December 16, 2021
Disabled Missouri Veteran Asks Court of Appeals
to Enjoin Federal Transportation Mask Mandate
Father Who Medically Can’t Wear Face Covering
Wants to Fly to Visit Son for Christmas
Dec. 16, 2021
By LUCAS WALL
WASHINGTON – A 40-year-old Missouri man disabled from a gunshot wound while serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq who can’t wear a face covering is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to block the Transportation Security Administration’s ability to enforce the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate, which President Biden recently announced his administration is extending a third time until mid-March.
In court papers filed this morning, Anthony Eades of Warsaw, Missouri, asks the tribunal to stay enforcement of the mandate pending final disposition of his petition for review, which he filed Oct. 19.
Eades asks for relief no later than Dec. 20 because he has a flight booked Dec. 21 on American Airlines from Kansas City, Missouri, to Colorado Springs to visit his 15-year-old son from a previous marriage for Christmas. American has refused to grant Eades a mask exemption.
His motion for a stay of three TSA health directives and one emergency amendment requiring masks be worn throughout the nation’s entire public-transportation system comes one week after U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts denied a similar request from a 4-year-old autistic boy who can’t wear a mask and needs to fly often for specialized out-of-state medical care. The boy and his father, Michael Seklecki of Sanford, Florida, plan to soon resubmit that emergency application to another Supreme Court justice.
“I don’t get to see my son often and it’s critically important for me to be able to spend Christmas with him,” Eades wrote in the 381-page court filing. “I was previously booked from Kansas City to Colorado Springs Nov. 18 to spend Thanksgiving with my son but had to cancel the ticket because American Airlines is unlawfully denying mask exemptions to passengers with disabilities and TSA isn’t doing anything about it. It was crushing to miss such an important holiday with my son.”
Eades presents a dozen legal arguments for why the FTMM is illegal and unconstitutional. He is among a group of 14 flyers from nine other states and the District of Columbia who filed six lawsuits in October charging TSA with exceeding its authority by continuing to extend the FTMM. He stresses that Congress has never enacted a mask mandate. And just like the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s attempt to ban evictions without congressional authority, an order the Supreme Court struck down Aug. 26, TSA likewise has no legal ability to issue directives that aren’t related to security.
“Due to my military injury of a gunshot wound to the chest, asthma, and breathing difficulties, it is unbearable and sometimes impossible to maintain normal breathing,” Eades wrote, attaching numerous Veterans Administration medical records to his motion. “I can’t tolerate wearing a face mask. Covering my nose and mouth brings back my severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from being in Iraq, in the way of after I was shot, I was not able to breathe due to where I was shot. So my PTSD affects me and prevents me from properly wearing the mask.”
Three weeks after filing his lawsuit against TSA, the agency retaliated against Eades by revoking his Pre-Check expedited-security benefit, an action he has asked the Court of Appeals to overturn.
Eades argues TSA issued the mask mandate: 1) in excess of its statutory and regulatory authority; 2) based solely on a CDC order that the agency issued in excess of its statutory and regulatory authority under the Public Health Service Act; 3) in violation of the 10th Amendment; 4) in violation the constitutional guarantee of freedom to travel; 5) in violation of the Fifth Amendment right to due process; 6) in violation of the Air Carrier Access Act; 7) without notice and comment required by the Administrative Procedure Act; 8) in an arbitrary and capricious manner; 9) in violation of the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act; 10) in violation of Occupational Health & Safety Administration regulations; 11) in violation of several international treaties the United States has ratified; and 12) in a way that can’t survive strict scrutiny.
“In recent months, numerous federal courts have struck down unlawful COVID-19 orders issued by the Biden Administration including the eviction moratorium, restrictions on cruiseships resuming sailing, and several vaccine mandates,” Eades said. “It’s time the Court of Appeals adds the mask mandate to that list. TSA has no business ignoring its duties to ensure transportation security by policing whether travelers and transportation workers put a worthless piece of cloth over their nose and mouth.”
The motion cites 223 scientific studies, medical articles, and videos showing masks don’t reduce the spread of respiratory viruses but cause dozens of harms to human health. It also discusses how the mask mandate restricts the disabled who can’t have their oxygen sources obstructed from using any form of public transportation nationwide.
“TSA’s mask mandate blatantly discriminates against Americans with medical conditions who can’t wear masks in violation of the” Air Carrier Access Act, Eades wrote. “TSA may not issue a directive that is contrary to statute. … TSA’s contention that I ‘may request an exemption from the relevant airline’ is disingenuous because I’ve already done so many times and been refused.”
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I have been praying everyday for the mask mandate to end. Sad to hear that Lucas’ lawsuits did not go as hoped. However, let’s remember the book of Job and how much suffering Job had to go through before things turned for the better. In light of that, I will begin a food fast today and keep it going until Christmas in hopes that God, who could accomplish all things and easily overthrows wickedness, will hear our pleas to end all mask mandates on airplanes, in schools, offices and retail centers, throughout our world! It’s currently a dark world, but the sunrise is imminent and this darkness will pass. Let’s hold fast to Him who created us in his image and everything on this Earth!