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 ever 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.”
The AAMM coalition has 14 active lawsuits challenging CDC, TSA, and airline mask rules. Another five cases are in the works to be filed in the next couple weeks.
“We will keep these cases coming until science and common sense prevails,” Wall said. “It appears President Biden will never let go of his pacifier despite the fact all 50 states have ended mandatory masking. Looks like it will take a court to declare these mandates illegal and unconstitutional. I’m glad that briefing in my CDC case completed yesterday and it’s now in the judge’s hands ready for a decision.”
Earlier this week, a group of 13 flyers from nine states and the District of Columbia who brought six lawsuits challenging the TSA’s legal authority to continue extending a requirement that all public-transportation passengers don face masks filed a 94-page brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to strike down the mask mandate.
“I’d like to remind President Biden that there is no emergency that can suppress the Constitution and I urge everyone to peacefully not comply with the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate,” said Alaina Trocano of Fort Myers, Florida, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by nine flight attendants against CDC last month in Denver, Colorado, to end forced masking. Trocano flies for American Airlines.
Janviere Carlin of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, a pilot for JetBlue Airways, leads the lawsuit filed against CDC last month by 10 aviators in Washington, D.C. She’s not surprised by this decision to extend the mandate yet again.
“Instituting it in the first place, without going through the proper procedures, was an abuse of power by an unelected government agency,” Carlin said. “They are still ignoring the same studies that were available to them prior to COVID that show the ineffectiveness of masking and the long-term harms they do to our health. Why would they stop now? Our lawsuit will continue. I pray that the judge will rule on the merits of our arguments that masking is contrary to the Constitution and the laws, including forcing pilots to obstruct our oxygen intake, which impacts our fitness to fly and creates a danger to us and passengers.”
Coalition members involved in the 14 cases argue the FTMM must be struck down because it violates the Air Carrier Access Act; the Fifth Amendment right to due process; the constitutional guarantee of freedom to travel; the 10th Amendment; TSA and CDC’s statutory and regulatory authority; the Administrative Procedure Act; the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act; and two international treaties.
“The FTMM remains in effect today despite the fact that all 50 states have eliminated their mask requirements; CDC currently recommends that Americans in 99.53% of counties do not don face coverings; and 228 studies, articles, and videos compiled by petitioners demonstrate that masks do not reduce COVID-19 spread but harm human health in dozens of ways,” according to the brief filed Monday night with the Court of Appeals. “TSA’s mask orders exclude millions of Americans (including 11 petitioners) with medical conditions who can’t safely wear face coverings from using any mode of the nation’s public-transportation system.”
Read more statements from plaintiffs and find information about the 14 cases at www.lucas.travel.
