Alaska AG joins 22 states urging judges to keep travel mask mandate struck down for good

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By STEVE BITTENBENDER | THE CENTER SQUARE

Attorneys general from Alaska and 22 other states filed an amicus brief in a federal appeals court urging judges to uphold a ruling from earlier this year that struck down the mask mandate for interstate travel.

The CDC now recommends passengers in such places as airports and airplanes wear masks, but the mandate is no longer in effect. Still, the Biden Administration has asked the circuit court to intervene.

Four months ago, Florida U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle sided with the Health Freedom Defense Fund and two Florida residents. They claimed the restriction the Biden Administration announced Jan. 29, 2021, as part of its COVID-19 guidelines exceeded federal authority.

Led by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, the states’ attorneys general say in their newest 37-page filing that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pursued “expansive” measures in its handling of the pandemic. Officials from the states also remind the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that federal judges set several other CDC guidelines aside.

The states “share an interest in protecting their sovereign authority to enact quarantine measures of their choosing to combat the spread of disease in the manner best adapted to their distinctive local conditions – authority historically reserved to the states, as CDC’s own regulations reflect even today,” the brief states.

“It’s astonishing that Biden continues to fight to force mask passengers,” Moody said. “We are once again pushing back, in court, against his unlawful federal overreach.”

The states also claim the mask mandate is unlawful because it goes beyond the CDC’s ability to enforce sanitation measures. They also claim the federal government failed to review what steps states were taking or determine if those measures were sufficient.

With Florida in the lead, other attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia signed on to the brief.

24 COMMENTS

  1. The China virus was developed in a Chinese lab through gain of function research. (The Chinese were trying to make it more deadly, as “research”.

    This highly communicable virus has killed over one million Americans.

    Congress should pass legislation allowing China to be sued- like Iran and other rouge states. But Congress is too corrupt, too stupid to take on our communist enemy- even after China killed one million Americans. (One of the reasons I did not vote for Lisa.)

    In the end, I don’t want politicians turning how to deal with a deadly, infectious disease into a food fight. The AGs should stay out of it. I want medical doctors making recommendations about how to deal with infectious disease. The scientifically illiterate should sit down and be quiet.

    • “This highly communicable virus has killed over one million Americans.”
      Nope.
      Over one million Americans died with the virus in their system.
      If all hospitals/morgues/attending physicians were to test every dead or dying person for common STDs, most people would have herpes listed on their death certificate.
      .
      This panicdemic exists because the healthy were tested. The number of dead is artificially inflated because everyone who entered a hospital was tested. And every dead body was tested.
      .
      Curious what happens when the hospitals get paid for every COVID case. The administrators tend to impose testing mandates to inflate those numbers.
      .

    • I don’t think I can embrace your overall approach. Initially, I note that there is a lot of evidence that points to development of the Covid virus in a laboratory. Further, despite many months of effort, animal hosts for a “zoonotic” pathway have not been identified.

      Leaving the formation of policy to medical “experts” in our current environment is not wise. Experts can and should disagree with one another. Science is not achieved by consensus. Yet, as documented in emails, Drs. Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health took immediate action to squash and intimidate scientists that wanted to consider the lab origin theory. “Experts” can also be thugs. Free and open inquiry is essential and bureaucrats – even bureaucrats in white coats – must be held accountable.

      • JMARK. The real benefit of allowing lawsuits against communist China is that the empirical evidence can be presented in a court of law about exactly what the Chinese cooked up in the Wuhan Inst. of Virology. Then, a jury or judge can decide whether China is liable, and how many trillions of dollars that they must pay Americans who were injured or killed. I’d particularly like to see punitive damages awarded for China’s reckless conduct. Lots and lots and lots of evidence the China virus came from their lab- and even had US involvement in funding gain of function research. Fauci is complicit and should be fired.

    • AGs are doing their job of securing our God-given rights to us. No tyrannical government mandates. Each free, sovreign individual/family needs to get information from credible sources, implement their response, and leave other people alone. Government response to COVID caused more damage than did COVID. Big Pharma’s response to COVID is still killing.

