Month: April 2022

A group of 309 pilots and flight attendants from 35 states, who work for 16 airlines, filed arguments late Monday night urging the U.S. Court of Appeals to enjoin the Transportation Security Administration from ever reissuing a Federal Transportation Mask Mandate. The filing of their friend-of-the-court brief came hours after a U.S. district judge struck down the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s order mandating masks and instructing TSA to enforce the policy in effect since Feb. 1, 2021.

“It was a wonderful surprise to hear of Judge Mizelle’s ruling yesterday that vacated CDC’s unlawful Federal Transportation Mask Mandate,” said Janviere Carlin of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, a JetBlue pilot based in Boston who coordinated the enormous amount of signatures on the amicus curiae brief filed in support of 13 flyers from nine states and the District of Columbia who brought six lawsuits challenging the TSA’s legal authority. “Despite this wonderful judgment striking down CDC’s ability to force masking, we still filed our brief in the Wall v TSA case because we are not fooled into thinking that this administration will give up so easily.”

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 every 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.”

A group of 13 flyers from nine states and the District of Columbia who brought six lawsuits challenging the Transportation Security Administration’s legal authority to continue extending a requirement that all public-transportation passengers don face masks filed a 94-page brief Monday night urging the Court of Appeals to terminate the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate.

The Court filing comes as the Biden Administration weights whether to extend the FTMM for a fifth time. It is currently scheduled to expire April 18 after being continued four times since first issued Feb. 1, 2021, by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and TSA at the order of President Biden.