Hat tip: Scissorhead Dennis Cole

U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa Floriduh —a 4th Reich-appointed federal judge deemed unqualified for her job by the American Bar Association— has unilaterally voided the CDC’s mask mandate for airports and other transit hubs:

In her 59-page ruling, Mizelle said the only remedy was to vacate the rule entirely across the country because it would be impossible to end it for the limited group of people who objected in the lawsuit.

The judge said “a limited remedy would be no remedy at all” and that the courts have full authority to make a decision such as this — even if the goals of the CDC in fighting the virus are laudable.

“Because our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends, the court declares unlawful and vacates the mask mandate,” she wrote.

The Justice Department declined to comment Monday when asked if the government planned to appeal the ruling.

Now usually the DOJ has appeals at the ready in every case, so this is a signal that it’s all over but the dying. The DOJ could appeal the decision, of course, and it would go to the very conservative United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

But in his defense, AG Garland is busy NOT charging Hair Füror with any crimes, so what’s a few more millions of sick Americans as our travel infrastructure becomes a super spreader?

Tiger Beat’s email thingie:

On Monday, just hours after a federal judge struck down the nationwide public transportation mask mandate,major airlines (and even President JOE BIDEN’s beloved Amtrak) began telling their passengers they could stop wearing the protective face coverings — sometimes while they had already boarded and taken their assigned seats.

The surprise ruling seems to have caught the White House flat-footed on the question of whether or not to appeal the ruling.

• Officially: White House press secretary JEN PSAKI told reporters the administration was “reviewing the decision, and, of course, the Department of Justice would be making any determinations about any litigation.”

• Unofficially:The White House is still figuring out what to do next, weighing two very big factors: credibility and politics. 

Just last week, the Biden administration extended the mandate to May 3 — a move made “in the face of increasing opposition from the airline industry as well as Republicans and some Democrats in Congress,” as our Alex Daugherty and Erin Banco report.

“White House officials have repeatedly stressed that any further extension of the mask mandate would be made by the CDC,” Alex and Erin write. And that suggests a few interesting options for the administration:

If the administration doesn’t appeal: 

• As a matter of credibility, it risks hurting the institutional authority of the CDC, which they said would be central to the decision-making process. It also raises the question of why the administration just re-upped the mandate if this was really the policy it wanted.

• But politically, it takes a tough issue off the White House’s plate. Democrats have already been moving away from mask mandates for months, saying it’s time for folks to get back to normal. The move by the court makes that decision for them.

If the administration does appeal: 

• As a matter of credibility, it reiterates the CDC’s central role in setting health-related pandemic policies.

• But politically, the administration would risk political blowback on a hot political topic heading into the summer travel season. And it would give voters a clear target of who to blame for mask mandates despite prominent Democrats’ efforts to distance themselves from the unpopular (if scientifically sound) policy.

So it is going to be a patchwork of local authorities making local decisions, so we got that working for us. I would highly recommend not travelling unless you absolutely must, and wear a mask at all times when in public, but I’ve been recommending that since 2020. Be kind to each other and remember: there’s a lot of immune compromised people, so you are doing it for them as well as for yourself.