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A federal judge in Florida voided the national mask mandate covering airplanes and other public transportation, but it is unclear what the ruling means for travelers in the near term.
The decision Monday by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa says the mandate exceeded the authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which failed to justify the order and didn’t follow proper rulemaking procedures.
The mask mandate, announced in January 2021, had been set to expire Monday. The CDC announced last week that it would extend the mandate 15 days to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus that is responsible for the majority of cases in the USA. It was the mask mandate’s fifth extension despite repeated requests from airlines and other travel industry officials to ease restrictions.
The mask requirement for travelers was the target of months of lobbying from the airlines, which sought to kill it. The carriers argued that effective air filters on modern planes make transmission of the virus during a flight highly unlikely. Republicans in Congress also fought to kill the mandate.
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Critics seized on the fact that states rolled back rules requiring masks in restaurants, stores and other indoor settings, yet COVID-19 cases have fallen sharply since the omicron variant peaked in mid-January.
The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the judge’s ruling “disappointing” and noted that the CDC recommends passengers continue to wear masks. The CDC, the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department are all reviewing the judge’s decision, she said.
A statement from the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents nearly 50,000 flight attendants at 17 airlines, said it’s unclear what the judge’s decision means for travelers and urged “calm and consistency” in airports and on planes.
“In aviation operations, it is impossible to simply flip a switch from one minute to the next. It takes a minimum of 24-48 hours to implement new procedures and communicate this throughout the entire network,” AFA President Sara Nelson said in the statement. “Policies and procedures must be updated and thoroughly communicated to hundreds of thousands of employees, along with millions of travelers. Announcements and signage, electronic and physical must be updated.”
Nelson encouraged travelers to check for updates from airlines for specific travel requirements and to follow crewmembers’ instructions.
USA TODAY reached out to every major U.S. airline to check on their policies.
“As we have been, Delta will continue to comply with the TSA Security Directive on masks until informed otherwise by the TSA,” said a Delta statement via spokesperson Morgan Durrant.
The Association of Flight Attendants expects more legal analysis on what the decision means and the next steps in court “soon.”
The judge who issued the ruling was appointed to the bench by then-President Donald Trump in August 2020 and was confirmed by the Senate the following November on a 49-41 vote. Mizelle was 33, making her the youngest of Trump’s judicial appointees and one of the youngest judges in the country.
Judge Mizelle had eight years of legal experience at the time of her appointment. A majority of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee rated her as “Not Qualified” for the judgeship, pointing to “the short time she has actually practiced law and her lack of meaningful trial experience.”
Airline mask requirement timeline
April 2020: United, Frontier add mask requirement for flight attendants, and others soon follow.
May 2020: JetBlue Airways becomes first U.S. airline to require masks for passengers, a policy quickly matched by other airlines.
Jan. 2021: President Joe Biden announces federal mask mandate for travel with an initial expiration date of May 11. Airlines, unions and consumer advocates called for a mandate since the early months of the coronavirus pandemic but found no support from President Donald Trump’s administration.
April 2021: Mandate is extended through Sept. 13.
August 2021: Mandate is extended through Jan. 18 because of the delta variant of the coronavirus.
Dec 2021: Mandate is extended through March 18 because of the omicron variant.
March 2022: Mandate is extended through April 18.
April 2022: Mandate is extended through May 3.
Contributing: Michael Collins, Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY; Curt Anderson, Associated Press
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