A United States district judge in Florida struck down on Monday the mandate imposed by President Joe Biden through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that people countrywide wear masks in many public transportation-related activities and locations, as well as in taxis and ride share vehicles.
Legal analyst Andrew Napolitano provides a quick rundown of the court decision, which he calls “tremendous news,” and its implications in a brief video report you can watch here:
Napolitano is a member of the the Ron Paul Institute’s Advisory Board, as well as a former New Jersey state judge.
You can read the decision in the case — Health Freedom Defense Fund v. Biden, written by Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, here.
On February 6, 2021, a week after Biden’s transportation-related mask mandate was put in place by the CDC, I discussed the mask mandate in detail in a article you can read here. In that article I wrote about the potential of a court striking down the mandate:
At the foundation, courts should view Biden’s executive order and the CDC order as unconstitutional. The US Constitution grants limited, enumerated powers to the national government. Requiring Americans to wear masks is not among them. Further, the orders concern many travel-related circumstances and courts have recognized people in America have a right to travel. Even if a court were to take the leap to view such mandates as within the US government’s constitutional authority, it should recognize that such mandates cannot be properly imposed unilaterally by the executive branch. Instead, the mandates would require approval by Congress through the legislative process the Constitution prescribes for creating laws.
But, will courts stand up for people’s rights in this situation, and will they do so consistently and soon? I wouldn’t bet on it. Over the two centuries plus since the Constitution was adopted, courts have let slide so many government breaches of constitutional restraints that the US government powers exercised today have only a hazy, at best, resemblance to the limited powers the Constitution defines.
It turns out I was right not to expect a court to strike down the mandate soon. For over a year, people in America have suffered under the clearly unconstitutional requirement just so they can make their way from point A to point B.
Also in line with my early analysis of the mandate, Napolitano’s report makes clear a rational for the new court decision is that the CDC lacked congressionally granted authority to impose the mandate — in addition to having not even followed proper regulatory procedure in announcing and implementing the mandate.
Hopefully, this new court decision has brought an end for good to this mask mandate. I still do not have faith that all US courts would side with striking down the mandate even though it clearly has no constitutional foundation. There are likely plenty of judges who are more than happy to bend and crack constitutional restraints to accommodate this tyrannical decree, as well as plenty others.