    • Sadly we already have been in a food fight and all those with a differing opinion from the CDC (many physicians included) have been labeled as spreading “disinformation”. It never made sense to discount ideas and options in a disease we knew absolutely nothing about. This action by the AG’s is to keep politicians hands out of the medical business and put the CDC back where it belongs, research and recommendations, not one size fits all dictates about shots or edicts about rent or masks. Dr. Fauci did the entire nation a great disservice, by his “my way or else”. This is America and every voice counts. Debate is important to maintain our republic, so I respectfully disagree with your demand that some sit down and shut up.

    • The first part is great, but the second part is troublesome. We do not live under a technocracy, nor should we ever want to. The science on masking is relatively clear, to the layman and the scientifically literate alike—they don’t work and they create other problems. Airline industry consultants have been saying for over a year, they are even more worthless on planes. Political food fights are bad, but political theatre is worse, especially when it is fascist in nature, designed only to crush the will of the individual and demonstrate compliance to the state. I’m glad this administration is taking a stand on this. More of this please.

      • Lawrence. You have to have open heart surgery. Sorry about that. But, you are asked if you want your surgical team to wear masks while they cut you open. ‘Yes’, or, ‘no’ on them wearing masks?

        Not all masks are created equal. Some are pure junk and do nothing to protect you from infectious droplets- much less viruses. Others- N95 at a minimum, provide real protection. Some of the really good ones made by 3M can, and do, protect workers every day from VOCs, dangerous dust, and/or viruses and mold.

        Last point- a friend’s kid recently got the China virus- which is much more infectious now thanks to natural selection. She now has long ‘Covid’ and can barely climb a set of stairs. She is only 40 years old. I wear a N95 mask when in public- its cheap insurance.

        • Hogwash! You can not apply surgical hospital procedures to the general public. Do you also wear sterile gloves, gown and cap besides your mask? No I am sure you do not. The point of all these covers is to prevent foreign material (hair, skin cells, sweat) to enter the wound and minimize the risk of post-op infection.
          Mask wearing should be left to the individual, who can best assess their risk with their medical provider, not some one-size fits no one rule.

        • Wearing a mask during surgery is not for prevention of infections. That is a secondary benefit.
          .
          N95 masks are great, if you wear them properly, and replace them frequently. Do you? if you wear your N95 more than once it is useless. If you wear it for more than about 40 minutes, it becomes less and less effective until it is basically useless. If you do not fit it properly, and test the fit, it is useless.
          .
          Yes, there are masks that are perfect for keeping out VOCs, dangerous dust, and diseases. You do not get those masks at Home Depot/Lowes. You get them at industrial supply houses. Do you have one of those masks? I tend to doubt it.
          .
          A properly worn, and maintained mask provides a bit of protection against COVID transmission. So far, I have only seen a very small percentage of the people wearing their masks correctly. You may be one of them. If so, congrats.
          .
          Finally, the issue is not masks. It is the mandates. Whether a properly worn mask slows the spread of disease is not in question. Whether mandating mask use did anything is in question.

    • “The scientifically illiterate should sit down and be quiet.” Yes. Indeed!
      The majority of doctors get their initial diagnosis incorrect, which is why we usually need a second opinion.
      Just like everyone else, doctors need to have independent oversight.
      Fact of life: every profession has independent oversight of some sort.
      Here’s a book to read: The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health (Children’s Health Defense) Hardcover – November 16, 2021 on Amazon

    • Often experts have no idea of the Constitutional rights of their patients in this nation. The chinese experts certainly don’t know patients rights. Science experts often have not one iota of knowlege regarding patients’ rights to choose economic association doctor advice. That takes money, insurance companies who have political pressure (cost savings pay for things that don’t work) don’t champion patient rights. Doctors are the most educated and indoctrinated. This nation operates in this world witj international expertd without Constitutional ethics. They want Americans suffering to death. There are people in America who seem to go along with television entrancements rather than realialize big pharma has a monetary agenda. The falsely ascribed experts at cdc are subject to scrutiny. .

