Ding, Dong, The Mandates Are Dead
And any still on life support are about to have the plug pulled.
This is the sound of freedom…
I said in my earlier pieces about the Supreme Court rulings on Biden’s employer vaccine and mask mandates and CMS mandates that despite the split ruling (vacating the employer one, upholding the CMS one), that these mandates were as good as dead.
Monday’s ruling by a judge for the United States District Court Middle District of Florida put another nail in that coffin. The mask mandate issued by the CDC that required all passengers and employees for transportation entities state and national to mask up has been vacated.
In Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissent to the CMS mandate being upheld, I analyzed that:
In his dissent on the ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas is making the same argument made in the OSHA opinion—it is Congress’ job, and not an unelected bureaucratic agency to either task an agency specifically or create a mandate to go through the proper process.
In striking down one of the final mandates instituted by the Biden administration, U.S. District Court Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle appears to align with Thomas’ dissent. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) using The Public Health Services Act of 1944 (PHPA) far exceeded its agency authority; authority that can only be held and authorized by Congress.
Judge Kimball Mizelle wrote:
"It is indisputable that the public has a strong interest in combating the spread of [COVID-19]." Ala. Ass'n of Realtors, 141 S. Ct. at 2490. In pursuit of that end, the CDC issued the Mask Mandate. But the Mandate exceeded the CDC's statutory authority, improperly invoked the good cause exception to notice and comment rulemaking, and failed to adequately explain its decisions. Because "our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends," id., the Court declares unlawful and vacates the Mask Mandate.
And just like that, the Mask Mandate for transportation was declared unlawful and vacated. Soon after the decision was handed down, the useless TSA—Transportation Security Administration confirmed it would no longer enforce the mask mandate. Now they can go back to patting down three-year-olds, people in wheelchairs, and grandma.
Before Monday was done, the management of several airlines issued rescissions of their mask mandate policies:
Uber and Lyft also stated they were now, “mask optional.”
While state and local municipalities can still make the choice to keep their mask mandates, most businesses that want to make money, not piss off the majority of their customers, and also spare their employees harm from attempts to enforce these ridiculous mandates, will drop, or are now dropping theirs.
Raggedy Jen Psaki, the White House Press Secretary, commented on the defeat of the mandates in typical circular fashion:
On par with the left hand of this administration not knowing what the right hand is doing, Dementia Joe contradicted Psaki’s statement:
President Joe Biden gave his first public reaction to a federal judge striking down the government's transportation mask mandate, telling reporters on Tuesday that Americans should make their own decisions on wearing masks on planes -- further muddying White House messaging on pandemic mitigation efforts.
"That's up to them," Biden said, after a reporter asked, "Should people continue to wear masks on planes?"
If that is the case, why did Biden allow the CDC and his Surgeon General Vivek Murthy extend these requirements until May 3?
When asked then if his administration will appeal the judge's ruling, Biden only said, "I haven't spoken to the CDC yet."
And since he was probably long overdue for his nap, he probably didn’t.
The Department of Justice issued a statement Tuesday afternoon that it does plan to appeal the decision:
The DOJ is quite busy these days. They’re still rooting out those domestic terrorist parents who are standing up to school boards, and prosecuting trespassers from J6. Not to mention running interference for Hunter Biden. We’ll see how this goes down, but my assessment: The administration needs to stop wasting taxpayer dollars and take the “L.”
As The Wall Street Journal editorial board assessed, the Biden administration has been mostly SOL with the judiciary upholding their diktats. They issued this advice to the Biden administration:
The ruling comes when the mask mandate is a waning health necessity, if it ever was. The CDC recently extended it until May 3, and it is increasingly unpopular with passengers and airline executives as Covid-19 becomes endemic and less lethal. Rather than appeal the ruling and risk a broader defeat, the CDC would be wiser to drop it.
The Biden Administration should also hire more lawyers who understand that the courts are looking more closely at sweeping federal orders that lack clear statutory justification. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration lost its vaccine mandate case at the Supreme Court. President Biden may want to govern with a pen and a phone, a la Barack Obama, but he’ll suffer more legal defeats without a clear command from a law written by Congress.
Back to Square One of Congress needing to do what they were elected for. With the midterms looming, the best they could muster is a Joint Resolution days prior to the District Court decision.
We are still fighting the damage from this pandemic age, and too many of these elected officials were complicit or did next to nothing to stop the unconstitutional trampling of our civil liberties.
It is time for them to go. Vote as though your life depended on it, because it does.