The Biden Administration is actively working behind the scenes to try to re-implement a nationwide mask mandate on all air travel across the country, despite a court having ruled that such a mandate is unconstitutional.
The Daily Caller reports that on Tuesday, Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a Florida judge’s ruling in April of 2021 that struck down the mask mandate. This comes despite the fact that all 50 states and virtually every locality in the nation has dropped mask mandates as of early 2022; Biden himself declared in September of 2021 that “the pandemic is over.”
District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle was widely praised for her ruling, which determined that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) did not have the proper authority to issue such a wide-reaching mandate. Her ruling came just one week after Biden announced what was then the latest extension of the nationwide mask mandate that he first implemented in January of 2021; the extension would have lasted into mid-May had it not been for Judge Mizelle’s ruling.
“The Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disagree with the district court’s decision and will appeal,” the DOJ said in the immediate aftermath of Judge Mizelle’s decision. “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 the public health. That is an important authority the Department will continue to work to preserve.”
While the mask mandates were already widely unpopular, the mandate for keeping a mask on for the entirety of a flight was generally seen as the most hated of all the mandates, leading to a surge in unruly passengers across all airlines who vehemently disagreed with such a restriction. After the announcement that the mandate was struck down, there were widespread celebrations on flights across the country, with passengers and airline employees alike reveling in the news.