Federal Judge Strikes Down CDC Travel Mask Mandate
byDaniel McCarthy/
On Monday, a federal judge in Florida ruled against the federal mask mandate for airplanes and other modes of transportation in the U.S.
The ruling,可以在这里完整阅读,是针对该任务提起的首次诉讼,要求成功地对CDC的面具规则进行裁决,该裁决已于2021年2月以来一直在实施。
In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle wrote that the mandate exceeded the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) authority, and that because of that it is “not in accordance with the law.”
“The court must hold unlawful and set aside the mask mandate as an agency action that is not in accordance with law,” Judge Mizelle wrote, among a number of other arguments against the mandate.
现在,未来的面具授权将下来to the Justice Department, which could seek an order to halt the ruling or file an appeal to stop it. Whether or not the Justice Department does so, just a few weeks ahead of the May 3 expiration of the mask mandate, is still unclear.
据报道,由于感染的增加以及在美国某些地区的严重COVID-19结果中,联邦政府已考虑在上周允许面具到期,因此决定将其扩展出“大量谨慎”。
“Since early April, there have been increases in the 7-day moving average of cases in the U.S. The CDC Mask Order remains in effect while CDC assesses the potential impact of the rise of cases of severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and healthcare system capacity. TSA will extend the security directive and emergency amendment for 15 days, through May 3, 2022,” the CDC wrote at the time.
The travel industry has largely seen the extension of the mask mandate, along with the continued inbound testing rules, as a major drag on its recovery. The U.S. Travel Association and the Association of American Travel Advisors (ASTA) haveboth continued to push for both of those rules to be lifted.
That mandate has also caused issues for those who are tasked with enforcing it, mainly flight attendants, who have been the subject of an escalating number of verbal, and sometimes physical, attacks on airplanes. Just this week,the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced the two largest-ever fines for passengers.