Legal Challenge to CDC’s Transportation Mask Mandate Enters Final Phase

Disabled Traveler Files New Complaint Against

CDC, HHS, Orlando Airport, & LYNX Bus System

Dec. 27, 2021

By LUCAS WALL

ORLANDO, Florida – A frequent flyer grounded because he medically can’t tolerate wearing a face mask lodged a new complaint Sunday attacking the legality of the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate ordered by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, advancing the case into final proceedings after a federal judge denied Dec. 18 the government’s motion to dismiss.

Plaintiff Lucas Wall, 44, of Washington, D.C., asserts in the 89-page amended complaint that CDC’s mask mandate is illegal and unconstitutional. He charges CDC and its parent agency, the Department of Health & Human Services, with eight counts of violating the Constitution and federal law by imposing a requirement that all passengers and employees throughout the nation’s entire public-transportation system obstruct their oxygen intake. Wall also charges the agencies with four constitutional and statutory violations for the International Traveler Testing Requirement, which mandates that all airline passengers flying to the United States – but not travelers entering the country by land or sea – submit a negative COVID-19 test within one day of departure.

“By mandating masks for all American travelers and requiring anyone flying into the United States – even those who are fully vaccinated and/or with natural immunity – to obtain an expensive coronavirus test within one day of departing a foreign nation, Defendants CDC and HHS have acted without statutory authorization or following the rulemaking process required by the Administrative Procedure Act,” according to the amended complaint. “These policies also raise serious constitutional concerns. Be-cause of the FTMM, numerous state, local, and regional transportation agencies … are told to enforce a federal policy that is in direct conflict with state laws such as those here in Florida that prohibit mandatory masking.”

The legal filing also attacks the mask mandates being enforced by the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, which operates Orlando International Airport, and the Central Florida Transportation Authority, which runs the region’s LYNX bus system. U.S. District Judge Paul Byron declined Dec. 18 those state agencies’ motions to dismiss. Wall contends the airport and LYNX are requiring passengers to cover their faces in direct defiance of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ May 3 executive order prohibiting any governmental entity from mandating face masks and a June 11 Florida Court of Appeal decision finding public mask mandates offend the Florida Constitution’s privacy clause.

Wall has been stranded in Florida since Southwest Airlines and the Transportation Security Administration, enforcing CDC’s order, refused to let him board a flight maskless June 2 at Orlando International Airport. The federal mask mandate is currently in effect until at least March 18, 2022.

He asserts CDC has no legal authority to require passengers wear masks because Congress has never enacted such a law, the agency failed to observe the notice-and-comment procedure required before ordering the FTMM, the mandate applies to intrastate travel and overrides 44 states’ no-mask policies in violation of the 10th Amendment, assigning FTMM enforcement and exemption powers to private companies such as airlines violates the Fifth Amendment, the FTMM interferes with the constitutionally guaranteed freedom to travel interstate and internationally, and the mask policy doesn’t comply with a federal law that protects airline passengers from discrimination.

The federal mask mandate is arbitrary and capricious, Wall argues, because CDC and HHS ignored better options such as requiring COVID-19 test providers to report all positive results to the agencies so people infected could be placed on the “Do Not Board” list, prohibiting them from flying for about two weeks while they capable of transmitting the virus to others.

The amended complaint also criticizes the agencies for: 1) failing to take into account that airplane cabins pose little risk for coronavirus spread; 2) failing to take into account the voluminous scientific and medical research showing masks have proven to be totally ineffective in reducing COVID-19 spread and deaths; 3) failing to consider that masks pose serious health risks to humans forced to wear them; 4) ignoring that mask mandates have created chaos in the skies and on the ground, endangering aviation and transit security; 5) ignoring that the FTMM violates the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act by forcing travelers to wear Food & Drug Administration unauthorized or Emergency Use Authorization medical devices without their consent; 6) failing to consider that the FTMM violates the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights by interfering with several fundamental human rights established by treaty; 7) failing to consider that the FTMM violates the Convention on International Civil Aviation by requiring the disabled to submit medical certificates to obtain mask exemptions; and 8) failing to consider that masks damage the environment.

Wall asks Byron to declare both the FTMM and ITTR contrary to statute and unconstitutional, vacate the orders, and permanently enjoin their enforcement worldwide. He also demands an order that CDC and HHS “immediately ensure all federal agencies remove all signs informing passengers of the requirement to wear a mask from all airports, transportation hubs, and other locations worldwide as well as to remove from its website and in all of its publications any references to the” mask mandate and testing requirement.

Read more and download the amended complaint and 134 exhibits at www.lucas.travel.

CONTACT: Lucas.Wall@yahoo.com or 202-351-1735

###

The case began June 2 when Wall was denied entry to a security checkpoint at Orlando International Airport to catch a Southwest Airlines flight because he can’t wear a mask due to his Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Wall filed suit June 7 against CDC, HHS, President Biden, TSA, and two other federal agencies to end the requirement that all passengers wear masks on all modes of transportation everywhere in the nation – including in the numerous states such as Florida where mandatory muzzling is forbidden by law and/or executive order.

The original complaint asserted that the FTMM – issued by CDC and enforced by TSA as a result of an executive order signed by Biden – violates a dozen provisions of the Constitution, federal laws, and regulations. Judge Byron allowed eight of those counts to proceed.

In the amended complaint, Byron also gave Wall permission to argue that the testing requirement: 1) does not comply with the rulemaking process that is mandatory under the Administrative Procedure Act; 2) is arbitrary and capricious; 3) exceeds CDC’s statutory authority under the Public Health Service Act; and 4) is unconstitutional as an improper delegation of legislative power as well as interfering with the rights to travel, due process, and equal protection without any public benefit.

“I am fully vaccinated from COVID-19 and object to the federal government requiring me to pay for an expensive coronavirus test every time I travel abroad when such a test is completely unnecessary,” Wall said. “My medical insurance does not apply abroad, so I’d have to pay for the required test out of pocket. Many millions of Americans also have health insurance that’s not valid out of the country.”

The case is Wall v. CDC, No. 6:21-cv-975 before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Orlando.

Download Sunday’s legal filings:

Donate to our legal fund on GoFundMe: Help End Federal Transportation Mask Mandate

Join our Facebook group: Americans Against Mask Mandates