April 13, 2022
Americans Against Mask Mandates Litigants Condemn CDC for 5th Extension of Transportation Mask Rule
Coalition: Courts Will Have to Declare Mandatory
Masking Illegal Since Administration Won’t Let Go
April 13, 2022
By LUCAS WALL
Numerous Americans Against Mask Mandates members suing the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Transportation Security Administration, and 10 airlines to strike down their face-covering dictates expressed outrage today at CDC’s announcement it will extend the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate for a fifth time, from April 18 to May 3.
“The Biden Administration’s announcement today that it’s extending the Federal Transportation Mandate another 15 days is ridiculous and has nothing to do with science,” said Lucas Wall of Washington. D.C., chairman of Americans Against Mask Mandates and plaintiff in three federal lawsuits seeking to declare CDC, TSA, and airline mask rules unlawful. “COVID-19 cases are as low now as they are ever likely to be. If the administration can’t lift the mandate now, when will it ever? And this is all a charade since the science overwhelmingly shows that masks have been totally ineffective at reducing COVID-19 spread but harm human health in dozens of ways. Not to mention the chaos in the sky the mask enforcement has created as oxygen-starved passengers and flight crews battle with each other over one’s ability to breathe freely.”
The AAMM coalition has 14 active lawsuits challenging CDC, TSA, and airline mask rules. Another five cases are in the works to be filed in the next couple weeks.
“We will keep these cases coming until science and common sense prevails,” Wall said. “It appears President Biden will never let go of his pacifier despite the fact all 50 states have ended mandatory masking. Looks like it will take a court to declare these mandates illegal and unconstitutional. I’m glad that briefing in my CDC case completed yesterday and it’s now in the judge’s hands ready for a decision.”
Earlier this week, a group of 13 flyers from nine states and the District of Columbia who brought six lawsuits challenging the TSA’s legal authority to continue extending a requirement that all public-transportation passengers don face masks filed a 94-page brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to strike down the mask mandate.
“I’d like to remind President Biden that there is no emergency that can suppress the Constitution and I urge everyone to peacefully not comply with the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate,” said Alaina Trocano of Fort Myers, Florida, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by nine flight attendants against CDC last month in Denver, Colorado, to end forced masking.
Janviere Carlin of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, a pilot for JetBlue Airways, leads the lawsuit filed against CDC last month by 10 aviators in Washington, D.C. She’s not surprised by this decision to extend the mandate yet again.
“Instituting it in the first place, without going through the proper procedures, was an abuse of power by an unelected government agency,” Carlin said. “They are still ignoring the same studies that were available to them prior to COVID that show the ineffectiveness of masking and the long-term harms they do to our health. Why would they stop now? Our lawsuit will continue. I pray that the judge will rule on the merits of our arguments that masking is contrary to the Constitution and the laws, including forcing pilots to obstruct our oxygen intake, which impacts our fitness to fly and creates a danger to us and passengers.”
Coalition members involved in the 14 cases argue the FTMM must be struck down because it violates the Air Carrier Access Act; the Fifth Amendment right to due process; the constitutional guarantee of freedom to travel; the 10th Amendment; TSA and CDC’s statutory and regulatory authority; the Administrative Procedure Act; the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act; and two international treaties.
“The FTMM remains in effect today despite the fact that all 50 states have eliminated their mask requirements; CDC currently recommends that Americans in 99.53% of counties do not don face coverings; and 228 studies, articles, and videos compiled by petitioners demonstrate that masks do not reduce COVID-19 spread but harm human health in dozens of ways,” according to the brief filed Monday night with the Court of Appeals. “TSA’s mask orders exclude millions of Americans (including 11 petitioners) with medical conditions who can’t safely wear face coverings from using any mode of the nation’s public-transportation system.”
Michael Faris of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, has to fly every 12 days for work as a helicopter maintenance supervisor. He is medically exempt by his doctor from wearing a mask, but airlines refuse to grant him an exception because of the FTMM. Faris has been injured twice after fainting while masked on planes.
“If there was ever any question as to whether this administration has an ounce of credibility when it comes to trusting the science during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has surely been answered today,” he said. “CDC has zero credibility when it comes to the handling of this two-year-long ‘emergency.’ The federal government has now made it abundantly clear that it does not care what the science indicates. It continues to ignore 60 years of scientific evidence showing that masks do nothing to stop the spread of viruses but actually harm human health. This administration and its handful of unelected bureaucrats have given the American people zero evidence that this mandate has helped curb the spread of this virus in any way.”
