To the cheers of conservatives, Florida is leading the way in pushing back against progressive Democrat-led initiatives, including election reform, CRT and gender identity curriculum and now, mask mandates.
On Monday, a federal judge in Florida voided President Joe Biden’s national mask mandate, which requires masks be worn on airplanes and other forms of public transportation.
The Associated Press reported that “The decision Monday by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa also said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention improperly failed to justify its decision and did not follow proper rulemaking.”
Judge Mizelle explained: “The CDC recently extended the mask mandate, which was set to expire on April 18, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S.”
Mizelle was appointed to her position by former President Donald Trump. Her Monday ruling closed a case filed by the Health Freedom Defense Fund.
The ruling noted that the mask mandate “exceeded the CDC’s statutory authority, improperly invoked the good cause exception to notice and comment rule-making, and failed to adequately explain its decisions.”
Mizelle declared the mandate unlawful because “our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends.”
The ruling declared for the plaintiffs:
The Court DECLARES UNLAWFUL and VACATES the Mask Mandate, remanding it to the CDC for further proceedings consistent with this order. [Therefore], The Court directs the Clerk to TERMINATE President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., as a Defendant to this action, to ENTER final judgment in favor of Plaintiffs as prescribed in this order, and to CLOSE this case.
Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis (R), and Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) celebrate the ruling, having announced in late March that Florida was leading a multistate lawsuit against the Biden administration’s mask mandate on public transportation.
DeSantis posted the following on the Florida State’s government website:
Florida has led the nation in standing up to misguided federal government policies and fighting back against heavy-handed mandates that have no scientific backing. If politicians and celebrities can attend the Super Bowl unmasked, every U.S. citizen should have the right to fly unmasked. It is well past time to get rid of this unnecessary mandate and get back to normal life.
The Daily Wire reports that Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia joined Florida in the suit against the Biden administration’s mask mandate.
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