The federal mask mandate for public transportation and transportation hubs was vacated Monday by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa.
The mandate had recently been extended to May by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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A Biden administration official said Monday evening that the Transportation Security Administration would not enforce the mandate while federal agencies reviewed the decision and weighed next steps. “CDC recommends that people continue to wear masks in indoor public transportation settings,” the official said.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by the Health Freedom Defense Fund and two women, Ana Daza and Sarah Pope, who travel frequently and argue that wearing the masks during flights worsens their anxiety and frequently causes panic attacks. Daza said in the court filing that “the government does not recognize [her] anxiety as a basis for a [medical] exemption,” while Pope complained of “restrictive breathing from wearing a mask.”
“The court concludes that the Mask Mandate exceeds the CDC’s statutory authority and violates the procedures required for agency rulemaking under the [Administrative Procedure Act],” Mizelle, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, wrote in her order.
The judge also said that while the court accepts the CDC’s premise that wearing a mask will limit transmission of the coronavirus and thus limit the number of severe cases requiring hospitalization, “that finding by itself is not sufficient to establish good cause.”
Mandatory masking on public transit and airlines has not been popular. Airline groups have lobbied to end the mandate, while several GOP lawmakers ramped up pressure recently on the Biden administration to rescind what they argue is an “unnecessary” mandate. Meanwhile, a group of 21 states sued the administration last month over the mandate.
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The Biden administration extended the federal mask mandate by two weeks through May 3, after it was initially slated to expire on April 18. The CDC made the announcement out of an abundance of caution amid modest increases in cases attributed to the omicron subvariant BA.2.
The ruling out of Tampa was “obviously a disappointing decision,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday afternoon. She added that the CDC is reviewing the case and that it would be up to the Department of Justice to “make any determinations about litigation.”
BA.2 is also called the “stealth” variant due to the myriad genetic mutations that make it harder to detect through testing. It currently accounts for around 86% of cases in the United States, but public health officials do not appear overly concerned that BA.2 outbreaks will become the tidal waves that the omicron and delta variants caused.
