U.S. asks court to dismiss ruling against travel mask directive (updated)
23/05/2023 22:25
(Adds more filing in paragraphs 3-8, background on Biden
actions)
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) -
The Justice Department on Tuesday asked an appeals court
panel to vacate an April 2021 ruling that had declared unlawful
a government order requiring masks on airplanes and other
transportation modes during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the
issue was now moot because the national emergency was now over.
In January, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals in January heard arguments on the government's appeal of
a U.S. district court's ruling that the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) lacked legal authority to issue a
nationwide travel mask mandate to combat COVID-19.
The CDC issued the sweeping
mask mandate in January 2021
, days after President Joe Biden took office. The rules
required masks on airplanes, buses, trains, ride-sharing
services and at airports and other transportation hubs.
The Justice Department said in a court filing the issue was
now moot because of "a fundamental change in public health
conditions, as evidenced by the joint resolution of Congress
terminating the national emergency."
The plaintiffs who sued to overturn the mask mandate urged
the court not to dismiss the case. They included five
individuals who did not want to wear masks on flights including
a person diagnosed with anxiety and another who suffered from
panic attacks related to wearing masks.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs including the group Health
Freedom Defense, said in a court filing that dismissing the case
"would give CDC the ability to do this -- or something like it
-- again while evading review in this court."
This month, Biden revoked requirements that most
international visitors to the U.S. be vaccinated against
COVID-19 as well as similar rules for federal employees and
contractors. The orders were canceled with the expiration of the
U.S. COVID public health emergency.
The Biden administration's rules imposed in September
2021 requiring about 3.5 million federal employees and
contractors to be vaccinated or face firing or disciplinary
action were not enforced for over a year after a series of court
rulings.
A report from U.S. lawmakers
in October
said the Trump administration in 2020 blocked the CDC from
adopting a federal transportation mask mandate.
The Justice Department said if the case is not vacated
as moot than the court should reverse the judgment on the merits
or at a minimum "confine relief to the five individuals" who
filed suit.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul and
David Gregorio)
((David.Shepardson@thomsonreuters.com; 2028988324;))