Category: Testing Lawsuits

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.”

A travel blogger who was the first person in the country to sue to stop the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s Federal Transportation Mask Mandate and International Traveler Testing Requirement filed his opening arguments Monday night asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to reverse a Florida federal judge’s April 29 decision declaring both rules legal.

Monday’s 115-page brief filed by Lucas Wall of Washington, D.C., tees up for review by the 11th Circuit conflicting decisions by judges in Florida regarding the bounds of CDC’s legal authority to issue worldwide COVID-19 restrictions. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Mizelle of Tampa vacated the mask mandate April 18, ruling CDC issued it without congressional authority, did not offer a chance for the public to comment, and did not reasonably explain its decisionmaking (known in the law as an “arbitrary and capricious” rule).

A travel blogger who was the first person in the country to sue to stop the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s Federal Transportation Mask Mandate and International Traveler Testing Requirement lodged an appeal today of an Orlando federal judge’s April 29 judgment declaring both rules legal.

Today’s appeal tees up for review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit conflicting decisions by judges in Orlando and Tampa regarding the bounds of CDC’s legal authority to issue worldwide COVID-19 and other public-health mandates. District Judge Kathryn Mizelle of Tampa vacated the mask mandate April 18, ruling CDC issued it without congressional authority, did not offer notice and a chance for the public to comment, and did not reasonably explain its decisionmaking (known in the law as an “arbitrary and capricious” rule). But 11 days later, District Judge Paul Byron of Orlando found in Wall’s case that CDC does have statutory authority to issue such broad-sweeping mandates and it had “good cause” to forego notice and comment because of the pandemic. Both judges sit in the Middle District of Florida.

Just 11 days after Judge Kathryn Mizelle of Tampa vacated the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s Federal Transportation Mask Mandate worldwide, another federal judge in nearby Orlando ruled today that CDC does have the legal authority to force travelers to wear masks and undergo COVID-19 testing before flying to the United States from abroad.

The stunning 29-page judgment issued by U.S. District Judge Paul Byron, also in the Middle District of Florida., totally conflicts with that handed down by Mizelle on April 18 in a case brought by the Health Freedom Defense Fund.

Five disabled travelers from California, Israel, and Ohio filed suit today against the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Transportation Security Administration, and eight airlines to vacate the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate and International Traveler Testing Requirement, arguing the policies were issued without legal authority by the Biden Administration. The lawsuit also demands $8 million in damages from eight airlines, TSA employee Julie Carrigan, and two aviation health consultants for discrimination and medical malpractice.

The 14-defendant, 39-count complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California is the largest lawsuit to date against transportation masking and testing mandates. In addition to CDC, TSA, and Carrigan, defendants are the Department of Health & Human Services, Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, STAT-MD, and MedAire. Numerous yet-to-be-named employees of the eight airlines who conspired to interfere with disabled passengers’ civil rights by denying mask exemptions are listed as future defendants.

Chris Sims, one of 10 pilots suing the Centers of Disease Control & Prevention to strike down the *Federal Transportation Mask Mandate, appeared on Ohio-based WWGH radio’s “Mid-Morning Coffee Break” show with host Adam Lepp this morning to talk about the lawsuit filed March 15 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Also on the talk show was Lucas Wall, chairman of Americans Against Mask Mandates and plaintiff in the case Wall v. CDC seeking to vacate the FTMM and the International Traveler Testing Requirement.

I’m challenging the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s Federal Transportation Mask Mandate and International Traveler Testing Requirement in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Wall v. CDC). Also in the MDFL, I’m also suing seven airlines in a class action with 11 other plaintiffs for illegally discriminating against passengers with disabilities who can’t tolerate wearing face masks (Wall v. Southwest Airlines).

I’m in a group of 14 who filed six lawsuits against the Transportation Security Administration for illegally enforcing a mask mandate (the lead case is Wall v. TSA). Our cases started in six circuits of the U.S. Courts of Appeals and are now in the District of Columbia Circuit. Membes of our coalition are also suing to vacate CDC’s mask mandate and testing requiremen as well as airlines’ discriminatory mask policies. Each plaintiff is representing him/herself. We do not have an attorney.

Here’s media coverage of the cases during February 2022:

A frequent flyer grounded because he medically can’t tolerate wearing a face mask filed for summary judgment today asking a U.S. district judge to strike down the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate ordered by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, advancing the case into final proceedings after a legal battle that began in early June. The motion was filed only hours after Texas became the first state to sue the federal government to halt the mask requirement.

Plaintiff Lucas Wall, 44, of Washington, D.C., argues 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.

A Virginia man who’s been restricted from flying during the COVID-19 pandemic because he medically can’t wear a face mask filed suit in Richmond today demanding $1.85 million in damages from American Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and STAT-MD, the medical vendor at the University of Pittsburgh that evaluates mask-exemption demands for many airlines. He’s also asking a federal judge to vacate the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s Federal Transportation Mask Mandate, which marks its first anniversary Feb. 1.

Kleanthis Andreadakis, 50, of Henrico County, Virginia, is medically unable to don a mask due to Tourette Syndrome. He’s filed 15 complaints against the four airlines with the Department of Transportation for breaking federal law that prohibits airlines from discriminating against disabled passengers. DOT ruled in November that JetBlue and Southwest have violated the Air Carrier Access Act, but refused to issue any fines.