April 8, 2022
5 Disabled Flyers Sue CDC, TSA, & 8 Airlines
for $8 Million over Mask Discrimination
Complaint Demands End to Federal Transportation Mask
Mandate & International Traveler Testing Requirement
April 8, 2022
By LUCAS WALL
LOS ANGELES – Five disabled travelers from California, Israel, and Ohio filed suit today against the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the Transportation Security Administration to vacate the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate and International Traveler Testing Requirement, arguing the policies were issued without legal authority by the Biden Administration. The lawsuit also demands $8 million in damages from eight airlines, TSA employee Julie Carrigan, and two aviation health consultants for discrimination and medical malpractice.
The 14-defendant, 39-count complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California is the largest lawsuit to date against transportation masking and testing mandates. In addition to CDC, TSA, and Carrigan, defendants are the Department of Health & Human Services, Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, STAT-MD, and MedAire. Numerous yet-to-be-named employees of the eight airlines who conspired to interfere with disabled passengers’ civil rights by denying mask exemptions are listed as future defendants.
It’s the 14th lawsuit against mask and testing rules filed by members of Americans Against Mask Mandates and at least the 23rd nationally to challenge the FTMM (fourth to ask that the ITTR be declared illegal). It comes 10 days before TSA’s health directives enforcing the mask mandate are scheduled to expire – but the administration has previously extended the FTMM four times.
Lead plaintiff Uri Marcus, a dual American/Israeli citizen who is from California but lives most of the year in Jerusalem, said the group filed suit to put more pressure on the administration and air carriers to terminate the requirements, and to ask the court to enjoin them from ever issuing similar mandates again. He noted the insanity of CDC’s guidance that Americans in 99.5% of counties should not wear masks, yet face coverings are still required nationally in the transport sector only.
“Most citizens would agree that donning a mask throughout the duration of a domestic transcontinental flight of 5-6 hours causes skin irritations, breathing difficulties, and a host of other ailments, even for those who are in otherwise good health,” he said. “But try muzzling throughout the duration of a 14-hour long-haul flight such as the one we often take from Tel Aviv to San Francisco or Los Angeles. That’s what we are forced to endure when we travel from Jerusalem to take care of business and visit family in California.”
His wife, Yvonne Marcus, is also a plaintiff. She developed Basal Cell Carcinoma, a type of skin cancer that occurs on the face. Exhibits filed include medical records stating her doctors attributed the cancer to irritation due to forced masking during multiple trips to the United States in 2020 and 2021.
Both Marcuses have medical conditions that exempt them from wearing masks in Israel, but U.S. airlines do not honor the doctor’s letters or impose numerous illegal conditions to obtain an exception, they said.
Yvonne Marcus was forced to travel to California for her father’s funeral in August 2021. Airlines refused to grant her a medical waiver
“Those mourning and traumatized by the imminent death or passing of a loved one should never have to experience additional trauma by forced masking on a journey home to say goodbye,” she said. “How dare the government force the experimental medical remedy of wearing a mask upon us, and then commandeer flight attendants to enforce it.”
Last month 10 pilots sued CDC to invalidate the mask mandate in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Nine flight attendants filed a similar lawsuit in the federal court in Denver, Colorado.
All major U.S. airlines have been ramping up the pressure on the Biden Administration to abolish the FTMM and ITTR. The International Air Transport Association has also urged Biden to get rid of the mask mandate and testing rule, as has the union representing Southwest Airlines’ flight attendants.
Plaintiff Devorah Gordon of New Richmond, Ohio, was harassed by flight attendants aboard a January 2022 Allegiant Air flight from Cincinnati to Los Angeles for her brother’s birthday party when she removed her mask to breathe freely. Allegiant had police officers meet her at the gate, who demanded to see her identification even though she had not broken any law.
“The physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual harms of the mask mandates have been proven to far outweigh any supposed benefits,” she said. “People should be aware of the many laws that have been broken and our moral compass that has been distorted with forced masking. Ignoring the suffering of the innocent or persuading ourselves to follow blindly enables more damage. We have to ask ourselves how we got to this place of blind trust in authorities who have proven themselves to be incompetent and corrupt?”
Her husband, also a plaintiff, opted not to make the trip because he too suffers from a medical condition that makes it impossible to tolerate having his breathing obstructed. The Gordons attempted to get mask exemptions from Allegiant (and Frontier for the return trip) prior to the trip but both airlines refused.
In their complaint, the five plaintiffs assert CDC has no legal authority to require that passengers wear masks because Congress has never enacted such a law, the agency failed to observe the mandatory notice-and-comment procedure before ordering the FTMM, CDC did not submit the FTMM to Congress and the comptroller general before it took effect, the mandate applies to intrastate travel and overrides all 50 states’ no-mask policies in violation of the 10th Amendment, and the FTMM violates federal law prohibiting the mandatory use of any medical device (such as a face mask or COVID-19 test) unauthorized or approved under an Emergency Use Authorization by the Food & Drug Administration.
Plaintiff Cindy Russo of Santa Clarita, California, suffers from claustrophobia and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to the complaint. She medically can’t safely wear a face mask. She has missed important personal as well as work-related events as a result of airlines’ refusal to approve her mask exemptions despite presentation of a letter from her doctor. She’s suffered on eight American and United flights she had to take in Fall 2021 for critical cross-country travel.
“When Ms. Russo is forced by the defendants to cover her face, she feels anxious, trapped, and starts to profusely sweat. Her heart races and her head pounds,” the complaint states.
“Besides the fact that I cannot wear a mask for medical reasons, masks are dirty, harmful, and do not work,” Russo said. “If you ‘follow the science’ and not the news, one would know that. I’m not going to wear a mask to make someone else feel better or to be a part of a political agenda. God gave me a nose and mouth to breathe in oxygen and out carbon dioxide. The airlines, CDC, and TSA demand that I obstruct my natural breathing. It’s absurd. If I had covered my child’s nose and mouth for numerous hours a day three years ago, they would have called it child abuse.”
Uri Marcus is also a petitioner against TSA’s mask enforcement in a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A month after filing that lawsuit with 11 other disabled passengers and a former flight attendant, Julie Carrigan, acting division director of TSA’s National Transportation Vetting Center, sent him a letter revoking his Pre-Check membership, which offers access to expedited security lanes for known travelers. He demands $100,000 in damages from Carrigan for violating his First Amendment rights and immediate restoration of his Pre-Check status.
“I haven’t flown in the United States since December 2020, prior to the mask mandate’s imposition in February 2021, so there’s nothing that could have drawn TSA’s revocation of my Pre-Check membership except suing the agency,” said Uri Marcus, who holds a pilot’s license issued by the Federal Aviation Administration and has passed several background checks. “At no time did TSA ever inform me that I was found to have committed violations of TSA security regulations, or if I had, it did not give me an opportunity to respond to any allegations made against me.
Uri Marcus said he was prompted to bring a second lawsuit against the FTMM because President Biden continues extending it without end. His wife’s recent cancer surgery was also an impetus.
“My wife was diagnosed with skin cancer on the bridge of her nose as a direct result of prolonged masking after two roundtrip trans-Atlantic crossings in 2020 and 2021,” he said. “Two independent physicians stated this in their medical summaries just prior to her surgery to have the cancer removed. She is an perfect example of the horrible damage caused by forced masking.”
Yvonne Marcus, who is recovering from her surgery, said “there has never been anything more insidious and sinister foisted upon millions of travelers than the mask mandate, which ultimately impairs our breathing – a person’s very source of life.”
The case is Marcus v. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, No. 2:22-cv-2383, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles.
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