Dorothy Philbin | CNBNews
Planning to fly? You can now do it mask free, thank you to an 11th District Federal Court judge, centered in Florida. On the evening news was a clip from inside a plane. People’s cell phones were going off, masks were being torn off and people were applauding. So, what happened?
The federal judge ruled, as other courts before, that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) only has the responsibility to advise the government and citizens. It does not have the authority to make law, as it has been doing for the past two years. The big difference in this case is that this was a federal decision. The decision applies only to those areas within the lawsuit. In this case, federal transportation – plane travel, TSA agents within airports, trains and buses because they are federally funded. Only minutes after the decision was made public the following airlines announced that masks are now optional: Alaska Airline, American, Delta, Frontier/Spirit (now merged,) Jet Blue, Southwest, and United.
There are 11 Federal District Courts and each is independent. That means that just because the 11th District rules one way, one or more other districts can rule differently. Does this mean that people can take off their masks when leaving Florida but have to put them back on when they land in New Jersey (the 3rd Federal District?) Technically, yes but I see no chance of that happening. This is obviously a Constitutional issue (Article I, Section 8.)
How about NJ Transit? We’re going to have to wait and see. NJ Transit is both federally and state funded. The state can say it still wants masks and that would have to go back to the courts. Hopefully, Transit will see the light, so to speak. Anything or anyone not federally funded can make its own decision. With the exception of the City of Philadelphia, most places have been mask-optional for quite some time.
The biggest question is “Will people behave in a more civilized manor while flying?” I hope so but only time will tell.