Kathryn Kimball, a Trump-appointed federal judge, has just struck down the US federal mask mandate for trains, airplanes, and buses that the Center for Disease Control tried to extend to May 3.
As per Kimball’s ruling, the CDC’s mask mandate “exceeded the CDC’s statutory authority, improperly invoked the good cause exemption to notice and comment rulemaking, and failed to adequately explain its decisions…
She added that “…because ‘our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even if the pursuit of desirable ends,’ the Court declares unlawful and vacates the mask mandate.”
Kimball also says that the CDC “published the Mask Mandate without allowing public participation through the [Administrative Procedure Act]’s notice and comment procedures” and further states that she is “remanding it to the CDC for further proceedings consistent with this order.”
The CDC first introduced the mask mandate on February 3, 2021, only one month after Joe Biden was sworn in.
Early in the pandemic, regulations such as the mask mandate were brought in under the auspice of being time-limited and only required for ‘two weeks to stop the spread’. Of course, this evolved into extremely discriminatory practices including vaccine mandates that saw many fired for refusing experimental mRNA technology and vaccine passports that created a de facto apartheid state.
Moreover, as reported by journalist Cassandra Fairbanks writing for TimCast, “Airlines have been lobbying for the mandate to be removed.”
“A recent letter signed by Airlines for America, the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Travel Association said that “with declining hospitalization rates, increased immunity, widely available vaccines and cutting-edge treatments on the horizon, America is reaching an inflection point where endemic-focused policies can replace pandemic-driven restrictions.””
The decision on the federal mask mandate can still be appealed by the Justice Department, but many believe that it won’t be and that it’s time to put pandemic restrictions behind us and move on.
