The federal mask mandate for air travel will continue to stand, according to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last week, the SCOTUS blocked President Biden’s proposed guidance which would have required all large employers in the country to mandate vaccination, or testing for their employees. The court declared that outside the jurisdiction of OSHA, which is the arm of the government under which workplace safety falls.
But in a related case on Wednesday SCOTUS declined to entertain a challenge to a similar guidance already in place – a federal mask mandate for all passengers and crew of any airline landing in U.S. territory, and in all airports.
The challenge came in the form of an emergency application filed by a man who claims that he and his four-year-old son were both medically incapable of wearing a mask for long periods of time. The application came to Justice Neil Gorsuch, who has refused to wear a mask in his workplace as Justice. But Gorsuch properly referred the issue to the full court, where it was denied without comment. The denial allows the mandate to stand as is.
The federal mask mandate, which actually includes all public transportation, not simply air, has been in place for just over a year. It was one of President Biden’s first executive orders when he took off in January 2021. Since then, the TSA has extended the mask requirement through March 18, 2022, and will likely extend it again.
Airports, which are infamously packed places where people spend a great deal of time in close proximity to each other while walking, talking, and eating, are all mass spreader events waiting to happen. Airplanes are less so, due to their highly filtered air, but since each passenger is only inches from their neighbor, it is the safest practice. Mask resistance is a factor in most of the hundreds of violent passenger interactions flight crews have seen in the past year (more than the previous six years combined).
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