Uri Marcus, an American citizen who lives most of the year in Israel, has dealt with his wife developing skin cancer around her nose after forced masking on numerous flights in 2020 and 2021.
“The American people know this mandate is a face,” he said. “This fifth extension of the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate serves as proof that President Biden is a would-be dictator imposing his will over the people’s.”
Pilot Nathan Town of Lithia, Florida, said “two weeks to flatten the curve” has resulted in massive government overreach for more than two years affecting all areas of life for American citizen.
“The Biden regime has once again stepped beyond its constitutional powers, which are restricted by the 10th Amendment, in overruling the no-mask policies of all 50 states,” he said. “This action is a pure power play to demonstrate the government’s desire for absolute rule over its people. CDC continues ignoring voluminous studies that masks are not effective and even harmful. Let people live their lives and make decisions on our own behalf.”
Tammy Gipp, a flight attendant from Las Vegas, Nevada, said she’s disappointed by the latest extension but not surprised.
“I am still dedicated to our lawsuit against the CDC and any other actions in the future to ensure that this mandate and any future attempts are eradicated,” she said.
Kurt Schuster, a pilot from Hopkinton, New Hampshire, said it’s lunacy to extend a policy that has created chaos in the sky.
“The lack of science in favor of masks ignored. The actual science of physical and mental damage the masks create ignored,” he said. “The risks to the safe operation of aircraft by masked flight & inflight crew ignored. The one thing they can’t ignore: All the lawsuits piling up challenging this mandate around the country”
Jennifer Rarrick, a disabled passenger barred from flying because she can’t wear a mask, described the today’s decision to continue the FTMM an unconstitutional assault against medical freedom.
“Even with congressmen, states, and many individuals suing to end this mess, Biden and his cronies continue to ignore the will of the people,” she said. “Not only is the mandate unsafe medically, but not once has a scenario been done to find out what would happen should a plane depressurize with everyone wearing a mask. No one has ever done any testing to prove that masking in the transportation sector is necessary or safe.”
Cristina Field, a pilot from Sumter, South Carolina, said CDC keeps extending the mask mandate despite cases being near record lows and no stress on the country’s hospital system.
“I knew that they’ll keep extending it, because it’s the easiest way to make the government look like it’s helping, when it clearly is not,” she said. “We in the transportation industry have now had a mask mandate since Feb. 1, 2021, and it continues on for no reason. We are the only sector in the nation to suffer through this federal mandate. We seeing so many adverse effects from covering our faces including microplastics in people’s lungs, increased fatigue and burnout, and worsening lung and respiratory health.”
Lisa Williams, a flight attendant from Sarasota, Florida, said extending the mask mandate is a declaration of war by the White House against the American people. She said it’s time for transportation employees and all passengers to stop obeying the unlawful requirement never enacted by Congress.
“They underestimate our intelligence and resolve to not comply, but we must say ‘no” in mass,” she said.
Beth Ellis, a pilot from Blackstone, Massachusetts, said she fears the mandate will never end. That’s why she’s among the 10 aviators suing to strike it down.
“The masks don’t work. The FTMM is about control and tyranny,” she said. “Forcing us to use an emergency medical device is abusive. There needs to be court rulings and legislation (actual law) to be sure this ends and never happens again. People are responsible for their own healthcare decisions, not the government. My heart breaks every time I see a child in a mask. There is nothing more heartwarming than to see a child smile or hear his laughter. I haven’t seen that in nearly two years.”
Americans Against Mask Mandates members are involved in the following lawsuits:
- Wall v. TSA, Abadi v. TSA, Andreadakis v. TSA, Eades v. TSA, Faris v. TSA, Marcus v. TSA (consolidated), No. 21-1220, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (Washington)
- Andreadakis v. CDC, No. 3:22-cv-52, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Richmond)
- Carlin v. CDC, No. 22-cv-800, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Washington)
- Faris v. CDC, No. 3:22-cv-23, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky (Louisville)
- Marcus v. CDC, No. 2:22-cv-2383, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Los Angeles)
- Seklecki v. CDC, No. 1:22-cv-10155, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Boston)
- Trocano v. CDC, No. 22-cv-727, U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado (Denver)
- Wall v. CDC, No. 6:21-cv-975, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Orlando)
- Wall v. Southwest Airlines, No. 6:21-cv-1008, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Orlando)
Donate to our legal fund on GoFundMe: Help End Federal Transportation Mask Mandate
Join our Facebook group: Americans Against Mask Mandates