Your Monday Morning Personal Opportunity Update from Jim Avallon
Last week a Federal judge in Florida ordered the end of the federal mask mandate for airline, train and bus passengers; Health Freedom Defense Fund v. Biden. Hans von Spakovsky, Manager, Election Law Reform Initiative and Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation explains in Heritage’s The Daily Signal interesting details of this order https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/04/21/biden-administration-should-lose-its-mask-mandate-appeal/. On a side note, Hans was on a well-attended GOUSA Zoom event last year discussing primarily the disastrous HR1 bill.
Particularly surprising in Hans’s article is that the CDC relied on a 1944 Public Health Service Act to justify its Feb. 3rd, 2021 sweeping authority to require masks on all public transportation, in airports and train stations. This 1944 Act gives the CDC authority to require “inspection, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation, pest extermination, destruction of animals or articles found to be so infected or contaminated as to be sources of dangerous infection to human beings, and other measures as in the (CDC’s) judgement may be necessary.” The CDC argued that the mask mandate falls with “sanitation” or “other measures” of the statute. However, the Federal judge determined that “sanitation” means “active cleaning” and is limited to cleaning “property”. Wearing a mask means nothing.
In addition to violating the 1944 Public Health Service Act, the Federal judge also found that the CDC violated the Administrative Procedure Act requiring the public to be given the opportunity to review and comment on a proposed regulation. The CDC completely ignored this.
Hans explains more of the details of the above violations in the attached article (including more violations of the Administrative Service Act) but isn’t it nice to know that all this time that we were suffering under these mask mandates these very mandates were ILLEGAL. AND, by the way, doesn’t this ruling call into question all the mask mandates in other public places or places frequented by the public. The last I heard from friends and acquaintances was that every time they questioned or challenged a mask mandate in a Post Office, Registry or even at a Mall, the defending reference was always the almighty, and as it appears now, above-the -law, CDC.
I know the unconstitutionality of the mask mandates is a problematic discussion, especially if one is not a lawyer and especially when it comes to areas directly under Federal jurisdiction. However, it seems that the strongest argument against would fall under one’s personal freedom and religious assembly and privacy rights. That is why the 1st amendment rating under GOUSA Personal Opportunity rating’s category is so important when considering political candidates.