Biden Admin Pushes for Return of Transportation Mask Mandate Months After Declaring Pandemic Over

The Biden administration is attractive federal court decision The government’s mandate for face masks was revoked nine months ago public transportation.

Tuesday, the Justice Department claimed that it was entitled to assert its rights in the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals. force the public To cover up on trains, buses and planes Washington Examiner reported.

The mask mandate In April 2022, a Florida judge ruled that the CDC had not followed the proper procedures when enacting these rules. Lawyers involved in the original lawsuit have begun to question the motives of government officials by the fact that the appeal is still being filed nine months after the fact.

“This appeal is not about an urgent matter of public health. If the mask order had been such an urgent matter of public health, you would have expected CDC to have applied for a stay to the district court’s ruling,” An attorney representing the Health Freedom Defense Fund stated.

“CDC promulgated a rule of unprecedented scope. And for the first time claiming authority to directly govern the lives of every member of the traveling public without bothering to explain its statutory authority,” The attorney was also added.

Federal Administrative Procedure Act demands that the government allow the public sufficient time to review and comment before the ruling is issued.

The Justice Department tried to compromise by arguing that the CDC had the power, in the short-term, to veto the act.

“You can imagine the next pandemic, there was an outbreak of measles or SARS and the CDC would want to and need to take swift action in order to control such a pandemic in the future,” The Justice Department attorney argued.

A judge disagreed. “The problem I’m having with your entire argument on this issue is that it seems like you’re saying the agency can just say we think this is a good idea.”

Biden immediately dropped the mask mandate following the April 18 ruling from US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who said the CDC overstepped its authority. Her decision was in response to a lawsuit filed by the Health Freedom Defense Fund on behalf of two women who claimed that the forced impositon of masks was triggering or exacerbating anxiety or panic attacks.

Republicans immediately attacked the Justice Department’s appeal decision, fearing a return of mask mandates.

“If you want to wear a mask on a plane, no one’s stopping you,” Florida Rep. Brian Mast tweeted. “But we’re not going back to mandates. Period.”