I’m confused: mask mandates on airplanes in the U.S. are long gone, and even longer in other countries. So, what the heck is Biden trying to do?
DOJ defending mask mandate on planes months after Biden said pandemic is ‘over’
The Biden administration is fighting to maintain a federal mask mandate for air travel and other methods of transportation even after President Biden said months ago the pandemic is “over,” and despite calls from travel associations to end mask mandates.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments on Tuesday from the Biden Justice Department on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to reinstate a mask mandate for air travel, after a federal judge in Florida struck down the mandate last April.
“The Department continues to believe that the order requiring masking in the transportation corridor is a valid exercise of the authority Congress has given CDC to protect the public health. That is an important authority the Department will continue to work to preserve,” DOJ said in a statement at the time of the ruling.
The legal fight comes almost six months after the president declared that the pandemic was “over” in a television interview. (snip)
“The Biden administration is trying to paper over an illegal, sweeping mandate on Americans that is full of massive legal and scientific holes,” HFDF founder and President Leslie Manookian said in a press statement. “That a federal agency should be able to just usurp the power of Congress, and violate fundamental individual rights is not only at odds with the law – it defies basic common sense.”
Is the Brandon admin trying to have the power to reinstate mask mandates on airplanes (and trains and buses) right now, or simply trying to keep the power for the future?
Meanwhile, the Credentialed Media is Very Upset over Ron DeSantis trying to kill mandates
DeSantis calls for permanent ban on COVID mask and vaccine mandates. Here’s what that means
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he wants to permanently ban all mandates related to COVID-19.
In a press release, DeSantis, a Republican, said he is proposing legislation that will prevent employment decisions based on COVID-19 vaccination status and prevent schools or businesses from requiring face coverings.
The legislation would specifically prohibit COVID-19 vaccine passports in Florida; prohibit vaccine and mask requirements in Florida schools; prohibit masking requirements by businesses; and prohibit employees from being hired or fired based on whether or not they have received a COVID-19 vaccine.
This makes the Covid Cult really upset.
Our esteemed host asked:
Legally, that’s a more important question than people realize. If they are seeking simply to keep the power for the future, if deemed necessary, then there’s a question of mootness: if the Administration are not trying to reimpose the mask mandate now, then there’s no conflict at law.
It’s not just evil reich-wing Republicans who want an end to mask mandates. Our family were involved in several trips in October and November, and on no flights were there any mask mandates, and only a few passengers wearing them voluntarily. In airports in Toronto, Amsterdam, Aberdeen, Zurich, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, and Kuwait City, very few people, including airport employees, were wearing facial diapers.
Glenn Greenwald wrote:
The Administration wants to stoke up fear, so that the public can be more controlled. The CDC have been planting all kinds of stories fretting about the “tripledemic” of COVID, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), but here we are, 2/3 of the way through January, and more than halfway through “meteorological” winter, and there’s been no crisis.
This is why I’ve been calling the COVID scare a panicdemic, because that’s exactly what it has been. Yes, the virus was out there, but governments, liberal and conservative alike, discovered that they could use that panic to impose authoritarian controls, and they sure liked that!