The U.S. Department of Justice filed today its final brief in the country’s first lawsuit seeking to strike down the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate. The case is now in the hands of Magistrate Judge Daniel Irick at the U.S. District Court in Orlando, Florida.
“Lucas Wall and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention greatly differ about the scientific facts regarding the efficacy of mask wearing and what Mr. Wall calls ‘the harms of forced muzzling.’ But for those who seek to use our nation’s public-transportation systems during a global pandemic, Congress has entrusted those judgments to the experts at the CDC,” the federal government argues in an effort to save the FTMM from suffering the same fate (being enjoined by courts) as the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s Eviction Moratorium and Conditional Sailing Order for cruiseships.
“I’m confident the court will vacate the illegal and unconstitutional Federal Transportation Mask Mandate, which CDC issued without any authority from Congress and in violation of the constitutional right to freedom of travel, to due process of law, and states’ rights under the 10th Amendment,” said plaintiff Lucas Wall, 44, of Washington, D.C. “The Supreme Court struck down the Eviction Moratorium with strong language that CDC had no power to ban evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The same law applies to the mask mandate.”