WASHINGTON — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked the Justice Department to appeal a judge’s ruling that threw out a mask requirement for plane and air travel, setting up a court battle over the decision.
“It is CDC’s continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health,” the agency said in a statement Wednesday evening.
“CDC believes this is a lawful order, well within CDC’s legal authority to protect public health.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The department had said Tuesday that it stood ready to appeal the ruling — issued Monday by a Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida — but that it would do so only “subject to the CDC’s conclusion that the order remains necessary for public health.”
Justice Department officials believe that an appeal might not succeed.
The ruling was issued by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who was nominated by Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate in November 2020. Mizelle, admitted to the Florida bar in September 2012, was the eighth federal judge confirmed during the Trump administration to be rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association, which typically requires a minimum of 12 years of experience to rate a nominee qualified.
On Tuesday, an administration official said the CDC would shift the focus of the existing two-week review of the masking policy — announced before the court ruling — to determine whether to appeal, instead of whether to extend the order again, as it was first conceived.
