Judging Freedom - No More Masks! Mandate Struck Down by federal judge

Episode Date: April 18, 2022

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Hello there, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, April 18, 2022. It's the day after Easter. It's about 3.05 in the afternoon here on the East Coast. Just about an hour ago, a federal district court judge sitting in Miami invalidated, invalidated the CDC mask requirements on airplanes, trains, buses, and any other means of mass transportation. Gone, invalidated immediately. And she did so for two reasons. One is that the CDC didn't give any reasons, any public reasons that made sense as to why people had to wear the masks. You see, when an administrative agency of the government, of which the CDC is one, wants to change a rule or create a rule, they can't just do it.

They have to publish the rule in the Federal Register, which is a publication that the federal government produces every day, and notify Congress that they have done so. Why is that? Well, the law gives Congress, whose elected representatives are answerable to us, the CDC is not. CDC is a bunch of bureaucrats. That procedure gives Congress the opportunity to invalidate the proposed regulation. And the CDC must let its proposal sit there for 30 days from the day

it told Congress it intended for the proposal to have the force of law. How much time did the mask wearing on airplanes, trains, and buses rule sit before Congress could invalidate it? Zero. The CDC did not publish it, did not put it in the federal register, did not give the Congress the opportunity to invalidate it, did not even give the public the opportunity to comment on it. That's the first reason that this federal judge invalidated these rules. The second reason is one on which the Supreme Court has already ruled with respect to the CDC. These bureaucrats in Atlanta, and nothing to do with Atlanta, Georgia, I have no problem with them. It's just that's where the CDC is located. These bureaucrats in Atlanta, most of whom are healthcare professionals, seem to think that they can right any wrong and offer any

regulation, the Constitution be damned. This federal judge said, Congress never gave you bureaucrats who run the CDC the authority to tell people what to wear on their faces. It never gave you the authority to regulate the landlord-tenant relationship. We know about that when the CDC stopped evictions, when people couldn't pay their rents at the height of the pandemic. The Supreme Court invalidated that. And now this federal judge has found that Congress never gave the CDC the authority to regulate the relationship between passengers and commercial common carriers, which is the technical legal phrase for airlines, trains, buses, and any other means of transportation that the public will pay for. This is tremendous news. Often when a judge restrains the government, the document that's being signed is called an injunction. The judge will say, okay, I'm restraining the government,

but I'm gonna stay the effect of my injunction for two weeks to give you an opportunity to appeal. Baloney, this judge signed the injunction and it's effective as of this afternoon. Now it's up to the airlines to decide what they want to do. Amtrak, which is owned by the government, cannot make you wear the mask as of this afternoon. If a bus is owned by the government, they cannot make you wear the mask as of this afternoon. The airlines, it's up to them. I'm sure they're going to drop the mask requirement because the presidents of the major airlines, there's only a half dozen in the country anymore, begged President Biden in

the Oval Office two weeks ago not to extend the mask requirement, and he extended it. Who the heck wants to wear a mask, particularly on a flight that's an hour or longer? So this is good news. The court has done the right thing. You know, this is a trial court. The feds will probably appeal it to a federal appellate court, which also sits in Atlanta. And then whoever loses there will probably appeal it to the Supreme Court of the United States. But you never know how these things are going to turn out. Right before I came on air, I read the decision. It's very sound. It's very mainstream. It relies on cases that are not controversial. There would be no reason under the sun for an appellate court to invalidate this decision. Again to repeat, breaking news,

the CDC is prevented from compelling airlines, trains, and buses to force their passenger customers to wear masks. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.