said it would have been impossible to end it for the limited group of people who opposed the lawsuit. The law needed to be completely vacated. Both the Justice Dept. and the CDC declined to comment.
