(Headline USA) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration this week to block the federal mask mandate that requires people to wear masks on airplanes and other forms of federally-funded transportation.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, claims the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lacks the proper authority to impose the sweeping mask mandate, which violates “travelers’ liberty interest.”
“Biden’s repeated disregard of the individual liberties of Texans is not only disrespectful to the U.S. Constitution, it is also troublesome that any president thinks they can act above the law while hardworking Americans standby,” Paxton said in a statement.
“President Biden cannot continue governing through executive edicts. Now is the time to strike down his administration’s air-travel mask mandate.”
Biden directed the CDC to first issue the mandate in January 2021, and he has repeatedly extended it. The order requires all passengers ages 2 and up to wear masks while not actively eating or drinking on airplanes and in airports.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky was also named as a defendant.
Texas is asking the court to declare the mask mandate “invalid” and a “violation of the separation of powers.”
Paxton has also sued the Biden administration over its federal vaccine mandate, which requires all federal government employees, including military servicemembers, to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Earlier this month, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas agreed with Paxton and issued a preliminary injunction against the federal government, halting the Biden administration from enforcing its mandate.
Judge Jeffrey Brown wrote that his decision didn’t have to do with the merits of vaccination, but with the president’s authority.
He said the mandate was a “bridge too far,” and slammed Biden for trying to, “without the input of Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment.”
