February 16, 2022
Grounded Frequent Flyer Asks Court to Terminate Federal Transportation Mask Mandate
Motion for Summary Judgment Filed Same Day
Texas Sues to Stop Illegal CDC Policy
Feb. 16, 2022
By LUCAS WALL
ORLANDO, Florida – A frequent flyer grounded because he medically can’t tolerate wearing a face mask filed for summary judgment today asking a U.S. district judge to strike down the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate ordered by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, advancing the case into final proceedings after a legal battle that began in early June. The motion was filed only hours after Texas became the first state to sue the federal government to halt the mask requirement.
Plaintiff Lucas Wall, 44, of Washington, D.C., argues CDC’s mask mandate is illegal and unconstitutional. He charges CDC and its parent agency, the Department of Health & Human Services, with eight counts of violating the Constitution and federal law by imposing a requirement that all passengers and employees throughout the nation’s entire public-transportation system obstruct their oxygen intake. Wall also charges the agencies with four constitutional and statutory violations for the International Traveler Testing Requirement, which mandates that all airline passengers flying to the United States – but not travelers entering the country by land or sea – submit a negative COVID-19 test within one day of departure.
“The Court should vacate the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate and International Traveler Testing Requirement as well as permanently enjoin CDC and HHS from issuing any future orders mandating transportation passengers and workers don face masks as well as that passengers flying to the United States present a negative COVID-19 test prior to check-in,” Wall asserts in the motion. “The Biden Administration has issued numerous mandates related to the COVID-19 pandemic attempting to coerce Americans to wear masks, get vaccinated, and/or endure regular virus testing. … Every significant Executive Branch pandemic mandate has been blocked in the courts except for three: The FTMM, ITTR, and HHS’ requirement that all healthcare workers at facilities accepting Medicare and Medicaid get inoculated.”
Wall lodged an amended complaint Dec. 26 after U.S. District Judge Paul Byron ruled Dec. 18 that his claims against CDC, HHS, the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority, and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority could proceed to a final determination, refusing to dismiss those charges. He has been stranded in Florida since Southwest Airlines and the Transportation Security Administration, enforcing CDC’s order, refused to let him board a flight maskless June 2, 2021, at Orlando International Airport. The federal mask mandate is currently in effect until at least March 18, 2022.
His motion contends CDC failed to take into account that the mask mandate discriminates against passengers with medical conditions who can’t tolerate having their breathing blocked, the voluminous scientific and medical research showing masks have proven to be totally ineffective in reducing COVID-19 spread and deaths, and that masks pose serious health risks to humans forced to wear them.
Wall, chairman of Americans Against Mask Mandates, asks Byron to declare both the FTMM and ITTR contrary to statute and unconstitutional, vacate the orders, and permanently enjoin their enforcement worldwide. He also demands an order that CDC and HHS “immediately ensure all federal agencies remove all signs informing passengers of the requirement to wear a mask from all airports, transportation hubs, and other locations worldwide as well as to remove from its website and in all of its publications any references to the” mask mandate and testing requirement.
His court filing came on the same day a federal judge in Boston instructed American Airlines and Southwest Airlines to stop discriminating against a 4-year-old boy with autism who can’t wear a face covering, a major win for Americans Against Mask Mandates members who have brought 11 lawsuits against CDC, HHS, TSA, and nine airlines. And Thursday the Health Freedom Defense Fund will also move for summary judgment against the FTMM in a case at the federal court in Tampa, Florida.
The case began June 2, 2021, when Wall was denied entry to a security checkpoint at Orlando International Airport to catch a Southwest Airlines flight because he can’t wear a mask due to his Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
Wall filed suit June 7 against CDC, HHS, President Biden, TSA, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Transportation to end the requirement that all passengers wear masks on all modes of transportation everywhere in the nation – including in the 13 states such as Florida where mandatory muzzling is forbidden by law and/or executive order.
The original complaint asserted that the FTMM – issued by CDC and enforced by TSA as a result of an executive order signed by Biden – violates a dozen provisions of the Constitution, federal laws, and regulations. Byron, in the Dec. 18 decision, allowed eight of those counts to proceed.
Wall has been trying to fly to Germany to visit his brother since last June. He’s applied to several airlines for medical exemptions numerous times and has always been denied.
“There’s only five states left that still force people to interfere with their natural breathing,” Wall said. “Congress has never passed a law authorizing CDC to impose by fiat a mask mandate for the transportation sector. I expect the FTMM to meet the same fate as nearly every other Biden Administration pandemic dictate – being declared illegal by a court of law.”
The case is Wall v. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, No. 6:21-cv-975 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Orlando.
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I can’t wear a mask, due to medical issues. I since covid have been denied medical treatment, tests, etc… I urgently need several tests however since the start of covid I have been denied even after having a negative covid test.