On Monday, a federal judge in Florida issued a nationwide injunction striking down the federal government's transportation mask mandate:
A federal judge in Florida ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to lift its mask mandate for airports, planes and other forms of travel Monday, saying the agency had overstepped its authority.
US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled that the CDC neither properly explained its decision to impose the mandate, nor followed proper rulemaking procedures.
“Because ‘our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in the pursuit of desirable ends,’ the court declares unlawful and vacates the mask mandate,” Mizelle wrote in her decision.
The Biden Administration recently extended the mandate through May 3rd despite increased pushback from state governments and stakeholders in the transportation industry:
The Biden administration has faced growing pressure to lift the mask requirement for air travel and public transit. Earlier this month, Republican leaders on the House and Senate transportation committees reiterated their call for President Biden to “rescind or decline to extend the mask mandate.”
In late March, 21 mostly Republican-led states sued the government, seeking to immediately end the mask requirement.
Last month, executives from 10 airlines, including American, United and Delta, sent a letter to Biden urging him to end pandemic-related travel policies, including the mask mandate.
Unsurprisingly, the Left tried to delegitimize the efficacy of the decision almost immediately since it was issued by the youngest judicial appointee from the Trump Administration.
The Left is threatened by conservative jurists who will be making meaningful decisions for many years to come.
Today's decision is a good reminder of how important winning back Republican control of the Senate and White House is for the future of the federal judiciary.