As we all come closer to the much-anticipated day when we can all put COVID behind us, do we really want to punish forever those among us who once defied the mask police in the friendly skies?
Attorney General Merrick Garland is considering doing exactly that after Delta Air Lines sent the Department of Justice a letter last month asking him to create a “zero tolerance” national no-fly list of unruly passengers who would be banned from all domestic air travel forever.
“This action will help prevent future incidents and serve as a strong symbol of the consequences of not complying with crew member instructions on commercial aircraft,” the letter reads.
COVID put everyone on edge. Contentious interactions between customers and employees have increased in many sectors, not just airlines. These incidents, especially when they include physical altercations, are in no way excusable. The instigators should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And businesses should be and are perfectly free not to do business with whomever they please.
Delta recently submitted more than 900 names to the Transportation Security Administration so the agency could pursue civil penalties against customers who had been unruly. Delta has every right to maintain a list of these names and never do business with them again.
What is worrisome, however, is the creation of a new government-maintained list that forbids all airlines from ever doing business with a person placed on the list over a single incident.
For example, a passenger on Allegiant Air was recently kicked off a flight by a flight attendant because the mask he was wearing had “Let’s go Brandon” written on it. He was told to remove the mask, and he refused. We have editorialized before about the propriety of saying or displaying the “Let’s go Brandon” message. But should a person really be forever banned from commercial flights because they wrote the phrase on their mask, precipitating a confrontation with a flight attendant?
Fortunately, a group of nine senators, led by Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, wrote a letter to Garland urging him not to create a new unruly passenger no-fly list. “The creation of this list by DOJ would result in a severe restriction on the ability of citizens to fully exercise their constitutional right to engage in interstate transportation,” the letter reads. “It also raises serious concerns about future unrelated uses and potential expansions of the list based on political pressures.”
This is not a frivolous concern at a time when the DOJ has openly discussed using the Patriot Act against parents who become unruly at school board meetings — and when Democrats are increasingly pressuring banks to discriminate against potential customers based on their lawful business activities or political views.
Of the 5,981 unruly passenger reports filed with the Federal Aviation Administration last year, 4,290 were related to masks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently changed its guidance on indoor mask use, such that the percentage of counties where masks were recommended fell from 90% to 30%. Hopefully, a similar reversal on the need for masks on planes will soon be effected, spelling the end of this unruly passenger problem.
Pandemic-related restrictions are almost gone. The government should not go creating a new infringement on civil liberties that will live on forever.
