July 6, 2022
Four groups of airline workers, disabled passengers, industrial hygiene experts, and dual citizens filed friend-of-the-court briefs Monday night asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to reverse a Florida federal judge’s April 29 decision declaring legal the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate and International Traveler Testing Requirement.
The dual citizens argued against the legality of the testing requirement while the other three groups of amicus curiae took issue with the mask mandate.
“While passengers only have to endure forced masking when traveling on public transportation, we are expected to obstruct our oxygen intake nearly all the time while at work. This endangers our health and imperils aviation safety,” wrote 313 airline workers from 35 states employed by 16 air carriers. “Tens of thousands of our colleagues were laid off or placed on long-term unpaid leave due to the economic devastation caused by the ITTR, FTMM, and other government travel restrictions related to COVID-19 that did nothing to stop the virus’ spread.”