The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday said it would appeal a ruling striking down the mask mandate for public transportation after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) requested it appeal.
“In light of today’s assessment by @CDCgov that an order requiring masking in the transportation corridor remains necessary to protect the public health, the Department has filed a notice of appeal,” a DOJ spokesman tweeted.
The CDC said in a Wednesday statement that “to protect CDC’s public health authority beyond the ongoing assessment announced last week, CDC has asked DOJ to proceed with an appeal in Health Freedom Defense Fund, Inc., et al., v. Biden, et al.”
“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 added.
The announcement helps bring more certainty to the administration’s course of action after officials deliberated over whether to appeal the ruling, which was issued Monday.
The CDC order requiring masks for travelers had been set to last until May 3, when many experts expected it to expire anyway.
While the mask mandate will remain suspended for the time being, and likely was going to expire soon anyway, a major reason public health experts had pushed for an appeal is to preserve the CDC’s legal authority for the future.
If the current ruling from a federal judge in Florida was not appealed and allowed to stand, they feared it would handcuff the CDC if it needed to reimpose the mandate in response to a more dangerous variant down the line.
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#BREAKING: Justice Department appeals mask ruling following CDC request https://t.co/rYXLqa90Hr pic.twitter.com/NrdCDr9HyS
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This is the right answer https://t.co/3fwTvRbFa9
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