  2. There is no reason to continually attempt to herd the US population into compliance with the mask BS. If a person wants to wear a mask, that is there choice. I prefer to not wear a mask and that is my choice. Destroying an economy out of fear did nothing to change the trajectory of this virus, neither will wearing a mask. It has been scientifically proven to have a net zero effect on avoiding a virus.

  3. The mask mandates do nothing.
    .
    Not a thing. And there is a measurable amount of evidence that mandates actually increase the infection rate, not decrease it.
    .
    Masks are pretty much useless as well. Granted, a properly worn, well fitted, fresh N95 or better mask is semi effective against spread. But, the operative words there are “properly worn, well fitted, and fresh.” If you are like 90%+ of the people I see, you are 1.) not wearing a N95 or better mask, 2.) if you are wearing a N95 mask, you are not wearing it correctly, or 3.) it is the same mask you have been wearing for weeks.
    Meaning that masking is basically meaningless in that situation.
    .
    Someday, there will be a study on this panicdemic. And, it will likely show that none of the measures taken did anything at all. It will also show that the real number of deaths from the virus is significantly lower than reported. Remember, in the State of Alaska, the guidance is the doctor has wide latitude on deciding cause of death. The AK DHSS says if the doctor thinks the life was shortened by 15 minutes or 15 years, they can claim COVID is the cause of death. Seriously? If COVID shortened your life by 15 minutes, it is not the cause of death. 15 months… maybe. 15 years, then definitely. Minutes? NOPE. That is just panicmongering.

  4. I don’t think the admin cares about the mask mandate per se (they may even rescind it immediately if they win in court) — they really don’t like the precedent that they don’t have the authority to put such measures in place anytime the mood strikes them.

    • Bingo. That’s what this is all about. They don’t want to impose mask mandates. They don’t even want the public to think they might put back mask mandates. They know the momentum for all of that is lost and the media isn’t covering this fight for that reason. This isn’t even about masks. They just don’t want the ruling in Florida to be the final precedent because they want to have ALL THAT POWER whenever they see fit.

  5. The “masks” used by the public have no effect whatsoever on containing any virus. The mesh sizes of most all materials worn are so porous that a virus measured in a few nano meters is not contained. Masks offer the same protection as standing behind a chain link fence as someone throws sand threw it. The idea that many “doctors” and “health professionals” pretend that there is a vital public health benefit from mandating their use only diminishes confidence in the medical profession by increasingly large segments of the public. Just as the misuse of the terminology defining the experimental products being pushed as “vaccines” by many doctors exposed them as proxies for the RX companies. The degradation and politization of the medical system is a far more serious long term threat to public health than the lab manipulated Corona virus strain popularly known as “Covid”. Travel mask mandates are simply exercises in ensuring the public remains obedient and subservient to petty and unelected officials going forward.

  6. Alaska AG should also call out Superior Court Judge William F. Morse who has the Third Judicial District under a mask mandate. As of the week of 8-15-22, you cannot enter the Kenai Courthouse without a mask on. Isn’t the Kenai Courthouse a state, not a federal building? I know some courthouses in Alaska are federal, like in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau, but isn’t Kenai a state one?

  7. The CDC has shown how corrupt they are. Our Government is corrupt. The game is over and the pawns know they were duped (American people).
    Impeach the puppet and never allow another DemonRAT ever to take office again… We now know what their agenda is.

  8. I had an N95 mask professionally fitted and then tested. To be leak free and actually do some protecting, I had to go down a size and really tighten the straps. Any head movement or talking and the test gas would seep in. I could barely breath and quickly got a headache. Anything short of this is a Burka.

  9. Tomorrow we oust the clowns. I hope all the voters have the names of all the judges of no oath integrity. Oust Day is here citizens. TO THE VOTE COUNTER fair and square elections so help you GOD.

  10. Can anyone show me the wave of death and destruction that started April 18th when the airline mask rule was abolished? Anyone???

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