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.

A group of nine flight attendants from six states filed suit March 24 against the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention to strike down the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate, arguing forcing them to obstruct their normal breathing harms their health and being required to enforce the mandate endangers aviation safety as tens of thousands of passengers refuse to comply.

The nine plaintiffs work for Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, Southwest, and United. It’s the first legal challenge to the FTMM filed by flight attendants and the second by airline workers. Ten pilots filed a similar lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

A group of 10 commercial airline pilots from six states filed suit Tuesday against the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention to strike down the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate, arguing forcing them to obstruct their normal breathing harms their health and endangers aviation safety. It’s the first legal challenge to the FTMM filed by airline workers.

Pilots filed the 61-page complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia just hours after the Senate voted 57-40 to repeal the mask mandate and one day after 17 members of Congress sued CDC in Kentucky. They charge CDC and its parent agency, the Department of Health & Human Services, with seven violations of the law and Constitution. The pilots, who work for four U.S. airlines, ask the court to vacate the mandate and permanently enjoin the federal government from ever issuing it again.

The father of a 4-year-old autistic Florida boy who was refused transportation Feb. 22 by American Airlines from Miami to Boston for a critical medical appointment charged four American employees today with conspiracy to interfere with the civil rights of the disabled who can’t medically tolerate wearing face masks. It’s believed to be the first case in the nation where individual airline workers have been named as defendants for their roles in banning the disabled from flying during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michael Seklecki Sr. of Lake Mary, Florida, filed a motion this morning with the federal court in Boston to add as individual defendants Peter Soares, American’s managing director of legal affairs; Irina Spence, a customer care manager in American’s Special Assistance Coordinators Department; Innolene “Doe,” a customer-service agent for American at Miami International Airport who refused to check his son and him in for their flight last month; and Misty “Roe,” a coordinator in American’s Special Assistance Coordinators Department who signed a letter denying Seklecki Sr. a mask exemption for a previous flight Nov. 10, 2021.

American Airlines today refused to board a 4-year-old autistic boy despite his obtaining a mask-exemption letter from the carrier at the instruction of a federal judge. The family is currently stranded at Miami International Airport trying to find another way to get to Boston for the boy’s 11 a.m. medical appointment tomorrow at Massachusetts General Hospital.

A federal judge Feb. 16 directed American Airlines and Southwest Airlines to issue Michael Seklecki Jr. of Sanford, Florida, who suffers from Autism Spectrum Disorder, a letter exempting him from having to a wear a mask while traveling for the next 30 days until more in-depth court proceedings can be held. American and Southwest complied, but American included an unlawful provision that Michael Jr. has to submit a PCR or antigen COVID-19 test at check in.

The Health Freedom Defense Fund and two women who live in the Tampa Bay area moved for summary judgment Thursday to vacate 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 July.

The motion, filed in federal court in Tampa, came one day after a Washington, D.C., man who’s been stranded in Florida for more than eight months because he medically can’t wear a mask filed for summary judgment asking a U.S. district judge in Orlando to strike down the FTMM. And it came the day after Texas became the first state to sue the federal government to halt the mask requirement.