Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration Wednesday that seeks to block the federal mask mandate that requires people to wear masks on airplanes, airports, and public transportation networks.
The lawsuit, filed by Paxton and state Rep. Beth Van Duyne in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, argues that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lacked the proper authority to impose the sweeping mask mandate and that it violated “travelers’ liberty interest.”
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION PLANS TO EASE MASK GUIDANCE
“Biden’s repeated disregard of the individual liberties of Texans is not only disrespectful to the U.S. Constitution, it is also troublesome that any president thinks they can act above the law while hardworking Americans standby,” Paxton said. “President Biden cannot continue governing through executive edicts. Now is the time to strike down his administration’s air-travel mask mandate.”
The mandate was first issued in January 2021 and repeatedly extended. It is now slated to expire on March 18. The mandate excuses children 2 years old and younger and those with disabilities for whom wearing a mask safely is not possible.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, who is named as a defendant, has indicated that the agency is amenable to loosening its masking guidelines. She said Wednesday that the agency is “assessing the most important factors based on where we are in the pandemic” and will put out relevant updated guidance “soon.” But she did not specifically mention airplanes, public transportation, or other transportation hubs.
The Texas lawsuit comes amid a gubernatorial frenzy to lift mask mandates in some capacity. Democratic governors, such as New Jersey’s Phil Murphy and Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker, have taken steps over the past two weeks to loosen masking rules, aware of the pandemic fatigue their constituents are feeling.
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The CDC is under scrutiny lately for falling behind blue-state governments. Most GOP states, though, had already lifted the controversial mask requirements long before the omicron variant arrived. Republican governors, such as Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Texas’s Greg Abbott, have spurned such measures since early in the pandemic, arguing they were not justified and were harmful even before the omicron variant hit.
