Judging Freedom - Doctors Who Don't Like Lawyers (Masks)

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

Fauci fears judge's ruling on travel mask mandate may set "dangerous precedent" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthony-... #Fauci #masks #maskmandatesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, April 22, 2022. It's about 1.30 in the afternoon here on the east coast of the United States. Unless you're living under a rock, you know that earlier this week on Monday, as a matter of fact, a very courageous federal judge in Florida issued an injunction preventing the CDC from ordering all entities regulated by the federal government to require wearing masks by their employees, customers, and clients. So stated differently, this judge found that the CDC is without authority to compel wearing masks on airlines, in airports, on trains, on any entity that is owned or regulated by the federal government. Wow. Are the doctors upset about that? You haven't seen anger until you've seen doctors who don't like lawyers, in this case, a federal judge telling them what to do.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who speaks for the rest of the gaggle of know-it-alls in the CDC in Atlanta, was actually kind of temperate, but he wasn't too happy. Here's what he told CBS News last night. See, this is a public health matter. This is not a judicial matter. The CDC has the obligation to protect the American public, and they make their recommendations based on science and solid public health information. So obviously, the CDC will abide by the order of the court because it's a legal obligation. But one of the problems that we have there is that the principle of a court overruling a public health judgment by qualified organization like the CDC is disturbing in the precedent that it might send. Disturbing in the precedent that it

might send. It's fabulous in the precedent that it might send. I don't question for a minute Dr. Fauci's intellect or his intentions, but he seems to forget that he works for the federal government and the federal government was created by and restrained by the Constitution. And unless Congress expressly gave the authority to the CDC to allow them to require us to be masked on federal property or on property regulated by the federal government, they don't have the authority to do it. When he says it's not a judicial matter, Dr. Fauci, you and I have known each other for 20 years. Everything the government does is a judicial matter when it exceeds the authority that the Constitution has given the government, and that's exactly what happened here. This is

not the case of a federal judge second-guessing doctors on the science, though there's a lot of second-guessing to be had. And there's a lot of science saying masks are more harmful than good. The federal judge didn't go there. This is a federal judge looking at the law, looking at what the CDC said, and finding that there's no authority under the law for the CDC to do what it wanted to do. And that's the end of it. Now, look, the Department of Justice, which represents all federal agencies in litigation, and which represented the CDC before this federal judge in Florida, has appealed this to the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which sits

in Atlanta. You know that there are 12 federal circuits in the United States. They're geographically based. The 11th Circuit covers Georgia and Atlanta. So we'll see where it goes. But what's telling is when the government is enjoined by a judge, stop from doing what it wants to do, and it appeals that injunction, it always asks for a stay of the injunction. So it would ask the federal judge that issued this ruling to stay the effect of her ruling until the appellate court can rule. The feds didn't do that this time, which tells me a couple of things. Either they expect to lose anyway, or they know there will be mass confusion throughout the country if after a week of freedom, the mask regulations come back, or they know that the mask regulations themselves expire on May 18th.

If the federal appeals court doesn't rule by then, then the mask regulations are gone and are gone forever. And the federal appellate court and the 11th Circuit in Atlanta won't have jurisdiction over the appeal because the issue will be moot. So it is looking good for those of us who believe that you own your own face. And the government can no more tell you what makeup or mascara or shaving lotion to use or whether or not to shave or whether to wear glasses or whether to wear a ski mask or whether to wear a surgical mask. None of the government's business. That's not what the ruling was. Ruling was the CDC didn't follow the law because it didn't give Congress the opportunity

to reject the rules that it was proposing, and it didn't give the public the opportunity to comment on the rules. That's issue number one. Issue number two is, as this judge reads the law, as I read the law, as most of us who do this for a living read the law, the Congress never authorized the CDC to tell people what to wear. Hallelujah. Have a nice weekend, my friends. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.