JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R-Miss.) joined 20 other attorneys general in a multistate lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s mask mandate on public transportation and in transportation hubs.
“President Biden is using a failed interpretation of a quarantine statute to prop up a misguided mandate that harms states and businesses, as well as personal liberty,” said Fitch. “Even states that have had strict masking guidelines are dropping them, but the President persists in forcing his mask requirements on everyone who travels. It goes against reason and it is time for it to end.”
The states argue that the mandate, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), exceeds the agency’s authority, is arbitrary and capricious, and failed to follow required notice and comment rules meant to protect the American public from regulatory overreach.
The CDC rule, effective Feb. 1, 2021, requires “the wearing of masks by people on public transportation conveyances or on the premises of transportation hubs,” according to the agency website. The rule has been relaxed somewhat, to end requirements for certain buses, but was recently extended until at least April 18 for domestic and international travel in general.
The lawsuit was filed by the Attorneys General of Florida, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.